There are different definitions of what society is. What is society? Definition and meaning of the word
In a broad sense, a part of the material world isolated from nature, representing a historically developing form of human life. In a narrow sense, defined. human stage history (socio. economic. formations, interformation... Philosophical Encyclopedia
Society, society (society, society wrong), cf. 1. A set of certain production relations that forms a special stage of development in the history of mankind. “...Marx put an end to the view of society as a mechanical unit... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
State * Army * War * Elections * Democracy * Conquest * Law * Politics * Crime * Order * Revolution * Freedom * Navy Power * Administration * Aristocra... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms
Community, community, artel, association, gang, conversation, brotherhood, brethren, gang, group, fraternity, caste, clique, coalition, conglomerate, corporation, circle, handful, camp, league, world, party, galaxy, sect, council, assembly, union, sphere, ... ... Synonym dictionary
- (society) The meaning of the English word society can be expanded or narrowed; it can mean almost any form of association of people with common interests, values and goals. In the 19th century society meant upper class; Now… … Political science. Dictionary.
Society- Society ♦ Société “Human or animal society is an organization,” writes Bergson. “It implies subordination, and also, as a rule, the subordination of some elements to others” (“Two Sources of Morality and Religion,” Chapter I). Society -… … Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary
SOCIETY, in a broad sense, the totality of historically established forms of joint activity of people; in a narrow sense, a certain type of social system (for example, industrial society); a certain form of social relations... Modern encyclopedia
In a broad sense, a set of historically established forms of joint activity of people; in a narrow sense, a historically specific type of social system, a certain form of social relations (for example, society opposed to the state, ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- “SOCIETY” (Society) USA, 1989, 100 min. Horror film, comedy. The teenager does not find mutual understanding in the family, and all his suspicions regarding the strange behavior of his parents and older sister can be attributed to the unbalanced psyche of the young... ... Encyclopedia of Cinema
1) citizens of the country, its population, considered in conjunction with their history, interests, needs, desires, beliefs, behavior, psychology; 2) association of citizens and enterprises for the implementation of common economic activities... ... Economic dictionary
Books
- The Affluent Society, Galbraith D.K. , “The Affluent Society” is the most famous work of John Galbraith, which was published in 1958 and was published for the first time in Russian. At the center of a fascinating narrative are the prosperous United States... Category: Other publications
- Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire (1772-1820) and its role in the widespread restoration of the Order throughout the world, Marek Inglot, Society of Jesus in the Russian Empire (1772-1820) and its role in the widespread restoration of the Order throughout the world. The book was published with the support of the Historical Institute of the Society... Category:
Any baby that is just born instantly becomes a member of society with the corresponding rights and rules. But what is this society that we all belong to? This concept is quite broad and includes many aspects. Society is a kind of system in which people interact and communicate, and are also divided into different groups depending on the characteristic that unites them.
In contact with
Classmates
Origins
The first community arose in primitive times, when people united in order to survive together. Entire clans were created this way. with their own hierarchy, who were engaged in a common cause and were often at war with other communities. In order to develop successfully, it was necessary to fight for food and territory, and then divide them. In addition, differences in religion or interracial prejudices could be reasons for conflicts.
From this distant primitive community came modern society, which is so very different from it, at first glance.
Definition in dictionaries
Society is such a broad concept that this word can be used to describe completely different groups of people. So, it can be called children who study in a macrame club, and at the same time, the entire population of the entire planet is also united under this broad concept. The whole point is that all members of society are united by their interaction. Thus, people who are completely different in worldview, skin color, and character are forced to maintain social relationships and live peacefully with each other.
And it’s not for nothing that “society” has the same root as the word “communicate”. It could not have formed without this simple action. If people were deprived of the need to talk to each other, everyone could live alone, but this is completely ineffective. Every person in society has a role. A striking example of this is the difference in professions.
Another example is an organization, firm or company, since people working in any production are united by a common goal - producing quality products. That is why each institution is assigned names of forms of economic activity that characterize the property from a legal point of view and indicate the nature of the relationships between the people working there.
The most famous and complete dictionary was created by V.I. Dahl. In addition, there is a special dictionary dedicated to the interpretation of social science terms, the author of which is N. E. Yatsenko. So, What interpretation do these authors give to society?
Dictionary by N. E. Yatsenko
Dictionary of V. I. Dahl
Oddly enough, this popular explanatory dictionary does not contain a definition of society as such. The lexicographer interpreted it with the verb “to communicate” - that is, to connect, unite something or someone, as well as to communicate and interact. You can watch it with another person at the same thing from different points of view and yet combine into one whole unity.
