ICS 417: ICT and Society

3. Theories of Society

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 3.1 Defining Society
• (Group of) People with common values
• Culture and beliefs of a people
• (Group of) People in common setting
• Group of people with common goals
• Structure and organization of ...
• People and how they interact with their
environment
• The state of all the above changes over
time

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 (a) Notions of Society
• Social interaction or association
• A unity, having boundaries which mark it
off from other, surrounding societies, e.g.
nation-state. However,
– Need not be a “unit” – e.g. could be
perceived to be open system
– Need not have clearly demarcated
boundaries e.g. islamic society

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 (b) Possible Definitions
• A society is a system which people live together in
organized communities having shared customs,
law, organization and living in a particular region
• A Society can be understood as a social system. As
a social system has many parts (family, religion,
economy, science), that are interdependent, giving
the society a structure
• Civil society is one where people come together to
pursue the interests they hold in common - not for
profit or the exercise of political power, but
because they care enough about something to
take collective action. In this sense, all
organisations and associations between family and
state are part of civil society (World Bank, defining
civil society)
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 (c) Features of a Society
• Results in specifiable overall “clustering of
institutions” across time and space
• Association between the social system
and a specific locale or territory
– Locales occupied by societies are not
necessarily fixed e.g. nomadic societies
• Existence of norms for claim to the
legitimate occupation of the locale
• Prevalence, among members, of feelings
that they have some sort of common
identity
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(d) E.g.Characteristics of Islamic
Society
• Enjoying what is good
• Forbidding what is bad
• Faith in Allah
• A community of moderation
• One Muslim community
• An international community
• Conducting affairs by mutual consultation
• Application of the concept brotherhood
• Reciprocal responsibility of the individual
and the community, etc.
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 3.2 Theories of Society
• Theories outlined look at a society as a whole
(macro-sociology) as compared to the study
of individuals in society (micro-sociology)
• Sociology is the study of “social facts” and of
the ways in which society influences the
behaviour of individuals
• Theories or perspectives are:
– Functionalism
– Conflict
– Interactionist
– Post Modernism
– Relativism
– Structuration 7
 (a) Functionalism: Society as a
System
• Conception of individual & society: Individual born
into an ongoing social system, which exists
independently of & determines his/her behaviour (or
roles & actions)
• Genesis: Emerged in Europe in 19th century to respond
to a perceived crisis of social order in response to:
– Emergence of new industrial society with it’s subsequent
loss of community – increase in crime, poverty, etc.
– French revolution which suggested ideals of equality,
happiness and freedom of the individual
• Main ideas:
a. Basis of an orderly society is the existence of a central
value system that imposes common values on all its
members 8
b. Social world is composed of relatively
empirical artifacts (parts) and relationships
that can be identified, studied and measured
through approaches derived from natural
sciences (positivism)
c. Societies have basic needs – functional
requirements which must be met if
society is to survive
– Functionalists concerned with:
• the contribution of the various parts of
society to those needs
• the desirability for social order and
stability to prevail in society (how the
parts function to maintain social order)
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d. Various parts of society interact with one
another
– Interaction produces a dynamic and ever-
changing system e.g. Gvt favouring single mothers
in social welfare will encourage ladies to have
babies out of wedlock – negatively impacting
family structure
e. Change occurs when there is a gap or
imbalance between what the system does
and what it is supposed to do e.g. prolonged
periods of recession necessitating reduced
family size
• Problems:
– does not address conflict in society (a “consensus”
theory)
– Human affairs cannot be explained entirely from
rational and positivist approaches
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 (b) Conflict: Society as Synthesis
• Perspective: change and conflict are integral parts of
society
• Genesis: Associated with Radical Weberians or
Structuralists who:
– Were interested in r/ship b/n the State and
bureaucratization
– Sought to understand ways in which state apparatus
dominates the wider social structure within which it exists
– Concerned with interests, conflict and power
relationships in society (political science area)
• Main ideas:
a. Society reflects an interplay of social forces
– A collective definition of reality (“thesis”) travels through
time
– Thesis is maintained by groups of persons who benefit
from it. They want to maintain the status quo
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– Social structure emerges out of this exercise of power
b. Exploitation is one byproduct of emerging
social structure
– Exploitation increases as thesis is maintained
– To maintain the status quo, power is used to
maintain the belief that the status quo is correct or
inevitable e.g. Africans are unable to govern
themselves was used by colonialists to extend the
colonial period and the associated exploitation

