Open Library - an open library of educational information. Society as a sociocultural system

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Altai State Technical University named after I.I. Polzunova

Department: TiPS

Test

sociology

on the topic: "Society as a socio-cultural system"

fulfilled

student V(h)-m-71 group Fris V.D.

checked

Tsvetkov L.N.

Barnaul 2009

Introduction

Conclusion

Introduction

The presented work is devoted to the topic "Society as a socio-cultural system".

The problem of this study has relevance in the modern world. This is evidenced by the frequent study of the issues raised.

The topic "Society as a socio-cultural system" is studied at the junction of several interrelated disciplines at once. The current state of science is characterized by a transition to a global consideration of the problems of the topic "Society as a socio-cultural system".

Many works have been devoted to research questions. Basically, the material presented in the educational literature is of a general nature, and in numerous monographs on this topic, narrower issues of the problem "Society as a sociocultural system" are considered. However, it is required to take into account modern conditions in the study of the problems of the designated topic.

Further attention to the issue of the problem "Society as a socio-cultural system" is necessary in order to more deeply and substantiate the resolution of particular topical problems of the subject of this study.

The relevance of this work is due, on the one hand, to the great interest in the topic "Society as a socio-cultural system" in modern science, on the other hand, its insufficient development. Consideration of issues related to this topic has both theoretical and practical significance.

The results can be used to develop a methodology for the analysis "Society as a socio-cultural system".

The theoretical significance of studying the problem "Society as a socio-cultural system" lies in the fact that the issues chosen for consideration are located at the junction of several scientific disciplines at once.

The object of this study is the analysis of the conditions "Society as a socio-cultural system".

At the same time, the subject of the study is the consideration of individual issues formulated as the objectives of this study.

The aim of the study is to study the topic "Society as a socio-cultural system" from the point of view of the latest domestic and foreign studies on similar issues.

As part of achieving this goal, the following tasks were set and solved:

1. To study the theoretical aspects and identify the nature of "Society as a socio-cultural system";

2. To say about the relevance of the problem "Society as a socio-cultural system" in modern conditions;

3. Outline the possibilities of solving the topic "Society as a socio-cultural system";

4. Designate trends in the development of the topic "Society as a socio-cultural system";

Based on the results of the study, a number of problems related to the topic under consideration were revealed, and conclusions were drawn about the need for further study / improvement of the state of the issue.

Thus, the relevance of this problem determined the choice of the theme of the work "Society as a socio-cultural system", the range of issues and the logical scheme of its construction.

1. The concept of "sociocultural system"

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 Talcott 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.

All these definitions express an approach to society as an integral system of elements that are closely interconnected. This approach to society is called systemic.

A system is a set of elements ordered in a certain way, interconnected and forming some integral unity.

Thus, 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 interactions and relations are of a supra-individual, transpersonal nature, i.e. society is some independent substance, which is primary in relation to individuals. Each individual, being born, finds a certain structure of connections and relationships and is gradually included in it.

Thus, 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?

Signs of society as a social system are as follows:

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

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

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

The association has a territory that it considers its own.

It has its own name and its own history.

It has its own system of governance (sovereignty).

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

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

To imagine society from the point of view of the subject of sociology, it is necessary to distinguish between three initial concepts - country, state, society.

A country is a part of the world or territory that has certain boundaries and enjoys state sovereignty.

The state is a political organization of a given country, including a certain type of political power regime (monarchy, republic), bodies and structure of government (government, parliament).

Society - the social organization of a given country, the basis of which is the social structure

2. Social interactions, relationships and institutions

Social institutions (from lat. Institutum - establishment, institution) are historically established stable forms of organizing joint activities of people. These are the state, political parties, the army, the court, the family, law, morality, religion, education, etc. Their emergence is due to the objective need of society for special regulation in the areas of social relations and social activity.

Each more or less established institution has its own purpose, i.e. the range of group or social needs to which the activity of the institute is directed.

The variety of social institutions is determined by the differentiation of social activity into various types: economic, political, ideological, cultural, etc. Hence, depending on their social and functional role, social institutions are divided into types:

regulating reproductive behavior (family, family ties, etc.);

upbringing, education, training, production;

ensuring the preservation of the organization of society (power, politics);

regulating activities in the field of culture.

