Society as a socio-cultural system: approaches to definition. Society as a socio-cultural system Society and social system characterizing the socio-cultural system

Society as a socio-cultural system.

DIDACTIC PLAN

Society: concept, features, typology. Modern approaches to understanding society. Sociological analysis of society. Socio-historical determinism. Typology of societies.

Culture as a value-normative system. The essence of culture. Basic elements of culture. The role of culture in the life of society. Cultural dynamics.

Personality in the system of social relations. The problem of man in sociology. The concept of personality in sociology. Macro sociological level of personality analysis. Interaction of the individual and society. Status concept of personality. Role theory of personality. The theory of "mirror self".

Social groups, institutions and organizations. social groups. social communities. social institutions. Family Institute. social organization. Civil society and the state.

SOCIETY: CONCEPT, SIGNS, TYPOLOGIES.

Different people have different ideas about society. Often this term refers to a certain set of people united by some interests, mutual sympathy, lifestyle and joint activities. Sociology approaches this category in its own way. What is society and what features does it characterize, being the object of study of sociology?

Modern approaches to understanding society.

The entire history of sociological thought is the history of the search for scientific approaches and methods for constructing a theory of society. It is a history of theoretical ups and downs. It was accompanied by the development of various conceptual approaches to the category of "society".

The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle understood society as a set of groupings, the interaction of which is regulated by certain norms and rules. The 18th-century French scientist Saint-Simon believed that society is a huge workshop designed to exercise the dominance of man over nature. For the thinker of the first half of the 19th century, Proudhon is a multitude of conflicting groups, classes, carrying out collective efforts to implement the problems of justice. The founder of sociology, Auguste Comte, defined society as a reality of two kinds: 1) as a result of the organic development of moral feelings that hold together a family, a people, a nation, and finally, all of humanity; 2) as an automatically operating “mechanism”, consisting of interconnected parts, elements, “atoms”, etc.

Among the modern concepts of society stands out "atomistic" theory, according to which society is understood as a set of acting personalities and relations between them. Its author is J. Davis. He wrote: “The whole of society can ultimately be thought of as a light web of interpersonal feelings and attitudes. Each given person can be represented as sitting in the center of a web he has woven, connected directly to a few others, and indirectly to the whole world.

The extreme expression of this concept was the theory of G. Simmel. He believed that society is the interaction of individuals. Social Interaction - it is any behavior of an individual, a group of individuals, society as a whole, both at a given moment and in a certain period of time. This category expresses the nature and content of relations between people and social groups as constant carriers of qualitatively different types of activity. Social connections are the result of such interaction. Social connections - these are connections, interactions of individuals pursuing certain goals in specific conditions of place and time. At the same time, such an idea of ​​society as a cluster of social ties and interactions corresponds only to a certain extent to the sociological approach.

The main provisions of this concept were further developed in "network" theories of society. The main emphasis of this theory is on acting individuals who make socially significant decisions in isolation from each other. This theory and its varieties put the personal attributes of acting individuals at the center of attention in explaining the essence of society.

AT theories of "social groups" society is interpreted as a collection of different overlapping groups of people who are varieties of one dominant group. In this sense, one can speak of a folk society, which means all kinds of groups and aggregates that exist within the same people or Catholic community. If in “atomistic” or “network” concepts an essential component in the definition of society is the type of relationship, then in “group” theories it is groups of people. Considering society as the most general set of people, the authors of this concept identify the concept of "society" with the concept of "humanity".

In sociology, there are two main competing approaches to the study of society: functionalist and conflictological. The theoretical framework of modern functionalism consists of five main theoretical positions:

1) society is a system of parts united into a single whole;

2) public systems remain stable, since they have such internal control mechanisms as law enforcement agencies and the courts;

3) dysfunctions (deviations in development), of course, exist, but they are overcome on their own;

4) changes are usually gradual, but not revolutionary;

5) social integration or the feeling that society is a strong fabric woven from various threads is formed on the basis of the consent of the majority of the country's citizens to follow a single system of values.

The conflictological approach was formed on the basis of the works of K. Marx, who believed that the class conflict is at the very foundation of society. Thus, society is an arena of constant struggle of hostile classes, thanks to which its development takes place.

Sociological analysis of society.

In a broad sense, the concept of "society" - "society in general" - characterizes the common thing that exists in any social formations. Based on this, it is possible to give a general definition of this complex category. Society is a historically developing set of relations between people, developing in the process of their life activity.

It is easy to see that this is a universal definition that fits your study group, and the society of book lovers, and society of a higher degree of complexity. Therefore, the sociological analysis of society assumes a multilevel character. The model of social reality can be represented at least at two levels: macro- and microsociological.

Macrosociology focuses on patterns of behavior that help to understand the essence of any society. These patterns, which can be called structures, include social institutions such as the family, education, religion, and political and economic order. On the macrosociological level society is understood as a relatively stable system of social ties and relations of both large and small groups of people, determined in the process of the historical development of mankind, supported by the power of custom, tradition, law, social institutions, etc. (civil society), based on a certain method of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material and spiritual goods.

Microsociological level analysis is the study of microsystems (circles of interpersonal communication) that make up the immediate social environment of a person. These are systems of emotionally colored connections of an individual with other people. Various accumulations of such connections form small groups, whose members are connected with each other by positive attitudes and separated from others by hostility and indifference. Researchers working at this level believe that social phenomena can be understood only on the basis of an analysis of the meanings that people attach to these phenomena when interacting with each other. The main topic of their research is the behavior of individuals, their actions, motives, meanings that determine the interaction between people, which in turn affects the stability of society or the changes taking place in it.

In real life, there is no “society in general”, just as there is no “tree in general”, there are quite specific societies: Russian society, American society, etc. In this case, the concept of “society” is used in the narrow sense of the word as an equivalent of modern nation-states, referring to the human content (“people”) of the internal space within state boundaries. The American sociologist N. Smelser defined the society replenished in this way as “an association of people having certain geographical boundaries, a common legislative system and a certain national (sociocultural) identity”.

For a more complete and deeper understanding of the essence of society at the macro level, we highlight several of its distinguishing features (features):

1) territory - a geographical space delineated by boundaries, on which interactions are carried out, social ties and relationships are formed;

2) the presence of its own name and identification;

3) replenishment mainly at the expense of the children of those people who are already its recognized representatives;

4) stability and ability to reproduce internal connections and interactions;

5) autonomy, which is manifested in the fact that it is not part of any other society, as well as in the ability to create the necessary conditions to meet the various needs of individuals and provide them with ample opportunities for self-affirmation and self-realization. The life of society is regulated and managed by those social institutions and organizations and on the basis of those norms and principles that are developed and created within society itself;

6) a great integrating force: society, having a common system of values ​​and norms (culture), attaches to this system each new generation (socializes them), including them in the established system of social ties and relations.

With all the differences in the definition of the concept of “society”, sociologists from O. Comte to T. Parsons considered it as an integral social system, including a large number of social phenomena and processes of various orders and characteristics.

social system is a structural element of social reality, a certain holistic formation. The constituent elements of society as a social system are social institutions and organizations, social communities and groups that develop certain social values ​​and norms, consisting of individuals united by social ties and relationships and performing certain social roles. All these elements are interconnected and constitute the structure of society.

social structure- this is a certain way of communication and interaction of elements, i.e. individuals occupying certain social positions and performing certain social functions in accordance with the set of norms and values ​​adopted in a given social system. At the same time, the structure of society can be considered from different angles, depending on the basis for distinguishing the structural parts (subsystems) of society.

Thus, an important basis for distinguishing the structural elements of society are natural factors that divided people according to sex, age, and racial characteristics. Here one can single out socio-territorial communities (population of a city, region, etc.), socio-demographic (men, women, children, youth, etc.), socio-ethnic (clan, tribe, nationality, nation).

At the macro level of social interaction, the structure of society is presented as a system of social institutions (family, state, etc.). At the micro level, the social structure is formed in the form of a system of social roles.

Society is also structured according to other parameters related to the vertical stratification of people: in relation to property - into those who have and those who have not, in relation to power - into those who manage and those who are ruled, and so on.

When considering society as an integral social system, it is important to single out not only its structural elements, but also the interconnection of these heterogeneous elements, sometimes seemingly not in contact with each other.

Is there a relationship between the social roles of the farmer and the teacher? What unites family and industrial relations? etc. etc. The answers to these questions are given by functional (structural-functional) analysis. Society unites its constituent elements not by establishing direct interaction between them, but on the basis of their functional dependence. Functional dependency is what generates a set of elements as a whole, as well as properties that none of them individually possess. The American sociologist, the founder of the structural-functional school, T. Parsons, analyzing the social system, identified the following main functions, without which the system cannot exist:

1) adaptation - the need to adapt to the environment;

2) goal achievement - setting goals for the system;

3) integration - maintaining internal order;

4) maintaining a pattern of interactions in the system, i.e. the possibility of reproducing the structure and relieving possible tensions in the social system.

Having defined the main functions of the system, T. Parsons identifies four subsystems (economics, politics, kinship and culture) that ensure the fulfillment of these functional needs - functional subsystems. Further, he indicates those social institutions that directly regulate adaptive, goal-setting, stabilizing and integration processes (factories, banks, parties, the state apparatus, school, family, church, etc.).

Socio-historical determinism.

The allocation of functional subsystems raised the question of their deterministic (causal) relationship. In other words, the question is which of the subsystems determines the appearance of society as a whole. Determinism - this is the doctrine of the objective logical relationship and interdependence of all phenomena in nature and society. The initial principle of determinism sounds like this: all things and events of the surrounding world are in the most diverse connections and relationships with each other.

However, on the question of what determines the image of society as a whole, there is no unity among sociologists. K.Marx, for example, preferred the economic subsystem (economic determinism). Proponents of technological determinism see the determining factor in social life in the development of technology and technology. Proponents of cultural determinism believe that the basis of society is generally accepted systems of values ​​and norms, the observance of which ensures the stability and uniqueness of society. Proponents of biological determinism argue that all social phenomena must be explained in terms of biological or genetic characteristics of people.

If we approach society from the standpoint of studying the patterns of interaction between society and man, economic and social factors, then the corresponding theory can be called the theory of socio-historical determinism. Socio-historical determinism- one of the basic principles of sociology, expressing the universal interconnection and interdependence of social phenomena. Just as society produces man, so man produces society. In contrast to the lower animals, he is the product of his own spiritual and material activities. A person is not only an object, but also a subject of social action.

social action is the simplest unit of social activity. This concept was developed and introduced into scientific circulation by M. Weber to denote the action of an individual consciously focused on the past, present or future behavior of other people.

The essence of social life lies in practical human activity. A person carries out his activity through the historically established types and forms of interaction and relationships with other people. Therefore, in whatever sphere of public life his activity is carried out, it always has not an individual, but a social character. Social activities - it is a set of socially significant actions carried out by the subject (society, group, individual) in various spheres and at various levels of the social organization of society, pursuing certain social goals and interests and using various means in order to achieve them - economic, social, political and ideological.

History and social relations do not exist and cannot exist in isolation from activity. Social activity, on the one hand, is carried out according to objective laws that do not depend on the will and consciousness of people, and on the other hand, people participate in it, choosing various ways and means of its implementation in accordance with their social position.

The main feature of socio-historical determinism is that its object is the activity of people who at the same time act as the subject of activity. Thus, social laws are the laws of the practical activity of people who form society, the laws of their own social actions.

Typology of societies.

In the modern world, there are various types of societies that differ from each other in many ways, both explicit (language of communication, culture, geographical location, size, etc.) and hidden (degree of social integration, level of stability, etc.). Scientific classification involves the selection of the most significant, typical features that distinguish one group of societies from others and unite societies of the same group. The complexity of social systems called societies determines both the diversity of their specific manifestations and the absence of a single universal criterion on the basis of which they could be classified.

In the middle of the XIX century. K. Marx proposed a typology of societies, which was based on the method of production of material goods and production relations - primarily property relations. He divided all societies into five main types (according to the type of socio-economic formations): primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and communist (the initial phase is a socialist society).

Another typology divides all societies into simple and complex. The criterion is the number of management levels and the degree of social differentiation (stratification). simple society- this is a society in which the constituent parts are homogeneous, there are no rich and poor, leaders and subordinates, the structure and functions here are poorly differentiated and can be easily interchanged. Such are the primitive tribes, in some places preserved to this day.

Complex society- a society with highly differentiated structures and functions, interconnected and interdependent from each other, which necessitates their coordination.

K. Popper distinguishes between two types of societies: closed and open. The differences between them are based on a number of factors, and above all the relationship of social control and freedom of the individual. For closed society characterized by a static social structure, limited mobility, resistance to innovation, traditionalism, dogmatic authoritarian ideology, collectivism. K. Popper attributed Sparta, Prussia, Tsarist Russia, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union of the Stalin era to this type of society. open society characterized by a dynamic social structure, high mobility, ability to innovate, criticism, individualism and democratic pluralistic ideology. K. Popper considered ancient Athens and modern Western democracies to be examples of open societies.

The division of societies into traditional, industrial and post-industrial, proposed by the American sociologist D. Bell on the basis of a change in the technological basis - the improvement of the means of production and knowledge, is stable and widespread.

Traditional (pre-industrial) society- a society with an agrarian way of life, with a predominance of subsistence farming, a class hierarchy, sedentary structures and a method of sociocultural regulation based on tradition. It is characterized by manual labor, extremely low rates of development of production, which can satisfy the needs of people only at a minimal level. It is extremely inertial, therefore it is not very susceptible to innovations. The behavior of individuals in such a society is regulated by customs, norms, and social institutions. Customs, norms, institutions, consecrated by traditions, are considered unshakable, not allowing even the thought of changing them. Performing their integrative function, culture and social institutions suppress any manifestation of individual freedom, which is a necessary condition for the gradual renewal of society.

The term industrial society was introduced by A. Saint-Simon, emphasizing its new technical basis. industrial society(in modern terms) is a complex society, with an industrial-based way of managing, with flexible, dynamic and modifiable structures, a way of socio-cultural regulation based on a combination of individual freedom and the interests of society. These societies are characterized by a developed division of labor, mass production of goods, mechanization and automation of production, the development of mass media, urbanization, etc.

post-industrial society(sometimes called informational) - a society developed on an information basis: extraction (in traditional societies) and processing (in industrial societies) of natural products are replaced by the acquisition and processing of information, as well as predominant development (instead of agriculture in traditional societies and industry in industrial ) service industries. As a result, the structure of employment and the ratio of various professional and qualification groups are changing. According to forecasts, already at the beginning of the XXI century. in advanced countries, half of the labor force will be employed in the field of information, a quarter - in the field of material production and a quarter - in the production of services, including information.

The change in the technological basis also affects the organization of the entire system of social ties and relations. If in an industrial society the mass class was made up of workers, then in a post-industrial society it was employees and managers. At the same time, the significance of class differentiation weakens, instead of a status (“granular”) social structure, a functional (“ready-made”) social structure is formed. Instead of leadership, coordination becomes the principle of governance, and representative democracy is being replaced by direct democracy and self-government. As a result, instead of a hierarchy of structures, a new type of network organization is created, focused on rapid change depending on the situation.

True, at the same time, some sociologists pay attention to the contradictory possibilities, on the one hand, of ensuring a higher level of individual freedom in the information society, and on the other hand, to the emergence of new, more hidden and therefore more dangerous forms of social control over it.

In conclusion, we note that, in addition to those considered, there are other classifications of societies in modern sociology. It all depends on what criterion will be the basis of this classification.

CULTURE AS A VALUE AND NORMATIVE SYSTEM.

An analysis of social interactions shows that social life has a group character. However, social interactions differ from the collective forms of existence in the animal world. Those properties, phenomena, elements of human life that qualitatively distinguish human communities from the animal world are designated by the term “culture”.

The essence of culture.

In ancient Rome, where this word came from, culture was understood as the cultivation of the soil, its cultivation, and later - all changes in nature that occur under the influence of man. Later (in the XVIII-XIX centuries) the concept of "culture" began to be used in relation to people, and this term began to denote everything created by man. Culture began to be understood as a “second nature” created by man, built on top of the first, natural nature, as the whole world created by man. It covers the totality of society's achievements in material and spiritual life.

culture(from lat.cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education, development, veneration) is a specific way of organizing and developing human life, represented in the products of material and spiritual labor, in the system of social norms and institutions, in spiritual values, in the totality of people's attitudes towards nature, to each other and to ourselves. This concept fixes both the general difference between human life activity and biological forms of life, as well as the qualitative originality of historically specific forms of this life activity at various stages of social development, within certain eras.

There are two main types of culture: material and spiritual. The division of culture into material and spiritual corresponds to two main types of production: material and spiritual. The classification of culture can also be carried out according to the characteristics of behavior, consciousness and activities of people in specific areas of social life (culture of work, everyday life, artistic culture, political culture), according to the way of life of an individual (personal culture), social group (class culture), etc. d.

material culture represented by material objects in the form of structures, buildings, tools, works of art, everyday items, etc. In other words, it is a part of the general system of culture, including the entire sphere of material activity and its results.

Non-material (spiritual) culture includes knowledge, beliefs, beliefs, values, ideology, morality, language, laws, traditions, customs achieved and assimilated by people. Spiritual culture characterizes the inner wealth of consciousness, the degree of development of the person himself.

