Question. Social connections, social relationships, social interaction
atheists? Why?
2) Describe the role of religion in the life of a person, society, and state. What is the moral force of religion?
3) What is a world religion? What is the essence of the debate about the number of world religions? What do you think are the criteria used by those experts who name more than three world religions?
4) What role have world religions played and are playing in the history of mankind?
5) What role does the religious factor play in modern conflicts? Can we say that often it is only a pretext for starting an armed confrontation?
Please check your understanding of the problem and theoretical argumentation, and also help with the arguments) What is society? Talking aboutTo this problem, Emile Durkheim says: “Society is not a simple sum of individuals, but a system formed by their association.”
This statement by Emile Durkheim means that society is a systematized, natural community of people, and not just a sum of individuals.
From textbooks we all know that society is a part of the material world isolated from nature, which includes ways of interaction between people. This is a kind of integrity of people that has a collective character. However, is society necessarily systematized?
I think so: initially people existed outside of society, united in small groups, just like animals. However, in the process of anthroposociogenesis, man became a social being. Societies were formed: first they were tribes, then peoples and nations. In them, a person has a set of social roles that determine his place (son, student, Russian, and so on). Society, gradually becoming more complex, was divided into strata, classes, spheres, which are also divided within themselves. All this together forms a complex dynamic logical system - society.
1. What is the spiritual life of society? What components does it include?2. What is culture? Tell us about the origin of this concept.
3. How do traditions and innovation interact in culture?
4. Describe the main functions of culture. Using the example of one of the cultural phenomena, reveal its functions in society.
5. What “cultures within a culture” do you know? Describe a situation in which the interaction of several cultures would appear.
6. What is dialogue of cultures? Give examples of interaction and
interpenetration of different national cultures, using knowledge,
received in history and geography courses.
7. What is the internationalization of culture associated with? What are her problems?
8. Describe manifestations of folk culture.
9. What is mass culture? Tell us about its signs.
10. What is the role of the media in modern society?
What problems and threats may be associated with their spread?
11. What is elite culture? How does its dialogue with the masses take place?
77lyan lectures:
1. Social connections and relationships, their system-forming role.
2. The concepts of social action and interaction as an expression of the dynamic characteristics of the social structure.
3. Theories of social interaction (interaction).
1. In previous topics, the analysis of social structure was associated with identifying its main components, which are: person (individual), family, group, team, community, organization and institution. Identifying these components helps to understand the nature of the “material” that makes up the social structure. However, these elements do not represent some inert, isolated material. Each element of a social structure is an example of a living, active, self-organizing and self-developing system that has internal and external connections, functions and relationships, thanks to which the structure of society acquires a living, dynamic character. Therefore, the analysis of a social structure involves identifying not only its components, but also those connections through which this structure takes the form of a living, functioning, developing system. This side of the social structure is expressed by such concepts as “connection”, “interconnection”, “relationship”, “action”, “interaction”, revealing the mechanisms of social functioning, change and development. Let's look at these concepts in more detail.
Let's start with the most general concept, which is the concept of communication. This concept means connecting the elements of a system into a single, holistic formation. Systems, as already noted, are divided into simple and complex, static and dynamic, organic and inorganic, natural and social. Any object of nature, society or technology is a complex connection of its constituent elements.
If we are talking about technical systems - machines and units, then it is obvious that there are, on the one hand, individual parts that make up the unit, and on the other, the elements connecting them (bolts, nuts, welding, gluing, cementing, etc.). d.). With the same obviousness, this connection appears in biological objects, i.e. in living organisms, which consist of individual organs and their connecting elements (joints, tendons, muscles, etc.). From this point of view, society is no different from those listed
systems, it also represents a unique organism with many elements interconnected. Just as a group of climbers are literally connected by a safety rope, so people in society are in a kind of connection with each other. True, this connection is special; it is not always amenable to direct observation. But it exists and must be taken into account when talking about social structure.
So what is social connection? In the most general terms, we can say that social connections are the connecting elements of the social structure that ensure the unity and systemic integrity of social objects from the family and group to society, the state and humanity as a whole.
Society as an integral system is a complex combination of various types of connections between its constituent elements. These are, first of all, economic ties, which, in turn, break down into production, financial, trade, consumer, etc. In addition, class-political, legal, cultural, technical and other connections that make up the complex structure of social relations are highlighted. In the broad sense of the word, all these connections can be called social. But there is a special type of social relations that has a strictly social meaning - these are the relationships that develop between people in a family, in a neighborhood or friendly team, in a production team, in a student group, in a military unit, in a sports team, in a crowd, in a national or a racial association, in a religious community, in a class clan, in an age cohort, etc.
In this regard, a social connection acts as a set of special dependencies of some social subjects on others, their mutual relationships that unite people into corresponding social communities and associations.