According to the nature of the organization, formal and informal institutions are distinguished.

The activities of formal institutions are based on strictly established regulations (law, charter, job descriptions). Formal institutions play a huge and growing role in modern society.

An equally important role, especially in the field of interpersonal communication in small groups, is played by informal institutions (yard company, company of friends). However, the goals, methods, means of solving problems in such a group are not strictly established and not fixed in the form of a charter.

What are the elements of a social institution?

Each institute includes:

certain area of activity;

a group of persons authorized to perform certain public, organizational or managerial functions on the basis of established rights and obligations;

organizational norms and principles of relations between officials (supervisor-subordinate, teacher-student);

material resources (public buildings, equipment, etc.) necessary to solve the tasks.

Social institutions differ from each other in their functional qualities:

Economic and social institutions - property, exchange, money, banks, various economic associations - ensure the totality of the production and distribution of social wealth, at the same time connecting economic life with other areas of social life.

Political institutions - the state, parties, trade unions and other public organizations pursuing political goals, aimed at establishing and maintaining a certain form of political power. Their totality constitutes the political system of a given society. Political institutions ensure the reproduction and sustainable preservation of ideological values, stabilize the social class structures that dominate in society.

Sociocultural and educational institutions aim at the development and subsequent reproduction of cultural and social values, the inclusion of individuals in a particular subculture, as well as the socialization of individuals through the assimilation of stable sociocultural standards of behavior and, finally, the protection of certain values and norms.

Normative-orienting - mechanisms of moral and ethical orientation and regulation of the behavior of individuals. Their goal is to give behavior and motivation a moral argument, an ethical basis.

Normative-sanctioning - carry out social regulation of behavior on the basis of norms, rules and regulations enshrined in legal and administrative acts. The binding nature of the norms is ensured by the coercive power of the state and the system of appropriate sanctions.

Ceremonial-symbolic and situational-conventional institutions. These institutions are based on the more or less long-term adoption of conventional (by agreement) norms, their official and unofficial consolidation. These norms govern everyday contacts, various acts of intragroup and intergroup behavior. They determine the order and method of mutual behavior, regulate the methods of transmission and exchange of information, greetings, addresses, etc., the course of meetings, the activities of some associations.

Violation of the normative interaction with the social environment, which is the society or community, is called the dysfunction of a social institution. This problem is especially acute in times of revolutions or rapid social changes, when many traditional social institutions either stop their activity or adapt to solving new social problems. But the formation of public institutions takes time. As a result, people face serious difficulties in the unsettledness of emerging new social relations and the maintenance of social order in traditional areas of life. E. Durkheim called such transitional periods, when society is faced with the disorganization of traditional institutions, anomie.

Sociologists have always attached great importance to the study of this problem. The Polish sociologist Jan Szczepanski points out the following basic conditions for the effective functioning of social institutions:

A clear definition of the purpose and range of actions performed or the scope of functions. If the functions of an institution are not clearly defined, it cannot join the global system of institutions of a given society without conflicts and encounter various oppositions.

Rational division of labor and its rational organization.

Depersonalization of actions. It is assumed that officials will perform their functions in strict accordance with the instructions, and not depending on individual interests and representations of their rights and duties. Otherwise, the institution loses its public character, prestige and trust on the part of society, turns into an institution dependent on private interests. Of course, no institution can get rid of the influence of personal interests and, in general, of the individual characteristics of officials, but such influence should be controlled by society and reduced to a minimum. The use of the resources of public institutions in the selfish interests of the people working in them is a very common phenomenon, which sociologists call "bureaucratization".

Recognition and prestige, which the institution should have in the eyes of the whole group or its predominant part.

Conflict-free inclusion in the common system of institutions. It is impossible, for example, to mechanically transfer the political institutions of Western democracy into a society with strong ancestral or clan social ties.

