lecture 1 building enconomics and sociology

Lecture 1 Nature, Scope & Utility of Sociology. Essential Elements of Society, Bio-Society, Bio-Social & Socio Cultural Systems.

Janardhan Malakapalli (PhD),M.Tech(urp),AIIA,Dip.Arch.

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Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior & human groups. It focuses primarily on the influence of social relationships upon people’s attitudes and behavior and on how societies are established and change.

Some Definitions of sociology,

Durkheim while defining sociology has said that, “It is the Science of collective representation.”

Max Weber has viewed sociology as “Science which attempts imperative understanding of social actions”.

Ogburn has said that, “Sociology is concerned with the study of social life and its relations to the factors of culture, natural environment, heredity and group.”

Sorokin is of the opinion that sociology is a study first of all the relationship and correlations between various classes...second between the social and non social aspects of life and third it studies general characteristics common to all classes of society.

Definition of sociology, its scope.

For architects the scope of sociology would be the study of how “social relationships which influence spatial relationships”.

The methods developed in sociology are adopted to study every social problem scientifically and objectively without subjectivity to the extent possible.

Some see the world basically as a stable and ongoing entity. They are impressed with the endurance of the family, organized religion, and other social institutions. Some sociologists see society as composed of many groups in conflict, competing for scarce resources. To other sociologists, the most fascinating aspects of the social world are the everyday, routine Interactions among individuals that we sometimes take for granted.

Perspectives in sociology,

Nature of sociology.

Sociology is a social science and not a natural science, because it deals with human beings and social phenomena..

It is positive and not normative science because it studies social phenomena as it is and not as it ought to be.

It is pure and not applied science because it studies underlying factors of a social phenomenon.

Sociology is an abstract and not a concrete science because it studies society in general. It deals with society, which in itself is abstract and as such the subject cannot be concrete.

It is a science of generalization and not that of particularization because it studies a social problem in general and not in particular way.

It does not study a social phenomenon from a particular angle. It is an empirical or rational science because it tries to follow logical method of data collection.

School of Thoughts in Sociology.

There are two main schools of thought about the scope of sociology. They are Formal & Synthetic school of thought.

Formal school of thought believes that scope of sociology should not be generalized but confined to the study of some specific aspects of society. The exponents of this school wish to keep the subject pure and independent. According to them it should deal with social relationships, social activities and processes of socialization.

Max Weber, who is the chief exponent of this school of thought, has said that sociology should deal with interpretations of social behaviors only.

Vier Kandt, who is another exponent of this school of thought, is of the view that sociology should confine itself to the study of formal and not the actual behavior of the people in the society.

Schools of thought in sociology.

There are two main schools of thought about the scope of sociology.

Synthetic School of thought believes that sociology should study society as a whole and not confine itself to the study of only limited social problems. Auguste comte believes that the scope of sociology should be considerably widened.

According to him the study of one aspect of society can lead to misleading results because all aspects of society, like parts of human body, are inter-linked.

Significance of sociology:

Awareness Of Cultural Differences

First sociologist allows us to see the social world from many perspectives.

Quite often, if we understand how people live, we can have better idea about their problems.

Policies, which are meant for solving the problems of people’s may fail if they have not understood the life of people.

Example – Policies regarding tribal, or slum dwellers rehabilitation or street hawkers shifting bar dancer’s profession or even allowing shopkeepers to have late night business, all require practical knowledge of their life.


Assessing The Effect Of Policies

Many policies related to employment or rehabilitation of people failed miserable since they do not make use of the aims & real needs of people.

Sociologist brings the basic needs, & objectives of people are concerned into light so that the government can understand the causes of failure.

Unless people are involved in any programmed mean for them, the programme is not going to be successful.

Sociological research points, out deficiencies, in the policy and discrepancy between the people’s aims & the policy aims.


Self Enlightenment

Sociology provides, knowledge to understand self. Sociology helps us to know why we behave in a particular manner. Many self help groups- Alcoholics, dog lovers, Anonymous, environmentalist, Senior citizen group have learned to help themselves without being dependent on government.

Knowledge of sociology can be used in the following areas of social life:

1. Teaching 2. Social research 3. Social work 4. Professions-medicine, law, engineering, business etc. 5. Industry 6. Rural and Urban planning

7. Public administration- civil services 8. Policy making 9. business consulting 10. Politics 11. Architecture 12. Child welfare and Health welfare 13. Gerontology (study of old age people)

14. Computer industry 15. Military intelligence and military 16. Entrepreneurship 17. International relations 18. Criminal justice 19. City management 20. New emerging careers: (a) action programme, & (b) development

Elements of society:-

Culture. Social Structure. Social

Interaction. Socialization.

