Mr. Sink’s Sociology – Unit 1: The Building Blocks of Society
WHAT IS A SOCIETY?
What is a society?
 According to sociologists, a society is a group of mutually interdependent people who have
organized in such a way as to share a common culture and feeling of unity.
What are the three sociological models for comparing human societies?
1.
Durkheim’s Mechanical and Organic Solidarity – In his book Division of Labor (1893),
Sociologist Emile Durkheim argued that the character a society develops depends on its division
of labor – in other words, on the manner in which tasks are performed. This allowed him to
distinguish between the division of labor in simple societies, which he called mechanical
solidarity, and that of complex societies, which he titled organic solidarity.
Mechanical Solidarity
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Majority of the population engaged in meeting
basic needs
Food production is the main economic activity
Division of labor is very simple; there is very
little specialization
Close-knit social relationships that result from a
small group of people sharing the same values
& performing the same tasks
Organic Solidarity
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Fewer people needed to provide necessary food
& basic goods
Production of goods, information , and/or the
provision of services are main economic
activities
Specialized workers – individuals pursue
different occupations
Impersonal & temporary relationships;
individual goals are more important than group
goals
Tönnies’s Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft – Sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies (1855-1936) was
appalled by the rise of the industrial city in his native Germany during the late 1800s. In his view,
the city marked a dramatic change from the ideal of the close-knit community, which he termed a
Gemeinschaft, to that of an impersonal mass society, known as Gesellschaft. He based his
characteristics of these two different societies on the structure of social relationships and the
degree of shared values among societal members.
Gemeinschaft
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Rural life typifies this form
People share a similar feeling of community that
results from their similar backgrounds & life
experiences
Social interactions are intimate & familiar
People maintain a spirit of cooperation & unity
of will
Tasks & personal relationships cannot be
separated
People place little emphasis on privacy
Informal social control predominates
People are not very tolerant of deviance
Emphasis on ascribed statuses
Social change is relatively limited
Gesellschaft
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Urban life typifies this form
People have little sense of commonality. Their
differences are more striking than their
similarities
Social interactions are likely to be impersonal &
task specific
Self-interest dominates
The task being performed is paramount;
relationships are subordinate
Privacy is valued
Formal social control is evident
Emphasis is on achieved statuses
Social change is very evident, even within a
generation
3.
Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach – Sociologist Gerhard Lenski takes a very different
view of society. Rather than distinguishing between two opposite types of society, as Tönnies did,
Lenski sees human societies as undergoing a process of change characterized by a dominant
pattern known as sociocultural evolution. This term refers to long-term trends in societies
resulting from the interplay of continuity, innovation, and selection (Nolan & Lenski, 2009; 361).
In Lenski’s view, a society’s level of technology is critical to the way it is organized. Lenski
defines technology as “information about how to use the material resources of the environment to
satisfy human needs and desires” (Nolan & Lenski 2009: 37). The availably technology does not
completely define the form that a particular society will take, but a low level of technology may
limit the degree to which a society can depend on such things as irrigation or complex machinery.
As technology advances, Lenski writes, a community evolves from a preindustrial to an industrial
and finally a postindustrial society. The following table summarizes Lenski’s stages of
sociocultural evolution…
Societal Type
First Appearance
Characteristics
Hunting-and-Gathering
Beginning of human life
Nomadic; reliance on readily
available food & fibers
Horticultural
About 12,000 years ago
More settled; development of
agriculture and limited
technology
Agrarian
About 5, 000 years ago
Larger, more stable settlements;
improved technology &
increased crop yields
Industrial
1760-1850
Postindustrial
1960s
Postmodern
Latter 1970s
Reliance on mechanical power
& new sources of energy;
centralized workplaces;
economic interdependence;
formal education
Reliance on services, especially
the processing & control of
information; expanded middle
class
High technology; mass
consumption of consumer
goods & media images; crosscultural integration &
globalization