Notes to Social Structure and Interaction

I.  SOCIAL STRUCTURE: THE MACROLEVEL

PERSPECTIVE:

--Social structure (Macro perspective) is the stable pattern of social relationships existing in a particular society or group.

--Provides framework within which we interact with others The structure affects the interaction -- ie, the economic structure, for example, affects how we interact with others (boss and employee in capitalism).

--Social Structure includes:

         Social institutions, groups, statuses, roles, and norms.

A.  Functional Theory: Social structure is essential because it creates order and predictability in a society (Parsons, 1951).

--Also helps individuals form a self-concept

--Connects people to larger society through webbed pattern of social relationships (thus, homeless people are at a disadvantage ‘cause little connections).

--Social structure helps people make sense of their environment (both children and adults).

B.  Conflict Theory: Social structure creates boundaries that define insiders and outsiders.

         1.  social marginality: the state of being part insider and part outsider in the social structure (Park, 1928).

--Results in stigmatization.

--Stigma: is any physical or social attribute or sign that so devalues a person’s social identity that it disqualifies that person from full social acceptance (Goffman, 1963).

--Social structure may limit our options and place us in arbitrary categories not of our choosing.

--Marx said the way economic production is organized is the most important structural aspect of any society.

         --Here, in capitalist societies, where few people control the labor of many, the social structure reflects a system of relationships of domination among categories of people (owner—worker, employer—employee).

II.  COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE

A.  status: a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties.

--Independent of the people occupying them

--Used to define people of lower status, too, like the homeless.

        1.  status set: all statuses at a given time (ie, you might be a student, a son, a boyfriend, and an employee -- that's your status set.)

                 a. ascribed status: social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life (ie, your social class: if you are born into a wealthy family, that wealth is 'given' to you; you didn't do anything to earn it. Someone's ethnicity is also their ascribed status..

                 --Affects achieved status (race, ethnicity, gender affect what we achieve, mostly because people tend to treat us differently and have different expectations on us depending on our gender, race, and ethnicity, to name a few)

                 b. achieved status:  a social position a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort (occupation, education, income/ criminal, drug addict, homeless person).

                 c. master status: the most important status a person occupies, determines a person’s general social position. (Being poor or rich, ‘cause it affects other aspects of life

Women: traditionally, daughter, wife, mother, but now, increasingly, occupation.

Men: traditionally, occupation

         2.  Status symbols:  Material signs of status, informing others of social position (wedding ring diamond, clothing, cars, homeless cart, school bag, uniform, etc.)

B. role: A set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status

        1.  role expectation:  a group of society’s definition of the way a specific role ought to be played.

--Role performance is how a person actually plays that role. Sometimes it's different than what is expected (ie, when a wife cheats on her husband; when a political figure lies to the public; when a parent abuses their child).

         2.  role conflict: occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time.

         3.  role strain: occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies (Women in the job market due to lower pay, less prestige, more road blocks. Another example is the President of the USA -- we have all of these expectations for that one status, and he/she can't possibly do it all).

         4.  role exit: occurs when people disengage themselves from social roles that have been central to their self-identity (divorcees, retirees, ex-cons, graduates).

C. social groups: consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common identity and a feeling of interdependence (friends, college classes, work).

1.  primary group: A smaller, less specialized group in which members engage in face to face, emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time (family, friends, work friends/peers).

2.  secondary group:  A larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time (schools, churches).

         --Come together for specific purpose

         --Individuals relate to each other in terms of specific roles and more limited activities.

3.  social network: a series of social relationships that links an individual to others.

4.  formal organization: A highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals.

D. social institutions:  A set of organized beliefs and rules that establishes how a society will attempt to meet its basic social needs.

--Usually centers around 5 social institutions:

         --The family, Religion, Education, Economy, Government/politics

--A group is composed of specific, identifiable people

--An institution is a standardized way of doing something.

--Conflict theory says social institutions such as the government maintain the privileges of the wealthy and powerful while contributing to the powerlessness of others (re-development and destroying low-income/affordable housing.  Wealthy investors benefit).

III. SOCIAL INTERACTION: THE MICROLEVEL

PERSPECTIVE

A. Social interactions: interpretations vary

--Certain shared meanings, but interpretations vary

(Longs)

--Civil inattention: The ways in which an individual shows an awareness that another is present without making this person the object of particular attention.

--Demonstrates that interaction does have a pattern, which regulates the form and processes (but not content) of social interaction (Walking towards one and other on street, look at each other long enough to acknowledge but not to be rude).

--Social encounters have different meanings for men and women, whites and people of color, and individuals from different social classes.

B. The social construction of reality: subjective

--The Social Construction of Reality:  The process by which our perception of reality is largely shaped by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience.

--Influences what we see and how we respond.

        1.  The self-fulfilling prophecy:  A false belief or prediction that causes behavior that makes the original false belief come true.

--So we construct reality the way we see it and act that way which produces it.

--Dominant group members with prestigious statuses may have the ability to establish how other people define ‘reality’ (how things ‘should be’, according to them (like ‘The family’).

C. Ethnomethodology:  The study of commonsense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves.

--Interaction is based on assumptions of shared expectancies (taking turns talking is expected).

--Ethno’s break rules and observe other people’s responses.

--But expectations of reality are also related to gender, social class, race/ethnicity (women may react differently to ‘breaking the rules’).