Not all material or spiritual products created by people become part of culture, but only those that are accepted by members of society or part of it, and are fixed, rooted in their minds (for example, by writing on paper, fixing in stone, in the form of skills, rituals, etc.). The product assimilated in this way can be passed on to other people, to subsequent generations as something valuable and revered for them (cultural heritage).

Culture is embodied in the practical activities of people - production, household, political, artistic, scientific, educational, etc., therefore, cultural content can be distinguished in the sphere of any purposeful social activity of a person. This variety of manifestations of culture determines the ambiguity of its definitions. The concept of culture is used to characterize historical eras (for example, ancient or medieval culture), different ethnic communities (the culture of the Aztecs, Vikings, etc.), specific areas of life or activity (work culture, political culture, etc.). Hence - the difference between the concepts of culture, and hence its definitions, which reflect the specific side of the knowledge of culture.

In sociology, culture is considered in its social aspect, i.e. in terms of processes and results of social interactions. Culture in sociology is understood as a set of means, methods, forms, samples and guidelines for the interaction of people with the environment of existence, which they develop in their life together to maintain certain structures of activity and communication. Therefore, in sociological analysis, culture is considered in its aspect, which is associated with the regulation of relations between people, as a system of ideals, values, norms and patterns of behavior. Any object, action or phenomenon (be it a wrench or an artist's painting, a ship or a handshake, a temple or a slogan, etc.) acquires a sociocultural meaning only when it means something to people, i.e. direct their actions, behavior, perception in a certain direction.

Basic elements of culture.

In the variety of essential manifestations of culture as a form or type of development of society, one can single out common components, indicators that reflect the content. Such main components of culture usually include language, values, beliefs, norms.

Language- this is a conceptual, sign-symbolic element of culture, a communication system carried out with the help of sounds and symbols, the meanings of which are conditional, but have a certain structure. It is possible to talk about communication with the help of language only if each sound is given a special, unique meaning. For example, the concept "is" can be represented by a combination of different sounds (compare Russian "is", English - eat, German essen, etc.). Members of the community must agree that a certain set of sounds corresponds to the concept of "is", and then this word is part of the language. Thus, the word contains one or another concept. Thanks to concepts, a person structures and perceives the world around him. The study of the words of a language ensures mutual understanding of people, thus the language serves as the most important means of communication (communication), as well as the storage and transmission (transmission) of information from generation to generation. Thus, a common language supports the cohesion of society.

The defining element of culture is values ​​- beliefs socially approved and shared by the majority of society (groups) regarding the goals to which a person should strive and the main means of achieving them. Value- this is the property of a social object to satisfy certain needs of a social subject (a person, a group of people, society); a concept that characterizes the socio-historical significance for society and the personal meaning for a person of certain phenomena of reality. In sociology, the category “social value” is often used, i.e. component of the social system, endowed with special significance in the individual or public consciousness. In essence, this is a subjective symbol that has a different meaning for each person.

In the course of social interactions, social subjects evaluate objects, social phenomena and processes in terms of their compliance or inconsistency with their needs, in terms of what is significant for them and what is not, what is useful and what is harmful, what is acceptable, and what is unacceptable, etc. Social values ​​act as a set of life goals and means to achieve them. For some individuals, the life goal can be, say, ensuring the happiness of a loved one, and tireless work can be the means of achieving it, for others, material well-being is the goal, and any actions, including criminal ones, can be the means. . Social values ​​accepted by a person are called value orientation. In other words, value orientation. this is the awareness by a person, a social group of the totality of the desired material and spiritual benefits, lifestyle, necessary moral standards and the choice of the most preferred ones.

Within society, the leading values ​​of most people are the same. At the same time, the integrity of the value system presupposes the existence within its framework of differing value systems of social communities, classes, and groups.

The world of values ​​can act both in the form of spontaneously formed ideas, beliefs, opinions, and in the form of a strict, logically justified, reasoned doctrine - in the form of an ideology (from the Greek. idea - idea, representation and logos - teaching). There are three main meanings of the term "ideology". In the first case, it is understood as a system of views, ideas and beliefs, in which people's attitudes to reality and to each other are recognized and evaluated and the interests of various social groups, classes, and societies are expressed. In other words, it is a certain set of ideas connected with each other, focused around several fundamental values ​​(for example, communism).

In the Marxist tradition, ideology is understood as a logical consciousness that expresses the specific interests of a certain class, presented as the interests of the whole society.

In sociological interpretation ideology appears in the form of a system of views, ideas, expressing the specific interests of large social groups: peoples, classes, societies, social movements. It can be regarded as the focus of class social interest, in contrast to the objective scientific reflection of social reality. But at the same time, ideology based on objective social knowledge becomes scientific.

Social norms are an essential component of culture. The concept of "norm" in the broad sense of the word means a rule or a guiding principle. social norms- rules of conduct, patterns, performance standards, the implementation of which is expected from a member of any social group or community and is supported by sanctions.

So, for a handshake, we stretch out our right hand; we do not talk loudly and do not make noise in the library; men give flowers to women on March 8; on public holidays we hang out (raise) flags; celebrate birthdays; wash my hands before eating, etc. In carrying out these activities, we adhere to generally accepted norms. Our culture defines such behavior as correct, i.e. conforming to social norms.

Sociocultural norms arose in the process of the historical development of society as a result of expressing the practical needs of its members at a particular historical stage, in order to streamline social relations at different levels of social life. Historically and logically, norms are associated with evaluation and values. In the process of assimilation of social reality, social subjects, taking into account previous historical experience, retain only what is of the greatest social significance and value for them. In a certain sense, a social norm can be considered as a consequence of a stable, repetitive assessment of certain types, forms, types, interactions. At the same time, the social norm does not necessarily express real behavior, but presupposes the existence of normative behavior. It's not just the most common pattern. Norm means the presence of recognition, consent and prescription, since the term itself refers to the expectations of “correct” or “proper” behavior. Deviations from the norms are punishable by sanctions.

Society does not remain unchanged, so some of the norms can constantly lose their significance for people's life. They either stop working or change. Other norms remain socially significant, stable for decades and even longer periods of time. Completely new norms may emerge.

The norms existing in society can be classified according to different criteria (reasons), in particular, according to their scope (political, economic, etc.) and, most importantly, according to their content (customs, mores, legal norms).

Customs - these are inherited stereotyped behaviors that are reproduced in certain communities or social groups and are a habit for their members. In any society, there are hundreds and thousands of generally accepted patterns of behavior. Through trial and error, the social community chooses one or more options for possible behavior (for example, you can eat sitting or standing, with a spoon and fork). But she can repeat, forbid, implement them in everyday practice. These behaviors become habits. If customs pass from one generation to another, they turn into a tradition. Tradition(from Latin traditio - transmission) - a mechanism for the reproduction and transmission to other generations of certain cultural norms, values, behaviors that people accept because of their past usefulness.

Moral standards (mores) represent a system of views about right and wrong behavior, based on the ideas accepted in society about good and evil, about what is proper or not permissible.

A form of socially sanctioned ordered symbolic behavior is ritual. Ritual(from Latin ritualis - ritual) is a set of actions established by custom, including speech behavior, which in a symbolic, orderly form reproduce the connection of individuals, social groups, society as a whole with the most significant social phenomena for them: values, institutions, historical events, people, natural objects, etc. (for example, a funeral ritual or a flag-raising ritual on a ship).

All the customs that exist in society can be divided into two groups: firstly, those patterns of behavior that are recommended to be followed in accordance with the rules of good manners and politeness, and secondly, those patterns of behavior that should be followed in interactions with other people for they affect the vital interests of members of society, ensuring security and social order, the very existence of a social community as an integrity. In ancient Rome, the concept of "mores" denoted the most respected and sacred customs. If we misuse a fork or a knife for eating, then this is a small oversight, which can only cause a little confusion. But if, in the conditions of our society, a woman leaves the family, leaving her child and husband, then this undermines the foundations of the family, its well-being and life. Society seeks to avoid such collisions by building a system of moral norms. At the same time, it is not necessary that actions prohibited by moral norms be really harmful to society (for example, prohibiting Muslims from eating pork), the main thing is that people believe in the correctness or incorrectness of actions.

Obviously, every culture has its own moral norms, in other words, what is considered moral and what is immoral behavior depends on the culture of a particular society or community.

A special form of morality is taboo- an absolute ban imposed on any word, object, action. Taboos were widespread in traditional, simple societies, but they also exist in modern societies (for example, on incest, cannibalism, etc.).

Certain interconnected systems of customs and moral norms can serve to regulate the processes of satisfying the most significant needs of society (for example, in the reproduction of members of society, which need is fulfilled by the family). These systems of customs and moral norms are called institutional. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that they are consciously developed and a formal or informal code of following them is established, and a circle of people arises in which each person plays a certain role in maintaining and protecting these norms. Patterns of behavior, values, traditions and rituals become highly standardized, interconnected. For example, banks, as economic institutions, have regulatory codes that will incorporate the customs and morals that go along with simple exchange. In the same way, for example, the codes of honor of a nobleman, sailors, etc. were formed.

An important element of culture that regulates human behavior is legal norms. legal norm- this is a standardized norm of behavior, formally approved by society and acting in the form of laws, decrees, orders and other acts adopted by legally authorized state bodies. People obey moral standards automatically or because they think it is right. With this form of submission, some people are tempted to violate moral standards. Such individuals can be subjected to existing norms by the threat of legal punishment for their violation. Legal norms are formalized moral norms that require strict implementation. The implementation of the norms established by laws is ensured by institutions specially created for this purpose (such as, for example, the police, the court, etc.). In modern society, the law becomes the most important means of regulating many types of behavior in all spheres of society.

So, in every society there is a set of cultural patterns recognized by the majority of its members and implemented massively in their life activity, which has specificity, originality, which distinguishes this society from others.

The role of culture in the life of society.

The role of culture in the life of society lies primarily in the fact that it acts as a means of accumulation, storage and transmission of human experience. More specifically, this role is manifested through the functions it performs.

First of all, culture performs in society regulatory function. The social values ​​shared by the individual, acting as the goals of life and the main means of achieving them, are called value orientation. Take, for example, a person for whom freedom is the most important value. It can be assumed that he: a) will look for the conditions under which it will be provided to him; b) will experience dissatisfaction, discomfort where his freedom will be limited; c) will seek to establish strong ties with those who share his commitment to freedom in order to defend his values ​​​​in a possible conflict with those who neglect these values.

Now let's take a person for whom the most important value is, for example, health (or family, or patriotism, or something else). It becomes quite obvious that his behavior will differ significantly from the behavior of an individual, for whom freedom is the most important value. Values, thus, set the direction, determine the strategy of the individual's behavior in social interaction.

However, values ​​are not the only regulator of human behavior. Social norms, unlike values, quite specifically prescribe what actions, what actions people should perform in certain social situations, how and what they should do (or not do) in their social connections and relationships with other people. The reference character, schematism and typicality of behavior inherent in the social norm are of great practical importance, making it possible to foresee the actions of other people in a familiar situation.

Thus, the value-normative content of culture acts as a regulator of human behavior.

Within the framework of a particular culture, values ​​are not an arbitrary combination, but an integral, hierarchically built system recognized by the majority of society and implemented in its life. The individual assimilates the values ​​and norms developed in the society (community) in a process called socialization (which will be discussed below). Thus, culture forms a personality, performing educational and upbringing functions. A general idea of ​​which direction to move in, what guidelines (values) to strive for, how to act correctly and how to act incorrectly, is of decisive importance for the implementation of joint and purposeful activities. In this case, the system of social values ​​and norms, and more broadly, culture, performs integrative function, ensuring the integrity of the community.

And finally, since culture accumulates the historical experience of a community, group, society, it also embodies the function of a repeater that transmits this experience to subsequent generations.

Cultural dynamics.

Each society has a certain set of cultural patterns, recognized by the majority of its members and implemented in their life. This set is usually called mass (dominant) culture. Mass culture - a concept that reflects the most typical way of being culture in the conditions of modern society.

Society includes many social communities (ethnic, demographic, professional, confessional, etc.). Each of them has its own system of values ​​and norms, not shared by all members of this society, but formed on the basis of different values, norms and customs and therefore closely related to the dominant culture. Such local cultures inherent in large groups of people are called subcultures: urban and rural (village), youth and pensioners, subculture of national minorities, criminal subculture, professional subculture (for example, military or sailors), subculture of the upper class, etc. Subcultures differ from the dominant and from each other in values, norms of behavior, lifestyle and even language. It is worth, for example, to compare the concepts of "army life" and "student life" and it becomes clear how different these two subcultures are.

So, subculture- a system of values, attitudes, behaviors and lifestyles of a certain social group, different from the dominant culture in society, but associated with it.

A special kind of subculture is counterculture. It not only differs from the dominant one, but opposes it, is in conflict with the dominant system of values ​​and norms. For example, the subculture of a bandit gang, thieves, criminal, etc. If representatives of subcultures, albeit in their own way, peculiarly, but perceive the basic values ​​and norms of society, then representatives of countercultures refuse the basic values ​​that make up the core of society's culture.

History convinces us that culture is not something fixed and unchangeable. It is enough to compare the culture of Ancient Russia, the culture of the times of Ivan the Terrible, Peter I, the Soviet period and the current culture to be convinced of this. On the other hand, we see a certain continuity between these cultures, which allows us to speak about its specificity, originality, difference from other cultures, about the socio-cultural identity of the bearers of this culture. It follows from this that the socio-cultural process, i.e. the functioning of culture as a social phenomenon is the interaction of two main contradictory trends: the trend towards conservation, sustainability, continuity and the trend towards development, modernization, change.

It should be emphasized that from a sociological point of view, culture is a method of value development of reality through a system of assessments, norms, patterns of behavior. And as long as this method ensures effective joint activities to meet the needs of people, culture, its main elements, retain their stability and stability. Otherwise, a situation arises that contributes to one or another change in culture, prompting to go beyond the accepted, supported as a model, normal within the framework of this culture. We can talk about changing the artistic style, as well as moral values, production technologies and norms of behavior, etc.

Changes in culture, i.e. the formation of new ideas, values, ways of activity and norms of behavior for a given society occurs through self-development. A person's going beyond the usual, traditional patterns of activity, norms, etc. occurs primarily through discoveries and inventions. They can be spontaneous, spontaneous (remember how many such discoveries each of us made in our lives), or arise as a result of trial and error. A person compares the new, thus found in culture, that has arisen with the already existing, familiar, evaluates its advantages, weighs how significant these advantages are, and then consolidates, introduces into the system of his culture. Great scientists, inventors, designers (Galileo, Newton, Einstein, etc.) play a special role in the development of science, technology, technology, and brilliant artists, writers, and poets in art and literature. In the field of morality, in the promotion of new values, norms of social life, prophets such as Buddha, Moses, Confucius, Jesus, Mohammed and other smaller personalities who had the gift of social fantasy, anticipation, and foresight played a huge role. Prophecy is a transition beyond the boundaries of the present, familiar in the most complex area of ​​culture, where innovations (i.e. changes associated with the creation, recognition or implementation of new elements or models of culture) are given with particular difficulty - in the field of regulation of social ties and relations. The prophets put forward their ideas either in a religious form, or in the form of more or less broad logical speculative constructions. They offer new ways to solve the most complex issues of social life, both in the form of moral precepts, sermons, teachings, and in the form of manifestos, treatises, programs (for example, the famous 10 theses of Luther, which laid the foundation for Lutheranism). Outstanding prophets for many centuries predetermined the prospects for the development of a particular culture (for example, Mohammed - Middle Eastern-Arabic, Jesus - Greco-Roman), proposing their own system of values ​​and norms, defining the semantic core, identity of these cultures.

Cultural changes also occur as a result of diffusion - the mutual penetration of cultural elements from one society into another when they come into contact (cultural contacts). Such contacts may not leave any trace in both cultures, or they may end up with an equal influence on each other (when both cultures borrow some elements from each other), or a unilateral influence of any one culture (for example, a powerful penetration in the second half of 20th century American culture into other cultures leads many to talk about the "Americanization" of their cultures).

New elements, models of culture can be introduced forcibly, imposed either as a result of the enslavement of one people by another (for example, Muslim culture was mainly spread), or by one social group that took political power, to other social groups of society (as, for example, in Russia after 1917).

As for the very nature of cultural dynamics, there is no consensus in sociology on this issue. Some sociologists believe that in society there is a constant change in cultural elements, during which they are completely transformed. At the same time, the change in cultural patterns occurs in the direction from simple to complex, from homogeneity to heterogeneity. The development of culture, therefore, proceeds along an ascending line, i.e. each new level of culture is a collection of more complex, more humane and more perfect samples of culture (the theory of the evolutionary development of culture). However, this point of view, which was very popular in the 19th century, is now subjected to sharp criticism. Some modern scientists (A. Schweitzer, E. Fromm and others) speak of the decline of culture, while others (O. Spengler, A. Toynbee and others) deny the linear development of culture, arguing that culture develops cyclically (birth, flourishing, decline, death).

Proponents of the dialectical approach believe that any cultural value, norm or pattern goes through three stages in its development - the stage of growth, which is manifested in the recognition of the significance of this cultural pattern, its prevalence in society or a group, then the stage of reaching a certain limit or boundary by the cultural pattern. , after which it comes into conflict with the external environment and its internal content, and then the third stage - the cessation of the existence of a cultural norm or value. But this is not just death, but the rebirth of cultural value: in the course of a conflict, under the influence of contradictions, a cultural pattern passes into a new qualitative state. At the same time, the old content is not completely destroyed, but becomes the basis for its opposite - a new cultural pattern. Despite the fact that the content of the new model will differ significantly from the content of the previous one and the new model will play a fundamentally different role in the life of society, it will inevitably include elements of the old obsolete model. The life cycle of cultural norms and values ​​has different time intervals (from those that exist for a short time to those that have a life span of a hundred years or more).