The institutions of any society are a complex integrated system with its own social inertia. That is why deep institutional reforms tend to run into serious difficulties and often fail. History knows not so many examples of effective and painless reform of public institutions. More often such reforms ended with stormy revolutionary events. Thus, internal consistency in the activities of institutions is a necessary condition for the normal functioning of the whole society.

3. Functions of culture in the social system

The role of culture in society is revealed through its social functions.

In modern culturological literature, educational or human-creative is called as the main one. It consists in the formation of a certain type of personality, on the one hand, ordered by society, and, on the other, ensuring its development. The remaining functions concretize the main one, follow from it, and are subordinate to it.

The following functions stand out:

Cognitive, aimed at providing a person with knowledge of the world around him (natural, social and his own). The need for this function stems from the desire of any culture to create its own picture of the world. The process of cognition is characterized by the reflection and reproduction of reality in human thinking. Cognition is a necessary element of both labor and communication activities. There are both theoretical and practical forms of knowledge, as a result of which a person receives new knowledge about the world and himself .;

Informative, which includes the transmission, transmission of the accumulated socio-cultural experience from past generations to the future, from one people to another, from one individual to another. This function ensures the process of cultural continuity and various forms of historical progress. It manifests itself in the consolidation of the results of socio-cultural activities, the accumulation, storage and systematization of information. In the modern era, information is doubling every fifteen years. The volume of unexplored problems increases in direct proportion to the amount of accumulated knowledge. The situation of the "information explosion" required the creation of qualitatively new ways of processing, storing and transmitting information, more advanced information technologies;

Communicative, providing versatility and versatility of people's communication. Communication is the process of exchanging information between people using signs and sign systems. Man, as a social being, needs to communicate with other people in order to achieve various goals. It is with the help of communication that complex actions are coordinated. The main channels of communication are: visual, speech, tactile. Culture produces specific rules and methods of communication that are adequate to the conditions of people's life;

Regulatory, through which the adaptation of people in society is carried out, relationships between a person and society, a community are formed, interpersonal relationships are provided. This function of culture is due to the need to maintain balance and order in society, to bring the actions of various social groups and individuals into line with social needs and interests. The function of generally valid norms recognized in a particular culture is aimed at ensuring certainty, understandability, and predictability of behavior. One can name the legal norms regulating the relationship between people, social institutions, individuals and social institutions; technical norms caused by industrial practice; ethical standards for the regulation of everyday life; environmental standards, etc. Many norms are closely related to the cultural tradition and way of life of the people;

Accumulative, ensuring the preservation of the cultural values accumulated by society.

The social functions of culture largely determine not only the pace of social development, but also its content and direction.

Culture is a socio-historical phenomenon, since it is related to human development. What is development and how is it measured?

At all times, from pre-class tribal communities to the modern era, humanity in the processes of culture reveals three main areas: the relationship of man with nature; human-to-human relations (public relations); man's relationship with himself. Each of these areas can be considered from the standpoint of Knowledge, Goodness and Beauty, i.e. from the standpoint of science, the laws of ethics and aesthetics. The more developed these relations are, the more developed a person is, the more at a high level of culture he is. Culture, therefore, reflects the level of development of human needs and abilities. The development of human society as a whole presupposes the development of culture, in turn, culture largely determines the development of society and even is its peculiar criterion.

First, on the way of rapprochement with sociology. Understanding culture as a system of social technologies for developing the value orientations of society, creating a set of spiritual principles of human life, a tool for self-knowledge and self-identification of human groups, a system of information and communication fields for information exchange and inheritance of social experience - all this forms a problem field for cultural and sociological research.

Secondly, in the convergence of cultural studies with computer science, if it is necessary to understand culture as a specific language of social and informational relations, and the information field of human civilization as a field of its culture.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to note that often the cultural and social component of the functioning of social objects is understood as parallel, practically non-intersecting layers, often in conflict. Indeed, the social and cultural have independent planes of existence. But it is precisely the constantly arising contradiction and interaction, their inevitable entry into close contact, that can stimulate the further development of social systems. And social self-organizing management, which uses indicators of structural and cultural entropy for monitoring, on the one hand, will be fully focused on taking into account the vital realities of the socio-cultural system, and on the other hand, on its sustainable development.