The basis for the formation of a social connection is direct contact between people in one or another primary social community (family, group, team), which then develops into a broader indirect connection of people who make up large social associations, within which feelings of belonging to the group or intra-group solidarity are formed (within the framework, for example, of a nation, class, estate, confession, etc.).
There is a certain set of factors that determine the nature of social connections. These factors are divided into natural-biological, psychological-rational and social-institutional. Natural-biological ones are determined by hereditary characteristics, i.e. the very fact of human birth, which op-
distinguishes its ethnic, national or racial characteristics, and at the same time the nature of the connecting elements.
Among the factors that unite people into appropriate groups and communities, psychological phenomena, such as, for example, a sense of community with other people, are of great importance. Based on the feeling of such community, a feeling of love, affection, passion, trust, recognition of authority, altruism, concern for one’s neighbor or the weak, etc. is born, which allows individuals to become an element of an integral system that functions according to its own laws.
Social connections reach their highest manifestation when they become beliefs and acquire the character of rational attitudes, which reflect the traditions, norms and ideals that have developed in society.
If the latter take shape spontaneously in society, defining the sociocultural code of social development, then institutional norms are specially created (formal, written) rules (norms) that regulate social connections and relationships in a special way, determining the order of operation of social objects within the framework of a social institution and controlling their.
Taking into account all these factors, we can say that social connections can be formal and informal, personal and collective, direct and indirect, stronger and less durable, direct and inverse, probabilistic and correlational, etc.
The subjects of social connections are not only individual people, but also their associations: family, group, team, community, institution, etc., which also enter into complex relationships with each other. In this regard, we can talk about connections between city and countryside, between education and culture, between philosophy and religion, between science and technology, between supporters of different faiths, about neighborly, business, friendly and other connections.
The social connection between individuals is realized as communication. Communication involves contacts. The latter have a physical and spiritual form of their manifestation. Physical contact is realized in such actions as shaking hands, kissing, hugging, performing marital functions, physical punishment, etc., that is, it is realized as the physical impact of one person on another. Physical contact is also realized in the cohabitation of family members, in the joint performance of work duties within the framework of the primary work collective, in joint participation in political and public actions, etc. 156
The spiritual form of contact is a sensory-emotional coloring of physical connections and then itself acts as a prerequisite for productive connections between people. A positive spiritual coloring strengthens social ties, while a negative one destroys them.
A special connecting material is language, which accompanies both physical and spiritual forms of contact. Taking into account the technical capabilities of transmitting linguistic and figurative information, we can assume that the scope of direct communication is expanding significantly, acquiring a truly planetary and even cosmic character.
Considering the fact that connections in society are not unidirectional, but mutually directed, they are often expressed using the concept of “interconnection,” which expresses the mutual influence of objects on each other, their mutual conditionality. Schematically speaking, we can say that A affects B and B affects A.
Within the framework of the constant functioning of the social system, social connection and interconnection acquire the character of a social relationship, i.e. a person is not just connected to another person, but relates to this person in a certain way, evaluating him from a positive or negative side. For example, a connection such as friendship presupposes the need for direct physical and verbal contacts, i.e. is realized in the desire to meet, exchange news, play some games, etc., which ultimately leaves a pleasant impression. In the mind, friendship is preserved as a kind attitude of one person towards another, as mutual respect, as confidence in repeating such contacts and hope for help in difficult periods of life. The official relationship between managers and subordinates is also expressed by the concept of relationship; they speak of official relations, formal or informal. Their own relations are established between communities, institutions and organizations, in this case they talk about industrial relations, class relations, party relations, inter-confessional relations, etc.
Thus, the concepts of social connection, social interconnection and social relations mutually imply and complement each other. Sometimes their meanings are so close that they are used as synonyms. Meanwhile, they also have their own distinctive features. If the concepts of connection and interconnection denote the harmonious integrity of a social object, then the concept of relationship has both positive and negative meanings. Some relationships strengthen and integrate the social system, while others
are negative in nature and disintegrate the system. These are the relations of friendship and enmity, love and hatred, altruism and selfishness, peacefulness and aggressiveness, tolerance and intolerance, equality and inequality, obedience and disobedience, etc. Therefore, we can say that the concept of social relationship expresses the qualitative side of social connections. Thus, objective connections, interconnections and relationships act as the unifying, cementing force that unites individual elements of society into integral social systems.
The concepts of connection, interconnection and relationship, in addition, are closely related to the concepts of law and regularity. Considering the fact that connections can be essential and non-essential, internal and external, general and particular, random and necessary, repeating and non-repetitive, we can identify those that allow us to formulate the concept of law, including social law. This is the expression of the universal, necessary, essential connection of objects, phenomena and processes that reveal the functioning, change and development of social systems.
If the law expresses the deep essence of social phenomena and processes, then the concept of regularity reveals its external, empirically fixed form of manifestation.