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b. Change occurs when there is a conflict
between thesis and one or more antithesis
(individuals and groups have alternative
values and beliefs and have their identities
tied to these values and beliefs)
– Collision of thesis and antithesis produces conflict
– Outcome of conflict is a “synthesis” – something
new, e.g. a new idea, way of life, belief system
e.g. the challenge by feminists of the unequal
treatment of men and women has produced a
synthesis e.g. representation of women in key
decision-making positions in Gvt, gender
sensitivity in job opportunities, treatment of women
as disadvantaged communities, etc.

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• Conclusion
– According to Weberians, organizations and any
other entities must be studied within the political
structure of society
– However, Marxian Structuralists focus on economic
structures of capitalist society as the determinant of
power relationships (outside scope of our
discussion)

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(c) Interactionism: Reality is Socially
Created
• Perspective: Society is created by ongoing
interaction of humans i.e. human interaction
produces a collectively created reality in
which we live
• Main ideas:
a. Social parts, structures and systems exist
because we create them and then
symbolically define them to exist
– Society emerges from human interactions, past,
present and future e.g. constitutional debate
– Social reality is created and sustained by inter-
subjectively shared meaning 15
b. We maintain our own definitions of the world
but at the same time are reliant on a
collective, more objective definition of reality
– The things that we agree exist make it possible for
us to act without needing to reinvent reality every
time we need it. At the same time, social world is a
result of subjective construction of individual
human being
– e.g.1 we stop every time we see the Red traffic
sign. It represents a collective social force and
when we see it we exhibit the same behaviour.
– e.g.2 a defendant may be persuaded to plead
guilty in exchange for a reduced charge and
sentense – a reality has been socially created via
interaction and negotiation (of otherwise rigid
legal process) 16
c. Change occurs through the redefinition of
reality i.e. if we want to change action, we
need to redefine the situation

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 (d) Structuration
• By Anthony Giddens in 20th Century – synthesis of
existing theories
• Main ideas:
1. Human beings are knowledgeable agents
– “objectivism” fails to appreciate the complexity of social
action produced by actors operating with knowledge &
understanding as part of their consciousness
2. Extent of people’s knowledge of the world is
bordered on the one side by the unconscious & on
the other by the unacknowledged conditions and
intended consequences of action
3. Day-to-day human interactions reproduces social
reality (Interactionism)
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3. The predominant form of day-to-day activity takes
the form of routine
– even behaviour which appears to outsiders as extreme and
bizarre becomes routine after a while e.g. corruption or
grabbing public land became routine for those who
practiced it
4. Constraints on human behaviour by the social
context is only one type of constraint. Human
behaviour also influences social context. Indeed
Social context is both a medium and outcome of
human behaviour or social interaction
• Outcome – social interactions produces new social structures
or context (Interactionism)
• Medium – social context is drawn on in human behaviour e.g.
using the constitution in making a decision
5. Power is not a secondary issue in human behaviour –
Power is a means to an end and hence is directly
involved in the actions of every person (Conflict) 19
7. People are knowledgeable
– Their everyday knowledge feeds into their behaviour
– They have reasons for doing what they do (not determined by
social system or context as Functionalists assert)
– People are responsible for their actions

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 References
• Sociology at Hewett… Map of Sociological
Theory
http://www.hewett.norfolk.sch.uk/curric/soc/
• A brief Overview of Three Theories of
Society… http://www.aacc.cc.md.as?/soc/
• Waema, T.M. “Should Access to ICT be a Basic
Human Right” – useful background paper for
next section on impacts of ICT on society in
different sectors

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 Issues for Discussion
1. ICT is developed by people,
organizations, societies.
• Why do they do it?
• Who pays for the R&D and why?
• Which factors are considered in design?
• Can customers/users reject new ICTs?
• Which social forces shape developments in
ICT?

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