1. SOCI 100: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY SPRING 2013
Chapter 6: Societies to Social Networks
Instructor: Deniz Yükseker
Koç University

2. Plan of the chapter
How do we define societies based on social transformations? What are groups within a society? How do we define them? What are social networks? What are some effects of groups on behavior?

3. Historical development of human society
Society: people who interact in a defined space and share culture We can define societies in terms of their position within the process of social transformations, or social revolutions. What are the “social revolutions”?

4. SOCIal transformatIons of human societies
Hunting and gathering (foraging) societies
Horticultural and pastoral societies
Agrarian (agricultural) societies
Industrial societies
Post-industrial societies

5. Hunters and gatherers Also called foraging
They survive by hunting animals and gathering vegetation
Simple technology
Small bands of people, no permanent settlements
Society based on kinship
Little specialization, some division of labor based on age and sex, no formal leaders
Very little inequality among people in a community

6. Are there extant foragers?

7. Horticultural and pastoral societies
Domestication of plants and animals
Horticulture: technology based on using hand tools to cultivate plants (hoes and digging sticks)
Emerged 10,000 years ago; became widespread about 6,000 years ago, first in the Middle East, then in Latin America and Asia. They formed small settlements of several hundred or sever al thousand people
Pastoralism: technology based on the domestication of animals in arid zones and mountainous areas. They remained nomadic.
They produced “surplus” food  more specialization
Some degree of social inequality  some families became the rulers

8. ARE THERE NOMADIC PASTORALISTS IN TURKEY?

9. Agrarian (agrIcultural) societies
Invention of the plough
5,000-6,000 years ago, agriculture was discovered  large- scale farming using ploughs harnessed to animals; other technologies were the wheel, irrigation, writing, numbers, expanding use of metals
Agrarian technologies helped produce large food surpluses, which were then transported along large areas  growth in population
Empires emerged, specialization increased with growing population
Great social inequality emerged. Majority of population were slaves or peasants. Elites gained great power
Women’s status in society deteriorated, men started to dominate in society. A greater division of labor between men and women emerged.
Political systems emerged

10. Industrial societies The invention of the steam engine
Industrial Revolution started around 1750, first in Britain
Machinery with advanced sources of energy (water, steam, internal combustion engine, electricity, nuclear power, telecommunication)
The pace of social change became much faster with industrialism. Societies transformed more in a century than in several thousand years before.
Division of labor in society became very complex
Initially, social inequalities became greater, first within the industrial countries of the West, then, between Western and non-western societies.
But in the 20th century, inequality within Western societies diminished, as workers and women got rights
Global inequalities between Western and non-Western societies have diminished in some ways, but have not been removed.

11. Post-industrial societies
Invention of the microchip
Post-industrialism: computer-based technologies that support an information- based economy  the “Information Economy”
Post-industrialism is concentrated in the developed western countries, but it affects the entire world
Jobs are more related to information processing than to industrial production

12. Some cautionary notes!!
All types of societies co-exist. They have emerged in the order presented above; but all of them co-exist even today.
To argue that the latter ones evolved from the previous ones, and that they are superior to the previous ones is a Euro-centric view.
Many countries exhibit some element of several types of societies simultaneously.
P.S. Euro-centrism is a specific case of ethno-centrism. Ethno-centrism is the idea that one’s society (social group) is superior to other groups. Ethno-centrism is the ideology that holds that Europe was superior to non-European societies and that it had the highest level of civilization. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this ideology was used by Europeans to justify their colonization of non-Western societies.

13. GROUPS WITHIN SOCIETIES
Social group: two or more people who identify and interact with one another.
Examples: families, friends, office mates, neighbors, religious groups, clubs, associations, the mafia, gangs, armed groups, corporations, etc.

14. typeS of groups
Primary groups: a small social group whose members share personal and enduring relationships
Family and friends
Economic assistance, sense of belonging, concern for each other, intense emotions and loyalty
People define each other in terms of “who” they are (kinship, personal qualities)
People see primary groups as “ends” in themselves

15. Secondary groups: a large and impersonal group whose members pursue a specific interest or activity
Students in a classroom, workers in an office or firm, members of a political party or ‘dernek’, etc.
Weak personal ties, little knowledge of one another, few emotional ties, politeness, impersonality, goal orientation
Secondary groups are larger than primary groups
People define each other in terms of “what” they are, and what they can do for each other
People see secondary groups as “means to an end”

16. In-groups: groups towards which one feels loyalty Out-groups: groups towards which one feels antagonism

17. Group DYNAMICS
Size plays an important role in how group members interact.
Dyads: a social group with two members
Example: a married couple, close friends, lovers
Dyads have intense relationship, but they are unstable.  if one withdraws from the relationship, the dyad collapses

18. Group DYNAMICS Triad: a social group with three members
There are three relationships in a triad
More stable than a dyad, because the third person can act as a mediator between the first two, if there’s tension between them
As the number of people in a group go up, the group becomes more stable. Because, even if some members leave, the group can go on.
Larger groups are based less on personal attachment and more on formal rules and regulations.  more stability

19. EFFECTS OF GROUP SIZE ON ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR
People derive more personal pleasure in small groups, and greater task satisfaction in larger groups.
In large groups, “diffusion of responsibility” takes place.

20. EFFECTS OF GROUP SIZE…
Large groups turn inwards. Members will interact only within the group
Heterogeneous groups turn outwards. Members will interact with people from other groups

21. The power of peer pressure
The Asch experiment (1952)
What does the results of the experiment tell us?

22. The power of authorIty The Milgram experiment (1963, 1965)
What were the results of the experiment?
What are the ethical problems in this experiment?

23. GroupthInk
A narrowing of thought by a group of people, leading to the perception that there is only one correct answer and that to even suggest alternatives is a sign of disloyalty
A collective tunnel vision

24. socIAl NETWORKS
A network is a web of social ties that links people to each other 
A social web that extends outwards
Groups and organizations have boundaries
Networks are about a field of relations and connections (people, groups, states)

25. Are networks important?
“who you know is more important than what you know”
“networking”
“old boys club”
“well-connected”

26. Communication technologies increase the importance of networks.
living in a specific geographic area does not completely define our personal interactions.
Telephones, fax machines, the internet, the airplane, automobiles, etc. define the shape of our interactions
(think of the role of letters a century ago)