Of the two types of laws (dynamic and statistical), the latter predominate in the description of social phenomena, because When studying social processes and phenomena, one most often has to deal with mass objects, using statistical calculations and probabilistic conclusions.
The concept of social connection has become one of the main categories of sociology. With its help, experts even sought to determine the specifics of the very subject of this science. Thus, O. Comte tried to present the social structure (statics) as a complex organism in which special connections are established from the family to the systems of religion and state. Another founder of positivism, G. Spencer, tried to derive the specifics of the militaristic and industrial types of society through an analysis of the system of social connections.
Representatives of psychological trends (for example, V. Pareto) saw the basis of social connections in the structure of instincts. E. Durkheim, trying to classify types of connections, singled out mechanical and organic solidarity as unique stages in the development of society from its traditional forms to industrial society with its special manifestation of the division of labor.
Proponents of formal sociology, based on the identification of different types of social connections, also sought to derive different types of associations of people and show their evolution from community to society.
This interest itself emphasizes the great meaning and categorical significance of the concept of social connection, without which it is generally impossible to form an idea of how human society is structured, how it functions and develops.
2. Further characterizing the nature of social connections, it should be noted that they are based on social actions and interactions. The latter are interpreted in the sociological literature as a manifestation of human activity aimed at changing the behavior, attitudes, and value system of an individual, group or community. Thus, M. Weber believed that sociology is a science that seeks to understand social actions and interactions and thereby causally explain social processes. At the same time, he calls social actions those that contain a subjective meaning and are focused on the actions of other people, i.e. interaction between subjects of social action is assumed.
In the theory of T. Parsons, social action is considered as a system in which the following elements are distinguished:
Actor (actor or subject of action);
Object (individual or community to which the action is directed);
Purpose of action;
Mode of action;
The result of the action (reaction of the object).
Bearing in mind the fact that the result of an action does not remain indifferent to the actor, but influences him in a certain way, social action also expands its meaning to the concept of interaction, often referred to as interaction.
Interaction begins at the level of two individuals (a kind of atom of interaction) as bearers of social statuses; it can also manifest itself as the interaction of an individual with a group or community, and at the macro level as the interaction of social communities, institutions and states.
Thus, social interaction consists of individual acts, called social actions, and includes statuses (range of rights and responsibilities), roles, social relationships, symbols and meanings (Kravchenko A.I.; General Sociology. - M., 2001.-P. 205).
Specifically, interaction in society manifests itself as cooperation, competition and rivalry. It may be associated with conflict situations and reasonable methods for eliminating them.
Connections, relationships, actions and interactions are direct and indirect. It is the presence of the latter that allows us to consider all connections and relationships (even such as production and especially political) as social relationships, and not only those that are built in the order of exchange. For even when a person chops firewood in the summer, and there seems to be nothing social in this action, in fact, there is a deep social meaning hidden in it, because a person takes care of his household and their life in winter conditions. Therefore, social action cannot be considered only as an act of direct interaction (interaction) of two individuals; it manifests itself in any action, the meaning of which is determined by the laws of coexistence. However, the analysis of interaction helps to reveal the internal mental mechanisms of social action and thereby show its human significance, the analysis of which acts as the main task of sociology.
Social actions and interactions seem so significant for the study of social structure that it is through them that the essence and subject of sociology as a science are determined. Thus, M. Weber believes that sociology is a science that seeks, through interpretation, to understand social action and thereby causally explain its process and impact (Weber M. Selected Works. - M, 1990.-P. 602).
The subject of sociology is defined similarly by P. Sorokin, who believes that sociology studies the phenomena of people’s interaction with each other, on the one hand, and the phenomena arising from this process of interaction, on the other.
3. Theories of social interaction (interaction) developed mainly within the framework of American sociological thought, in which the ideas of utilitarianism, pragmatism and behaviorism were strong. The behaviorist principle of stimulus-response was given a broad sociological meaning. Stimulus and response began to be considered in the aspect of human action and interaction, when one person (or group), acting on another, expects a certain positive reaction from the latter. Classic theories of this direction include the theory of the “mirror self,” symbolic interactionism, and exchange theory. Let's look at them in more detail.
The theory of the "mirror self". The founder of this theory is the American sociologist and social psychologist Charles Cooley (1864 -1929), who in his works “Human Nature and Social Order”, “Social Organization”, “Social Process”, “Sociological Theory and Social Research” outlined his vision of social structure, the essence of which is well expressed by a poetic line from Goethe’s work: “Only in people can one know oneself.” From the point of view of this author, society, group and individual are united into a kind of super-integrity. Society and the individual are not parts of the whole, but different sides, different manifestations of the whole. Society is the cumulative (not summative) aspect of wholeness, the individual is the discrete essence of the whole. As the ancients said - everything is in small and small in everything.
The integrity of society, group and individual is determined by such metaphysical concepts as “great consciousness”, “human life”, “social integrity”, “social self”.