This is how the comparison and self-renewal of culture takes place, i.e. its reproduction. cultural reproduction is a process of evolutionary development of culture in the form of its cyclic reproduction, combining stability, continuity, change and development.

An analysis of social interactions shows that, firstly, social life has a group character, and secondly, mutual understanding of people in interactions is ensured due to the presence of a common system of values ​​and norms. The value-semantic meaning of relations between people is denoted by the term "culture", while the relations themselves, the specific form - by the term "social system". In any particular situation of social interaction, i.e. in any place where there is a human collective, one can note the obligatory interconnection of the social and cultural aspects of human behavior. This relationship is expressed in their contradictory unity, in which each side is the goal, the means, the conditions, and the result for the other. Culture is a way of existence of society, and we will not be able to correctly understand society (social system) if we do not know the value-semantic (cultural) aspects of people's actions that determine the content and meaning of their actions. On the other hand, a special system is a source of energy for culture and other means of its existence. That is why in modern sociology it is customary to consider society as an integral socio-cultural system.

The problem of man in sociology.

In the system of modern sociological knowledge, the problems of man and personality occupy one of the central places. Various sciences address a person, and each of them has its own specifics. This specificity is determined by their subject matter.

Traditionally, there is a distinction between the humanities and the natural sciences: the humanities study man as a social being, while the natural sciences study man as a biological, natural one. At the same time, when studying the social aspects of human life, biological factors are taken into account, and many issues of science and technology cannot be resolved without taking into account the social side of human life.

Considering the problem of man, sociology interacts primarily with other social and humanitarian sciences, especially closely with social philosophy, anthropology, social and general psychology, pedagogy, political science, jurisprudence, as well as history and economic science. The problem of man is one of the main links connecting sociology with other branches of scientific knowledge.

Each of these sciences considers a person in a peculiar way. Thus, philosophy approaches this problem from a broad historical and theoretical level. It explores the meaning of life, the essence of man, the general patterns of his development as a biological and social being. Anthropology studies the origin and evolution of man, the formation of human races and variations in physical structure, etc. The closeness of the anthropological and sociological approaches to man manifested itself in the formation of social anthropology - a section of sociology, the object of study of which are primitive and traditional systems. Social psychology, like sociology, studies a person and his communities, but at the same time solves a number of problems inherent only to it. For example, how a person becomes a personality, how he can realize his personal qualities, personality structure, problems of interpersonal communication and interaction, etc.

A huge contribution to the modern understanding of man and personality was made by psychoanalysis, which considers the role and significance in human behavior of instinctive drives that are beyond the threshold of consciousness, primarily sexual instincts, their interaction with the conscious principle in the human psyche. Sociology does not deny the importance of the subconscious and irrational in human behavior, but does not exaggerate the importance of this factor.

Man in sociology is regarded as the highest stage in the development of living organisms on Earth, the subject of socio-historical activity and culture. In contrast to other living beings, man is ultimately the product of his own material and spiritual activity.

At the same time, if we are talking about an individual person as a representative of society, a people, a social stratum or class, a given social group, the term “individual” is used. The social individual it is a separate, isolated member of the social community. This concept is also used in those cases when individual representatives of a sample population are considered, which are described contextually by belonging to this population.

The concept of "social individual" is also used in other sciences, in particular in psychology. In psychology, this term is understood as a representative of the genus, possessing peculiar psychophysical characteristics, stability of mental processes and properties, activity and flexibility in the implementation of these properties in relation to a specific situation. This concept should be distinguished from the concept of "individuality" ( individuality a unique combination of natural and social properties of an individual is called), as well as from the concept of “personality” (deindividualized social qualities of a person).

The concept of personality in sociology.

The concepts of “man” and “personality” refer to the same object and have been used as synonyms in everyday speech for more than two thousand years. However, there are significant semantic differences between them. The emergence of the concept of “personality” is associated with the ancient theater, where the word “persona” (personality) meant a mask that an actor put on when playing the role of a warrior, slave, jealous, envious person, etc. At the same time, a person, on the one hand, masked his I, and on the other hand, correlated himself with a certain social group.

In modern science, there are two approaches to the definition of personality. The first, formal-logical, corresponds to formal logic, “common sense”. In accordance with this approach, the personality is defined through a broader, generic concept - “man”, and then the signs that distinguish the personality from the person in general are listed. Most often, these signs are various positive characteristics. The conclusion follows from this: people with certain positive qualities are recognized as a person.

The weakness of this approach, with all its rational aspects, is revealed when trying to answer the question: who specifically should be considered or not considered a person? If a child, at what age? If a criminal, then on what grounds?

The second approach can be called dialectical-logical. Personality is defined through the dialectic of the general, particular and singular, as a result of which the personality appears as special, taken in a social aspect.

Note that all people have certain common - biological and social - traits. At the same time, each person has his own, only his inherent features (individuality). If we consider the general characteristics of a person associated with the social sphere of his life, and correlate them with his individual characteristics, then we will get a sociological definition of personality.

Thus, a person is a general concept, which is a biosocial category. A person, taken in his social capacity, is a personality. Personality - it is the integrity of the social properties of a person, a product of social development and the inclusion of an individual in the system of social relations through active objective activity and communication.

An individual becomes a person in the process of mastering social functions and developing self-awareness. Self-consciousness is the awareness of one's self-identity and originality as a subject of activity as a member of society. The most important quality of a person is social activity. Social activity can be considered in two main aspects. The first aspect involves the consideration of social activity as a property of the individual, due to its natural data and enhanced by the qualities that are formed in the process of upbringing, education, communication and practical activities. Some people are naturally active, energetic and active, which becomes noticeable already in early childhood. Others, on the contrary, are passive and inactive. Under the influence of many social factors, activity can develop, increase or decrease.

The second aspect comes from the understanding of activity as some specific measure of activity. In this case, activity can be expressed in specific terms. An example is the measurement of labor (production) activity. The criterion of social activity is the results of activity. The concept of a social subject is closely related to the concept of social activity. A social subject is a person capable of active social activity.

Macrosociological level of personality analysis.

An important feature of the sociological approach to personality is the fact that personality is considered at two levels of analysis: macro- and microsociological. At the microsociological level, a person is considered as a performer of a specific social role. The macrosociological level is characterized by the understanding of personality as a product of culture. According to E. Durkheim, in order to understand a person, it is necessary to project the culture of a given society onto it.

At this level, the concepts of normative (basic) and modal personality are used. Normative (basic) personality- this is the type of personality accepted by the culture of the corresponding society, to the greatest extent reflecting the characteristics of this culture. In the USA, for example, this is the so-called “100% American”, in the former USSR it is a “Soviet person”, etc. This is a kind of ideal type that society is guided by in educating the younger generation.

The characteristic of the normative type of personality answers the question: what criteria should a person meet in order for society to develop with maximum efficiency? If we take this or that social group, then it is not difficult to single out a personality in it with characteristics that most fully express the goals, conditions and patterns of functioning of this group. So, in a higher educational institution there are ideas about what a student should be like, in the army - a serviceman, etc.

Modal(from the word fashion) personality - it's a man , sharing the same cultural patterns , that the majority of members of a given society (community). It can be said differently: a modal personality is a type of personality that is most common in a given territory. After the collapse of the USSR, some sociologists believed that the most common personality in our country was the so-called “neurotic personality”, i.e. a person who did not know what to do in a changed situation. At present, the type of trading person who makes money on the difference in prices or makes money with the help of various kinds of machinations has received a certain distribution. The mass media and the courts note the fact that the mafia type of personality is widespread, which is fraught with the most serious consequences for society.

The typology that characterizes modal personality types shows which of them occupy a dominant position in society or social groups. Some researchers distinguish the following six types of personalities: theoretical, economic, political, social, aesthetic and religious. The prevailing social orientations are taken as the basis for distinguishing these types. Say, the type of economic person is characterized by the search for his own material well-being, and so on.

The modal personality never corresponds to the normative one, although it tends to achieve identity. People who have too large deviations from the normative type of personality accepted in a given society become dangerous for it. As a result, either the norms of a given society (community, social group) change, or society forces these individuals to comply with these norms.

At the same time, the normative personality is more static (constant), and the modal personality is more dynamic: the conditions of life are changing - the types of personalities are changing. So, for a politicized society, a politically active person (homopolitikus) is characteristic, for a totalitarian society - the so-called “one-dimensional” person, who seeks to simplify everything to black and white perception.

In modern Russia, the concept of a marginal, or “borderline”, type of personality has developed. This is a person who broke with his social environment, but did not adapt to new conditions. Marginality(from lat. marginalis – located on the edge) - the state of groups of people or individuals, placed by social development on the verge of two cultures, participating in the interaction of these cultures, but not completely adjacent to either of them. This is a complex mental state that generates anxiety and fear. In order to get rid of fear, people tend to join any groups, social movements and organizations.

Interaction of the individual and society.

For a more complete understanding of the personality at the microsociological level, it is necessary to consider the nature of its interaction with the environment. Speaking of the environment, we primarily mean the social environment, namely those people among whom a person moves, on whom he depends or who depend on him, on whom he is oriented or who are oriented towards him.

Social environment - it is a set of social factors influencing the formation and behavior of the individual. Allocate a macro environment (the nature of the social division of labor, the social structure of society arising from it, the system of education, upbringing, etc.) and the micro environment (work collective, family, school). The social environment of the individual is determined by relations at the level of society as a whole. The interaction of the individual and society - it is an interconnected process, on the one hand, of the active actions of the individual, capable of changing and changing both the social environment and the environment, and on the other hand, the impact on the individual of the social system and environment itself.

Relations that are formed and realized in the process of such interaction are called social. Social Relations - it is a certain stable system of connections between individuals that has developed in the process of their interaction with each other in the conditions of a given society. In essence, these are relations that develop between people included in various social groups. For a more complete description, let us turn to examples. Let's say you want to get married (get married). You can do this only if you establish a strictly defined relationship with another person and his close relatives, i.e. a relationship that would make them wish for the same. You want to have a good family. You have every reason to do so if you can find the right relationship with your family members. In order to have a promotion, it is not enough to be a good specialist. It is also necessary to be able to build the right relationship with both bosses and colleagues.

Thus, everything we do is the result of social relations, and whatever we do, we first of all build and reproduce these relations. If a person has succeeded in something, this means that he has first of all succeeded in the ability to establish relationships with other people. Social relations are a purely human invention. Animals, for example, as K. Marx rightly noted, do not belong to anything at all. Social relations are a reflection of social relations and include two levels:

Social level: people relate to each other through various social groups;

Psychological level: these are directly interpersonal relations “person – person”, “person – other people”.

The relationship between the individual and society can also be viewed as the activity of an individual who satisfies his needs and pursues certain goals in specific social conditions. These relationships can be described by the formula: Search(personality) - suggestions(societies) - choice(from the suggestion). Connections and interactions between people are established because people in the process of satisfying their needs depend on something specific from each other. The connection, for example, between A and B is established when A needs B, and B needs A to perform social functions.

Functions in sociology are judged by what a person intends to do, what meaning he puts into his actions and what consequences they have. To perform specific functions in the process of social interaction, a person is assigned duties. To fulfill these duties, he is endowed with certain rights. Rights are a form of fixing the principle of “pay and reward” that underlies social ties. The functions of an individual and the obligations and rights arising from them in relation to other participants in the interaction determine the social status of a person.

Status concept of personality.

When considering the personality and its place in society, the concept of “social position” is often used. The social position, according to the definition of P.A. Sorokin, is the place occupied by an individual in the social space. Social space, unlike geometric (three-dimensional), is multidimensional. In order to determine the social position of a person, it is necessary to know all his social statuses. P.A. Sorokin wrote: “To paraphrase an ancient saying, one can say: “Tell me which social groups you belong to and what are your functions within each of these groups, and I will tell you what your social position in society is and who you are in social plan.”1

Social position (status)(from lat. status - state of affairs, position) - the relative position of an individual or group in the social system, due to the social functions they perform with the rights and obligations arising from them. Each person performs many functions in the system of social ties, since he is actually included in many different social groups. Therefore, he has many statuses.

Classifying this set, first of all, we single out the main, or main, status. Main (main) status among the multitude of statuses determines and self-determines the place of the individual in the system of social relations. In other words, this status is decisive among all other statuses of the individual. This may be membership in a particular society, citizenship, and even belonging to a family, if this family occupies an important place in the social structure of society.

Highlighting the main status is important because it defines a person socially. Moreover, not always the status that the society allocates as the main one coincides with the status that a person allocates for himself. However, people perceive each other depending on their status position. So, in the course of one study of this problem in several groups of students, the same person was represented as: in the first - a student, in the second - a laboratory assistant, in the third - a graduate student, in the fourth - a teacher, etc. Then the students of each of these groups were asked to determine his height. As a result, the growth of this person from the first to the last group increased by 5 inches, while the height of the experimenter accompanying him in the eyes of the students did not change.

Depending on whether a person occupies this position due to hereditary characteristics (race, ethnicity, social origin) or due to their own efforts (education, merit), the prescribed and achieved statuses differ, respectively. Prescribed status- this is a social position that is prescribed in advance to the individual by society or a group, regardless of his abilities or efforts. A variation of this status is social class status, i.e. the position of the individual in society, due to his social class affiliation.

Achieved (achievable) status – it is a social position that is occupied by the individual and consolidated through his individual choice, his own efforts and competition with other individuals. A kind of achieved status can be professional status, i.e. the position of the individual in society, due to the professional and official functions performed by him with the rights and obligations arising from them.

Thus, the concept of social status characterizes the place of the individual in the system of social relations, his activities in the main areas of life and, finally, the assessment of the activity of the individual by society, expressed in certain quantitative and qualitative indicators (salary, bonuses, awards, titles, privileges), as well as self-assessment, which may or may not coincide with the assessment of society or a social group.

The problem of social status is not only theoretical, but also of great practical importance. In life, there are often examples of a falsely understood or assigned status. A serious problem is the adequate awareness of the individual of his own status. People who are aware of the instability of their own statuses exhibit certain attitudes and behaviors. For example, people with unstable statuses and a high degree of awareness of this instability are characterized by the ability to climb up the corporate ladder due to their own over-motivation. In addition, if a person misunderstands his social status, he is guided by patterns of behavior alien to his social environment.

Role theory of personality.

The role theory of personality is one of the approaches to the study of personality, according to which it is described by means of learned and accepted by it or forcedly performed social functions and patterns of behavior - roles. Such social roles stem from her social status. The main provisions of this theory were formulated by the American sociologist and social psychologist JG Mead in the books "Role, Self and Society" (1934), "The Study of Man" (1936). He believed that we all learn role-playing behavior through the perception of ourselves as some significant person for us. A person always sees himself through the eyes of others and either begins to play along with the expectations of others, or continues to defend his role. In the development of role functions, Mead identified three stages: 1) imitation, i.e. mechanical repetition; 2) playback, i.e. transition from one role to another; 3) group membership, i.e. mastering a certain role through the eyes of a social group significant for a given person.

At the same time, the key concept of this theory – “social role” – was developed at the beginning of the 20th century. in the works of E. Durkheim, M. Weber, later - T. Parsons, R. Lipton and others. social role(from the French role) - a pattern of behavior, fixed, established, selected as appropriate for people occupying a particular position (status) in the system of social relations.

Social role is usually considered in two aspects: role expectation and role performance. Role expectation - it is the expected behavior pattern associated with the given status, i.e. typical behavior (within norms and standards) for people of a given status in a given social system. In other words, this is the behavior that others expect from us, knowing our social status. Role play - this is the actual, real behavior of a person occupying a particular social position (social status).

In order to illustrate the influence of role expectations on people's behavior, let's turn to the "prison" experiment of the American researcher Philip Zimbardo. This experiment began with the fact that in one of the prestigious American colleges an announcement was posted: "For the psychological research of prison life, male students are required who are completely healthy in physical and mental respects ...". The experiment was planned to be carried out within one to two weeks. After the participants were matched, they were divided into two parts in arithmetic order. One part was appointed "prisoners", the other - "jailers". Then everyone was transferred to the prison, where the jailers began to perform their duties. They stripped and searched the “prisoners” and took them to their cells, although no one ordered them to do so. In general, the first day went well with a good-natured, joking attitude on both sides. However, already on the second day, relations deteriorated so that the experimenters had to keep the “jailers” from being too harsh. On the sixth day, the experiment had to be stopped because everyone was injured. This experiment showed that functional expediency (the need to maintain order) and sociocultural traditions (how one should behave) predetermined the behavior of its participants. They "entered the role" and role expectations led to quite typical and easily recognizable behavior. Good relations burst when these good guys ended up in different social roles. It was the "vice" of social roles that predetermined the behavior of the participants in this experiment.

Note that there is never identity between role expectation and role performance, although there is a tendency to achieve it. In the normative structure of a social role, four elements are usually distinguished: 1) a description of the type of behavior corresponding to this role; 2) instructions, requirements associated with this behavior; 3) assessment of the performance of the prescribed role; 4) sanctions, which can be both negative and positive.

Each person has many social statuses, and each status corresponds to a range of roles. The set of roles corresponding to this status is called role set. Thus, it can be stated that each person performs many social roles in society. This raises the problem of role conflict.

