Chapter 5: Social Structure and Society
Social structure – the official definition is “the underlying patterns of relationships in a group”.
What this means is that we walk into various situations where we have some sort of expectation
of what will happen. You go to first period having an expectation of what is going to happen.
Then the bell rings, and you go to talk to your friends, and already know what to expect there.
When your parents say that they need to have a talk with you, you may not know what it is
about (or you might), but you know how it will play out. When you go to a job interview, you
know how to behave and have a general idea of how the manager will act. This is social
structure.
Status – A status is the position people occupy within a social structure. This includes student,
doctor, secretary, mother, fathers, son, daughter…. People have more than one status at a
given time. This is called a status set. Mrs. Truelove is a daughter, mother, teacher,
photographer, small business owner, wife, best friend and so on, depending on the
circumstance at the time. Some are more important than others. The important ones that affect
other aspects of a person’s life are called Master statuses. Being a mom is a master status, as a
mom might change careers or even end a career based on this status. She may change her
hours at work, and chose safer forms of entertainment to ensure her safety and that of her
family.
*Ascribed status is one that is not earned or chosen – we are given these. For example, male &
female; our age is ascribed (Children can’t be adults, and adults can’t be teens again, no matter
how much each would like and try to be). Also, some areas ascribe a religion on their citizens.
Many Muslims have no choice but to be Islamic. In India, class is ascribed and a person does
not have a choice about what class he or she is in and cannot change classes or marry outside
his or her class.
*Achieved status is what someone knowingly attempts or becomes. People chose to be
married. People chose to be parents. They can chose to attend college, or enter whatever
career field that they want to get into. These are all examples of achieved status.
Roles
* A role is an expected behavior that goes with a particular status. For example, a role of a
teacher (status) is to maintain order in the classroom, create learning opportunities, and assess
student learning. So the status is the position a person holds, and a role is the behavior, or
what they do. Every person has multiple statuses (positions) and each status has multiple roles
(jobs to do).
* Role conflict is when a performance of a role in one status negatively affects the performance
of a role in another status. For example, all of you are students. If you ALSO have jobs, you
may find it difficult to both study and put in enough hours at work. Role strain is a little different.
This is when a person has a hard time meeting the demands of the roles from one status. For
example, some students may be expected to keep their grades up while also participating in
school related clubs and/or sports and maintaining friendships. Teachers sometimes have
difficulty with role strain. We must plan lessons, create, conduct, and analyze assessments,
build relationships with the students, search for new resources to use, record grades, contact
and build relationships with parents, attend staff development, research new teaching methods,
do paperwork, and so much more...
Preindustrial Society – These societies were considered independent and self-sufficient,
unlike societies today who rely on ties with other societies. For example, when the American
economy is in recession, many other countries’ economies are affected as well. We don’t have
the money to buy from them, then they don’t have the money to buy from us. It is a cycle.
· Hunting and Gathering societies would hunt animals and gather plants and food to eat.
They existed 2 million to 10,000 years ago. They would not stay in one place, so they were
nomadic. They had to move from place to place once the food source was depleted or when
the season changes. Because of this moving around, they have little material possessions.
They are small tribes with less than 50 people. They are usually related to each other through
either blood or marriage, but incest doesn’t occur. Marriages are between people that are not
related or outside of their group. They do not ‘pay’ for things. They share everything and have
little concept of personal property. Since no one owns anything, there are no social classes.
No “rich” or “poor”. They do not have governing bodies, so no politics or ‘power’. Each person
has a particular task or job, and these are assigned based on age and gender. Males and
Females do different jobs, just like young people, adults and the elderly have their separate
tasks.
· Horticultural Societies developed over several centuries from hunting and gathering
societies. They grew their own food. Because they grew their own food, they no longer had to
move as often. They could stay in one place until the soil wasn’t fertile any longer. They were
more settled, and this allowed them to grow bigger than the Hunters and Gatherers. They
would get to be about 1,000-2,000 people living together in a multicommunity. Each family
provides for the members in his or her household.
· Pastoral Societies – Horticultural societies do keep animals, but pastoral societies rely on
animals for their primary source of food. To feed the animals, they must trade with others.
These societies are male-dominated and women have a low status. Women stay at home while
the men herd the animals in the pastures. There is often a surplus of food, so more complex
division of labor is possible. People can hold other jobs such as political or religious leaders
and makers of clothes, pottery and spears. This brings in trade with each other. People that
make pottery need food and clothes, so they use their pottery for currency. Those that make
food use it as currency to purchase clothes and and spears. And so on. Some people, families,
and clans can have more than others, so social classes or castes begin.
· Agricultural Societies developed from horticultural societies with the use of the plow. Using
animals and plows allows a greater amount of food to be produced, so this frees up a lot of
people to work other jobs. Government becomes the guiding force in people’s lives. Early on,
they were headed by a king or emperor. Social classes are formed and distinct. They were
based on land ownership (controlled by the government). The elites (upper class) enjoy the
benefits of work done by peasants (poor). Money started to be used instead of trade.
Industrial and Post Industrial Societies - With the industrial revolution, society shifted from
simplistic technology, such as plows, to using machines. These machines replaced human and
animal power, allowing mass amounts of products to be produced (which is called
machanization). These machines also freed up more time for the farmers. We didn’t need as
many farmers, which meant that more people were free to do other jobs. Cities started to form
and were the center for jobs and resources. More and more people left the farms and moved to
the cities, in a process called urbanization.
* The role of the family goes through quite a few changes in the industrial age. Where making
money and educating children used to happen at home, they no longer do. People are
employed in factories. These jobs require an education beyond what their parents could
provide (and parents are working outside the home), so education begins to take place in a
more formal setting. Often, people have to move to cities to find these jobs, away from blood
relatives. Living close to relatives, then, loses importance. Women are beginning to work, and
thus are not as financially reliant on their husbands for support (Divorces begin to occur more
frequently). And, with industrialization, social class is not set in stone. It isn’t so much the
social class of a person’s parents that matters, but how much he or she accomplishes at their
job. Jobs themselves have social statuses attached to them (still today they do). Think about
this… if you met an adult that was a doctor and another adult that was a janitor, which would
you be the most impressed by?
*Countries such as the United States have moved past industrial society, to one that
emphasizes services and information, not just goods. This is called postindustrial society.
There are 5 major features of a postindustrial society:
1) The majority of people work in service-based industries such as banking, medical care, fast
food, and entertainment. Mrs. Truelove is a photographer and a teacher. These are both
service-based jobs. In 2000, 75% of the employed workers in the US were in service based
jobs.
2) White-collar employment replaces much blue-collar work. The most rapid growth has been in
professional and technical employment.
3) Technical knowledge is the key organizing feature in postindustrial society. Knowledge is
used to create innovations and making government policy.
4) Technological change is planned and assessed. In an industrial society, the effects of
technology weren’t considered. In postindustrial society, both the good and bad effects can be
considered before the innovation is ever made.
5) Reliance on computer modeling in all areas - with computers, it is possible to take into
consideration a large number of interacting variables in various situations at the same time.
This allows our government at the national, state, and local levels to operate.