An important system-forming category is the exchange of consciousness (information) between individuals. This exchange is achieved in the process of socialization of the individual within a small group, i.e. such a group in which direct contact between people is realized. This is, first of all, a family, a neighboring community, within which a person begins to form and is subsequently included in various social structures (organizations and institutions).
In the process of socialization, there is a transformation of individual consciousness into a collective mind with the assimilation of social norms and a reassessment of one’s personality from the perspective of perception by others, i.e. there is a transition from intuitive “self-awareness” to “social feelings”. A person looks at another person as if in a special mirror and sees his own reflection in it.
Moreover, this reflection does not always coincide with a person’s own assessment. Socialization, according to C. Cooley, means the need to harmonize assessment and self-esteem, the transformation of the individual “I” into a collective “I”. From this follows the conclusion that the individual nature of a person acquires social meaning only in communication, in interpersonal circulation within the primary group. “Social self” is the mental element that passes through specific people from society into the individual, integrating it into the social structure, transforming the personal “I” into the social “I.” In this case, a special role is given to the feeling of “appropriation”, which is realized in human life from the elementary appropriation of things (as objects of property) to
assignments of mental objects, i.e. appropriating other people's opinions about themselves. In this regard, C. Cooley writes: “The self manifests itself most noticeably in the appropriation of objects of general desire by the corresponding individual need for power over such objects in order to ensure one’s own development, as well as the threat of opposition from other people who also feel the need for them. This applies not only to material objects, but also implies the desire to capture the attention and affection of other people in the same way.” And further this thought is expressed even more succinctly: “The feeling of appropriation is always, so to speak, a shadow of social life.”
This appropriation by a person of the opinions of others about himself constitutes the dominant part of his socialized “I”, which determines the structure of the personality, its interaction with other people within the framework of the social self, within the framework of the primary social collective.
The peculiarity of direct interaction within a small group is that in it there is a “meeting” of individual and social consciousness, the individual “I” and the “social self,” moral norms and social traditions are generated and transmitted. Considering the fact that in the theory of the “mirror self” the key term is the concept of “appropriation,” this theory could also be called “appropriation theory” by analogy with exchange theory. The main ideas of this idea were developed in the theories of symbolic interactionism.
Social connections- this is the dependence of people, realized through social actions, carried out with a focus on other people, with the expectation of an appropriate response from the partner. M. Weber identified the following types of social action: 1) goal-oriented action - a person’s clear understanding of his goal and the means of achieving it, taking into account the reaction of others. Rationality is usually always oriented towards success;
2) value-rational action is performed through faith;
3) affective action occurs in an unconscious state, at a sensory level;
4) traditional action - habit, inertia.
In the theory of T. Parsons, social action is considered as a system in which the following elements are distinguished: actor; object (individual or community towards which the action is directed); purpose of action; mode of action; result of an action (reaction of an object).
In sociology, the following are distinguished: types of social connections: social contact and social interactions. If the connection between people is superficial and the subject of the connection can be easily replaced by another person, then they talk about social contact. Social interaction (interaction), in turn, presupposes the regular systematic influence of individuals on each other, as a result of which new social connections are renewed and created within communities or between its elements. Social interaction involves at least two subjects, who are called interactants. Their interactive actions must certainly be directed at each other, the purpose of which is to provoke a certain response from the partner.
Interaction can be of the following types:
– direct (interpersonal) with various modifications related to the social position of the subjects and the social roles they perform;
– indirect (through intermediaries) – involves the distribution of roles between participants, the presence of agreed norms, and a system of values regulating this interaction.
Social interaction can be classified:
By the number of participating entities: bilateral, multilateral;
Type of contacts: solidary or antagonistic;
Level of organization: organized or unorganized;
The nature of the assessments: emotional, volitional or intellectual;
Level: interpersonal, group, societal.
Theories of social interaction(interactions) developed mainly within the framework of American sociological thought, in which the ideas of utilitarianism, pragmatism and behaviorism were strong. The behaviorist principle of “stimulus-response” was given a broad sociological meaning. Stimulus and response began to be considered in the aspect of human action and interaction, when one person (or group), acting on another, expects a certain positive reaction from the latter.
Classic theories of this direction include the theories of the “mirror self,” symbolic interactionism,” and “exchange theory.”
The concept of the "mirror self": In the process of socialization, there is a transformation of individual consciousness into a collective mind with the assimilation of social norms and a reassessment of one’s personality from the perspective of perception by others, i.e. carried out
transition from intuitive “self-awareness” to “social feelings”. A person looks at another person as if in a special mirror and sees his own reflection in it. Moreover, this reflection does not always coincide with a person’s own assessment. Socialization, according to Ch. Cooley, means the need to harmonize assessment and self-esteem, the transformation of the “individual self” into the “collective self.”