Role conflict- this is a clash of role requirements for a person, caused by the plurality of roles simultaneously performed by him, as well as other reasons. Having a general idea of ​​the essence of role conflicts, one can classify them.

Firstly, these are conflicts caused by differences in the understanding of one's role by the individual and others. For example, a university teacher believes that he can achieve a deep assimilation of the program of his subject by students without hard pressure on them, but a different methodological approach prevails at the department.

Second, there is conflict between different aspects of the same role. For example, a lawyer is required to take all measures to justify the client, but he, as a lawyer, is expected to fight offenses that undermine the foundations of society.

Thirdly, it is a conflict between the qualities necessary for the performance of a given social role and the expectations of people significant to this person. Thus, such character traits as firmness, will, independence, emotional restraint, striving for victory are highly valued among athletes. However, researchers Stein and Hoffman (1978) found that these traits are unpleasant for girls. They are more attracted to sincerity, depth of feelings, ability to empathize. As a result, athletes are forced to choose between high achievements in sports and attention from the fair sex.

Fourth, it is a conflict caused by opposing demands on the performance of the same role by different people. For example, from a woman, her boss demands high dedication at work, and her husband demands high dedication at home.

Fifth, it is a conflict between the personal qualities of individuals and role requirements. It is no secret that there are quite a few people in positions for which they do not have the necessary qualities. As a result, they are forced to painfully rebuild, as they say, "to step over themselves."

Role conflicts give rise to role tension, which manifests itself in various everyday and official troubles. Therefore, it is important to know some ways decrease role-playing tension. One is that certain roles are recognized as more important than others. So, in some cases, you should choose what is more important: family or work. For women, the choice in favor of the first is considered normal, and for men - the second. The division between two role systems, in particular family and work, weakens the role conflict.

The theory of "mirror self".

One of the first theories of personality in sociology and psychology was the theory of the “mirror self”. It proceeded not from the internal characteristics of a person, but from the recognition of the decisive role of the interaction of individuals who act in relation to each of them as a “mirror” of his Self. “I” (the image of “I”) is the central concept of a number of interpretations of personality. “I” is the self, i.e. integral integrity, “one-facedness”, “authenticity” of the individual, his identity to himself, on the basis of which he distinguishes himself from the outside world and other people.

W. James, one of the founders of this theory, singled out the “social I” in the I, which was what the people around recognize this person. A person has as many "social selves" as there are individuals and groups whose opinion is important to him.

This idea was developed by C.H. Cooley, an American sociologist and social psychologist. He considered the ability of an individual to distinguish himself from the group and realize his self as a sign of a truly social being. A prerequisite for this, according to Cooley, is the communication of the individual with other people and the assimilation of their opinions about him. There is no feeling of I without corresponding feelings of We, He or They. The conscious actions of the individual are always social. They mean for a person to correlate his actions with those ideas about his Self that other people have. Other people are those mirrors in which an image of oneself is formed for the individual.

According to Cooley, personality is a set of mental reactions of a person to the opinions of other people about him. His own self is the summation of the impressions that he thinks he makes on those around him. “I” includes: 1) the idea of ​​“how I appear to another person”, 2) the idea of ​​“how this other evaluates my image”, 3) the specific “feeling of I” resulting from this, such as pride or humiliation - “ self-respect." All this adds up to the human "sense of personal certainty" - "mirror self".

“I” acts as a synthesis of the social and individual in a person, the guarantor and result of his interaction with society. At the same time, society is revealed to the individual in the form of social aspects of his own personality. It practically does not exist outside the consciousness of the individual. Thus the concept of "I" is essentially a product of the imagination.

The theory of the “mirror self” was developed by J. Mead, who introduced the concept of “stages” of the formation of the self. itself as a social object.

social groups.

P.A. Sorokin noted that “…outside the group, history does not give us a person. We do not know an absolutely isolated person living out of communication with other people. We are always given groups…”1 Society is a collection of very different groups: large and small, real and nominal, primary and secondary. The group is the foundation of human society, since it itself is one of such groups. The number of groups on Earth exceeds the number of individuals. This is possible because one person is able to be in several groups at the same time.

Social group - this is a set of people who have a common social attribute and perform a socially necessary function in the general structure of the social division of labor and activity. Such signs may be gender, age, nationality, race, profession, place of residence, income, power, education, etc.

This concept is generic in relation to the concepts of “class”, “social stratum”, “collective”, “nation”, as well as in relation to the concepts of ethnic, territorial, religious and other communities, as it fixes social differences that arise between separate groups of people. The first attempts to create a sociological group theory were made at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century by E. Durkheim, G. Tarde, G. Simmel, L. Gumplovich, C. Cooley, F. Tennis.

In real life, the concept of “social group” is given a variety of interpretations. In one case, this term is used to refer to a community of individuals physically and spatially located in the same place. An example of such a community can be individuals traveling in the same carriage, being at a certain moment on the same street, or living in the same city. Such a community is called an aggregation. Aggregation - this is a certain number of people gathered in a certain physical space and not carrying out conscious interactions.

Some social groups appear unintentionally, by accident. Such spontaneous, unstable groups are called quasigroups. Quasi-group - this is a spontaneous (unstable) formation with a short-term interaction of any one species.

The significance of a social group for an individual lies primarily in the fact that a group is a certain system of activity, given its place in the system of social division of labor. In accordance with the place in the system of social relations in sociology, large and small social groups are distinguished.

Big group - it is a group with a large number of members, based on various types of social ties that do not require mandatory personal contacts. Several types of large groups can be distinguished. First, these are nominal groups. Nominal groups(from lat. nomen - name, name) - a set of people allocated for the purposes of analysis on some basis that does not have social significance. These include conditional and statistical groups - some constructions used for the convenience of analysis. If the attribute by which the groups are distinguished is chosen conditionally (for example, blonds and brunettes), then such a group is purely conditional. If the attribute is significant (occupation, gender, age), it approaches real groups.

Secondly, large real groups. Real group - these are such communities of people who are capable of self-activity, i.e. they can act as a single whole, united by common goals, they are aware of them and strive to satisfy them with joint organized actions. These are groups such as class, ethnos and other communities that are formed on the basis of a set of essential features.

small group- this is a small group in which relations act in the form of direct personal contacts and whose members are united by a common activity, which is the basis for the emergence of certain emotional relationships, special group norms, values, ways of behavior. The presence of direct personal contacts (“face to face”) of each with each serves as the first group-forming feature that turns these associations into a socio-psychological community, whose members have a sense of belonging to it. For example, a student group, a school class, a team of workers, an aircraft crew.

There are various approaches to the classification of small groups. There are primary and secondary groups. primary group - a kind of small group, characterized by a high degree of solidarity, spatial proximity of its members, unity of goals and activities, voluntary entry into its ranks and informal control over the behavior of its members. For example, a family, a group of peers, friends, etc. For the first time, the term “primary group” was introduced into scientific circulation by C.H. Cooley, who considered such a group as the primary cell of the entire social structure of society.

Secondary group - it is a social group whose social contacts and relations between members are impersonal. Emotional characteristics in such a group fade into the background, and the ability to perform certain functions and achieve a common goal comes to the fore.

In the classification of small groups, reference groups and membership groups are also distinguished. Reference group(from lat referens – Membership groups - These are the groups to which the individual actually belongs. In everyday life, there are cases when someone, being a member of some groups, begins to focus on completely opposite values ​​of other groups. For example, this is how the problem of “conflict between fathers and children” arises, as a result, interpersonal ties are broken, which can be impossible to restore again. reporting) - a real or imaginary group with which the individual relates himself as a standard and to norms, opinions, the values ​​​​of which he is guided in his behavior and self-esteem.

social communities.

Social community - it is a real-life, empirically fixed set of individuals, distinguished by relative integrity and acting as an independent subject of the historical process. Social communities are relatively stable aggregates of people that differ in more or less the same features (in all or some aspects of life) of the conditions and lifestyle, mass consciousness, in one way or another by the commonality of social norms, value systems and interests. Communities of different kinds and types are forms of joint life activity of people, forms of human coexistence.

Social communities are not created by people consciously, but are formed solely under the influence of the objective course of social development, the joint nature of human life. Different types of communities are formed on different objective basis. Some types of communities are directly social production, for example, a production team, a social class, a socio-professional group. Others arise on an ethnic basis: nationalities, nations (ethnic communities), and along with the economy, their nature and character are determined by a number of other factors. The objective basis of the third communities - socio-demographic - are natural demographic factors: gender, age, etc.

Any community is formed on the basis of the same living conditions of the people from which it is formed. But the totality of people becomes a community only when they are able to realize this similarity of conditions, to show their attitude towards them. In this regard, they develop a clear understanding of who is “ours” and who is “strangers”. Accordingly, there is an understanding of the unity of their interests in comparison with other communities. Awareness of this manifested itself in the tribal societies of the primitive communal system. This awareness is inherent in any nationality and nation.

Nationality is a term denoting belonging to a people or the presence of some of its qualities. A people is a large group of people connected mainly by their place of residence. In the ethnic sense, this term refers to all historically established types of ethnic communities: tribes, nationalities, nations. In Greek, ethnos means people. Since the beginning of the 50s of our century, various types of ethnic groups have been called nationality, which are at the stage of development between the tribe and the nation. Thus, nationality - it is an ethnic and social community that historically follows the tribe and precedes the nation.

Another ethnic community is the nation. Nation(from Latin natio - people) - a type of ethnic group, historically formed and reproduced on the basis of a common territory, economic ties, language, cultural characteristics, mental make-up and consciousness of unity and difference from similar formations (self-consciousness). This definition is dominant in modern literature. However, at present, when defining a nation, the emphasis is often placed not on ethnic features, but on stage and ethno-social features that distinguish a nation from the nationality that preceded it historically. These features include: the unification of the language, mainly in the process of spreading its literary form through the education system, literature and the media; development of professional culture and art; the formation of a class and social composition corresponding to the level of industrial development, etc.

Nationality - it is belonging to one or another nation. At the same time, in Western European languages, this concept is used mainly to denote the nationality of people (citizenship), and the expression “ethnic nationality” is often used to denote ethnicity.

The problem of ethnic communities is dealt with by ethnosociology, which has its own categorical apparatus. Her focus is on interethnic relations related to the problem of ethnic minorities, assimilation, and so on. Ethnic minority - it is a collection of people who are treated differently from other members of society because of their physical and cultural characteristics. Under assimilation is understood as the complete destruction of ethnic minorities by force or by their gradual mixing with the main (titular) ethnic group.

It should be noted that despite the presence of different points of view, race is not a kind of ethnic community. Race - this is a historically formed group of mankind, characterized by common hereditary characteristics, due to the unity of origin and the area of ​​\u200b\u200bsettlement. These features include: skin color, eyes, hair, skull shape, height, etc. Modern humanity is divided into three main races: Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid.

The distinctive features of the races are of secondary importance. All races are absolutely equal in biological and psychological respects, are at the same level of evolutionary development. At the same time, throughout human history, attempts have been made to elevate one race and belittle another. They are most clearly manifested in the theory and practice of racism. Racism - it is discrimination, exploitation or cruel oppression of a community belonging to another race.

social institutions.

The term "institution" has many meanings. It came to European languages ​​from the Latin institutum - establishment, device. Sociologists borrowed this concept from jurists and endowed it with new content. A social institution is, first of all, a set of norms that regulate a certain area of ​​social relations.

Outwardly, a social institution looks like a set of individuals, institutions, equipped with certain material resources and performing a specific social function. From the content side, it is a certain set of expediently oriented standards of behavior of certain persons in certain situations. Thus, justice as a social institution outwardly is a set of persons (prosecutors, judges, lawyers, etc.), institutions (prosecutors' offices, courts, places of detention, etc.), material means, and in content it is a set of standardized patterns of behavior of authorized persons performing a certain social function. These standards of behavior are embodied in the social roles characteristic of the justice system (roles of judges, prosecutors, lawyers, etc.).

Thus, social institution - these are relatively stable types and forms of social practice, through which social life is organized, the stability of ties and relations is ensured within the framework of the social organization of society.

Social institutions are powerful tools for the survival of society, forged by thousands of years of cultural evolution. In order to exist, society must satisfy its fundamental needs. For this, certain social institutions have been created in society:

The need for the reproduction of the genus ( institute of family and marriage;

Need for security and social order political institutions, state);

Need for sustenance economic institutions, production);

The need for the transfer of knowledge, socialization of the younger generation, training of personnel ( educational institutions, including science and culture);

The Need for Solving Spiritual Problems (Institute of Religion).

In carrying out their functions, social institutions encourage the actions of their members that are consistent with the relevant standards of behavior, and suppress deviations in behavior from the requirements of these standards, i.e. control and regulate the behavior of individuals. Social institutions have explicit and latent functions.

Explicit Functions expected, necessary and easily recognized. This is first of all:

1) the function of consolidating and reproducing social relations. Each institution has a system of rules and norms of behavior that fixes and standardizes the behavior of its members. This ensures the stability of the social structure of society;

2) the regulatory function is that the functioning of social institutions ensures the regulation of relationships between members of society by developing patterns of behavior;

3) the integrative function includes the processes of cohesion, interdependence and mutual responsibility of members of social groups;

4) the broadcasting function consists in the transfer of social experience to new members of society, the desire to instill in them the norms of obedience and loyalty;

5) the communicative function is manifested in the dissemination of the necessary information both within this institution and to other institutions.

Latent functions - these are functions that are carried out unintentionally, not planned in advance, have an implicit (hidden) form. For example, there are institutions that not only do not fulfill their functions, but also hinder their implementation. It is obvious that such an institution has hidden functions, with the help of which it satisfies the needs of certain social groups. Note that such phenomena are most often observed in political institutions.

Family Institute.

Of all social institutions, the institution of the family should be especially singled out. It is the family that is the main carrier of cultural patterns inherited from generation to generation, as well as a necessary condition for the socialization of the individual. Family - This is a group of people connected by marriage and kinship, which ensures the upbringing of children and satisfies other socially significant needs.

Social institutions are constantly evolving systems. The institution of the family has gone through stages such as group marriage, polygamy and monogamy. Replaced the extended family nuclear, in which there are only two generations: parents and children. Historically, the roles of husband and wife, the rite of marriage, methods of raising children, and much more have changed.

At present, in addition to the nuclear family, a form of family organization called the kindred family is widespread in our society. kindred family is based not only on the marital relations of people, but also on the consanguinity of a large number of its members. This is a clan of relatives with their spouses and children. There are also so-called extended families, consisting of a married couple with children and any of the relatives of the husband or wife living in the same household.

Interacting with all spheres of social life (economics, politics, law, spiritual culture), the family changes and develops primarily under the influence of the socio-economic process. At the same time, its development has a relative independence. Allocate a specific life cycle of the family. Life cycle - This is the period from the beginning to the end of the functioning of the family. The following periods are distinguished in the life of a family: 1) before the birth of children, 2) a family consisting of spouses and children, 3) separation of children into an independent family, 4) family breakdown due to the death of one or both spouses.

In almost all societies, the initial stage of the emergence of a family is associated with obstacles, various tests and preparatory activities, during which future spouses check the correctness of the choice of a partner. Marriage - it is a set of social norms that regulate the creation of a family by a man and a woman, as well as a system of their mutual rights and obligations.

For Russians, British or Americans, there is only one kind of civilized form of marriage - monogamy. Monogamy - marriage of one man with one woman (at the same time). However, in the development of many societies practiced polygamy, i.e. a form of marriage in which more than one partner in a marriage was practiced. The most common form of polygamous marriage is polygyny, or polygamy. A very rare form of polygamous marriage is polyandry when one woman has several husbands.

What to do in cases where spouses for various reasons cannot maintain marital relations? Output - divorce, i.e. divorce. However, society does not benefit from any instability of the family institution. Therefore, in almost every society there are certain rules and laws that make it difficult to divorce. In our society, with a strong emphasis on individual love in mate selection and the priority of the nuclear family, divorce tends to have tragic consequences for both children and adults.

The family as a social institution is created to solve a certain range of socially significant tasks, i.e. to perform certain functions. The most important are:

1) reproductive function biological reproduction of the population;

2) social status function families - granting to a member as a heritage some statuses close to the status of his family, and in the role-based preparation of the child for the status of his parents and relatives;

3) economic and household functions - ensuring the material, household needs of family members, organizing and maintaining a common household;

4) emotional function. satisfaction of emotional needs, such as, in particular, intimate communication (love, care, etc.).

5) function of sexual regulation - streamlining natural sexual needs;

6) socialization of children those. preparing them to fulfill the necessary social roles and successfully function in society.

In the most general way socialization is the process of assimilation by an individual of patterns of behavior, psychological mechanisms, social norms and values ​​necessary for the successful functioning of an individual in a given society. Socialization – This is a very deep and capacious concept. It continues throughout a person's life, and includes the socialization of children, adults, and the elderly. Socialization covers all the processes of familiarization with culture, communication and learning, through which a person acquires a social nature and the ability to participate in social life. Nevertheless, children's socialization occupies a central place in this process, since it is here that the foundations of personality are laid.

social organization.

Society is inconceivable without organizations. social organization(from the French organisatio - I form, I create) - this is a certain community that unites a certain set of individuals who create a certain system of relations to achieve interconnected specific goals and form highly formalized structures. In relation to social objects, this term is used in three senses.

