Читать книгу Our Social World - Kathleen Odell Korgen - Страница 108

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Picture a house. First, there is the foundation, then the wood frame, and then the walls and roof. This provides the framework or structure. Within that structure, activities called processes take place—electricity to turn on lights and appliances, water to wash in and drink, and people to carry out these processes. If something goes wrong in the house, we take steps to control the damage and repair it.

Now compare that picture of a house with a society. The social structure of a society, its groups and organizations, is the framework of society. The social processes are the dynamic activities of society that take place within those structures. This section begins with a discussion of the structure of society, followed by the processes of culture and socialization through which individuals are taught cultural rules—how to live effectively within their society’s structure. Although socialization of individuals takes place primarily at the micro level, we explore its implications at the meso and macro levels as well.

If we break the social structure into parts, such as the wood frame, walls, and roof of a house, it is the groups and organizations (including large organizations, or bureaucracies) that are parts of the social structure. To work smoothly, these organizations depend on people’s loyalty so that the participants do what society and its groups need to survive. However, these components do not always work well together. Things break down. Leaders in societies try to control disruptions and deviant individuals in order to maintain their control of social structures, whatever their goals may be.

As we explore the next few chapters, we continue to examine social life at the micro, meso, and macro levels, for as individuals we are profoundly shaped by social processes and structures at larger and more abstract levels, all the way to the global level.