Symbolic interactionist theories. Symbolic interactionism (from the Latin interaction - interaction) is a direction in sociology that focuses on the analysis of social interactions primarily in their symbolic content.
Representatives of symbolic interactionism are G. Bloomer, J. Mead,
A. Rose, G. Stone, A. Strauss et al.
Mead George Herbert(1863-1931) - American psychologist, sociologist, philosopher, creator of the theory of symbolic interactionism, considers personality as a social product, discovering the mechanism of its formation in role interaction. Roles set boundaries for an individual's appropriate behavior in a particular situation. What is necessary in role interaction is the acceptance of the role of another, which ensures the transformation of external social control into self-control and the formation of the human “I”. The main characteristic of human action, according to Mead, is the use of symbols. The scientist distinguishes two forms or two stages
social action: communication using gestures and symbolically mediated communication. Mead explains the emergence of symbolically mediated interaction functionally - by the need to coordinate the behavior of people, since they do not have reliable instincts, and anthropologically - by the human ability to create and use symbols.
The general ideas of symbolic interactionism were further developed in the works of the American researcher G. Bloomer ( 1900 – 1967), who in his work “Symbolic Interactionism: Perspectives and Method” proceeded from determining the meaning of an object based not on its properties, but on its role in people’s lives. An object is what it means in expected and actual interaction. Moreover, the stability of meanings makes interaction habitual and allows it to be institutionalized. In the interaction itself, two levels can be distinguished: non-symbolic (uniting all living things) and symbolic (peculiar only to humans). Through the sign system, a person sets distances, i.e. structures the outside world. By developing and changing meanings, people thereby change the world itself.
The original version of symbolic interactionism was developed in the works of
E. Goffman(1922 – 1982), who is called the author of the “dramatic approach”, because he expressed the manifestations of personal and public life in theatrical terminology. In this case, a person simultaneously acts as an author, director, actor, viewer and critic, as if trying on different social roles.
Social exchange theory- a direction in modern sociology that considers the exchange of various social benefits (in the broad sense of the word) as the fundamental basis of social relations on which various structural formations (power, status, etc.) grow. Representatives of the theory of social exchange (theory of action) are J. Homans and P. Blau. Homans George Caspar(1910 - 1989) - American sociologist, according to whose views, people interact with each other based on their experience, weigh possible rewards and costs. Social action, according to Homans, is an exchange process that is built on the principle of rationality: participants strive to obtain maximum benefits at minimum costs.
Unlike simple interaction, social relationships are distinguished by the fact that they are perceived by individuals as long-term, repeated, and, therefore, stable. Thus, social relationships are a stable system of normalized interactions between two or more partners based on a specific interest.
Social interaction
Social interaction- a system of interdependent social actions connected by cyclical dependence, in which the action of one subject is both the cause and consequence of the response actions of other subjects. It is related to the concept of “social action”, which is the starting point for the formation of social connections. Social interaction as a way of implementing social connections and relationships presupposes the presence of at least two subjects, the interaction process itself, as well as the conditions and factors for its implementation. In the course of interaction, the formation and development of the individual, the social system, their change in the social structure of society, etc. take place.
Social interaction includes the transfer of an action from one social actor to another, the receipt and reaction to it in the form of a response action, as well as the resumption of actions of social actors. It has social meaning for the participants and involves the exchange of their actions in the future due to the presence in it of a special causality - social relationship. Social relations are formed in the process of interaction between people and are the result of their past interactions, which have acquired a stable social form. Social interactions, in contrast, are not “frozen” social forms, but “living” social practices of people, which are conditioned, directed, structured, regulated by social relations, but are capable of influencing these social forms and changing them.
Social interaction is determined by the social statuses and roles of the individual and social groups. It has objective and subjective sides:
- Objective side- factors independent of interacting ones, but influencing them.
- Subjective side- the conscious attitude of individuals towards each other in the process of interaction, based on mutual expectations.
Classification of social interaction
- Primary, secondary (ideological, religious, moral)
- By number of participants: interaction of two people; one person and group of people; between two groups
- Multinational
- Between people of different incomes, etc.