D. Dramaturgical analysis: The study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation (Goffman, 1959).

-- Life is a theatrical presentation

1. Erving Goffman: day-to-day interactions are like a dramatic production

2.  Presentation of self—people present most favorable self --impression management : refers to people’s efforts to present the their most favorable image.

         --face-saving behavior: strategies to rescue performance.

         --studied nonobservance : When one role performer ignores the flaws in another’s performance to avoid embarrassment for all.  We forgive others ‘cause we’ve failed, too (Wendy at Raley’s).

3. Social interaction, like a theater, has a front stage and a back stage.

4.  Impression management is difficult while playing more than one role.

E. The Sociology of Emotions

1. Arlie Hochschild’s “feeling rules”

--Shape the appropriate emotions for a given role or specific situation.

--Includes how, when, where, and with whom an emotion should be expressed.

--Tells us what is required, acceptable, and unacceptable.

2. Emotional labor: Occurs only in jobs that require personal contact with the public or the production of a state of mind (such as hope, desire, or fear) in others (Hochschild, 1983)

• (Waiting on tables, or any time we have to show emotions that aren't really how we feel, just to please others.)

--Employees expected to show feelings that are often not their own.

--Emotional labor is an issue because it may produce estrangement from one’s “true” self.

--C. Wright Mills says emotional labor is self-alienating:

         --The commercialization of our feelings may dehumanize our work role performance and create alienation and contempt that spill over into other aspects of our lives (Hochschild, 1983).

3. gender, class, and race:

--Gender: Men and women are socialized to express emotions differently (crying).

--Class: some middle and upper class parents often work with people and thus emphasize importance of emotional labor to their children, more so than working class parents, who tend to work with things rather than people.

Race: discrimination and racism make it necessary to continually manage feelings.

F. nonverbal communication: The transfer of information between individuals without the use of words.

--Includes:

         --visual cues: gestures, appearances)

         --vocal features (inflection, volume, pitch)

         --environmental factors (space, position)

--All affect meaning

(Facial expressions, head movement, body position)

(Interviewing detainees at HPD).

--May be intentional or unintentional

--Social interaction is regulated by non-verbal com

         (body position and eye contact signal that we do or don’t want to talk with someone).

--Facial expressions, eye contact and touching:  Differences of Gender (smiling)

         --Touching: women hug and touch others to indicate affection and emotional support, and men to give directions, assert power, and express sexual interest (Wood, 1999).

G. personal space: depends

--The immediate space surrounding a person that that person claims as private (stand next to a student and ask if they are comfortable)

--Affects of age, gender, social class, and kind of relationship

IV. SOCIETIES: CHANGES IN SOCIAL

STRUCTURE

--Changes in social structure affect individuals, groups, and societies.

--Interactions are based on social structure (status, roles, groups, institutions) so changes in structure lead to changes in interaction.

--A change in the division of labor leads to changes in social structure leading to changes in interaction.

--How Macro affects Micro (and visa versa)

A. Durkheim's Typology: How do societies hold

together?

--First, a typology is just a classification scheme containing two or more mutually exclusive categories that are used to compare different kinds of behavior or types of societies.

1. Mechanical solidarity: Refers to the social cohesion in preindustrial societies (simple, less advanced societies).

--Based on shared moral beliefs, values

a) People are united by shared values and common social bonds.

b) Automatic sense of belonging

c) Social interaction is face-to-face, intimate, primary groups

d) little specialization (minimum division of labor—similar work, little specialization, similar status

--The division of labor in preindustrial societies made social structure/interaction a certain way, because it was based on face-to-face interaction and shared morals and values.

--Conscious Collective

2. Organic solidarity: Refers to the social cohesion found in industrial societies (modern and advanced societies).

--The division of labor changes so interaction changes.

--Interaction is based on people’s shared dependence on one another.

a) ‘Organic’ like organs of a body functioning interdependently.

b) Social interaction is:

• less personal
• more status oriented
• more focused on specific goals and objectives

c) People perform specialized tasks

d) People feel united by their mutual dependence

e) Bound together by practical considerations

--ALL due to changes in the division of labor

--But Durkheim argued that in reality, modern societies, organic solidarity was as yet imperfectly realized.

B. Tonnies' Typology: refers to degree of social

solidarity. (1855-1936)

--Tonnies’ asked: What happens when a loss of community occurs?

• gemeinschaft: (“community”)

--A traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship and kinship and on intergenerational stability.

--(Preindustiral USA, Simple, small scale societies)

        a)Relationships based on ascribed statuses.  Commitment to the group.

--What you’re born into, not achieving beyond

         b)strong sense of belonging and commitment to group

         c) social control and social solidarity are maintained by the community

         d) limited privacy

2. gesellschaft: (“association”):

--A large, urban society, in which social bonds are based on impersonal and specialized relationships, with little long-term commitment to the group or consensus on values (Modern, urban, industrialized societies)

a. relationships are based on achieved statuses

b. interactions are intentional and calculated

c.  self-interest dominates because they feel that they have little in common

--All due to the nature of the social structure

V. CHANGING SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND

INTERACTION IN THE TWENTY­FIRST CENTURY

• Increased opportunities, but still problems
• stress, fear, homelessness, discrimination, poverty

RESOURCES

Websites:
Social Structure – Wikipedia