Elements of society: Culture.

In sociological usage, culture specifically refers to social structure and ideas that give meaning to human social structure, while society refers to social structure some what apart from underlying values and ideas.

The study of the “society” or social structure, of a group, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with the patterns of organization and interaction built upon that cultural background.

To a sociologist, a culture is a system of ideas, values, beliefs, knowledge, norm, customs and technology shared by almost everyone in a particular society.

Elements of society: Culture definition.

Culture is often referred as a “Sum total of behavior traits which a person, comes to acquire through instruction and learning. It shapes an individuals reaction to external environment it provides the individual a structure of socially approved ideas and beliefs, norms and values.

B. Malinowski has defined culture as the cumulative creation of man”. He also regarded culture as a handiwork of man and the medium, through which he achieves his ends.

Robert Bierstadt Simplified Tylor’s definition by stating “culture is the complex whole that consists of all the ways we think and do and everything we have as member of society. “

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/vamsi001-1915612-elements-culture-society/

According to Kingsley Davis, societies may be classified into two broad types depending upon the nature of social patterns.

Social patterns are determined by heredity or culture. Societies that have patterns fixed by ‘heredity’ may be called ‘bio-social’, and those fixed by ‘culture’ may be called ‘socio-cultural’.

All social species except man exhibit the ‘bio-social system’ and man alone exhibits the socio-cultural system.

Thus, the term bio-social system’ stands for animal society whereas the expression ‘socio-cultural system’ represents human society.

Source:- http://www.shareyouressays.com/87254/essay-on-bio-social-systems

Bio-Social & Socio Cultural Systems

Heredity, the main trait of Bio-social System:

The non-human social system meets its basic needs mainly through the mechanisms that are determined by heredity. The individuals respond to the social situations mostly instinctively.

It does not mean that all the members react in the same way always.

Because the physical characteristics of the individuals differ in predetermined ways.

Here the continuation of the social system is accomplished through the transmission of the genes.

Here a change in the social order is possible only from the change in the germ plasma.

The bio-social systems are thus largely hereditary in character. Each kind of such society whether of termites or of birds, or of bees, is characteristic of the species as a whole. It means the species as a whole reveal the same characteristics throughout the world.


In the case of human society, such uniformity is not found.

Though all the human beings belong to the same species- the ‘homo sapiens their social patterns differ from place to place and time to time.

These social patterns are not determined by heredity, but by cultural transmission.

Socio – cultural System:


The explanation of the tremendous variations among human societies is that their common genetic heritage enables them to develop very different cultural heritages. Because human societies, unlike those of other species, have both a social and cultural dimension, sociologists and other social scientists often refer to them as sociocultural systems.

Source:- http://www2.fiu.edu/~grenierg/chapter2.htm

THE 5 BASIC COMPONENTS OF HUMAN SOCIETIES

POPULATION, CULTURE, MATERIAL PRODUCTS, SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, & SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

1.Population

Population is the first basic component of society. It refers to the members of a society considered collectively. In analyzing human societies there are 3 aspects of population: (a) the genetic constants, (a) the genetic variables and (a) the demographic variables.

2. Culture

The second basic component of every sociocultural system is culture, a society’s symbol systems and the information they convey.

The symbol systems and store of information that comprise a society’s culture are like a foundation laid down by previous generations.

Because each generation has this base on which to build, it can avoid repeating many of the experiences of earlier generations.

Technology is information about how to use the material resources of the environment to satisfy human needs and desires.

Material Products

Material products consists of the things human society produces or obtains through trade. These products of technology range from perishable food to architecture. Energy is easily the most vital product of societal activity

Social Organization

Social organization refers to the network of relationships among a society’s members. These relationships make it possible for members to satisfy both their individual needs and the needs of society as a whole. When we think of social organization we must think of it as a product of the interaction of culture and people itself consisting of 5 elements: (1) individuals, (2) social positions, roles & statuses, (3) groups, (4) classes, and (5) stratification.

THE 5 BASIC COMPONENTS OF HUMAN SOCIETIES

Ideology

Much of the information in culture is ideological and results from efforts to make sense out of human experience. Ideology is information used to interpret experience and help order societal life (40). There are 3 basic elements that comprise every ideology

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociocultural_system