SOCIETY

WHAT IS SOCIETY
Explain how society and its institutions shape individuals
Describe the construction of society through the hidden rules of society
 Concept of Society

• structure that is a recognizable network of inter-relating institutions.

• society is both structured and reproduced
• Society is not a static or peace-fully evolving structure but is
conceived of as the tentative solution to the conflicts arising out of
antagonistic social relations of production.
 Concept of Society

• Society is a process in which people continuously interact with

one another, the key terms are negotiation, self, other, reflexivity
the implication being that society is constituted and reconstituted
in social interaction.
• Society is not imposed upon people in the processual definition
rather it has to be accepted and confirmed by participants.
 DEFINITIONS OF SOCIETY
• August Comte the father of sociology saw society as a social organism
possessing a harmony of structure and function.
• Emile Durkheim the founding father of the modern sociology treated society as a reality in its
own right..
• According to Talcott Parsons Society is a total complex of human relationships in so far as they
grow out of the action in terms of means-end relationship intrinsic or symbolic.
G.H Mead conceived society as an exchange of gestures which involves the use of symbols.
• Morris Ginsberg defines society as a collection of individuals united by certain relations or mode
of behavior which mark them off from others who do not enter into these relations or who differ
from them in behavior.
• Cole sees Society as the complex of organized associations and institutions with a community.
• According to Maclver and Page society is a system of usages and procedures of authority and
mutual aid of many groupings and divisions, of controls of human behavior and liberties. This ever
changing complex system which is called society is a web of social relationships.
 DEFINITIONS OF SOCIETY

• a fairly large number of people who are

living in the same territory, are
relatively independent of people
outside their area, and participate in a
common culture
 DEFINITIONS OF SOCIETY

• a fairly large number of people who are

living in the same territory, are
relatively independent of people
outside their area, and participate in a
common culture
• A society is a group of people involved
in persistent social interaction, or a
large social group sharing the same
geographical or social territory, typically
subject to the same political authority
and dominant cultural expectations.
Societies are characterized by patterns
of relationships (social relations)
between individuals who share a
SOCIETY IS LIKE A GOD
 OMNISCIENCE
(ALL KNOWING)
In the
In the God language of Examples in
methapor sociology social science
“society as god” “society as concepts
fact”
Symbols
system,
Its library
language
creates, collects, Language,
rules, and
stores, retrieves, symbols, arts,
use of
and manipulates science
language for
human memories
communicati
on
 OMNIPOTENCE
(ALL POWERFUL)
In the
In the God language of Examples in
methapor sociology social science
“society as god” “society as concepts
fact”
Its agents occupy
Machineries Laws, norms,
and control all
and armory values, belief
the influential
of social system, religion,
positions in its
control education
domain
 OMNIPRESENT
(EVERYWHERE)
In the
In the God language of Examples in
methapor sociology social science
“society as god” “society as concepts
fact”
Socialization
agents are
Its spies are
present Family, peers,
present in four
everywhere, school, church,
corners of its
even at the government
territory
start of a
person’s life
 KARL MARX’S A CONTRIBUTION TO
THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL
ECONOMY

sumption that man's most fundamental problem is to prov

ons of production. Stable relations of production constitut
henomena: the division of men into classes and the exploi
y stability into inherently unstable situations. Since econo
itutions may be termed the 'superstructures' . . . In the th
t and most comprehensive theories of society as an instit
SOCIAL REPRODUCTION
How SOCIETIES PERSIST
• HOW DOES SOCIETY MANAGE TO EXIST
AND PERSIST ACROSS TIME AND
SPACE?
 LOUIS ALTHUSSER

• No society can endure over time if it

does not support its very own
reproduction.

• All societies require the creation of

institutions to perpetuate the existence
of society.
 2 TYPES OF INSTITUTIONS

• institutions that reproduce the

condition of social life:

• - IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS (ISA)

• - REPRESSIVE STATE APPARATUS (RSA)

 IDEOLOGICAL STATE
APPARATUSES
• institutions created and used by society to mold its
members to share the same values and beliefs that
a typical members of society possess.

EDUCATION MEDIA

RELIGION FAMILY
• the coercive institutions that use
physical force to make the members
conform to the laws and norms of the
society.

• COURTS POLICE

• PRISON LAWS