Lecture 2 Evolution of Sociology

The discipline of sociology : Has its roots in the period after the French Revolution when political conflict, rapid urbanization and social turmoil convulsed European societies

 society - a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group.

ELEMENTS OF SOCIETY
Family Religion Government Education Work Trends Social Norms Mass Media

Evolution of societies
hunters and gatherers simple agricultural advanced agricultural industrial

 Over time, some cultures have progressed toward morecomplex forms of organization and control. This cultural evolution has a profound effect on patterns of community. Hunter-gatherer tribes settled around seasonal foodstocks to become agrarian villages. Villages grew to become towns and cities. Cities turned into city-states and nation-states.

BIO CULTURAL SYSTEMS

Characteristics of society
The following three components are common to all definitions of society: Social networks Criteria for membership, and Characteristic patterns of organization Society: an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization

MAN IS A SOCIAL ANIMAL

One common theme for societies in general is that they serve to aid individuals in a time of crisis. Traditionally, when an individual requires aid, for example at birth, death, sickness, or disaster, members of that society will rally others to render aid, in some form symbolic, linguistic, physical, mental, emotional, financial, medical, or religious.

AFRICAN KRAAL

"community"
a sense of common identity and characteristics more immediate than society. A body of direct relationships from the organized establishment of the state. the sense of immediacy or locality was strongly developed in the context of larger and more complex industrial societies. I A commune (French)

 1. Local groupings based on proximity and sometimes face-to-face relationships (as in local community, community work); 2. Community of interests (as in research community, business community); and characteristics (as in ethnic community). 3. Quality of relationships - sharing of common goals, values, identities; participatory decision-making and symbolic production; and connected with these - emotional and moral investments.

 more direct more total more significant relationships of community and the more formal more abstract more instrumental relationships of society

Group :
In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection consisting of a number of humans who share certain aspects, interact with one another, accept rights and obligations as members of the group and share a common identity. Using this definition, society can appear as a large group.

 While an aggregate comprises merely a number of individuals, a group in sociology exhibits cohesiveness to a larger degree. Aspects that members in the group may share include interests, values, ethnic/linguistic background and kinship.A group becomes a group when communication is involved, if there is no communication, there is no group.

 Primary groups consist of small groups with intimate, kin-based relationships: families, for example. They commonly last for years. They are small and display face to face interaction. Secondary groups are large groups whose relationships are formal and institutional. Some of them may last for years but some may disband after a short lifetime. The formation of primary groups happens within secondary groups. Throughout the world, societies are split into distinct, albeit sometimes overlapping, social groups.

Independence A further characteristic of a society is that it is not a subgroup of any other group.

Social Institutions Means of Social Control

Family- Marriage/ Milestones of Birth & Death Economic Organizations of Society- Primary or Agrarian/Secondary or Manufacture/Tertiary or Trade Religion Political Organization -State

Social groups defined along income and non-income axes

A basic axis of social differentiation is personal income. A three-category distinction among the poor, the middle class and the rich, can be too rough to capture all the intermediate nuances but still help characterize different societies. The unit of analysis can be - but not need to be only - the individual. A second element should be kept into account when judging the individual's position: the size and composition of the household to which he or she belongs. Larger families pay less per-person for certain shared expenditure (like housing) and they can have more than one income-bearer. If not, a large family with only one incomebearer would be much poorer than a one-component family. A third consideration is linked to the stability of income over time, with people having larger fluctuations in income belonging to different social groups than people reaching systematically. and without renegotiation similar levels of income.

 Another crucial axis of social differentiation is the ownership of assets. Families that own their home - having already paid back any financial instruments to buy it - can devote more money to active savings and consumption than families with the same level of income but that have to pay the rent. The ownership of durable goods is an important status element aiding different aspects of life. Financial. assets (as Treasury bonds, shares, controlling majorities in firms,...) can constitute elements of common material interests for certain social groups.

 Employment is an extremely important element in defining identities and common interests Equally important are culture, common languages and values and levels of education.

Societies may be organized according to their POLITICAL structure their ECONOMIC structure

POLITICAL structure
By form of GovernmentMonarchy Capitalism Communism Socialism Fascism Other isms

ECONOMIC structure
By Income/ wealth High/ Middle/ Low/ Economically Weaker Sections By Occupation Primary Sector Agriculture Secondary Sector Manufacturing Tertiary Sector - Services

Social consequences of industrialization

Industrialization split the society into two major groups- The workers and the capitalists General Standards of living improved from social and economic points of view. More interest in education arts and s science

Political Awakening
Society democratized Growth of Capitalism increased Production Growth In trade economic crises Unemployment Class conflict Decline of rural industry.

Modernity and the Evolution of World Society

From about the seventeenth century, the European powers began to outstrip the rest of the world in the sophistication of their ideas, the devastating force of their military technology, the strength of their navies and the organization of economic production. This astonishing transformation in Europes fortunes eventually enabled it to spread its new institutions all over the globe and triggered the phenomenon we call modernity, the logical precursor to the current era of globalization.