Bibliography

1. Averyanov L.Ya. Sociology: the art of asking questions. 2nd edition, revised and enlarged. - M., 1998 357 p.

2. Andrey Ermolaev Selective method in sociology Methodical manual Moscow 2000. - 25 p.

3. Devyatko I.F. Methods of sociological research.-- Ekaterinburg: Publishing house Ural, un-ta, 1998. - 169 p.

4. Kravchenko A.I. Sociology: General course: Textbook for universities. - M.: PERSE; Logos, 2002.- 271 p.

Society as a sociocultural system

The actions of some people are always directly or indirectly, openly or covertly connected with the actions of others. As noted above, the interconnection of people is ensured by the communication of society and the various information circulating in it. This gives us the opportunity to build a model of society as an information and communication system.

In sociology, the methods (technologies, mechanisms) that have developed in society that ensure the interconnection (interconnection) of people are called institutions. The process of formation of institutions (technologization, formalization of new forms of human relationships) is called institutionalization.

Society is a system of interconnections of many economic, political spiritual, information institutions. In modern society, every day we "get involved" in such economic institutions as property, the market, banking, trade, and so on. . Ownership institutions can be different (state, private, municipal, etc.), but in this case we are not talking about an object (land, building, machine), but about the established methods of owning, disposing and using these and other objects. Although, according to sociologists, the number of Russian citizens alienated from politics in 2000-2008 increased from 32 to 45%, we also have to deal with the political institutions of society. These include institutions of state power (presidency, parliamentarism, law enforcement, etc.). Non-state political institutions include a political party, public organization, political communication. We are also "included" in various institutions of spiritual life - morality, art, education, religion, as well as in the institutions of intellectual and informational life. The institutions of personal life and personal communication are also multiplying, which is associated with the emergence of social networks on the Internet.

Thus, the product (creation) of people's interactions is a variety of institutions of society. As a result, society is a system of interconnections of many economic, political and spiritual institutions. However, institutions are not immutable. Economic, political, personal and spiritual relations are changing, as a result, sooner or later, institutionalization of new interactions and relationships occurs. In other words, new ways and technologies of human activity are being formed. Therefore, the same institution in different types of society differs significantly from each other.

In addition to social institutions, people's lives are influenced by values and norms. Values form the most important element of a society's culture. They distinguish society from nature, giving meaningfulness, purposefulness to human interactions. With the help of values, people determine "what is good and what is bad", "what is good and evil", "what is good". At almost every step, we are dealing with a variety of values - economic, spiritual, political, values in the sphere of personal communication and social communication. It can be money, and power, and authority, and knowledge, and transport. Values are not something eternally given and unchanging. So, in the era of the USSR, money was not the dominant value. Money becomes a value only in a society in which there are commodity-money relations and a market economy.

Our behavior is regulated by various norms of informational, economic, spiritual, personal and political relations. These are labor norms and standards, consumption norms, moral norms, electoral legislation, and, in recent years, information load norms. A society with a market economy can be represented normative model"What is not prohibited is permitted." By studying the specifics of economic, political, moral, aesthetic, informational, everyday and other norms, we can imagine the structure of American, Japanese, Indian, Russian, Swedish society.

So, society is a system of interrelationships of people, conditioned by institutions, values and norms, and interactions carried out in a symbolic form. Thus, society manifests itself as a socio-cultural system.

Society as a social system

With all the differences in the definitions of "social", common to sociology is the idea that this concept expresses the interconnectedness of people, actions addressed in relation to another person or group. Everything that does not characterize the direct relationship of a person to another person (for example, the attitude to nature, artistic image, knowledge, technology, the state, etc.) is excluded from the concept of "social". "Social" means relations such as "person - person", "person - group", "person - group - society".

Social relations are the interrelations and interactions between the individual, groups and society - the subjects and objects of public (including economic, political, personal, intellectual, spiritual) relations.

Society can be represented as a socio-communicative system. The socio-communicative model represents society as a system of constantly reproducing processes of communication between the individual, communities of people and society as a whole. The communicative model allows you to explore the socio-psychological specifics of social relations. This is the social atmosphere, fashion, public opinion, social images and ideas, mass imitation and infection, myths and stereotypes to which the inhabitants of modern mass societies are exposed.

