Social structure and social system
Sociology I - Invitation to Sociology · Unit II · Topic 6 of 16 · 4 min read
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1. Meaning of social structure
The term is borrowed from the physical sciences, where structure means the arrangement of parts in a whole: the frame of a building or the skeleton of a body. Social structure is the relatively stable pattern of social relationships, statuses, roles and institutions in a society.
- A.R. Radcliffe-Brown: social structure is “an arrangement of persons in institutionally controlled or defined relationships”.
- Herbert Spencer was the first to use the idea, comparing society to an organism with interdependent parts.
- Talcott Parsons: social structure is the particular arrangement of interrelated institutions, agencies, social patterns and statuses and roles that persons assume in a group.
- Morris Ginsberg: social structure is the complex of principal groups and institutions which constitute societies.
2. Characteristics
- Abstract. It consists of relationships, statuses and roles, which cannot be seen.
- An arrangement of parts. Groups, institutions, statuses and norms are ordered in a definite way.
- Relatively stable. Individuals come and go; the structure persists. The joint family or caste system lasts across generations.
- Changeable. Stability is relative: industrialisation and law have altered the structure of the Indian family and caste.
- Each society has its own structure, shaped by its history and culture.
- Has sub-structures: family, economic, political, religious.
- Shaped by values and norms, which define the relationships.
3. Elements of social structure
Harry M. Johnson (Sociology: A Systematic Introduction) gives four elements, which are the standard answer.
- Sub-groups. Society is made up of many groups — family, caste, class, associations, political parties. Each is itself structured.
- Roles. Every member performs roles attached to positions: father, teacher, voter. Johnson treats roles, with their statuses, as the building blocks.
- Regulative norms. Norms govern the sub-groups and roles: rules of marriage, inheritance, behaviour towards elders. They may be enforced by law or by custom.
- Cultural values. Values define what is desirable — respect for elders, equality, purity — and justify the norms. They give the structure its legitimacy.
Other writers add status (positions in the group), institutions (established procedures such as marriage) and social stratification (the ranking of groups by caste or class).
4. Types of social structure (Parsons)
Parsons combined two of his pattern variables, universalism–particularism and achievement–ascription, into four types.
| Type | Feature | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Universalistic–achievement | Status by merit, rules apply to all | Modern industrial society |
| Universalistic–ascription | General rules, status by birth | Nazi Germany (Parsons’s example) |
| Particularistic–achievement | Merit within kinship and local ties | Classical China (Parsons) |
| Particularistic–ascription | Status by birth, kinship and locality decide | Traditional caste society |
5. Social system: meaning
A system is a set of interdependent parts that work together as a whole, so that a change in one part affects the others. A social system is a system of social interaction among actors, organised around shared norms and values.
- Talcott Parsons (The Social System, 1951): a social system consists of “a plurality of individual actors interacting with each other in a situation which has at least a physical or environmental aspect, actors who are motivated in terms of a tendency to the optimisation of gratification and whose relation to their situations, including each other, is defined and mediated in terms of a system of culturally structured and shared symbols”.
- Parsons placed the social system between the personality system and the cultural system, and held that every social system must meet four functional needs: adaptation, goal attainment, integration and latency (AGIL).
6. Characteristics and elements of the social system
Characteristics: plurality of actors; interaction among them; a goal or purpose; shared cultural symbols and norms; interdependence of parts; a tendency towards equilibrium (adjustment after disturbance); and the capacity to change.
Charles P. Loomis (Social Systems, 1960) listed the elements:
- Belief (knowledge) — what members hold to be true;
- Sentiment — what they feel about the world;
- End, goal or objective;
- Norm — rules of conduct;
- Status and role;
- Rank — the standing of an actor;
- Power — control over others;
- Sanction — rewards and penalties;
- Facility — the means used to attain ends.
How this is examined
For the 16-mark question on social structure: three definitions, six characteristics, Johnson’s four elements in detail and Parsons’s four types. The short note on social system needs Parsons’s definition, AGIL, five characteristics and Loomis’s elements in a list.
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