THE

INTERPRETIVE
DYNAMICS OF
Reference:SOCIETY
• /janenulial1/interpretive-dynamics-of-culture-77516486
• Contreras, Antonio, et.al.Understaning Culture, Society, & Politics. Phoenix Publishing House. 2016
 SOCIETY AS A CONCEPT
 It is a tool to grasp the complexity of the phenomenon it represents
and a means to explore its many other dimensions hidden by its
normative use.
It represents an ideal type, which more or less depicts the form,
process, and dynamics of the social reality it embodies.
Concepts may change through their changing meanings and
interpretations or disappear from nonuse altogether.
But for a master concept like society, the plausibility of alternation
and disappearance is very unlikely to happen.
 SOCIETY AS A FACTICITY
 Society is formally defined as constituting 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.

 Society is seen as an outcome of multiple interactions of people upon which

succeeding interactions are made meaningful and possible.

Social forces and social facts are the mechanics of operation of society as a

factual entity.
 We can likened society to a deity. It composes the tripartite.

OMNISCIENCE

OMNIPOTENCE OMNIPRESENT

SOCIETY
. OMNIPOTENCE

All-powerful – Society is all powerful because it “agents” control and runs

the machinery of social control.

OMNISCIENCE
All-knowing – Society is is all-knowing because its “library” keeps all the
possible knowledge and collects the memories of the people who form it.

OMNIPRESENT

Everywhere - It is everywhere because it ‘spies’ are scattered in the four

corners of the land.
 Sociological Awareness - It allows us to see opportunities where there are none
and to create one if need be.
Being socially aware means that you understand how you react to different
social situations, and effectively modify your interactions with other people so
that you achieve the best results.

C.W. Mills’ rendition of the sociological perspective

enjoins us to see the coordinates of our social maps – our
biography and society’s history and their intersections-
and from there chart more feasible routes to achieving our
dreams.
 FEATURES OF SOCIETY AS A GOD
OMNISCIENCE OMNIPOTENCE OMNIPRESENT
(ALL KNOWING) (ALL-POWERFUL) (EVERYWHERE)

Its library creates,

Its agents occupy and Its spies are present in the
In the God metaphor collects, stores, retrieves,
control all the influential four corners of its
“Society as God” and manipulates human
positions in its domain. territory.
memories
Socialization agents are
In the language of Symbols system, language
Machineries and armory present everywhere, even
sociology rules, and use of language
of social control. at the very start of a
“Society as a fact” for communication.
person’s life.

Laws, norms, values,

Examples in social Language, symbols, arts, Family, peers, school,
belief system, religion,
sciences science church, government
education
 WHAT MAKES SOCIETY POSSIBLE:
THREE THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
 The three classical theories of the origin of society are

1. the structural – functional

2. the conflict theory
3. symbolic interactionism.
These theories are called by different names, but their assumptions about the “possibility”
of society remain the same. The basic question they ask is not historical in nature (as
referred above); rather it inquires about the nature of the processes that created the
possibilities of human interaction. The questions is: “What makes society possible?”
 STRUCTURAL
FUNCTIONALISM
 The structural functional school of thought looks at social “order”. It argues that
society is made possible by cooperation and interdependence.
Given this line of argumentation, this view sees society as a system with parts
and these parts have their respective functions to perform.
The society is seen as a complex system whose parts function and work in
harmony, bringing stability in the process (Parts of the society: family, school,
economy, or state)
 ROBERT MERTON
• An American sociologist who
differentiate the two kinds of
function.

• He is considered a founding
father of modern sociology.
 TWO KINDS OF FUNCTION
MANIFEST FUNCTION LATENT FUNCTION

Is the intended, recognized and

obvious.
Consequences that people The unintended and
observe or expect. unrecognized
It is explicitly stated and
understood by the participants in
function.
the relevant action.
 CONFLICT THEORY AND
CONFLICT
 Focuses on: forces in society that promote competition and change.

 It is based on the assumption that society is an arena of inequality and division resulting to conflict.

 The Marxist –inspired perspective on the question of society looks as the other side of the issue. Instead of
putting social order, the conflict perspectives sees society as an arena. Social actors are gladiators fighting for
their lives. The winner takes the rewards and is assured of freedom.

 For the proponents of this view, conflict makes change and dynamism – features of society that have not been
clearly conceiver by the structural functional theory – possible. Conflict brings about a new set of relations and
interactions, which produces new dynamism in society.

 “What makes society possible?” – the conflict theory invokes the social processes rather them functions and
interdependence.
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM AND
MEANING MAKING
 Unlike the previous two theories, symbolic interactionism does not deal with either order or
conflict. Instead, it explores the issues of meaning-making and why this is crucial in
understanding order or conflict as processes that brought about society

 Focuses on: how individuals interact

It focuses on how people make sense of the world, on how they experience and define what
they and others are doing, and on how they influence and are influenced by others.
 RULES: INVISIBLE HAND OF
SOCIETY
 RULES - Are essential in the everyday conduct of the member of the society.
 It becomes the arbiter of disagreements and people’s respect for rules gives them this
organizing power over human actions over time.

WRITTEN RULES UNWRITTEN RULES

 CULTURE AS A CONCEPT

According to, Edward B. Tylor,

“Culture is that complex whole
includes knowledge, belief, art,
morals, law, custom, and any
other capabilities and habits
acquired by man as a member of
society.”
Culture is the way of life especially the
general customs and beliefs, of a
particular group of people at a particular
time - Cambridge English Dictionary
 MASS CULTURE

 refers to the mass-produced and mass – mediated

forms of consumer culture that emerged in the 20th
Century.
 CULTURE AND SOCIETY
 The relationship between society, culture and personality is stressed by Ralph Linton: “A
society is an organized group of individuals. A culture is an organized group of learned
responses. The individual is a living organism capable of independent thought, feeling and
action, but his independence is limited and all his resources are profoundly modified by
contact with the society and culture in which he develops.”
One does not or cannot exist without the others.

“There can be no culture without a society and there are no known human societies that do
not exhibit culture.”
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