First, it can be called an artificial association of an institutional nature that occupies a certain place in society and is intended to perform a more or less clearly defined function. In this sense, the organization acts as a social institution with a certain status. In this sense, the word "organization" can be used, for example, as an enterprise, a government agency, a voluntary union, etc.

Secondly, the term “organization” can refer to certain organizational activities, including the distribution of functions, the establishment of stable relationships, coordination, etc. In this sense, the concept of "organization" coincides with the concept of "management".

Thirdly, organization can be understood as a characteristic of the degree of ordering of an object. Then this term denotes a certain structure, structure and type of connections, specific to any social object.

Social organization arises only when the achievement of any common goals is recognized as possible only through the achievement of individual goals or when the achievement of individual goals is possible only through the achievement and promotion of common goals. Organization goals- this is the desired result or the conditions that the members of the organization are trying to achieve using their activity to meet collective needs.

The central element of any organization is its social structure. Social structure of the organization is a set of interrelated roles, as well as ordered relationships between members of the organization, primarily relations of power and subordination. The social structure of an organization differs in the degree of formalization.

formal organization(from lat. forma – type, shape, image) or the formal structure of an organization is a way of social organization in which social positions and the relationship between them are clearly marked by certain establishments, regardless of the personal characteristics of the members occupying these positions. For example, there are social positions of the director, his deputies, heads of departments and ordinary performers. A director can be businesslike and energetic, or he can be passive and incompetent. The performer may be super talented, but still he formally occupies the lowest place in the social organization. Relationships between the positions of the formal structure are based on strict rules and are enshrined in official documents.

However, within every formal organization, an informal organization is always created. Informal organization - it is a spontaneously (spontaneously) formed system of social connections, norms, interactions, which is the product of more or less actual interpersonal and intergroup communication. From the point of view of the informal structure, a competent and conscientious employee may even have a higher status than the director of the institution. Relationships in an informal structure are not fixed by official rules, they are formed at the level of direct interpersonal interaction. The informal structure is more changeable, mobile and unstable than the formal one.

In order to organize collective actions aimed at the realization of common goals, people cannot avoid hierarchical construction. Social hierarchy in an organization(from the Greek hierarchia - sacred power) is a form of building a social organization, when the social positions and roles of the "lower" level are controlled by the "upper". The optimal embodiment of such power is bureaucracy.

The sociological theory of bureaucracy was developed by M. Weber. Bureaucracy(from the French bureau - the office and the Greek kratos - power, domination, strength) is an organization of public power, consisting of a number of officials holding positions and positions and forming a certain hierarchy. They differ in formal rights and obligations that determine their actions and responsibilities. M. Weber identified a number of specific features of the bureaucratic organization.

First, the tasks of the organization must be distributed among its elements as official duties. Second, statuses and roles must be organized into a hierarchical pyramidal power structure in which each official is accountable to his superior for both his own decisions and the actions of his subordinates. Thirdly, the decisions and actions of officials are governed by a formally established system of rules and instructions. Fourth, status-role relations within the organization are impersonal, and so on.

Civil society and the state.

Civil society is an independent form of social organization. Civil society- a society with developed economic, cultural, legal and political relations between its members, independent of the state, but interacting with it.

The term “civil society” has several meanings. As a sociological category, this concept states that there is a certain reality that embraces the totality of non-political relations. If we subtract from the whole variety of social relations, interactions, statuses and roles, institutions only those that belong to the political sphere, then the rest will be called civil society. It includes family, kinship, interethnic, religious, economic, cultural relations, relations of various classes and strata, the demographic composition of society, forms of communication between people, etc. In other words, civil society is everything that is not controlled by the state.

As a sociological category, “civil society” states that there is a reality that is a set of non-political relations. However, as an ideological concept, “civil society” indicates what this reality should be. In a sociological sense, civil society appeared before the state. It was already among primitive hunters and gatherers. The state arose only 5-6 thousand years ago.

The relationship between society and the state can be explained using systems theory. According to this theory, all systems are divided into two main types: corpuscular and rigid. In a corpuscular system, elements interact freely and are easily replaced by similar ones. In rigid systems, all parts are adjusted to each other in such a way that for the normal functioning of this system, their simultaneous existence and interaction between them is necessary. Society is a corpuscular system, but in order to exist, it creates institutions that are rigid systems in relation to it.

Society is a system of social institutions through which it functions. The most important of these is the state. State- this is a historically established organization of political power, organizing, directing and controlling joint activities and relations between various social groups and communities. This is the most general form of social organization, the most important institution of the political system of society.

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Topic: "Society as a socio-cultural system"

Introduction

3. Semantic units of culture

4. Modern forms of culture

Conclusion

Introduction

Society is a set of people who carry out joint activities and relationships.

The word "culture" in Latin means "cultivation", "ennoblement", which in ancient Rome meant the cultivation of the land, as well as upbringing, education.

With the development of society, special organizations arose to streamline social interactions: social institutions, the state, the church, law, needs, attitudes, interests, values, established norms and social institutions determine the formats of social space, group dispositions, structural conflicts. Society is not only "outside", but also "inside" us - as part of our inner being. Society doesn't just control our movements, it shapes our identity, our thoughts and our feelings. Culture is formed as an important mechanism of human interaction, helping people to live in their own environment, to maintain the unity and integrity of the community when interacting with other communities.

Culture is considered in sociology as a complex dynamic formation that has a social nature, expressed in social relations aimed at the creation, assimilation, preservation and dissemination of objects, ideas, value ideas that ensure mutual understanding of people in various situations.

Each specific community creates over the centuries its own superculture, which accompanies the individual throughout his life and is passed down from generation to generation. As a result, a variety of cultures arises in the historical process.

1. System "society-culture"

society sociology culture personality

It is culture that regulates the behavior of people in society, and therefore it is no coincidence that Sigmund Freud called it repressive. Culture suppresses some of the inclinations and urges of a person that are dangerous and harmful to society, surrounding people - aggressive, sexual. But it is the norms of culture that do not completely exclude them, but only regulate the conditions for their satisfaction: aggressive, for example, in sports, sexual, necessarily with a certain social and moral arrangement.

Of course, the possibilities of such elements of culture as customs, moral norms in regulating human behavior are also quite limited, they change depending on objective circumstances, for example, the crisis state of society, the level of material condition of a social group or individual, etc. In these cases, stronger regulators on the part of society and the state are required.

The phenomenon of culture also lies in the selection of certain types of behavior and experience of people. The poetic expression "Custom - Despot among people" shows that people themselves create such cultural patterns, which they subsequently obey, take them for granted. When culture indicates how and what we should do or not do, it is said to be normative, that is, one that gives us patterns of required behavior.

If cultural norms appear in a society or a separate social group that no longer correspond to new conditions, become inconvenient or useless, then people seek to change them in order to bring them into line with the changed living conditions. The transformation of cultural norms itself takes place in different ways. Some norms, for example, norms of etiquette, everyday behavior can be transformed relatively easily, others - state laws, religious traditions of economic and political behavior - are quite difficult to change and their adoption is very painful. A convincing example of this is the economic and political reforms in Russia.

Some cultural norms that affect the vital interests of a social group, society, become moral norms. The entire social experience of mankind convinces us that moral norms are not invented or established. They arise gradually from the daily life and social practice of people.

The same thing happens with social institutions. In one society, such a cultural norm as polygamy is established, in another it is condemned. In one, hallucinations are considered a disease, in the other they are considered as the highest form of consciousness, "mystical visions", prophecies.

Culture as a phenomenon of consciousness is also a way, a method of value-based development of reality. The vigorous activity of a person, society to meet their needs requires a certain position. We must take into account the interests of other people and other communities, without this there is no conscious social action. This is a certain position of a person, a community, which is monitored in relation to the world, in the assessment of real phenomena, and is expressed in the mental mentality.

Culture as a way of value development of reality is expressed in the practical activities of people - both external and internal. It is clear that in the process of internal activity, motives, value orientations are formed, goals, technologies for future actions are selected. It is the mentality of a person, a community that makes up the essence and meaning of internal activity. Culture is the culprit of the content, the style of the whole practical life of people. Of course, it is actively influenced by the external environment, socio-economic circumstances, and is being modified.

2. Sociology of culture and its basic concepts

For the first time, English and American sociologists of the late 19th century announced a special sociological approach to understanding culture. They singled out an immaterial component from the philosophical concept of culture and civilization, which became the main content of the sociological concept of culture.

The first sociological definition of culture was given by the English ethnographer Edward Taylor: "Culture is some complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs and other abilities and habits acquired and achieved by a person as a member of society."

Thus, the sociological concept of culture includes:

What is comprehended by a person in the process of his life;

Something that is passed down from generation to generation, ensuring the continuity of society.

In the broadest context, a synonym for the word "culture" is "civilization". When we talk about culture, we mean, first of all, those phenomena of human life that qualitatively distinguish a person from nature or are not even found in nature, for example, the manufacture of labor tools, the political organization of society, etc. Although, of course, in culture is always marked by the influence of nature.

In the narrow sense of the word, this term refers to artistic, spiritual culture. In a sociological context, the way of life, thoughts, actions, a system of values ​​and norms characteristic of a given society, a person. Culture are those bonds that unite people into integrity, into society. A Japanese, a European, a representative of the small peoples of the North differ among themselves, first of all, in a certain type of culture.

The fundamental basis of culture is language. People, mastering the world around them, fix it in certain concepts. And they come to an agreement that a certain combination of sounds is given a certain meaning.

Only a person is able to use symbols with which he communicates, exchanges not only simple feelings, but also complex ideas and thoughts.

Just as speech separates humans from animals, so writing (written language) draws the line between primitive cultures and civilization. A person of pre-literate culture must always keep in mind the most valuable examples of culture. But human memory is limited. Therefore, a culture that depends on human memory and the oral transmission of its samples is doomed to remain primitive, extremely simple. The use of writing made it possible to almost limitlessly complicate and develop culture, to preserve and transfer to an unlimited number of people the details of technologies, traditions, values, cultural norms, to reproduce lost and destroyed cultural values.

Language merges with culture so much that each new addition to the public cultural heritage is necessarily associated with changes in the language. As a result, professional, age and other groups of people can have their own specific language, their own linguistic subculture.

Culture can spread and be transmitted by gesture, facial expressions, image, dance, ritual, but in terms of capacity, accuracy, accessibility, they cannot compete with language. It is no coincidence that the expression "language of dance" exists. Language acts as a relay of culture. There are serious problems here. Is it possible to preserve the culture of a small nation without preserving and developing its language? How acceptable is borrowing from other languages? In science and technology, in any professional language, these are quite acceptable things. Therefore, it is not necessary to absolutize the role of the native language for the preservation and, most importantly, the development of national culture.

Culture is accumulated in certain knowledge, information, formations about the surrounding world: natural science, technical, political, social, etc. Beliefs are knowledge mastered by a person, as if passed through his worldview, attitude. Knowledge exists outside the individual, beliefs are the sensory-emotional volitional side of knowledge.

Beliefs as a unity of knowledge, emotions, will manifest themselves in various forms: value orientations, social attitudes, norms, principles of behavior, motives for actions, deeds. But at the heart of all these manifestations is an orientation toward values.

Values ​​are the defining element of culture, its core. In order to evaluate what is significant and useful and what is not, what is good and what is evil, both a person and society constantly apply certain measures and criteria. Culture in the value aspect is a kind of social mechanism that reveals, systematizes, streamlines, preserves, and transmits values ​​in society. In other words, values ​​guide a person, a community in the surrounding world, encourage specific actions or inaction.

Sociology is primarily interested in social values. They always exist in the form of a certain system and are expressed in the mentality of a person, a community. The foundation of the system of values ​​are moral values. For example, the commandments of Christ.

The world of values ​​in society is also organized in a certain way. If the core values ​​are built into a certain doctrine, theoretically argued, then we are dealing with an ideology. In addition, values ​​are also expressed in spontaneously formed ideas, opinions of people, which are reflected in customs, traditions, and rituals. Any sufficiently developed society has a certain ideology. Another thing is that part of society may not perceive this ideology and even fight against it. This is especially characteristic of transitional societies.

Any ideology has several tiers: universal content, national content, such as the constitution, group social class values.

One of the most amazing properties of culture lies in the fact that with any progress, with any initiation into universal values, it is able, while developing, to preserve its national identity. In the conditions of modern integration processes, Western culture is preserved, which is based on the Christian religion, as well as Islamic, Eastern culture, etc.

The functioning of culture as a social phenomenon has two main trends: development, modernization and preservation, sustainability, continuity.

It is worth paying attention to the fact that any nation measures a different culture with its arshin, is surprised at a different manner of behavior, lifestyle, for example, the custom of blood feud among a number of peoples. With a certain temperament, emotional excitability, the principle "The smaller the people, the longer the dagger" should have led to numerous murders for nothing. But in the absence of a strong rule of law state, the custom of blood feud is precisely what keeps the ardent zhigits back, because. everyone knows about the possible consequences.

3. Semantic units of culture

The American sociologist Neil Smelser singled out four components of culture (semantic units) that determine its content in sociology:

Concepts and concepts are one of the forms of reflection of the world at the level of cognition, contained in the language and helping people to organize and streamline their experience.

Relationships are the moment of interconnection of all phenomena, through which a person, with the help of concepts, defines phenomena as separate facts related to each other in space, time and meaning.

Values ​​are socially approved and shared by the majority of people beliefs regarding the goals to be strived for. Every society and every group of society has its own system and hierarchy of values. The values ​​of individual individuals or groups and their hierarchy may not coincide with the values ​​of other groups and society as a whole and their hierarchies.

Norms are elements of culture that determine how a person should behave in order to live in accordance with established values. Norms include the requirements of society for the behavior of an individual in a given life situation. The requirements of society are fixed in the norms and attitudes contained in morality and customs, and in the norms-laws contained in the system of legislation.

Based on this understanding, Smelser says: "Culture is a set of values, ideas about the world and codes of behavior common to people of the same lifestyle."

4. Modern forms of culture

In most modern societies, culture exists in the following main forms:

1) high or elite culture - fine arts, classical music and literature created and consumed by the elite;

2) folk culture - fairy tales, songs, folklore, myths, traditions, customs;

3) mass culture - a culture that has developed with the development of mass media, created for the masses and consumed by the masses.

From A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche to X. Ortega y Gasset, the conviction prevailed that genuine culture is always elitist. One can also recall the statement of L.N. Tolstoy, that the degree of culture of the country should be judged not by the degree of literacy and education among the masses, but by the degree of education of the upper stratum of the population.

Mass culture is a superstructure on top of basic culture.

There is a point of view that mass culture is a product of the mass itself. Media owners only study the needs of the masses and give what the masses want.

Another point of view is that mass culture is the product of the intelligentsia hired by the owners of the media. This is a means of manipulating the masses, imposing their values ​​and standards of life on them.

The term "medium culture" is sometimes used, it occupies an intermediate position between the elite and the mass culture, being elite in relation to the mass and mass in relation to the elite.

Although culture is always national and holistic, in every society there are many subgroups with different cultural values ​​and traditions. The system of norms and values ​​that distinguishes a group from a large community is called a subculture.

Groups may also appear in a society seeking to develop norms and values ​​that contradict the main aspects of the dominant culture. These norms and values ​​form a counterculture that can come into conflict with the mainstream culture.

By the nature of the creations, one can single out culture represented in single samples and mass culture. The first form, according to the characteristic features of the creators, is divided into folk and elite culture. Folk culture is a single work of most often anonymous authors. This form of culture includes myths, legends, tales, epics, songs, dances, and so on. Elite culture - a set of individual creations that are created by well-known representatives of the privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators. Here we are talking about creators who have a high level of education and are well known to an enlightened public. This culture includes fine arts, literature, classical music, etc.

Mass (publicly available) culture is the products of spiritual production in the field of art, created in large editions, counting on the general public. The main thing for her is the entertainment of the broadest masses of the population. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education. Its main feature is the simplicity of ideas and images: texts, movements, sounds, etc. Samples of this culture are aimed at the emotional sphere of a person. At the same time, popular culture often uses simplified examples of elite and folk culture (“remixes”). Mass culture averages the spiritual development of people.

Subculture is the culture of any social group: confessional, professional, corporate, etc. It, as a rule, does not deny the universal culture, but has specific features. Signs of a subculture are special rules of behavior, language, symbols. Each society has its own set of subcultures: youth, professional, ethnic, religious, dissident, etc.

Dominant culture - values, traditions, attitudes, etc., shared by only a part of society. But this part has the ability to impose them on the whole of society, either because it constitutes the ethnic majority, or because it has a mechanism of coercion. A subculture that opposes the dominant culture is called a counterculture. The social basis of the counterculture is people who are alienated to a certain extent from the rest of society. The study of the counterculture allows us to understand the cultural dynamics, the formation and spread of new values.

The tendency to evaluate the culture of one's own nation as good and correct, and another culture as strange and even immoral, has been called "ethnocentrism". Many societies are ethnocentric. From the point of view of psychology, this phenomenon acts as a factor in the unity and stability of this society. However, ethnocentrism can be a source of intercultural conflicts. The extreme forms of manifestation of ethnocentrism are nationalism. The opposite is cultural relativism.

Elite or high culture is created by a privileged part of society, or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. High culture, such as the painting of Picasso or the music of Schnittke, is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary critics, frequenters of museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population grows, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is "art for art's sake".