Society structure
Society cannot exist without society and social interactions. It can be imagined as a single organism, the normal functioning of which requires the coordinated work of all members . And this means, it is possible to distinguish separate systems and structures, including the following categories:
- institutions;
- segments of society;
- community;
- social groups.
All these categories are subject to external factors. In every society, it is quite natural for an individual to appear who will develop and change the views of a group of people. This can lead to both minor deviations from the original foundations and changes in the history of entire nations.
They play a very important role in the development of any association, since they establish connections and interactions not only within one group, but also between several communities.
Characteristic signs
Society has characteristic features and characteristics that distinguish it from other organizations of groups of people. These characteristics include fundamental features that will be described below.
Relationships and connections
So , society in the simplest sense- this is the interaction of its members among themselves, leading to the emergence of a social structure. This interaction takes place both between individuals and between groups, cells and similar elements of society.
At birth, a person enters into the society of people, as well as his family group. Then he begins to enter the society of his peers in kindergarten and school. Over time, the number of such groups increases. A person enters society on the basis of interest in a common cause, profession, or favorite activity. Moreover, these groups do not always meet the needs an individual person, so the association of people in which we find ourselves does not always suit us and satisfy our needs. Thus, it occurs due to the imperfection of dividing the general flow of people into smaller groups.
Nevertheless, a person communicates in his group according to certain rules. They can be either open or not. However, this does not mean that a person cannot influence or change them. In a group you can take a lower position than you would like, or a higher position than others. This leads to a certain inequality among group members.
It is not possible to achieve the same position for all group members. It’s just that everyone should be equal before the law, but, for example, in an interest group, someone will still occupy a leading position due to greater talent or stronger character. Such positions can be identified in any society - family, political party, work collective.
Types of society depending on science
There is a special science - social science, aimed at studying the concept considered here. But besides it, there are other sciences (psychology, philosophy and the like) that actively use the term society. Wikipedia considers the meaning these definitions also apply to interdisciplinary and subdisciplines of anthropology.
Social science
No matter how broad the concept considered here is, several historical types can be distinguished as a classification. They will be discussed further:
Social anthropology
Social society is the main form of human existence, which includes self-regulation mechanisms. Most often in sociology it is divided into types based on their level of development. Sociologist D. Lenski compiled the following classification:
- the hunting and gathering group - a community in which responsibilities were shared for the first time;
- an agrarian simple society is a group of people that does not have a separate leader to control it;
- agrarian complex - a group of people whose political structure includes people engaged in management activities;
- industrial - a society engaged in production activities;
- special, which cannot be attributed to any of the above types.
Also in sociology, the term virtual society is used; it operates on the Internet, which is typical for the modern age of technology.
Since society also call the totality of all people on the planet, it is important to understand how its development is represented. It is assumed that the first tribes, united for the sake of survival, chose the territory in which they led a settled life. As they developed, they turned into villages and then cities. From the latter, entire states grew. Subsequently, people developed laws and certain norms of behavior that a group of individuals had to follow. People could earn a certain status and improve your position in the team.
Political anthropology
This subdiscipline is classified According to its political structure, society is divided into the following types:
- tribe;
- chiefdom;
- state.
Moreover, the strength of these types will primarily depend on the environment of other groups of people who can be friendly or hostile. Typically, a more isolated society is protected from attack and lives more peacefully.
Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that that society is a living organism, where each member plays an important role and influences the development of other individuals and the life of the organization as a whole.
Definition of society
Society is a multi-valued concept used to define both social systems at various levels and associations of people who have a common origin, position, interests and goals, including joint-stock companies and other economic organizations.
In the broadest sense, “society” means a part of the material world isolated from nature, a set of historically established forms of joint activity of people.
In a narrower sense, society is a complex social system, an integral formation, the main element of which is people with their connections, interactions and relationships; or as a historical stage, a certain form of social development (primitive society, feudal society, capitalist society); or as a specific society within one country (French society, Russian society, Japanese society, etc.).
Society can also mean a circle of people united by the unity of class (for example, a noble society, a merchant society, a peasant society) or some interests (a consumer society, a charitable society, a sports society, a theatrical society, etc.). These also include commercial organizations that set themselves general goals in the field of economics and entrepreneurial activity.
Widely sociological sense society is a world community, or a world system, meaning all of humanity as a whole. The world community is understood as a certain planetary social system that unites the entire population of the Earth, has supranational governing bodies, and rules of political, economic and cultural interaction that are universal for all countries. In such a society, it is not intranational, but international relations that operate.