The second side of social relations are social interactions. This concept characterizes such relations in which the individual, communities of people and society act as factors in each other's activities.

The final definition will be as follows: social relations are the interactions of an individual, communities of people and society as a whole, interconnected with each other by a network of communications.

The same relations exist, for example, as economic and social relations at the same time. If we consider them from the point of view of who enters into a relationship with whom, then they manifest themselves as social. Social relations can be defined as a process of interaction and communication of an individual, communities of people and society as a whole, acting as subjects and objects of economic, political, personal, spiritual and intellectual relations. Social relations characterize society as a system of relations that determine the community of people united economically, politically, personally, spiritually, informationally ...

Based on the foregoing, it is possible to build a social model of society

society appears to us as a social system - interconnected and interacting economic, political, informational and spiritual figures, united by a common culture. This is how we represent society as a "civil society" consisting of families, generations, classes, ethnic groups, organizations and other communities of people.

Real communities of people are divided into mass and group. In real life, we often deal with predominantly group communities - certain sets of people who form an integral system. Among the group communities, there are target communities - organizations. It is to such communities that an educational institution belongs.

Nominal communities are united by some common socially significant features. Unlike real communities, they may not have direct contacts. Types of nominal communities: socio-class, socio-professional, socio-demographic, socio-ethnic, confessional.

The following specific types of social relations can be distinguished:

interpersonal relationships;
the relationship between the individual and the community;
relationship between the individual and society;
relationships between generations;
relations between men and women;
relations between townspeople and rural dwellers;
relations between regional communities;
family and marriage relations;
national relations;
professional relationship;
class relations;
organizational relationships;
confessional, etc.

Social relations are carried out not only "outside", but also "inside" communities. Students enter into relationships with teachers, and also form a system of internal (intra-student) relations. It is clear that social relations represent a complex network of various specific types.

"There are no irreplaceable people," I. Stalin said. However, as a result of mass repressions, the educated were replaced by the uneducated, and the highly qualified were replaced by the unskilled. The efficiency and quality of labor naturally fell, and signs of degradation and regression clearly appeared in the economy, politics and spiritual life.

Just as economic, political, personal, spiritual, informational relations form the corresponding spheres of society, another sphere stands out - social. What is the social sphere of society? It is necessary to distinguish between journalistic and scientific ideas about this area. In the media, and in official documents (the country's budget, for example), the social sphere refers to education, science, health care, social security and protection of the population, theaters, museums, etc. This view is not strictly scientific. These institutions and organizations operate in the economic, political and spiritual life of society. In the proper sociological understanding, the social sphere is the sphere of life of the individual and communities of people. For example, this is the sphere of life of generations, nations, professional groups, classes, etc. Science should be more accurately attributed to the intellectual sphere, education, art - to the spiritual sphere.

The social sphere is not a separate island of society. It "intersects" with other spheres of society. Economic relations appear as social if they are considered from the point of view of the subjects of these relations. And vice versa, social relations appear as economic, political, personal, informational or spiritual, if we analyze them from the point of view of content (because of what they interact). Therefore, the allocation of the social sphere of society is rather conditional. Wherever we are (at work, at home, in a store, in a theater), we will find ourselves in the social sphere of society. In other words, the social sphere is a cross-cutting sphere that permeates all other spheres of society, since the social status of subjects is important in politics, economics, and personal life, which determines all types of relations between them. Therefore, it is important that representatives of state power (political elite) be highly social, that is, they express the interests of society as a whole, its regions, groups and individuals.

Brief summary:

Society as a system consists of such subsystems as economic, political, personal, social, spiritual and intellectual
Social relations are not reduced to public relations, but characterize them from the point of view of their subjects, carriers (people, groups).
The relationship between the individual, communities of people and society as a whole is called social.
Social institutions are technologies, methods and mechanisms of social relations generally accepted in society.
Social organizations are targeted communities of people.
Social interaction (interaction) is a process in which individuals and groups influence other individuals and other groups by their behavior, causing responses.
The social sphere is a relatively independent sphere of society's life, covering relations between communities, individuals with different social status.