Elite culture is intended for a narrow circle of highly educated public and opposes both folk and mass culture. It is usually incomprehensible to the general public and requires good preparation for correct perception.

The avant-garde trends in music, painting, cinema, complex literature of a philosophical nature can be attributed to the elite culture. Often the creators of such a culture are perceived as inhabitants of the "ivory tower", fenced off by their art from real everyday life. As a rule, elite culture is non-commercial, although sometimes it can be financially successful and move into the category of mass culture.

Modern trends are such that mass culture penetrates into all areas of "high culture", mixing with it. At the same time, mass culture reduces the general cultural level of its consumers, but at the same time, it itself gradually rises to a higher cultural level. Unfortunately, the first process is still much more intense than the second.

Folk culture is recognized as a special form of culture. Unlike elite folk culture, culture is created by anonymous creators who do not have professional training. The authors of folk creations are unknown. Folk culture is called amateur (not by level, but by origin) or collective. It includes myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs and dances. In terms of execution, elements of folk culture can be individual (retelling of a legend), group (performing a dance or song), mass (carnival processions). Folklore is another name for folk art, which is created by various segments of the population. Folklore is localized, that is, associated with the traditions of the given area, and democratic, since everyone who wishes participates in its creation. Modern manifestations of folk culture include anecdotes, urban legends.

Mass or public culture does not express the refined tastes of the aristocracy or the spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when the mass media (radio, print, television, records, tape recorders, video) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. Mass culture can be international and national. Popular and pop music is a vivid example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.

Mass culture, as a rule, has less artistic value than elite or folk culture. But it has the widest audience. It satisfies the momentary needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, samples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete, go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of elite and folk culture. Pop culture is a slang term for mass culture, and kitsch is a variation of it.

The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs that guide the majority of members of society is called the dominant culture. Since society breaks up into many groups (national, demographic, social, professional), each of them gradually forms its own culture, i.e., a system of values ​​and rules of conduct. Small cultures are called subcultures.

Subculture - part of a common culture, a system of values, traditions, customs inherent in a particular social group. They talk about the youth subculture, the subculture of the elderly, the subculture of national minorities, the professional subculture, the criminal subculture. The subculture differs from the dominant culture in language, outlook on life, behavior, hair, dress, customs. The differences can be very strong, but the subculture does not oppose the dominant culture. Drug addicts, the deaf and dumb, the homeless, alcoholics, athletes, and the lonely have their own culture. The children of the aristocrats or the middle class are very different in their behavior from the children of the lower class. They read different books, go to different schools, follow different ideals. Each generation and social group has its own cultural world.

Counterculture refers to a subculture that is not only different from the dominant culture, but opposes, is in conflict with the dominant values. The terrorist subculture opposes human culture, and the hippie youth movement in the 1960s. denied the dominant American values: hard work, material success, conformity, sexual restraint, political loyalty, rationalism.

5. Functions of culture and current trends in its development

Culture plays an important role in the life of society, which consists primarily in the fact that culture acts as a means of accumulation, storage and transmission of human experience.

This role of culture is realized through a number of functions:

Educational and educational function. We can say that it is culture that makes a person a person. An individual becomes a member of society, a person as socialization progresses, i.e. mastering the knowledge, language, symbols, values, norms, customs, traditions of their people, their social group and all of humanity. The level of culture of an individual is determined by its socialization - familiarization with the cultural heritage, as well as the degree of development of individual abilities. Personal culture is usually associated with developed creative abilities, erudition, understanding of works of art, fluency in native and foreign languages, accuracy, politeness, self-control, high morality, etc. All this is achieved in the process of upbringing and education.

Integrative and disintegrative functions of culture. E. Durkheim paid special attention to these functions in his studies. According to E. Durkheim, the development of culture creates in people - members of a particular community a sense of community, belonging to one nation, people, religion, group, etc. Thus, culture unites people, integrates them, ensures the integrity of the community. But uniting some on the basis of some subculture, it opposes them to others, and separates wider communities and communities. Within these broader communities and communities, cultural conflicts can arise. Thus, culture can and often performs a disintegrating function.

Regulatory function of culture. As noted earlier, in the course of socialization, values, ideals, norms and patterns of behavior become part of the self-consciousness of the individual. They shape and regulate her behavior. We can say that culture as a whole determines the framework within which a person can and should act. Culture regulates human behavior in the family, at school, at work, at home, etc., putting forward a system of prescriptions and prohibitions. Violation of these prescriptions and prohibitions triggers certain sanctions that are established by the community and supported by the power of public opinion and various forms of institutional coercion.

The function of translation (transfer) of social experience is often called the function of historical continuity, or information. Culture, which is a complex sign system, transmits social experience from generation to generation, from era to era. In addition to culture, society has no other mechanisms for concentrating the entire wealth of experience that has been accumulated by people. Therefore, it is no coincidence that culture is considered the social memory of mankind.

The cognitive (epistemological) function is closely connected with the function of transferring social experience and, in a certain sense, follows from it. Culture, concentrating the best social experience of many generations of people, acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development. It can be argued that a society is as intellectual as it fully uses the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of mankind. All types of society that live today on Earth differ significantly primarily on this basis.

Regulatory (normative) function is associated primarily with the definition (regulation) of various aspects, types of social and personal activities of people. In the sphere of work, everyday life, interpersonal relations, culture in one way or another influences the behavior of people and regulates their actions and even the choice of certain material and spiritual values. The regulatory function of culture is supported by such normative systems as morality and law.

The sign function is the most important in the system of culture. Representing a certain sign system, culture implies knowledge, possession of it. It is impossible to master the achievements of culture without studying the corresponding sign systems. Thus, language (oral or written) is a means of communication between people. The literary language acts as the most important means of mastering the national culture. Specific languages ​​are needed for understanding the world of music, painting, theater. The natural sciences also have their own sign systems.

The value, or axiological, function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a certain system of values ​​forms a person's well-defined value needs and orientations. By their level and quality, people most often judge the degree of culture of a person. Moral and intellectual content, as a rule, acts as a criterion for an appropriate assessment.

The social functions that culture performs allow people to carry out collective activities, satisfying their needs in the best possible way. The main functions of culture are:

social integration - ensuring the unity of mankind, a common worldview (with the help of myth, religion, philosophy);

organization and regulation of the joint life of people through law, politics, morality, customs, ideology, etc.;

provision of people's livelihoods (such as knowledge, communication, accumulation and transfer of knowledge, upbringing, education, stimulation of innovations, selection of values, etc.);

regulation of individual spheres of human activity (life culture, recreation culture, labor culture, food culture, etc.).

Thus, the system of culture is not only complex and diverse, but also very mobile. Culture is an indispensable component of the life of both society as a whole and its closely interconnected subjects: individuals, social communities, social institutions.

Conclusion

It seems possible to draw the following conclusions:

Society and culture are two interconnected subsystems of social life.

The peculiarity of the social system expresses the form of social relations between people, which is represented by various social groups and relations within and between groups.

A feature of the sociological approach to understanding culture is that culture is seen as a mechanism for regulating human behavior, social groups, the functioning and development of society as a whole.

In the most general sociological approach to understanding culture, three characteristics are usually noted:

1) culture is a generally shared system of values, symbols and meanings;

2) culture is what a person comprehends in the course of his life;

3) culture is everything that is transmitted from generation to generation.

Thus, we can give the following definition: culture is a system of socially acquired and transmitted from generation to generation of significant symbols, ideas, values, beliefs, traditions, norms and rules of behavior, through which people organize their life.

Bibliography

1. Avanesov G. A. Interpretation of spiritual culture and spirituality in domestic analytics in the past and now // Moscow University Bulletin. Ser. 7. Philosophy.- 1998.- No. 4.

2. Gurevich P. S. Culturology. - M.: Gross, 1996.- 238 p.

3. Skvortsov K.V. Characteristics of society as a socio-cultural system in modern conditions. - M .: Progress, 2011. - 118 p.

4. Sociology: Textbook for universities / V.N. Lavrinenko.- M.: UNITI-DANA, 2002. - 408 p.

5. Frolov S.S. Sociology. Textbook. For higher educational institutions. Moscow: Nauka, 1994 - 256 p.

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INTRODUCTION

Sociology is the theory of society. It would be wrong to consider society as a simple collection of people, individuals with some of their original qualities that manifest themselves only in society, or as an abstract, faceless integrity that does not take into account the uniqueness of individuals and their connections.

The history of sociology has necessarily led to the idea of ​​a systemic society - the initial methodological principle of its further study.

We adhere to the concept of society as a special kind of social system, so it is important to find out what a social system is, a system in general, and a sociocultural system.

The purpose of the course work is to consider society as a socio-cultural system.

To achieve this goal, the following tasks must be completed:

· identify approaches to the definition of society;

compare the concepts of society and system;

find the characteristics of society as a system;

Show the development of society as a social system;

Consider culture as a system of values, norms, patterns of behavior;

· formulate the role of social groups and communities in the development of society.

The object of study of the course work is human society and its structural components.

The work was written based on several textbooks on sociology by such authors as Yu.I. Lynx, V.E. Stepanov, a lecture course on sociology by A.A. and K.A. Radugins, on Internet resources, as well as on the works of such authors as Yu.G. Volkov, B.A. Isaev, G.V. Osipov and others.

Course work contains an analysis of society as a socio-cultural system. The first chapter is devoted to the characteristics of society, considered from the point of view of the system. The second chapter examines the structural components of the system that creates human society as a complex, self-adjusting, dynamic system.

1. SOCIETY AS A SYSTEM

1.1. Approaches to the definition of society

Society… What is it? We pronounce this word without thinking. Sociology, on the other hand, gives it a clear, exhaustive definition, because society is the object of its study.

It should be noted right away that in sociology the term "society" is usually used in two senses. The first is the understanding of society as a historically, geographically, economically and politically specific social entity.

By what criteria can one assert that this particular community of people is a society? According to even simple everyday ideas, society is something more than just a community or a group. In everyday life, using the concept of "society", we usually mean either a historically specific type of society (primitive society, feudal, modern society, etc.), or a large stable community of people, coinciding with one or another state within its borders ( for example, modern Russian society), or a whole set of such communities united by a similar level of technological development, common values ​​and way of life (for example, modern Western society). All these variants of definitions are characterized by the fact that society is understood as an integral system localized within strict spatial and temporal boundaries.

The first approach consists in the assertion that the initial cell of society is living acting people, whose joint activity forms society. From the point of view of this approach, the individual is the elementary unit of society. A society is a collection of people carrying out joint activities. People are the main element of society, and the source of their unification and subsequent formation in a community is social interaction. “What is society, whatever its form? A product of human interaction,” writes K. Marx. In the same sense, P. Sorokin speaks on this subject: “Society exists “not outside” and independently of individuals, but only as a system of interacting units, without which and outside of which it is unthinkable and impossible, just as any phenomenon is impossible without its constituent elements. ".

But if a society consists of individuals, then the question naturally arises, should not society be considered as a simple sum of individuals? Such a formulation of the question calls into question even the existence of such an independent social reality as society. Individuals really exist, and society is the fruit of the mentality of scientists: philosophers, sociologists, historians, etc. If society is an objective reality, then it must spontaneously manifest itself as a stable, repetitive, self-producing phenomenon. Therefore, in the interpretation of society, it is not enough to indicate that it consists of individuals, but it should be emphasized that the most important element in the formation of society is their unity, community, solidarity, and the connection of people. Society is a universal way of organizing social ties, interactions and relationships between people.

These connections, interactions and relationships of people are formed on one or another common basis. As such a basis, various schools of sociology consider “interests”, “needs”, “motives”, “attitudes”, “values”, etc.

E. Durkheim saw the fundamental principle of the stable unity of society in the "collective consciousness". According to M. Weber, society is the interaction of people, which is a product of social, i.e. other people-oriented actions. T. Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the connecting beginning of which are values ​​and norms. From the point of view of K. Marx, society is a developing set of relations between people that develop in the process of their joint activities.

Obviously, with all the differences in the approaches to interpreting society on the part of the classics of sociology, the common thing for them is the consideration of society as an integral system of elements that are in a state of close interconnection. This approach to society is called systemic. The main task of a systematic approach in the study of society is to combine various knowledge about society into an integral system that could become a unified theory of society.

1.2. Society and system

Consider the basic principles of a systematic approach to society. To do this, it is necessary to define the basic concepts - society and system. A system is a set of elements ordered in a certain way, interconnected and forming some integral unity. The internal nature of any integral system, the material basis of its organization is determined by the composition, the set of its elements. This means that the social system is a holistic formation, the main elements of which are people, their connections, interactions and relationships. These connections, interactions and relationships are stable and are reproduced in the historical process, passing from generation to generation.

Social connection is a set of facts that determine the joint activity of people in specific communities at a specific time to achieve certain goals. Social ties do not arise at the whim of people, but due to objective circumstances. The formation of these connections is dictated by the social conditions in which individuals live and act.

Social interaction is a process in which people act and are affected by each other. Interaction leads to the formation of new social relations. Social relations are relatively stable and independent connections between individuals and social groups.

From the point of view of supporters of the system approach, society is not a summative, but a holistic system. This means that at the level of society, individual actions, connections and relationships form a new systemic quality. Systemic quality is a special qualitative state that cannot be considered as a simple sum of elements.

Social interactions and relationships are manifested in a supra-individual, transpersonal format, because society is some independent substance, which is primary in relation to individuals. Each individual, being born, fits into a certain structure of connections and relationships and gradually adapts to it.

So, society is a certain set (association) of people. But what are the limits of this collection? Under what conditions does this association of people become a society? What are the reasons for this association?

Their main list is exhausted by the following list:

1. The association is not part of any larger system (society).

2. Marriages are concluded (mainly) between representatives of this association.

3. It is replenished mainly at the expense of the children of those people who are already its recognized representatives.

4. The association has a territory that it considers its own.

5. It has its own name and its own history.

6. It has its own system of governance (sovereignty).

7. The association exists longer than the average life span of an individual.

8. It is united by a common system of values ​​(customs, traditions, norms, laws, rules, mores), which is called culture.

All these features are met by human society, which is a complex system of a higher "organic" type, a supersystem, or a social system that includes all types of social systems and is characterized by structural and functional integrity, stability, balance, openness, dynamism, self-organization, self-reproduction, evolution. .

The essential features of any system are integrity and integration. The first concept (integrity) captures the objective form of the existence of a phenomenon, i.e., its existence as a whole, and the second (integration) - the process and mechanism of combining its parts. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This means that each whole has new qualities that are not mechanically reducible to the sum of its elements, reveals a certain "integral effect". These new qualities inherent in the phenomenon as a whole are usually referred to as systemic or integral qualities.

The specificity of a social system lies in the fact that it is formed on the basis of a particular community of people (social group, social organization, etc.), and its elements are people whose behavior is determined by certain social positions (statuses) that they occupy, and specific social functions (roles) that they perform; social norms and values ​​accepted in a given social system, as well as their various individual qualities. The elements of a social system may include various ideal (beliefs, ideas, etc.) and random elements.

At the heart of a social system is activity aimed at reproducing the system itself. To maintain the stability of social systems in a changing environment, internal regulation of a variety of processes is necessary, which leads to the mutual adjustment of these processes and their subordination to a single order. All social systems are capable of self-regulation and are self-organizing systems of high functional complexity.

1.3. System characteristics of society

One of the effective methods of sociological analysis of society as a social system is the macrosociological approach proposed by the American sociologist Edward Shils. It allows us to represent society as a certain macrostructure, the elements (components) of which are a social community, social organization and culture. With this approach, the social system can be considered in four aspects:

1) as the interaction of individuals;

2) as a group interaction;

3) as a hierarchy of social statuses (institutional roles);

4) as a set of social norms and values ​​that determine the behavior of individuals and their activities.

Social communities as elements of a social system are real-life aggregates of individuals that form a certain integrity and have independence in social actions. They arise in the process of the historical development of mankind and are characterized by a variety of types and forms. The most significant communities are: socio-territorial (city, village, region, etc.), socio-demographic (family, age groups, etc.), socio-ethnic (nations, nationalities, ethnic groups), social and labor (different types of labor collectives).

In social communities, interaction between people is carried out, the forms of which are also different: individual - individual; individual - social group; individual - society. They are formed in the process of people's practical activities and represent the behavior of an individual and a group of individuals, which is significant for the development of the social community as a whole. Such social interaction of subjects determines the social ties between people, between people and the outside world.

The totality of such social ties forms the basis of social relations in society: political, economic, spiritual. In turn, they serve as the foundation for the functioning of the economic, political, spiritual and social spheres (subsystems) of the life of society. Any social community, all spheres of society's life cannot function, much less develop, without regulation, streamlining relations between people in the process of their practical activities and behavior. Therefore, society has developed a kind of system, a tool for such regulation and organization of social life - social institutions.

As already noted, social institutions are a certain set of institutions. Under the conditions of stable development of society, social institutions play the role of mechanisms for coordinating the common interests of various groups of the population and individuals. The presence of a conflict situation indicates that social institutions do not fulfill their functions, work inefficiently and, therefore, either changes in their work or their complete replacement are necessary.