Notes
see also
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EU energy policy
See what “Social interaction” is in other dictionaries:- the process of direct or indirect influence of social objects on each other, in which the interacting parties are connected by a cyclical causal dependence. NE. as a type of connection represents the integration of actions, functional... The latest philosophical dictionary
Social interaction- interaction between two or more individuals, during which socially significant information is transmitted or actions aimed at another are carried out... Sociology: dictionary
Social interaction- Nouns ADDRESS/NT, sender/tel. A person or organization sending any correspondence (letters, telegrams, etc.). ADDRESS/T, recipient/tel. A person or organization receiving any correspondence... ... Dictionary of Russian synonyms
See what “Social interaction” is in other dictionaries:- the process of direct or indirect influence of social objects on each other, in which the interacting parties are connected by a cyclical causal dependence. S.V. as a type of communication represents the integration of actions,... ... Sociology: Encyclopedia
See what “Social interaction” is in other dictionaries:- See interaction... Explanatory dictionary of psychology
Social interaction- the process by which people act and react towards others... Dictionary-reference book for social work
Social interaction- a system of interdependent social actions connected by cyclical dependence, in which the action of one subject is both the cause and consequence of the response actions of other subjects... Sociological Dictionary Socium
SOCIAL INTERACTION- see SOCIAL INTERACTION… The latest philosophical dictionary
Social interaction- Social interaction “a way of implementing social connections and relationships in a system that presupposes the presence of at least two subjects, the interaction process itself, as well as the conditions and factors for its implementation. During the interaction, there is... ... Wikipedia
Social action- a human action (regardless of whether it is external or internal, whether it comes down to non-interference or patient acceptance), which, according to the meaning assumed by the actor or actors, correlates with the action... ... Wikipedia
Books
- Social partnership. Interaction between government, business and hired personnel. Textbook for bachelor's and master's degrees, L.I. Voronina. The author of the textbook not only refers to the works of foreign and Russian sociologists, including works on economic sociology, but also shows his own vision of the current... Buy for 930 UAH (Ukraine only)
- Artifact ontologies. Interaction of “natural” and “artificial” components of the life world, O. E. Stolyarova. Ontology answers the question “what exists?” The authors of the collection “Ontologies of Artifacts: Interaction of “Natural” and “Artificial” Components of the Life World” explore…
Sociologists have long been looking for those simplest social elements with the help of which they could describe and study social life as a set of infinitely diverse events, actions, facts, phenomena and relationships. It was necessary to find the phenomena of social life in their simplest form, indicate an elementary case of their manifestation, construct and recreate their simplified model, by studying which the sociologist would be able to consider increasingly complex facts as a combination of these simplest cases or as an infinitely complicated example of this model. A sociologist must find, in the words of P.A. Sorokin, the “social cell”, by studying which he would gain knowledge of the basic properties of social phenomena. Such the simplest “social cell” is the concept of “interaction”, which refers to the basic concepts of sociology as a science about the development of society. Interaction, which ultimately manifests itself as the social behavior of individuals in society, became the subject of analysis in the works of such outstanding sociologists of the 20th century as P.A. Sorokin, G. Simmel, E. Durkheim, T. Parsons, R. Merton, D. Homans and others.
Social interactions of people in society
Social contacts
The problems of forming relationships in society from simple to the most complex, the mechanism of social action, the specifics of social interaction, the very concept of “social system” are developed in detail and studied at two main levels of sociological research - the micro level and the macro level.
At the micro level, social interaction (interaction) is any behavior of an individual, group, society as a whole, both at the moment and in the future. Each action is caused by a previous action and at the same time acts as the cause of a subsequent action. It is a system of interdependent social actions connected by a cyclical causal dependence, in which the actions of one subject are both the cause and consequence of the response actions of other subjects. Interpersonal interaction can be called interaction at the level of two or more units of interpersonal communication (for example, a father praising his son for doing well in school). Based on experiments and observations, sociologists analyze and try to explain certain types of behavior that characterize interactions between individuals.
At the macro level, the study of interaction is carried out using the example of such large structures as classes, layers, army, economy, etc. But elements of both levels of interaction are intertwined. Thus, everyday communication between soldiers of one company is carried out at the micro level. But the army is a social institution that is studied at the macro level. For example, if a sociologist studies the reasons for the existence of hazing in a company, then he cannot adequately study the issue without addressing the state of affairs in the army and in the country as a whole.
A simple, elementary level of interaction is spatial contacts. We constantly encounter people and base our behavior in transport, in stores, at work, taking into account their interests and behavior. So, when we see an elderly person, we usually give way to him when entering a store, and make room for him on public transport. In sociology this is called " visual spatial contact"(the individual's behavior changes under the influence of the passive presence of other people).
Concept "suggested spatial contact" used to denote a situation in which a person does not visually encounter other people, but assumes that they are present in some other place. So, if the apartment becomes cold in winter, we call the housing office and ask them to check the hot water supply; entering the elevator, we know for sure that if we need the help of the attendant, we need to press a button on the control panel and our voice will be heard, although we do not see the attendant.
As civilization develops, society shows more and more attention to a person, so that in any situation he feels the presence of other people ready to help. Ambulance, fire brigade, police, traffic police, sanitary and epidemiological stations, helplines, rescue services, service departments of mobile operators, computer network technical support departments and other organizations are created in order to ensure and maintain social order in society, in order to instill confidence in a person security and a sense of social comfort. All this, from a sociological point of view, is a form of manifestation of supposed spatial contacts.