Practice set

Questions:

What is the relationship between the concepts of "society" and "state"?
Is it right to identify a society with a population (a set of people)?
How do social relations relate to personal, political, economic, spiritual, informational ones?
Show with specific examples that society is not a collection of people, but a system of their relations?
Where do you see the integrity of society?
Using examples from personal and social experience, show the relationship between the social sphere and the sphere of personal life, with the economic, political, spiritual and information spheres?

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 ( stability).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.

Today in sociology there is no single definition of the concept of "society". Theorists argue about the features that make up this category, about the essence of the term. The search for the latter has enriched sociological science with two opposing positions regarding the main characteristic of society. T. Parsons and other supporters of the first approach argue that society is, first of all, a collection of people. E. Giddens and scientists who share his point of view put the system of relations that develop between people at the forefront.

The totality of people, in the absence of a community uniting them, cannot be called a society. These conditions are typical for people who lived in ancient times. On the other hand, the system of relations and values cannot exist independently, in the absence of bearers of these values. This means that the features identified by representatives of both approaches are integral characteristics of society. However, if values perish without carriers, then a set of people not burdened with values in the process of joint life activity is able to develop their own system of relations. Therefore, society as a socio-cultural system is a set of people who, in the process of joint activity, develop a specific system of relations, which is characterized by certain values, culture.

In accordance with the functional paradigm, society as a sociocultural system includes several components:

Collectives are differentiated communities united by certain goals;
Values - cultural patterns, ideas and pillars that are shared and upheld by members of society;
Norms - regulators of behavior that ensure order and mutual understanding in society;
Roles are models of personality behavior, determined by the forms of their relationships with other subjects.

Society as a socio-cultural system is a set of social groups and individuals whose interaction is coordinated and ordered by special social institutions: legal and social norms, traditions, institutions, interests, attitudes, etc.

Society as a socio-cultural system is not only a theoretical category, it is a living dynamic system that is in constant motion. The values of society are not static, they change as a result of the refraction of external events through the prism of the consciousness of social groups. Traditions and attitudes change, but do not cease to exist, being the most important link between people.

One of the most important values of modern society is material well-being. Consumer society is the result of the development of capitalism. Mass consumption of material goods and the formation of the corresponding characterize such a society. The philosophy of the members of such a society is the development of progress and the improvement of technologies to increase the volume of benefits.

The future of society depends on the form and quality of work Supporting marriage, providing free and public education are the most important areas that determine the prospects of each social system.

Society as a socio-cultural system.

"Society" is the original category of sociology. In scientific literature, this is an extremely wide community of people, and a form of the most general social connection that unites individuals, groups into a certain integrity on the basis of a common activity and culture. O. Comte considered society as a functional system, the structural elements of which are the family, classes and the state, and which is based on the division of labor and solidarity. (according to the concord, the connectedness of the elements). Thus, in the broad sense of the word society- this is a historically specific set of people, which is the product of their interaction in the process of activity. It is quite natural to consider this historically developing totality a social system, and, moreover, the largest system. A social system is characterized by a specific composition of elements and a stable order of their interrelations. Complexity is an essential feature of a social system. Society, in comparison with natural objects, is more complex both in terms of the variety of connections, relationships, processes, and in the richness of opportunities and development trends. The elements of the social system are people and their activities, which they carry out not in isolation, but in the process of interaction with other people united in various social communities. An individual cannot but obey the laws of the social environment in which he is included. To some extent, he accepts its norms and values, socializes. From here, society is viewed as a socio-cultural system in which two main subsystems are singled out - social, which is a set of social relations and connections between people, and cultural, which includes fundamental social values, ideas, symbols, knowledge, beliefs and helps regulate people's behavior. Human society is a complex socio-cultural and economic phenomenon, one of the most important components of which is culture. 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. 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 will give 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.

Open Library - an open library of educational information. Society as a sociocultural system

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Similar Documents

Society as a sociocultural system

Society as a social system

Brief summary: