Understanding Social Structure and Cultural Dynamics

Theme 3: Social Structure

Change in the Contemporary Era

Key Influences

• Economic influences
• Political influences
• Cultural influences

Factors Influencing Contemporary Social Change

• Expansion of industrial capitalism
• Development of centralized nation-states
• Industrialization of war
• Emergence of science and "scientific" ways of thinking

Defining Social Structure and Structuralism

Social Structure

The way the parts of a social system are interrelated to form a whole.

Structuralism

A varied set of intellectual currents that appeared in different disciplines after the Second World War.

Characteristics of a Structure

• It has the character of a system.
• Any model belongs to a group of transformations.
• It allows for predicting how a model will react to modifications.

The social structure is part of empirically observable reality. The dimensions of a social system include demographic, cultural, economic, political, and historical aspects.

Composition of Social Structure

The social structure is composed of the following elements:

• Population
• Economic and technological factors
• Political factors
• Cultural or symbolic factors

Key Sociological Perspectives

Watkins: Methodological Individualism

"Large-scale social phenomena are to be explained by the situations, dispositions, and beliefs of individuals."

Giddens: Structuration Theory

"The structure makes possible the conditions and actions of individuals."

Berger and Luckman: Social Construction of Reality

"Society is a human product, society is an objective reality, and man is a social product."

Culture and Its Components

Defining Culture

Culture encompasses the knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and any other skills and habits acquired by a person as a member of a society.

Nature vs. Culture

Culture is learned, not innate or genetic. However, "the natural character of human society in the culture never goes away." This suggests an integration of the biological and the social, where neither takes precedence over the other.

Social and Cultural Determination

There is a mutual determination between society and culture.

Values and Norms

Values have a social origin and nature, often based on convention or arbitrariness. They determine the attitudes and opinions of people.

Norms are rules derived from customs and social uses. Certain social norms can become legal norms. People must accept and abide by these rules, defining the relationship between individuals and the system.

Language, Symbols, and Beliefs

Language

• Language ability: Natural
• Specific languages: Cultural
• Speech: A communicative act performed in a process of interaction, through a verbal medium that takes place in a social context.

There is no culture without language. Symbols are cultural realities.

Symbols and Signs

A sign is a social construction where one thing represents something else.

Beliefs, Ideologies, and Knowledge

Beliefs are shared social representations under the same cultural roof.

Ideologies (e.g., religious, political) are systems of belief that serve the interests of social groups. They are very general social beliefs that form part of what we call common sense, which is a cultural product.

Knowledge is a basic structural element of all cultures.