Society in a narrow sociological sense denotes a set of people who have lived historically for a long time in the same territory, who have created their own culture and political system of government.
Society in the third meaning - as a community, union or association (for example, the Society of Lovers of Reading) - in the strict sense is not a sociological category, since one of the integral features of society in the sociological meaning is violated: not being part of a more general system.
Other definitions of society: 1) the population of a country, its citizens, considered in conjunction with their history, interests, needs, desires, beliefs, behavior, psychology; 2) an association of citizens and enterprises for the implementation of common economic activities (economic society); 3) association of citizens based on interests; a public organization created to help someone.
Society is the largest group in which people live, or the largest group in a given territory. Constantly living together and interacting, people create a complexly intertwined system of social relations, historically stable, reproduced from generation to generation, the forms of which crystallize into social institutions.
The concept of “society”, which denotes the object of sociology, like many other words used in this discipline, came from everyday speech, where it never had a clear definition. So, for example, “society” can mean a special club community (like the Hunter Society), a group of people with prestige and privileges (for example, “high society”, “secular society”), an abstract set of people (in such cases they say that he or she is burdened by the absence of society).
It should also be noted that the concept of “society” partially coincides with the concepts of “culture” (used by anthropologists) and “nation state” (used by political scientists). However, "culture" is not necessarily defined by territorial boundaries or political independence. For example, we can talk about “Jewish culture” even though only a small proportion of Jews live in th State of Israel. In this case, we are talking about a common religious worldview and a special way of life. Anthropologists speak, for example, of Melanesian culture, although the peoples of Melanesia, scattered across the Pacific islands, are not united into one politically independent society.
The sociologist takes into account the diversity of common speech meanings of the term “society”, but tries to use it in a more precise sense, although, of course, there are differences in its use within sociology itself. In particular, for sociologists adhering to a humanistic perspective, “society” means a broad complex of human relations, understood as an autonomous whole, or, in more technical terms, a system of interactions. The word "broad" in this context is difficult to quantify. A sociologist can talk about a “society” that includes millions of people (say, “Chinese society”), or he can use this term to designate a much smaller population (“the society of sophomores at a given institute”). Two people talking on a corner are unlikely to constitute “society,” but three who
washed up on a desert island will certainly be considered as such. Therefore, the meaning of the concept “society” cannot be judged only by quantitative criteria.
In foreign and domestic literature one can find a huge number of definitions of society. In one case, it is understood as a large group of people who have formed a common culture, in another, as a complex social system with the people inhabiting it, in the third, as a socio-political association associated with a certain territory, etc. In particular, R. Mills understood society as a configuration of institutions that, during their functioning, limit the freedom of action of people. I. Wallerstein believes that the attempt of sociologists to bring order to the numerous, often contradictory and confusing definitions of society ultimately led nowhere:
“No concept is more comprehensive in modern social science than society, and no concept is used more automatically and thoughtlessly than society, despite countless pages devoted to its definition. Textbook definitions revolve around the question: “What is society?”, while the arguments we have made regarding the unity of historical and social science force us to ask another question: “When and where is society?”
“Societies” are specific. Moreover, society is a term that we may well abandon due to its conceptual ambiguity in history and hence its undeniable and misleadingly contradictory definitions. Society is a term whose current use in history and the social sciences is contemporary with the institutionalization of social science in the 19th century. Society is half of a contradictory tandem, the other part of which is the state.”
In Russian science, two approaches to understanding what society is have developed: a narrow sociological and a broad philosophical one. Both of them are right in their own way, and each of them gives something new for understanding this most complex phenomenon. Nevertheless, they must be distinguished, since different approaches to society require different methodologies for its analysis.
Society should be understood as the historical result of spontaneously or naturally developing relationships between people, while th the state will appear as an artificial political construct - an institution or institution designed to manage these relationships. Another concept, “country,” is also an artificial territorial construct that denotes the sovereign borders of a state. A country - part of the world or territory that has certain borders and enjoys state sovereignty. State - political organization of the country, implying a certain type of government (monarchy, republic, the presence of a management apparatus (government). Society - social organization not only of a country, but also of a nation, nationality, tribe. There was a time when there were no clear political or state borders separating one country from another. There were no countries in the usual sense of the word then; entire peoples and tribes moved quite freely in space, exploring new territories. When the process of resettlement of peoples was completed, lands limited by state sovereignty appeared. Thus, countries are the result of the territorial division of the world.
