society
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society [2016/06/14 23:26] – created Ryan Schram (admin) | society [2021/07/08 22:42] (current) – [Is social theory necessarily pessimistic?] Ryan Schram (admin) | ||
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- | # Society | + | # Society |
- | Society is a key concept scholars use to understand human life. It is a very broad, fuzzy concept in some ways. Many times people use it descriptively rather than with any specific, | + | A key concept scholars use to understand human life is that of **society**. It is a very broad, fuzzy concept in some ways. Many times people use it descriptively rather than with one rigourously defined |
- | Although scholars differ on how they define | + | Although scholars differ on how they conceptualize |
- | A society is **not** | + | * **A society is like a machine.** it has many specialized parts. Each part of the machine fits together with other parts, like gears in a clock, to make the whole machine work. Put another |
- | **A society is more like a machine.** it has many specialized parts. Each part of the machine fits together with other parts, like gears in a clock to make the whole machine work. Put another | + | * A society is **__not__ |
- | //Here's the tricky part...// One of the specialized elements of a social system is its " | + | * //But here's the tricky part...// One of the specialized elements of a social system is its " |
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+ | I think many people assume that society is more like a building, and I do see an appealing aspect to that. At least with that metaphor, you can imagine how an individual relates to the social whole. In the building metaphor, individuals live inside the building. It might limit how they act, but the building-society gives them shelter. Again, it is easy to think this way, because this is really what it feels like to be a member of society. It's looking at the social system from the perspective of the individuals in it. But that's not the whole story. We also have to look at society from the top-down, from a bird's eye view of the whole. | ||
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+ | Human beings are mortal, but societies are immortal. A society continues to function even as old people die and new people are born to take their place. Even as a society grows and changes over time, there' | ||
In other words, societies are systems. They are made up of parts, and all the parts are connected to form one whole. The parts depend on each other. Social analysis means looking at one thing, one type of behavior or idea in a society, and placing it in a larger social contexts. That means seeing it as a part of a larger whole. | In other words, societies are systems. They are made up of parts, and all the parts are connected to form one whole. The parts depend on each other. Social analysis means looking at one thing, one type of behavior or idea in a society, and placing it in a larger social contexts. That means seeing it as a part of a larger whole. | ||
+ | ## Is social theory necessarily pessimistic? | ||
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+ | If you think about it, the main message of the machine metaphor of society is that one individual cannot make a difference. Individuals, | ||
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+ | This is where the general lack of rigor in social sciences becomes an asset. We are not bound to accept one single perspective on social life. We can adopt this view as a way to be skeptical about other theories and gain critical distance on what other people take for granted. We don't have to accept it as dogma. We can struggle with the pessimism about individual agency. Indeed one of the central debates in the social sciences has been over how much weight to give to the machine metaphor and how much weight to give to a perspective that includes individuals' | ||
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+ | I however choose to embrace a positive side I see in the machine metaphor. I as an individual may not have a big effect on society as a whole, but social systems have powers of their own. Social movements are social systems too. People can change the world not just by cooperating, | ||
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+ | <WRAP box similar> |
society.1465972014.txt.gz · Last modified: 2016/06/14 23:26 by Ryan Schram (admin)