Social

consciousness

Social consciousness or social awareness , is collect ive consciousness shared by

individuals wit hin a societ y.[1]

Social consciousness is linked t o t he collect ive self-awareness and experience of

collect ively shared social ident it y.[2] From t his viewpoint , social consciousness denot es
conscious awareness of being part of an int errelat ed communit y of ot hers. The “we feeling”
or t he “sense of us” may be experienced in members of various cult ures and social groups. By
t he experience of collect ively shared social ident it y, individuals may experience social unit y.
Social consciousness may also st imulat e working t owards a common goal.

According t o Karl Marx, human beings ent er int o cert ain product ive, or economic, relat ions and
t hese relat ions lead t o a form of social consciousness.[1] Marx said:

"In the social production of their life, men enter into definite relations that are
indispensable and independent of their will; these relations of production
correspond to a definite stage of development of their material forces of
production. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the
economic structure of society — the real foundation, on which rises a legal and
political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social
consciousness. The mode of production of material life determines the social,
political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the consciousness of
men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that
determines their consciousness."[3]
See also

Society
portal

Civic intelligence
Class consciousness
Collective consciousness
Collective intelligence
Consciousness raising
Self awareness
Social conscience
Social intelligence
References

1. Social Consciousness (https://www.questi

a.com/library/sociology-and-anthropolog
y/social-organization-and-community/soci
al-consciousness) Archived (https://web.
archive.org/web/20160308063557/http
s://www.questia.com/library/sociology-an
d-anthropology/social-organization-and-c
ommunity/social-consciousness) 2016-
03-08 at the Wayback Machine, 2014.
Retrieved 27 May 2014.

2. Schlitz M.M., Vieten C., Miller E.M. (2010).

"Worldview Transformation and the
Development of Social Consciousness" (h
ttp://www.marjadevries.nl/artikelen/Worl
dviewTransformation.pdf) (PDF). Journal
of Consciousness Studies. 17: 18–36.
 3. Marx, Karl. (1859) "Preface" in A
Contribution to the Critique of Political
Economy.

Further reading

Awakening to Race: Individualism and

Social Consciousness in America (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=kaFK
mcimUAgC&q=%22Social+consciousn
ess%22)
Children's Social Consciousness and the
Development of Social Responsibility (h
ttps://books.google.com/books?id=Cc
lXU6O4o94C&q=%22Social+conscious
ness%22)
Class Structure in the Social
Consciousness, Volume 102 (https://bo
oks.google.com/books?id=l3XkGHnp2
q4C&q=%22Social+consciousness%2
2)
Language, ideology and social
consciousness: developing a
sociohistorical approach (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=bo8bAQAAIA
AJ)
Literature, social consciousness, and
polity (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=5cUvAAAAIAAJ)
Theology and the social consciousness:
a study of the relations of the social
consciousness to theology (https://boo
 ks.google.com/books?id=dB1WAAAA
MAAJ)

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