It is necessary to distinguish between three phenomena - country, state, society. Their boundaries do not always coincide. For example, no one has heard the phrase “Luxembourg society”, although Luxembourg is This a state, or country, in Western Europe, with an area of 2.6 thousand km 2 and a population of 392 thousand people. Today, the obvious problematic nature of the concept of society, conceivable on the basis of the territorial-state principle, has emerged.
Society existed in that distant era when there were no countries and states. Therefore, the concept of “society” is applicable to any historical era, to any group or association of people of any size. Society is the largest group living in a given territory. The signs that E. Shils expressed in concentrated form are applicable to him. A society is an association that meets the following criteria:
it is not part of any larger system;
marriages are concluded between representatives of this association;
it is replenished primarily by the children of those people who are already its recognized representatives;
the association has a territory that it considers its own own vein;
it has its own name and its own history;
it has its own control system;
the association exists longer than the average lifespan of an individual;
it is united by a common system of values (customs, traditions, norms, laws, rules, morals), which is called culture.
Both modern powers, numbering hundreds of millions of citizens, and ancient tribes, located in the territory of the current urban microdistrict, meet these criteria. Both have consanguineous systems (marriage), their own territory, name, culture, history, governance, and most importantly, they are not part of another whole. But many other human associations do not correspond to them, say, a village or village, although, at first glance, they have all the necessary conditions for this: a consanguineous system, territory, history, culture, name, management.
Taking a close look at the signs of E. Shils, we will notice that the state is only one of the signs of society, namely the management system. The state does not even exhaust the political system. It is the main institution of this system.
Historically, society is primary, the state is secondary. Society is at least 40 thousand years old, and the state is only 5-6 thousand. Society arises at a certain stage of human development, and then the state appears to protect the interests of the citizens who make up this very society. Thus, the state acts as a servant of society. However, often the servant turns into a master, and citizens have to defend themselves from him. The relationship between society and the state throughout history has been difficult: harmony and conflict, the desire to suppress and establish equal, partnership relations.
The concept of society takes on a very definite meaning when we talk about “Russian society”, which has geographical boundaries, a common legislative system and a certain national unity. Sociologists argue approximately in this direction when they create a set of operational definitions of society. In 1967, R. Marsh tried to determine the conditions under which a social association should be considered a society:
permanent territory - for example, Spain within its national borders;
replenishment of society mainly through childbirth, although immigration also plays some role here;
highly developed culture - cultural models can be diverse enough to satisfy all the needs of social life;
4) political independence- society is not a subsystem or part of some other system, therefore colonial societies such as the Belgian Congo before they gained independence could not be considered as such.
Other sociologists and political scientists, namely D. Aberle, A. Coei, K. Davis, M. Levy and F. Sutton, T. Parsons, suggested that the defining characteristic of society is “self-sufficiency.” This criterion is close to “political independence”, but should be interpreted not only in a political science sense. A self-sufficient society is one that is not only able to feed itself by producing a sufficient amount of goods and services without resorting to external borrowing, capable of protecting itself from external and internal threats, but which is also capable of creating the entire complex of culture, from high to folk and popular, and associated infrastructure, as well as successfully engage in social security of the population.
The concept of the world community, which is often called not a community, but a society, introduced new dimensions into the understanding of society. In its radical form, the world society thesis states that at present there is only one single social system - the supranational, world one. In such a case, Germany, USA, Norway or Pakistan are not societies.
N. Luhmann proposes to use the concept of “society” to take into account only world society as the only closed system within which it is possible to trace all communication operations. Indeed, information flows, television, telephone communications, and the Internet do not know national borders. They unite people into a single society. In this case, national societies fade into the background. True, the problem of poor and rich countries remains. Poverty exists and is reproduced within national boundaries
So, if you adhere to the territorial-state principle, you will have to take into account more than 200 societies existing on the planet. And if we are faithful to the communicative approach (information knows no boundaries), then it will be necessary to recognize the existence of one and only society on Earth - the world one.
SOCIETY
SOCIETY
in a broad sense - a part of the material world isolated from nature, representing a historically developing form of human life. In a narrow sense - defined. human stage stories (socio-economic formations, inter-formational and intra-formational historical stages, eg pre-capitalist O., early feudal. ABOUT.) or, individual O. (organism), eg French ABOUT., ind. ABOUT., owls ABOUT.