Contacts related to interests people are a more complex level of interaction. These contacts are determined by the clearly “targeted” needs of individuals. If you, while visiting, meet an outstanding football player, then you may experience a feeling of simple curiosity as you would towards a famous person. But if there is a business representative in the company, and you are looking for a job with a diploma in economics, then the need for contact where there is interest immediately arises in your mind. Here the updated motive and interest is caused by the presence of a need - to make acquaintances and, perhaps, find a good job with their help. This contact may continue, but it may also suddenly end if you have lost interest in it.
If motive - This is a direct motivation to activity associated with the need to satisfy a need, then interest - This is a conscious form of manifestation of a need, which ensures that the individual is focused on a specific activity. Before you went on a visit, you asked a friend to help you find a job: introduce you to a businessman, give a good reference, vouch for your reputation, etc. It is possible that in the future this friend, in turn, will ask you to help him with something.
IN exchange contacts social interaction becomes more complex. This is a unique type of contact, during which individuals are interested not so much in people as in the objects of exchange - information, money, etc. For example, when you buy a movie ticket, you are not interested in the cashier, you are interested in the ticket. On the street you stop the first person you meet to ask how to get to the station, and least of all you pay attention to whether this person is old or young, handsome or not, the main thing is to get an answer to your question. The life of a modern person is filled with such exchange contacts: he buys goods in a store and at the market; pays for tuition, goes to a disco, having previously had her hair done at the hairdresser; the taxi takes him to the specified address. In modern society, exchange contacts are becoming increasingly complex. For example, wealthy parents send their daughter to study at a prestigious educational institution in Europe, believing that in exchange for the money they pay, the employees of the educational institution will take care of all the concerns associated with the socialization, upbringing and education of their daughter.
Thus, under social contact refers to the short-term initial stage of interaction between individuals or social groups. Social contact, as a rule, appears in the forms of spatial contact, mental contact and exchange contact. Social contacts are the first step in the formation of social groups. The study of social contacts makes it possible to find out the place of each individual in the system of social connections and his group status. By measuring the number and direction of social contacts, a sociologist can determine the structure of social interactions and their nature.
Social Actions
- the next level of complex social relationships after contacts. The concept of “social action” is considered one of the central ones in sociology and represents the simplest unit of any type of human behavior. The concept of “social action” was introduced into sociology and scientifically substantiated by M. Weber. He considered social action to be “a human action (regardless of whether it is external or internal, whether it comes down to non-interference or patient acceptance) ... which, according to the meaning assumed by the actor or actors, correlates with the action others people and focuses on it.”
Weber assumed that social action is conscious and explicitly other-oriented. For example, a collision between two cars may be nothing more than an incident, but an attempt to avoid this collision, the abuse that followed the incident, an increasing conflict between drivers or a peaceful resolution of the situation, the involvement of new parties (traffic inspector, emergency commissioner, insurance agent) is is already a social action.
It is a well-known difficulty to draw a clear boundary between social actions and asocial (natural, natural) ones. According to Weber, suicide will not be a social act if its consequences do not influence the behavior of the suicide's acquaintances or relatives.
Fishing and hunting in themselves do not seem to be social actions if they do not correlate with the behavior of other people. Such an interpretation of actions - some as non-social, and others as social - is not always justified. Thus, suicide, even if we are talking about a lonely person living without social contacts, is a social fact. If we follow the theory of social interaction by P.A. Sorokin, then any phenomenon that happens in society cannot be isolated from it and characterizes, first of all, the given society (in this case, suicide acts as a social indicator of the dysfunction of society). It is very difficult to determine the presence or absence of awareness in a particular action of an individual. According to Weber's theory, actions cannot be considered social if the individual acted under the influence of passion - in a state of anger, irritation, fear. However, as studies by psychologists show, a person never acts fully consciously; his behavior is influenced by various emotions (likes, dislikes), physical condition (fatigue or, conversely, a feeling of elation), character and mental organization (temperament, optimistic mood of a choleric person). or pessimism, phlegmatic), culture and intelligence, etc.
Unlike social contacts, social action is a complex phenomenon. The structure of social action includes the following components:
- an individual who acts
- the individual's need for a specific action
- purpose of action
- method of action
- another individual towards whom the action is directed
- result of action.
The mechanism of social action was most fully developed by the American sociologist T. Parsons (“The Structure of Social Action”). Like Sorokin, Parsons considered interaction to be the basic process that makes possible the development of culture at the level of the individual. The result of interaction is social behavior. A person, joining a certain community, follows the cultural patterns accepted in this community. The mechanism of social action includes need, motivation and action itself. As a rule, the beginning of social action is the emergence of a need that has a certain direction.
For example, a young man wants to learn how to water a car. The urge to perform an action is called motivation. The motives for social action can be different: in this case, a young man either wants to distract his girlfriend from a rival who drives a car well, or he likes to take his parents to the country, or he wants to earn additional income as a “cab driver.”
