Chapter 5: Sociology, Schaefer and Lamm, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005

Neal Shover and Burglars: Division of labor, status and roles, group structure, connections through fence to police etc., the GOOD BURGLAR.

Social Structure:

The way in which society is organized into predictable relationships, patterns of social interaction (the way in which people respond to each other). These patterns etc, are to some extent independent of the particular individual, they exert a force which shapes behavior and identity.

Social interaction and the Social Construction of Reality:

"The most general answer to this question is that social order is a human product. Or, more precisely, an ongoing human production. It is produced by man in the course of his ongoing externalization. Social order is not biologically given or derived from any biological data in its empirical manifestations. Social order, needless to add, is also not given in man's natural environment, though particular features of this may be factors in determining certain features of a social order (for example, its economic or technological arrangements). Social order is not part of the "nature of things," and it cannot be derived from the "laws of nature." Social order exists only as a product of human activity. No other ontological status may be ascribed to it without hopelessly obfuscating its empirical manifestations. Both in its genesis (social order is the result of past human activity) and its existence in any instant of time (social order exists only and insofar as human activity continues to produce it) it is a human product." (Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise its the Sociology of Knowledge (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1966), p. 51)

• Blumer--People respond to meaning: Symbolic Interaction. "Symbolic Interactionism rests on three primary premises. First, that human beings act towards things on the basis of the meanings those things have for them, second that such meanings arise out of the interaction of the individual with others, and third, that an interpretive process is used by the person in each instance in which he must deal with things in his environment." © The Society for More Creative Speech, 1996, http://www.cdharris.net/text/blumer.html
• REALITY is shaped by perceptions, evaluations, interpretations and definitions.
• THE THOMAS THEOREM: "If people define a situation as real, then it is real in its consequences for them."

Zimbardo's, "Stanford County Prison."

"Reading" the evidence at the O.J. trial.

Defining "unemployment:" all without a job, or only those actively seeking work (initiated during Reagan's administration).

Broad social patterns, and social definitions shape the nature of the situations and lend themselves to particular images and feeling for the participants.  We act upon these images, meanings, feelings, and definitions.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

More on the Social Construction of Reality

Social Structure as a Negotiated Order.

• Structure arises out of the face-to-face interactions of people who are operating from both a shared sense of reality (culture and socialization) as well as a individual and group oriented biography which produces particular definitions and interpretations.
• We attempt to make sense out of situations for "all practical purposes."
• We bargain, compromise, redefine and produce an emerging sense of order as a stable reality.
• Some situations allow for little negotiation, others more.
• Formal vs informal rules: Tax Laws, Guilty pleas, Role Making.

Culture forms the foundation of Social Structure:

• Some sort of shared reality: Language, Norms and Values.
• Out of this basis we attribute meaning and significance to others in terms of where they are placed in relation to ourselves and others.

STATUS:

• One's position in the structure of a society.
• Multiple
• Typifications and relating to others
• Status Set
• Status Symbols
• Ascribed (meaning varies across societies: i.e. the elderly, source of control and conflict)
• Achieved (modern society)
• Master Status (as seen by others, AIDS)
• Status inconsistency
• Social Class (as special focus)

Roles:

• Behavioral expectations, obligations that accompany a particular status.
• Expectations vs performance
• Role Set
• Status/Role as relational to other status/role: defined through and in interaction.
• As status changes roles and interaction changes: Girlfriend-Wife
• Functionalist: basis of social order, yet can also be dysfunctional-limit our perceptions of others.
• Interactionist: creativity, role making
• Role Conflict: Problem in expectations across roles attached to different statuses (creativity in managing, impression management-female athletes as women, compartmentalization)
• Role Strain: Problems in expectations attached to single status.
• Role Distancing
• Role Exit: (doubt, search for alternative, departure, create new identity. "Emergence" and unconscious cueing).
• Role Ambiguity: Unclear expectations (for different people, and even for same person across different relationships)
• Role Transitions
• Social Roles in a Disaster
• Obedience to Rules

GROUPS

• A number of people interacting together on the basis of shared expectations about one another behavior
• Varieties of groups
• Basis of society
• Impact on our behavior
• Networks
  • SOCIAL NETWORKS: Oliver's 1988 research, Milgram's "Target Person."
    • It's a Small World (Small World Research Project)
    • Spring 2003 report on online project in Science magazine
    • IM study virtually confirms 'small world' theory
  • Manuel Castells: Network society
    • Social networking: Facebook, Texting
    • Folksonomies (social bookmarking)
    • Flash mobs
• Bowling Alone?
• Multicultural Groups

INSTITUTIONS

• Organized patterns of beliefs and behaviors centered on basic social needs, adapting to specific segment of society in question--rural doctor vs urban specialist.

Functionalism:

Interrelated and interdependent, resist change, integrated, promote stability. Focus: How they fulfill essential system requirements, Self-correcting

1. Replacing personnel
2. Teaching new recruits
3. Producing and distributing goods and services
4. Preserving Order
5. Providing and maintaining a sense of purpose

The outcome and functioning of institutional structures is not necessarily efficient nor desirable. Order is negotiated, but not all groups have equal footing. Organization of major institutions is built upon the interests and control of dominant groups. Preserve status quo, inhibit change by maintaining relationships of inequality. Schools, Politics, Economics. Source of Social Problems.

1. Bureaucracy's Other Face (Informal structures): "Banana Time," (Roy's article in Primis: Workers engage in informal interactions to structure their work environment).
2. Communication: formal vs informal-Kanter: aside by corporate executive becomes viewed as an order, nurses making decisions for doctors.
3. Real and varied negotiations: Running the ADAPCP

The Changing Structure of Society

Lenski's Technological Determinism.

Hunting and Gathering Societies (1:3) (calories of energy expended:calories of food energy produced)

-----------------------------------------The Hoe

Horticultural Societies (1:15)

Pastoral Societies

-----------------------------------------The Plow

Agricultural Societies (1:50) Power==> Land

-----------------------------------------The Machine/Factory

Industrial Societies (1:5000) Power==> Money

-----------------------------------------The Computer

Post-Industrial/Post-Modern Societies (?) Power==> Information

Durkheim's Mechanical/Organic Solidarity:

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Last Updated: Sunday, August 3, 2008 9:14 AM