In the history of philosophy and sociology, philosophy has often been understood as a collection of human beings. individuals uniting to satisfy "social instincts" (Aristotle), control over your actions (Hobbes, Rousseau) And T. n. The understanding of O. as based on a convention, agreement, the same direction of interests was characteristic of bourgeois philosophy 17 - beginning 19 centuries At the same time, at 19 V. a “contractual” theory of society emerges. Comte saw the origins of O. in the action of some abstract law of the formation of complex and harmonious. systems Hegel contrasted the “contractual” theory with the interpretation of “civil”. society" as a sphere of economics. relationships where everyone from everyone is comprehensively intertwined (cm. Op., T. 7, M.-L., 1934, With. 223) . IN modern bourgeois sociology O. as a collection of abstract individuals is replaced by an understanding of it as a collection of actions of the same abstract individuals (social action - cm. Social).
Marxism-Leninism, in the understanding of O., proceeds from the fact that the fact of human existence cannot reveal the essence of O. Abstract, isolated from the course of history, is just a product of thinking. process, the signs of such a person are, at best, signs of a “kind”. Rejecting the abstract, the non-historical. person, K. Marx wrote: “Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of those connections and relationships in which these individuals are related to each other” (Marx K. and Engels F., Works, T. 46, part 1, With. 214) . Definition O. there is a definition. character of societies. person, and, conversely, “...Society,” Marx specified, “ i.e. man himself in his social relations" (ibid., T. 46, part 2, With. 222) .
Society relationships are that specific thing that distinguishes social formations from all etc. systems of the material world. But this does not mean that society is only societies. relationship. Marx defined O. as “the product of human interaction” (ibid., T. 27, With. 402) and applied to it produces. strength and production. relationships, societies system, organization of family and classes, political. system, society .
Characteristics of O. through the totality of societies. relationship identifies and records its specificity. nature. Establishing the determinism of all societies. production relations. relationships and the discovery of their dependence on the level of development produces. forces allowed Marx to penetrate society. life. It was not only what distinguished the structure of societies that was established. life from natural, but also changes in one way of society are open. life to others. “The relations of production,” Marx emphasized, “in their totality form what is called social relations, society, and, moreover, they form a society that is at a specific stage of historical development, a society with a unique distinctive character.” (ibid., T. 6, With. 442) .
Introducing the concept of social-economic. formations, Marx discarded reasoning bourgeois sociologists about “O. in general,” but this did not mean at all that Marx abandoned the concept of O. Marx showed that starting “O. in general,” until the true foundations of societies were discovered and understood. life means starting not from the beginning, but from the end. For reasoning bourgeois sociologists about “0. in general,” “...the reasoning,” noted V.I. Lenin, “was meaningless... certain forms of social structure were put in place.” (PSS, T. 1, With. 430) . This allowed Marx to identify not only special, but also general features that characterize O., regardless of its forms. An alternative to the concepts "O." and “societal-economic. formation" in this case is pointless, because the first is generic in relation to the second. Category "O." reflects the qualities here. certainty of societies. life when compared with nature, “societal-economic. formation" - qualities. certainty of the various stages of development of O.
Marx K., Letter to P.V. Annenkov, 28 Dec. 1846 Marx K. and Engels F., Works, T. 27; his, Hired and capital, ibid. T. 6; his, Economic. manuscripts 1857-1859 gg., in the same place, T. 46, part 1-2; Lenin V.I., What are “friends of the people” and how do they fight against the Social Democrats?, PSS, T. 1; his, Economic. populism and its criticism in the book G. Struve (Reflection of Marxism in bourgeois literature), same place.
Yu. K. Pletnikov.
Philosophical encyclopedic dictionary. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ch. editor: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 .
SOCIETY
a group of people created through purposeful and intelligently organized joint activity, and the members of such a group are not united by such a deep principle as in the case of a genuine community. Society rests on convention, agreement, and the same orientation of interests. The individuality of an individual changes much less under the influence of his inclusion in society than depending on his inclusion in. Often by society they mean the sphere lying between the individual and the state (for example, when it comes to orienting the goals of education to the “social” will of a certain era), or the romantics, or in the sense. concepts society-corps social – all human. After attempts to explain the essence of the concept of “society” in antiquity (Aristotle) and in the Middle Ages (Augustine and Thomas Aquinas), this became, especially from the 18th century, a political and philosophical problem, which Comte tried to exhaustively explain in his sociology; therefore, society became the subject of consideration and the central point of the new science - sociology.
Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2010 .