When performing social actions, an individual experiences the influence of others and, in turn, wants to influence others. This is how an exchange of actions occurs, which acts as social interaction. In this process, an important role is played by the system of mutual expectations, which makes it possible to evaluate the behavior of a given individual from the point of view of generally accepted norms.
Let's imagine that, while in a company, a young man met a girl and they agreed to meet. Each of them develops a system of expectations of behavior accepted in society or a given group. A girl may consider a young man as a potential groom, so it is important for her to establish strong relationships, consolidate acquaintances, find out everything about his views on life, interests and affections, his profession, and material capabilities. The young man, in turn, also thinks about the upcoming meeting either seriously or as another adventure.
The meeting can take place in different ways. One will drive up in a foreign car and invite you to a restaurant, followed by a drive to an empty dacha. Another will suggest going to the movies or just walking in the park. But it is possible that the first young man will soon disappear, and the timid young man will receive a diploma, enter the service, and become a respectable husband.
Forms of social interactions
Mutual expectations are often not met, and the relationships that have arisen are destroyed. If mutual expectations are justified, acquire a predictable, and most importantly, stable form, such interactions are called social relations. Sociology distinguishes the three most common types of interactions - cooperation, competition and conflict.
Cooperation- this type of interaction in which people carry out interrelated actions to achieve common goals. As a rule, cooperation is beneficial for the interacting parties. Common interests unite people, arouse in them feelings of sympathy and gratitude. Mutual benefit encourages people to communicate in an informal setting, contributes to the emergence of an atmosphere of trust, moral comfort, the desire to give in to a dispute, to endure some inconvenience for oneself personally, if this is necessary for business. Collaborative relationships have a lot of advantages and benefits for joint business, fighting competitors, increasing productivity, retaining employees in the organization and preventing staff turnover.
However, over time, interaction based on cooperation begins to acquire a conservative character. People, having studied each other’s capabilities and character traits, imagine what should be expected from each person in a particular situation. Elements of routine arise, the stability of relationships becomes stagnant, giving rise to the need to maintain the status quo. Group members begin to fear change and do not want it. They already have a set of standard, time-tested solutions in almost any situation, have established relationships with the entire system of multilateral relations in society, and know their suppliers of raw materials, informants, designers, and representatives of government agencies. There is no way for newcomers to the group; new ideas do not penetrate into this blocked social space. The group begins to deteriorate.
Interaction based on competition(competition) is one of the most common types of interaction, the opposite of cooperation. The peculiarity of rivalry is that people have the same goals, but pursue different interests. For example, several companies are vying for an order to build a large bridge across the Volga. They have the same goal - to get an order, but their interests are different. Two young men love the same girl, they have the same goal - to achieve her favor, but their interests are opposite.
Rivalry, or competition, is the basis of market relations. In this struggle for income, feelings of hostility, anger towards the opponent, hatred, fear arise, as well as the desire to get ahead of him at all costs. The victory of one often means disaster for the other, loss of prestige, good work, and prosperity. Envy of a successful rival can be so strong that a person commits a crime - hires killers to eliminate a competitor, steals the necessary documents, i.e. goes into conflict. Such cases are a fairly common occurrence, they are widely represented in the literature (T. Dreiser, J. Galsworthy, V.Ya. Shishkov and other writers), they are written about in newspapers, and discussed on television. The most effective means of limiting this kind of competition is the adoption and implementation of relevant laws and the appropriate education of a person. In economics, this is the adoption of a series of antitrust laws; in politics - the principle of separation of powers and the presence of opposition, free press; in the sphere of spiritual life - the dissemination in society of the ideals of goodness and mercy, universal moral values. However, the spirit of competition is an incentive in business and in any work in general, which does not allow a person to rest on his laurels.
- open, direct confrontation, sometimes armed. In the latter case, we can talk about a revolution, an armed uprising, a riot, or mass unrest. For example, after the mass unrest that engulfed Chisinau in 2009 and Bishkek in 2010, there was a change of government in Moldova and Kyrgyzstan. Preventing violent conflicts, struggles that harm people and disrupt public order, is the task of the state. Studying the problem of social interaction, sociologists, in particular T. Parsons, developed the doctrine of balance of the social system, which is a decisive condition for the preservation of the system and its viability. A system is stable or in relative equilibrium if the relationships between its structure and the processes occurring within it, and between it and the environment, are such that the properties and relationships remain unchanged.
However, there is another view that contains an explanation of conflict not only as a negative, but also as a positive element of social life.
Thus, social action is such a human action that correlates with the actions of other people and is oriented towards them. Social action is a constitutive element, a “unit” of social reality. Many sociologists (for example, M. Weber, T. Parsons) saw in it the starting point of the entire system of social relations. Sustained and systematic performance of actions that involves feedback is called social interaction. Social interaction is typically expressed in the form of cooperation, competition, or conflict.