Social organization is the second most important aspect of society as a social system. In the broad sense of the word, the concept of "social organization" means a number of ways to regulate the actions of individuals and social groups to achieve certain goals of social development. In other words, social organization is a mechanism for integrating the actions of individuals and social communities (social groups, strata, etc.) within a particular social system. The elements of the social structure of society are social roles, social statuses of individuals, social norms and social (public) values. The most important feature of social organization is the presence of hierarchical links between its elements. Those. they are pyramid-shaped social systems of purpose, in which the base is social goals, and the verticals are statuses and social roles in the form of leadership and subordination. In such social organizations, their individual elements (individuals) work for the organization as a whole, like cogs or aggregates for the whole machine. Such an organization makes it possible to achieve a significant effect in the implementation of individual goals by synchronizing, specifying and unidirectional actions of individual individuals included in the system.

The distribution of social statuses and social roles, the joint activities of individuals are impossible without a certain governing body within the social organization. For this purpose, a managerial link is formed in the person of managers and specialists - leaders, as well as organizational and power structures in the person of the administration. There is a formal structure of social organization with different social statuses, with an administrative division of labor along the lines of "leaders - subordinates". But even in the conditions of rigid organized relations, there are always interpersonal and intergroup relations, the basis of which are socio-psychological factors.

So, informal organizations and groups are formed in collectives, informal leaders appear, a kind of subculture arises. And if all these phenomena do not coincide or formally contradict organizational factors, then the social organization itself becomes unstable and capable of decay and crises.

Culture is the third side of society as a social system. In sociology, culture is defined as a system of social norms and values ​​enshrined in the practical activities of people, as well as this activity itself. Values ​​are the main connecting link of social and cultural systems. Their task is to serve to maintain the pattern of functioning of the social system.

Norms are predominantly a social phenomenon. They perform the function of integration, regulating a huge number of processes, and contribute to the implementation of normative value obligations. In developed societies, the structural focus of norms is the legal system.

In society, culture is represented by material objects and spiritual values ​​that express the needs of people, their moral and aesthetic aspirations. The focus of sociology is the question of the social role of culture in society, contributing to the humanization of social relations, the formation of a multilaterally developed personality. Culture always carries elements of both tradition and innovation.

So, society can be represented as a multi-level system. The first level is social roles that define the structure of social interactions. Social roles are organized into various institutions and communities that make up the second level of society. Each institution and community can be represented as a complex system organization, stable and self-reproducing.

Differences in the functions performed, opposition to the goals of social groups require such a systemic level of organization that would support a single normative order in society. It is realized in the system of culture and political power. Culture sets patterns of human activity, maintains and reproduces the norms tested by the experience of many generations, and the political system regulates and strengthens the ties between social systems through legislative and legal acts.

1.4. The development of society as a social system. Evolutionism and the theory of social change.

In a society as a social system, many complex processes must take place in order for it to continue to function as before. These processes, while preserving the society itself, lead, nevertheless, to its change and development. Some societies, changing, acquire new types of social structures, cultural formations and tendencies towards evolutionary development. Other societies can be so blocked by internal conflicts or other negative circumstances that they lose the ability to evolve and can hardly maintain their existence or even begin to collapse. In sociology, there are various interpretations of the change and development of societies, the causes and main stages of these processes.

The most influential position in solving this problem is occupied by evolutionism as a system of views that recognizes the objective nature of social development, originating in the studies of Charles Darwin. The main problem in evolutionism as an approach to understanding the phenomenon of the development of society was the identification of the determining factor, the modification of which leads to a change in the entire image of society.

O. Comte saw the progress of knowledge as such a decisive link. The development of knowledge from its theological, mystified form to a positive form determines the transition of a person from a military society based on submission to deified heroes and leaders, to an industrial society, carried out thanks to the human mind. This is a transition to a qualitatively different level of production and satisfaction of needs.

G. Spencer sees the essence of the evolution of society in its conviction, the strengthening of its differentiation, which is accompanied by the growth of integration processes that restore the unity of the social organism at each new stage of its development. Social progress is accompanied by the complication of society, leading to an increase in the independence of citizens, an increase in the freedom of individuals, and a more complete service of their interests by society.

E. Durkheim considered evolution as a transition from mechanical solidarity, based on the underdevelopment and similarity of individuals and their social functions, to organic solidarity, arising on the basis of the division of labor and social differentiation, which leads to the integration of people into a single social organism and is the highest moral principle of society .

K. Marx considered the productive forces of society as the determining factor in social development, the growth of which leads to a change in the mode of production, which in turn is the basis for changing the whole society and ensures a change in the socio-economic formation. The progress of society is possible only on the basis of a radical renewal of the mode of production, and new economic and political structures can only appear as a result of a social revolution. Therefore, social revolutions are the "locomotives of history" that ensure the renewal and acceleration of the development of society.

The concept of evolutionism has played a positive role in understanding the causes and course of development of society, primarily due to the recognition of the objective nature of social development. However, evolutionism could not explain the causes of crises, backward movements, the collapse of some societies and the death of civilizations. The very idea of ​​the objectivity of the social process was called into question due to the fact that its main parameters (knowledge, individual freedom, solidarity, technical progress, productive forces) can also serve as a source of negative trends. It turned out that these parameters of progress can lead to the creation of weapons that can destroy the whole world, serve as a source of social conflicts, and lead to an ecological catastrophe.

These manifestations of the limitations of evolutionism were overcome by creating new approaches to the creation of society, among which the theory of cyclic development (O. Spengler, A. Toynbee) and the theory of social change (T. Parsons) stood out.

In the theory of cyclical development, the evolution of society was viewed not as a straightforward movement towards a more perfect state of society, but as a kind of closed cycle of rise, dawn and decline, repeating again as it ends. The cyclic concepts of the development of society considered its change by analogy with a lighthouse, when a society unbalanced under the influence of any factors makes oscillatory movements from one point to another, “freezing” in the middle and thereby restoring its stability.

The theory of social change by T. Parsons is based on the theory of the system and cybernetics. The mental model (concept) of structures and its changes are based on the idea of ​​a “cybernetic hierarchy” of various systems: an organism, a personality, a social system and a cultural system as steps of an increasing degree of complexity. Indeed, the profound changes are those that affect the cultural system, which Parsons calls "the system of trust." Economic and political upheavals that do not affect the level of culture in society, therefore, do not change society itself at its core.

Society as a social system has stability, the ability to reproduce itself, which is manifested in the stability of its main structural elements (adaptations). If the balance of power The elements that maintain the balance are disturbed, then the social system as a whole, its main structural elements remain unchanged and the lost balance is quickly restored. Changes remain internal, and the system, integrating new formations into itself, as a whole remains unchanged. This kind of social change is called "rebalancing."

The second type of social change is "structural change" when the system is unable to restore balance due to strong pressure from within and without. To preserve the integrity of the social system, the modification of social subsystems and their structural elements (social roles, institutions, organizations) takes place.

Parsons more generally reduces the development of society to four "mechanisms of evolution":

1) differentiation associated with the complication of the structure of society;

2) adaptation (“adaptive elevation”), which refers to a new way of relating to the environment (for example, new technology or new ways of communication);

3) increase in the volume of membership in the society (“inclusion”). The former criteria for membership in society (class, gender, ethnicity) lose their meaning in an evolving society.

4) generalization of values.

The systematic approach of T. Parsons to the evolution of society as a social system allows us to point out those phenomena and processes in it that lead to its structural restructuring, and those that are secondary.

In conclusion, it can be noted that society as a social system has always been and remains the most complex object of study that attracts the attention of sociologists. In terms of complexity, it can only be compared with the human personality, the individual. The society and the individual are inextricably linked and mutually determined through each other. This is the methodological key to their study, as well as to the study of other social systems.

2. Sociocultural system

2.1. Sociocultural approach to the analysis of society

In a sociological analysis of social interaction as the basis of social life, two most important aspects are usually paid attention to:

1) the group nature of public life;

2) the behavior of people in groups, which is regulated, directed

and ordered by a certain system of values, norms, ideas and rules.

These two aspects of people's social life are closely interconnected, because the social interaction of people regularly reproduces both the structure of social groups and the system of its value-normative regulators.

The noted two aspects of social life in sociology are usually denoted by two popular concepts - society (social system) and culture (system of culture).

Let us note the most general points that distinguish society (social system) from culture. At one time, in the late 60s, this issue was discussed in detail in the works of domestic sociologists. But then the emerging fruitful trend of discussing methodological issues of the relationship between culture and society in the works of E.S. Markaryan, E.V. Sokolova, O.I. Genisaretsky was officially banned by party organs, who saw in this trend "the pernicious influence of bourgeois sociology."

1) society and culture are two interconnected

subsystems of public life;

2) the feature of the social system expresses the form of social

relations between people, which is represented by various social

groups and relationships within and between groups.

It was suggested that culture be understood as the content aspects of human activity, determined by values, ideals, norms, etc.

A similar interpretation of the relationship between the concepts of "society" and "culture" can be found in the works of leading Western sociologists who, beginning with M. Weber, emphasize the important role of value standards in understanding social development. It suffices to mention the role assigned by E. Durkheim to "collective ideas", or to recall how M. Weber explained the development of capitalism in Europe by the influence of the religious and ethnic norms of Protestantism. In modern Western sociology, starting from the 30s, in the works of T. Parsons and his school, as well as in the works of cultural anthropologists A.L. Kroeber, K. Kluckhona, R. Linton, J. G. Mead and others, a more rigorous theoretical and empirical justification was given for the separation of the concepts of "societies" and "culture", while emphasizing the decisive role of culture in terms of both methodological, cognitive, and content - as a decisive factor in the evolution and change of society.

A feature of the sociological approach to understanding culture is that culture is seen as a mechanism for regulating human behavior, social groups, functioning and development of society as a whole.

In the most general sociological approach to understanding culture, three characteristics are usually noted:

1) culture is a shared system

values, symbols and meanings;

2) culture is what a person comprehends in the process of his

life;

3) culture is everything that is transmitted from generation to generation.

Thus, we can give the following definition: culture is a system of socially acquired and transmitted from generation to generation of significant symbols, ideas, values, beliefs, traditions, norms and rules of behavior, through which people organize their life.

Speaking about the diversity of cultural forms and values ​​in the modern world, sometimes taking the form of a conflict, two levels in the system of cultural values ​​should be distinguished:

1) the fundamental level of shared values,

accepted by society as a whole;

2) the level of local values ​​(in Western sociology

denoted by the term "beliefs", usually translated as beliefs or

ideology), which serves as the basis for the activities of various social groups

and communities that form the subcultures of a given society.

2.2. Culture as a system of values, norms, patterns of behavior

The term culture comes from the Latin colere, which means "to cultivate the soil" (hence - "cultivation"). In modern society, culture is understood as all the spiritual and material values ​​created by the human community. It is usually divided into material (buildings, roads, communication lines, household items, etc.) and spiritual culture (language, religion, scientific ideas, theories, people's beliefs, etc.).

In sociology, culture means that in social life that is not determined by the biological nature of man - by instincts; it is an artificial formation created by the joint actions of many generations of people and recreated, supported by each generation and group.

Each generation and each group not only recreate and maintain certain forms of social life, but also make their own changes, refract culture through their social experience, their attitude towards society and other generations and groups. Therefore, we can talk not only about the culture of civilization, but also about historical types of culture (for example, slave culture, Renaissance culture, etc.) and group subcultures (for example, the subculture of doctors, engineers, veterans, youth, military personnel).

Culture, understood as previous experience and current knowledge, has a great influence on social life. Considering this influence on all social processes, one should speak not about social, but about sociocultural life.

So, culture in sociology is understood as an artificial objective and ideal environment created by people that determines the social life of people.

All structural components of culture consist of certain elements, which are, firstly, values ​​that can be both ideal representations of people, social groups, society, and material objects that have functional significance in a given society. For example, for the community of doctors, the Hippocratic oath, the norms of professional activity and worldview postulates contained in it, are a typical ideal value. For modern Russian society, the main material values ​​are: an apartment, a well-paid job, a good education, etc.

So, by values ​​we understand the ideal representations and material objects of certain people and social groups that are important to them and determine their social behavior.

The second element of culture is social norms, by which we mean certain rules, regulations that carry out a guiding function in relation to certain social groups. Social norms are the regulator of individual and group interactions in a given social group or society, they require individuals in each situation to act of a certain type.

Since social norms are an integral element of culture, they are often called sociocultural norms. With the development of culture, socio-cultural norms also change; some of them, inadequately reflecting reality, become obsolete, die, new norms and values ​​appear that are more consistent with the ideas and needs of society.

Interrelated norms and values ​​form a socio-cultural value-normative system. Every individual and social group has such a system of ideas and imperatives for social behavior. Individual components of this system are identified by sociologists with the help of sociological surveys. Some sociologists include in this system the so-called third element of culture - patterns of behavior, which are ready-made algorithms of actions (based on social values ​​and norms) in a given situation, actions whose acceptability in a given society is not only beyond doubt, but also is the only desirable one, or, as sociologists say, "corresponds to social expectations." Each individual learns patterns of behavior in the process of socialization, that is, when entering, joining a certain social group, society as a whole.

So culture is:

· things, objective world (material culture). The objective world is connected with nature, from it he draws "building materials";

symbolic objects, primarily values ​​and norms, i.e. e. people's ideal ideas about the meanings of things and concepts, about the boundaries of what is permitted by society;

· patterns of human relations, social connections, i.e., relatively stable ways of perceiving, thinking, and behaving people.

These are the structural components of culture.

Differences in culture are manifested not only in the manner of behavior, but also in clothing, speech, gestures and facial expressions, mores, customs, rituals, attitudes towards authorities, money, religion, sports, etc. Such widespread, stable , often recurring forms of social ties have been called "cultural universals".

Cultural universals are, as it were, combined values, norms and patterns of behavior merged into a single whole. The American sociologist George Murdoch identified more than 60 cultural universals (sports, body adornment, teamwork, dancing, education, funeral rituals, hospitality, language, jokes, religious rites, etc.). It is on the basis of these cultural universals that each society in a certain way (that is, as defined by culture) contributes to the satisfaction of the physiological, psychological and social needs of people. Cultural universals, together with other elements, form the cultural structure of society.

On the basis of universals, one can compare different societies, better understand the customs of other cultures.

Misunderstanding of other cultures, their evaluation from a position of superiority is called ethnocentrism in sociology (nationalism in politics).

Ethnocentrism, nationalism is associated with xenophobia - fear and rejection of other people's views and customs.

Any culture can be understood only on the basis of its historical, geographical, ethno-cultural analysis. This is the only way to see patterns of formation of values ​​and norms, lifestyle. This view is opposed to ethnocentrism and is called cultural relativism.

Culture as a value-normative structure shapes society in a certain way. This is one of the functions of cultural dynamics. Other functions of culture are:

socialization, i.e., the reproduction of the social order by the current generation and its transfer to the next generation;

social control, i.e., the conditionality of people's behavior by certain norms and patterns characteristic of a given culture;

· cultural selection, i.e., sifting out worthless, obsolete social forms and cultivating those that satisfy the values ​​prevailing in a given society.

2.3. Social groups and communities. Their role in the development of society

A social group is an association of people connected by a system of social values, norms and patterns of behavior, all members of which participate in activities.

For the emergence of any social group, some purpose and form of social control over the observance of values ​​and norms is necessary. In the process of group formation, leaders, a group organization are distinguished, social ties are formed between its members, group values ​​and norms are developed.

According to the method of organization, social groups are divided into formal and informal.

Formal groups are those whose purpose and structure are predetermined, such as military units. Their charter defines the staffing structure, the formal leader, and the goal.

Informal groups are formed spontaneously. Social ties and relationships are formed in them under the influence of a given socio-cultural environment, in the process of their members' activities to achieve the goal. Moreover, the goal in an informal group is often not clearly understood by all its members. For example, groups of homeless people, drug addicts, other outcasts, patients in hospitals, vacationers in sanatoriums.

According to the degree of frequency of social contacts, social groups can be divided into primary and secondary.

The primary group is usually small, very closely knit, all of its members know each other very well. For example, a family, a group of friends, a school class.

The secondary group is more numerous and may consist of two or more primary ones. It is less cohesive compared to the primary, the degree of influence on each of its members is less. An example of a secondary group is a school team, a course at a university, a production unit starting from management and above. [ 4; 381]

In addition to the concept of "group" in sociology, there is the concept of "quasi-group".

A quasi-group is an unstable, informal set of people, united, as a rule, by one or very few types of interaction, having an indefinite structure and system of values ​​and norms.

Quasigroups can be divided into the following types:

Audience - an association of people led by a communicator (for example, a concert or radio audience). 3here there is such a type of social connections as the transmission-reception of information directly or with the help of technical means;

fan group - an association of people based on a fanatical commitment to a sports team, rock band or religious cult;

crowd - a temporary gathering of people united by some interest or idea.

The main properties of a quasigroup are:

anonymity. “The individual in the crowd acquires, thanks only to numbers, the consciousness of an irresistible force, and this consciousness allows him to succumb to such instincts, which he never gives free rein to when he is alone.” The individual feels unrecognizable and invulnerable in the crowd, does not feel social control and responsibility;

suggestibility. Members of a quasi-group are more suggestible than people outside it;

social contagion of the quasi-group. It consists in the rapid transmission of emotions, moods, as well as their rapid change;

the unconsciousness of the quasi-group. Individuals, as it were, "dissolve" in the crowd and are "impregnated" with collective unconscious instincts, their actions in the quasi-group stem more from the subconscious than from consciousness, and are irrational and unpredictable.

By belonging to social groups of certain individuals, sociologists divide groups into ingroups and outgroups.

Ingroups are groups that the individual identifies as “mine”, “ours”, to which he feels he belongs. For example, "my family", "our class", "my friends". This also includes ethnic minority groups, religious communities, kindred clans, criminal gangs, etc.