(Kravchenko A.I. Social studies. Textbook for 8th grade. M., 2007, pp. 9-16, §1)
1. The concept of society.
The concept of “society” often has very different content. Firstly, it is a group of people who come together for communication and (or) activity. Such a definition implies any collective, from a primitive tribal community to a fan club, but insignificant in scale. On the contrary, in the broad, philosophical sense of the word, this concept unites all of humanity, in contrast to animals, plants and inanimate nature (O. is a part of the material world isolated from nature, a set of historically established forms of joint activity of people).
When using the terms “feudal society” or “industrial society”, we mean a certain historical stage of development, characteristic of various countries and peoples. But by “civil society” philosophers and political scientists understand the sphere of social relations, connections, groups independent of the state. (In such a society, citizens are able to independently defend their common rights and interests, solve local problems and influence government policy on a national scale). And if previously only its elite were included in “society,” now it is the entire population of the country.
In the most common meaning among sociologists, society is the social organization of a given country (or ethnic group), i.e. not just the totality of the population, but also its structure, the system of relationships and connections. It is necessary to separate “society” from the political organization of a given country - the state. By the way, one should not confuse the state with the territory on which it operates - in fact, the country. Although very often politicians, in order to give themselves weight, speak on behalf of the entire country - both the state and society, deliberately mixing geographical, political and social concepts.
2. Signs of society.
Note that the last definition of society also applies to those human groups - a clan, a tribe, a union of tribes - that in ancient times had not yet “grown up” to the creation of a state. However, if this organization is to some extent self-sufficient and has “its own face,” we have before us society. Here are its signs:
- it is not part of a larger system;
- marriages are concluded between representatives of this association;
- it is replenished mainly by children born in such marriages;
- the association has a territory that it considers its own;
- it has its own name and its own history;
- it has its own control system;
- the association exists longer than the average life expectancy of an individual;
- it is united by a common system of values (customs, traditions, norms, laws), which is called culture.
3. Spheres of society.
What is modern society in this sense? There are different methods for structuring it or models that facilitate more detailed analysis.
Firstly, it is possible to build all kinds of layers or social groups vertically, from top to bottom, depending on their wealth or proximity to power, in other words, on their economic and political influence. Then society will appear before us as a pyramid, at the top of which is the rich and powerful elite, at the base is the “gray” majority, and the middle class is between them.
Secondly, we can imagine society as a set of institutions that satisfy its most important needs within the framework of established social norms (institution - Latin “establishment”). The most important social institutions are the family (with the function of population reproduction), production (creation of material wealth), state (regulation of social relations, protection of law and order and sovereignty, etc.), education (accumulation and transfer of experience), religion.
But the most common approach invites us to study society in its spheres (subsystems): economic, political, social and spiritual.
Economics involves the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and services. Politics brings together institutions involved in solving the most important problems of society. First of all, this is the state - with its entire ramified structure of government bodies - and the party, since the political sphere includes everything related to the struggle for this power, for influence on making strategically important decisions. A mature society has regulated mechanisms for changing power and political struggle.
The social sphere covers relations between various social groups, classes, and strata. If society could be considered on its own, separately from economics and politics, then this hypostasis of it would be the social sphere. However, this term is also used in a narrower sense: for example, an official calls the system of public transport and utilities, education and healthcare in a similar way. Here the “social sphere” is a set of public institutions that serve our needs. An even narrower meaning of this phrase is a system of public assistance to vulnerable segments of the population (pensioners, unemployed, disabled people, orphans, etc.). When we hear about the imperfection of the social sphere and its insufficient funding, we are talking about the last two meanings of the term.
And last but not least, we remember the spiritual sphere! And this includes science, education, and all the treasures of art, along with museums and libraries, as well as religion and other forms of intellectual activity.
Of course, the division of society into spheres is to some extent arbitrary: in real life, all parts of this complex system are interconnected and intertwined.
4. World community and globalization.
In conclusion, it must be said that society - as the social organization of the country - in a certain sense is already becoming a thing of the past. Isn’t our Russian society, just like American or Japanese, part of a larger system - the world community? Globalization - the process of historical rapprochement of peoples and the transformation of humanity into a single political system - is increasingly covering countries and continents. Beginning in the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries, spurred by the capitalist development of industrial countries, it connected the world, first economically, and now creates a common political, legal and cultural space. People from different countries and continents discuss the same news, listen to the same music, “cheer” for “their own” at world sports competitions, defend the rights formulated by the UN assemblies, and demand certain political decisions from their representatives in the Security Council, The European Union, NATO and dozens of other international organizations.