Outgroups are groups that members of the ingroup treat as strangers, not their own, sometimes even as hostile. For example, other families, another religious community, a clan, another class, another ethnic group. Each individual of the ingroup has its own system of assessments of the outgroup: from neutral to aggressively hostile. Sociologists measure these relationships on the so-called "social distance scale" of Bogardus.

The American sociologist Mustafa Sharif introduced the concept of "reference group", which means a real or abstract association of people with whom an individual identifies himself, accepting its values ​​and norms. For example, many students are guided by the worldview and lifestyle of their parents, teachers, prominent cultural figures or representatives of the professional activity that students have chosen. Sometimes the reference group and ingroup may coincide. This happens especially often in adolescents, young people who often copy each other's behavior and tend to imitate mature people chosen as a model.

The largest social groups in society are social communities. The concept of social community was proposed by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tennis (1855–1936).

Modern sociologists understand social communities as really existing large associations of social groups that have relative integrity and possess systemic properties that cannot be reduced to the properties of individual groups.

The factors that unite individual social groups are, for example, the common territory of residence, the need to protect it, the development of a common statehood, the armed forces, the joint use of natural resources, the solution of environmental problems, etc.

Examples of a social community include an agrarian joint-stock company (collective farm), which includes the population of several villages, the population of a microdistrict, and the armed forces.

Social communities may arise not on the basis of a single territory, but on the basis of common activities or demographic characteristics. In this case, they are called nominal. For example, the community of Russian doctors, the community of Russian youth, pensioners. There are other criteria for classifying social communities. Serbian sociologist Danilo Markovic identifies global and partial social groups.

Global groups are self-sufficient: in them people satisfy all their social needs. In the history of human society, such global groups as clan, tribe, nationality, nation progressively existed. Global groups are composed of partials. Moreover, when humanity moves from a tribal organization to a tribal organization (when a tribe consists of several genera), the clan becomes a partial group. In this case, the nationality consists of tribes as partial groups, and the nation consists of ethnic groups.

In modern society, there are also non-self-sufficient partial groups in which people satisfy only some of their social needs. These include: family, production or labor collectives, classes, political parties and public associations, adherents of confessions, etc.

The struggle between partial groups is the driving force behind the development of global groups. In this case, the contradictions of individual societies (countries), classes, and other partial groups act as a social factor of development.

In modern society, an important place is occupied by such communities as social movements. This is a less formalized and centralized form of public organizations than a political party, but at the same time quite integrated and cohesive (although without a fixed membership). Social movements, peace movement (50s of XX century), human rights movement, environmental movement ("green" in the 90s of XX century), national movements, independence movements in colonial countries, movements for autonomy and self-determination) have had and are having a significant impact on world development and are leading to significant changes and shifts.

Competitive struggle between social groups and communities, along with economic, political, cultural, scientific and technological changes, is one of the factors of social development.

CONCLUSION

Scientists interpret the concept of "society" in different ways. This largely depends on the school or trend in sociology they represent. Thus, E. Durkheim considered society as a supra-individual spiritual reality based on collective ideas. According to M. Weber, society is the interaction of people, which is the product of social, that is, actions oriented towards other people. The prominent American sociologist T. Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the connecting beginning of which are norms and values. From the point of view of K. Marx, society is a historically developing set of relations between people that develop in the process of their joint activities.

In all these definitions, one way or another, an approach is expressed to society as an integral system of elements that are closely interconnected with each other.

At the very beginning of the course work, we aimed to consider society as a socio-cultural system.

To achieve this goal, tasks were formulated in the process of solving which it was necessary to:

1) identify approaches to the definition of society;

2) to compare such concepts as "society" and "system";

3) determine the systemic characteristics of society;

4) consider culture as a system of values, norms, patterns of behavior;

5) formulate the role of social groups and communities in the development of society.

The foregoing confirms the conclusion that human society is a complex socio-cultural and economic phenomenon, one of the most important components of which is culture.

There are several dozen definitions of culture formulated by philosophers, culturologists, historians, and economists.

Sociologists give culture a social meaning and determine its leading role in public life. It is culture as a system of values, norms and patterns of behavior that forms the social environment, interacting with which individuals and social groups determine their behavior. Culture is not something stationary and frozen. The norms and values ​​of culture, like other structural components of society, are subject to constant changes.

Other structural components of society are social groups and communities that appear in the process of differentiation, inherent in all living nature. It is the division of society into different groups and their interaction that gives any society the necessary dynamics that determine its development.

Thus, the elements of nature, individuals, social groups and cultural universals in the process of self-development and interaction with each other create a complex, self-adjusting, dynamic system - human society.

Bibliography

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3. Radugin A.A., Radugin K.A. Sociology: a course of lectures. – M.: Center, 2000.

4. Lynx Yu.I., Stepanov V.E. Sociology: Textbook. - M .: Publishing and Trade Corporation "Dashkov and K", 2003.

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9. Gurov NS. Society as a social system // Sots. polit. magazine. 1994 No. 7-8.

10. Internet resource.

Society is the community that people form and in which they live. Society is not any mechanical collection of people, but such an association within which there is a more or less constant, stable and fairly close interaction of people.

The complexity of the general definition of the concept of "society" is associated with a number of circumstances. First, it is a very broad and abstract concept. Secondly, society is an extremely complex, multilayered and multifaceted phenomenon, which allows us to consider it from a variety of angles. Thirdly, society is a historical concept, the general definition of which should cover all stages of its development. Fourthly, society is a category studied by social psychology, sociology, history, social philosophy, and other sciences, each of which, in its own way, in accordance with its subject and method of research, defines and studies society.

Consider different approaches to the question of what is the basis of society: the first approach is the belief that the initial cell of society is living acting people, whose joint activity, acquiring a more or less stable character, forms society.

E. Durkheim saw the fundamental principle of the stable unity of society in the "collective consciousness". According to M. Weber, society is the interaction of people, which is the product of social actions, i.e. actions directed at other people. T. Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the connecting beginning of which are values ​​and norms. From the point of view of K. Marx, society is a developing set of relations between people that develop in the process of their joint activities.

For all the differences in the approaches to interpreting society on the part of the classics of sociology, they have in common the consideration of society as an integral system of elements that are in a state of close interconnection. This approach to society is called systemic. System- this is a certain way ordered set of elements interconnected and forming a kind of integral unity. The internal nature of any integral system, the material basis of its organization is determined by the composition, the set of its elements. social system is a holistic education, the main element of which are people, their connections, interactions and relationships. They are stable and are reproduced in the historical process, passing from generation to generation.

T. Parsons formulated the main functional requirements, the fulfillment of which ensures the stable existence of society as a system:

1. Ability to adapt, adapt to changing conditions and increasing material needs of people (economic subsystem).

2. Goal-oriented, the ability to set the main goals and objectives and support the process of achieving them (political subsystem).

3. The ability to include new generations in the system of established social relations (customs and legal institutions).

4. The ability to reproduce the social structure and relieve tension in the system (beliefs, morality, family, educational institutions).

The subjects of society and social relations are individuals, groups of people and their institutions. Groups of people are divided into: natural(family, clan, people, nation); artificial, membership-based(associations by professions, interests). Natural collectives are characterized by a greater degree of integration and form stronger subsystems than artificial collectives.

The systemic and structural-functional approaches, enriched today with the findings and methods of cybernetics, synergetics, make it possible to single out the most significant system-integrative qualities (characteristic features) of society:

1. Society is considered as a whole as a single socially integral system ( integrity).2. Society functions in space and time ( sustainability).3. The integrity of society is organic, i.e. its internal interaction is stronger than external factors ( sociality).4. Any society strives for independence, regulation and manageability ( autonomy, self-sufficiency, self-regulation).5. Any society seeks to ensure the continuity of generations.6. Society is distinguished by the unity of a common system of values ​​(traditions, norms, laws, rules).

With the closest interconnections of such concepts as “society”, “country” and “state”, they must be strictly distinguished. “Country” is a concept that primarily reflects the geographical characteristics of a part of our planet, defined by the boundaries of an independent state. “State” is a concept that reflects the main thing in the political system of the country. “Society” is a concept that directly characterizes the social organization of a country.

Societyis a set of all forms of association and interaction of people that have developed historically, have a common territory, common cultural values ​​and social norms, and are characterized by the socio-cultural identity of its members.

Society is a social reality of a special type, a product of human interaction. It is a complex system of economic, social, national, religious and other relations.

These are the structural components of culture.

Differences in culture are manifested not only in the manner of behavior, but also in clothing, speech, gestures and facial expressions, mores, customs, rituals, attitudes towards authorities, money, religion, sports, etc. Such widespread, stable , often recurring forms of social ties have been called "cultural universals".

Cultural universals are, as it were, combined values, norms and patterns of behavior merged into a single whole. The American sociologist George Murdoch identified more than 60 cultural universals (sports, body adornment, teamwork, dancing, education, funeral rituals, hospitality, language, jokes, religious rites, etc.). It is on the basis of these cultural universals that each society in a certain way (that is, as defined by culture) contributes to the satisfaction of the physiological, psychological and social needs of people. Cultural universals, together with other elements, form the cultural structure of society.

On the basis of universals, one can compare different societies, better understand the customs of other cultures.

Misunderstanding of other cultures, their evaluation from a position of superiority is called ethnocentrism in sociology (nationalism in politics).

Ethnocentrism, nationalism is associated with xenophobia - fear and rejection of other people's views and customs.

Any culture can be understood only on the basis of its historical, geographical, ethno-cultural analysis. This is the only way to see patterns of formation of values ​​and norms, lifestyle. This view is opposed to ethnocentrism and is called cultural relativism.

Culture as a value-normative structure shapes society in a certain way. This is one of the functions of cultural dynamics. Other functions of culture are:

socialization, i.e., the reproduction of the social order by the current generation and its transmission to the next generation;

social control, i.e., the conditionality of people's behavior by certain norms and patterns characteristic of a given culture;

cultural selection, i.e., sifting out worthless, obsolete social forms and cultivating those that satisfy the values ​​prevailing in a given society.

2.3. Social groups and communities. Their role in the development of society

A social group is an association of people connected by a system of social values, norms and patterns of behavior, all members of which participate in activities.

For the emergence of any social group, some purpose and form of social control over the observance of values ​​and norms is necessary. In the process of group formation, leaders, a group organization are distinguished, social ties are formed between its members, group values ​​and norms are developed.

According to the method of organization, social groups are divided into formal and informal.

Formal groups are those whose purpose and structure are predetermined, such as military units. Their charter defines the staffing structure, the formal leader, and the goal.

Informal groups are formed spontaneously. Social ties and relationships are formed in them under the influence of a given socio-cultural environment, in the process of their members' activities to achieve the goal. Moreover, the goal in an informal group is often not clearly understood by all its members. For example, groups of homeless people, drug addicts, other outcasts, patients in hospitals, vacationers in sanatoriums.

According to the degree of frequency of social contacts, social groups can be divided into primary and secondary.

The primary group is usually small, very closely knit, all of its members know each other very well. For example, a family, a group of friends, a school class.

The secondary group is more numerous and may consist of two or more primary ones. It is less cohesive compared to the primary, the degree of influence on each of its members is less. An example of a secondary group is a school team, a course at a university, a production unit starting from management and above. [ 4; 381]

In addition to the concept of "group" in sociology, there is the concept of "quasi-group".

A quasi-group is an unstable, informal set of people, united, as a rule, by one or very few types of interaction, having an indefinite structure and system of values ​​and norms.

Quasigroups can be divided into the following types:

audience - an association of people led by a communicator (for example, a concert or radio audience). 3here there is such a type of social connections as the transmission-reception of information directly or with the help of technical means;

fan group - an association of people based on a fanatical commitment to a sports team, rock band or religious cult;

crowd - a temporary gathering of people united by some interest or idea.

The main properties of a quasigroup are:

anonymity. “The individual in the crowd acquires, thanks only to numbers, the consciousness of an irresistible force, and this consciousness allows him to succumb to such instincts, which he never gives free rein to when he is alone.” The individual feels unrecognizable and invulnerable in the crowd, does not feel social control and responsibility;

suggestibility. Members of a quasi-group are more suggestible than people outside it;

social contagion of the quasi-group. It consists in the rapid transmission of emotions, moods, as well as their rapid change;

unconsciousness of the quasigroup. Individuals, as it were, "dissolve" in the crowd and are "impregnated" with collective unconscious instincts, their actions in the quasi-group stem more from the subconscious than from consciousness, and are irrational and unpredictable.

By belonging to social groups of certain individuals, sociologists divide groups into ingroups and outgroups.

Ingroups are groups that the individual identifies as “mine”, “ours”, to which he feels he belongs. For example, "my family", "our class", "my friends". This also includes ethnic minority groups, religious communities, kindred clans, criminal gangs, etc.

Outgroups are groups that members of the ingroup treat as strangers, not their own, sometimes even as hostile. For example, other families, another religious community, a clan, another class, another ethnic group. Each individual of the ingroup has its own system of assessments of the outgroup: from neutral to aggressively hostile. Sociologists measure these relationships on the so-called "social distance scale" of Bogardus.

The American sociologist Mustafa Sharif introduced the concept of "reference group", which means a real or abstract association of people with whom an individual identifies himself, accepting its values ​​and norms. For example, many students are guided by the worldview and lifestyle of their parents, teachers, prominent cultural figures or representatives of the professional activity that students have chosen. Sometimes the reference group and ingroup may be the same. This happens especially often in adolescents, young people who often copy each other's behavior and tend to imitate mature people chosen as a model.

The largest social groups in society are social communities. The concept of social community was proposed by the German sociologist Ferdinand Tennis (1855–1936).

Modern sociologists understand social communities as really existing large associations of social groups that have relative integrity and possess systemic properties that cannot be reduced to the properties of individual groups.

The factors that unite individual social groups are, for example, the common territory of residence, the need to protect it, the development of a common statehood, the armed forces, the joint use of natural resources, the solution of environmental problems, etc.

Examples of a social community include an agrarian joint-stock company (collective farm), which includes the population of several villages, the population of a microdistrict, and the armed forces.

Social communities may arise not on the basis of a single territory, but on the basis of common activities or demographic characteristics. In this case, they are called nominal. For example, the community of Russian doctors, the community of Russian youth, pensioners. There are other criteria for classifying social communities. Serbian sociologist Danilo Markovic identifies global and partial social groups.

Global groups are self-sufficient: in them people satisfy all their social needs. In the history of human society, such global groups as clan, tribe, nationality, nation progressively existed. Global groups are composed of partials. Moreover, when humanity moves from a tribal organization to a tribal organization (when a tribe consists of several genera), the clan becomes a partial group. In this case, the nationality consists of tribes as partial groups, and the nation consists of ethnic groups.

In modern society, there are also non-self-sufficient partial groups in which people satisfy only some of their social needs. These include: family, production or labor collectives, classes, political parties and public associations, adherents of confessions, etc.

The struggle between partial groups is the driving force behind the development of global groups. In this case, the contradictions of individual societies (countries), classes, and other partial groups act as a social factor of development.

In modern society, an important place is occupied by such communities as social movements. This is a less formalized and centralized form of public organizations than a political party, but at the same time quite integrated and cohesive (although without a fixed membership). Social movements, peace movement (50s of XX century), human rights movement, environmental movement ("green" in the 90s of XX century), national movements, independence movements in colonial countries, movements for autonomy and self-determination) have had and are having a significant impact on world development and are leading to significant changes and shifts.

Competitive struggle between social groups and communities, along with economic, political, cultural, scientific and technological changes, is one of the factors of social development.

CONCLUSION

Scientists interpret the concept of "society" in different ways. This largely depends on the school or trend in sociology they represent. Thus, E. Durkheim considered society as a supra-individual spiritual reality based on collective ideas. According to M. Weber, society is the interaction of people, which is the product of social, that is, actions oriented towards other people. The prominent American sociologist T. Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the connecting beginning of which are norms and values. From the point of view of K. Marx, society is a historically developing set of relations between people that develop in the process of their joint activities.

In all these definitions, one way or another, an approach is expressed to society as an integral system of elements that are closely interconnected with each other.

At the very beginning of the course work, we aimed to consider society as a socio-cultural system.

To achieve this goal, tasks were formulated in the process of solving which it was necessary to:

identify approaches to the definition of society;

compare such concepts as "society" and "system";

determine the systemic characteristics of society;

consider culture as a system of values, norms, patterns of behavior;

formulate the role of social groups and communities in the development of society.

The foregoing confirms the conclusion that human society is a complex socio-cultural and economic phenomenon, one of the most important components of which is culture.

There are several dozen definitions of culture formulated by philosophers, culturologists, historians, and economists.

Sociologists give culture a social meaning and determine its leading role in public life. It is culture as a system of values, norms and patterns of behavior that forms the social environment, interacting with which individuals and social groups determine their behavior. Culture is not something stationary and frozen. The norms and values ​​of culture, like other structural components of society, are subject to constant changes.

Other structural components of society are social groups and communities that appear in the process of differentiation, inherent in all living nature. It is the division of society into different groups and their interaction that gives any society the necessary dynamics that determine its development.

Thus, the elements of nature, individuals, social groups and cultural universals in the process of self-development and interaction with each other create a complex, self-adjusting, dynamic system - human society.

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Society of some larger systems (societies... the socialization of individuals through the assimilation of sustainable sociocultural standards of conduct and, finally, the protection of certain...