The document discusses social interaction and social structure from a sociological perspective. It defines social interaction as how people respond to and interact with one another, whether in person or online. Social structure refers to the organization of relationships within a society. Sociologists study patterns of social interaction and the structures that shape them. The document then examines key elements of social structure, including statuses, roles, groups, social networks, and institutions. It also discusses different sociological theories of social structure, such as Durkheim's mechanical and organic solidarity and Tonnies' gemeinschaft and gesellschaft.

1. Social Interaction
Social
Interaction
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2. Social interaction
Refer to the ways in which people respond to one another,
whether face to face or over the telephone or on the
computer.
Social Structure refers to the way in which a society is
organized into predictable relationships.
The closely linked concepts of social interaction and social
structure are central to sociological study.
- Sociologists scrutinize patterns of behavior to
understand and accurately describe the social interactions of
a community or society and the social structure in
which they take place.
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3.  Considering how social interaction shapes the way
we view the world around us, we will focus on…
The Five Elements of Social Structure:
Statuses
Social Roles
Groups
Social Networks
Social Institutions
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4. Herbert Blumer – the distinctive characteristic of social
interaction among people is that “human beings interpret or
‘define’ each other’s actions instead of merely reacting to
each other’s actions.
In other words, our response to someone’s behavior is
based on the meaning we attach to his or her actions.
Reality is shaped by our perceptions, evaluation, and
definitions.
The meaning that we attach to people’s behavior are
shaped by our interactions with them and with the larger
society.
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5. Defining and Reconstructing Reality.
Sociologist William I. Thomas, an early critic of theories of
racial and gender differences, recognized that the
“definition of the situation” could mold the thinking and
personality of the individual.
Thomas observed that people respond not only to the
objective features of a person or situation but also to the
meaning that the person or situation has for them.
Erving Goffman – “presentation of the self” – all of us have
an image of how we want to be seen by others.
Negotiation…
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6. Negotiation
 refers to attempt to reach agreement with others
concerning some objective.
It is through negotiation that society creates its social
structure.
Examples of situations where negotiation takes place:
Family-to-family bargaining
College financial aid programs
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7. Negotiated Order
 refersto a social structure that derives its
existence from the social interactions through
which people define and redefine its character.
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8. Elements of Social Structure:
 Statuses
 Social Roles
 Groups
 Social Networks
 Social Institutions
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9. 1. Statuses
- refers to any of the full range of socially defined
positions within a large group or society.
 Ascribed status is assigned to a person by society
without regard for the person's unique talents or
characteristics.
This takes place at birth such as age, gender, racial
background and other biological characteristics.
Ascribed status does not necessarily have the same
social meaning in every society.
 Achieved status comes largely through efforts.
Examples are statuses such as “bank president”,
“lawyer” and other professions.
Our ascribed status frequently influences our achieved
status.
 Master status is a status that dominates others and
thereby determines a person's general position in
society.
It only shows that an individual can hold different and
conflicting statuses in his/her lifetime.
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10. 2. Social Roles
 is a set of expectations for people who
occupy a given social position or status.
 With each distinctive social status –
whether ascribed or achieved, come
particular role expectations.
 The actual performance of social roles
varies from individual to individual.
 roles are a significant component of
social
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11. Viewed from a functionalist perspective:
 roles contribute to a society’s stability by enabling members to
anticipate the behavior of others and to pattern their own actions
accordingly.
 yet social roles can also be dysfunctional if they restrict people’s
interactions and relationships.
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12. Role Conflict
 occurs when incompatible expectations arise from two or more social
positions held by the same person.
 fulfillment of the roles associated with one status may directly violate the roles
linked to a second status
 calls for important ethical choices.
 another type of role conflict occurs when individuals move into occupations
that are common among people with their ascribed status.
Role Strain
 describes the difficulty that arises when the same social position imposes
conflicting demands and expectations.
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13. Role exit
 developed by sociologist Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh to describe the process of
disengagement from a role that is central to one’s self-identity and establishment of a new
role and identity.
Ebaugh has offered a four-stage model of role exit.
1. The first stage begins with doubt,
- the person experiences frustration, burnout, or simply unhappiness with an accustomed
status and the roles associated with the social position.
2. The second stage involves a search for alternatives.
- a person who is unhappy with his or her career may take a leave of absence.
3. The third stage or role exit is the action stage or departure.
-a turning point that made the person leave their job, end their marriage.
4. The last stage of role exit involves the creation of a new identity.
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14. Groups
 A group is any number of people with
similar norms, Values and expectations who
interact with one another on a regular
basis.
 Every society is composed of many groups
in which daily social Interaction takes
place.
 We seek out groups to establish friendships,
to accomplish certain goals, And to fulfill
the social roles we have acquired.
 Groups play a vital role in a society’s social
structure. Much of our social interaction
takes place within groups and is influenced
by their norms and sanctions.
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15.  New technology has broadened the definition of groups to include those who
interact electronically. Not all the “people” with whom we converse online are
real. At some websites, chatterbots – fictitious correspondents created by
artificial intelligence programs – respond to questions as if a human were
replying.
Ultimately, such conversations may develop into a chat group that includes
other online correspondents, both real and artificial. New groups organized
around interests, such as antique collection or bowling, have already arisen from
this type of virtual reality.
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16. Social Network
 a series of social relationships that
links a person directly to others, and
through them indirectly to still more
people.
Social
Networks  may constrain people by limiting
and the range of their interactions, yet
networks may also empower
Technology
people by making available to
them vast resources (Lin 1999).
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17. Involvement in social networks
(networking) is especially valuable in
finding employment.
According to Manuel Castells, these
Social emerging electronic social networks are
fundamental to new organizations and
Networks
the growth of existing businesses and
and associations. One such network, in
Technology particular, is changing the way people
interact.
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18. Texting- is the exchange of wireless
e-mails over cell phones.
 began first in Asia in 2000 and has
now taken off North America and
Europe.
 popular among young users, who
sent shorthand messages such as
Social “WRU” and “CU2NYT”.
Networks
and  Sociologists caution that devices
such as cell phones may create a
Technology
workday that never ends, and that
increasingly people are busy
checking their digital devices rather
than actually conversing with those
around them (Rosen 2001).
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19. Well-established networks have
developed to help beginners at
electronic communication to connect
to the Internet.
Social In 2003, when the U.S. troops were
sent to the Middle East, many people
Networks
relied on e-mail. Today, digital photos,
and and sound files accompany e-mail
Technology messages between soldiers and their
family and friends.
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20. RU Ready for Texting Lingo?
@ wrk At work AYT Are you there?
A3 Anytime, anywhere, CU2NYT See you tonight
anyplace
Abt 2 About to Grr I’m angry
AFAIR As far as I RUF2T Are you free to
remember talk?
AML All my love RUMF Are you male or
female?
A/S Age/Sex? UOK Are you OK?
AWCIGO And where can WRU Where are you?
I get one?
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21. Social Institutions
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22. Mass Media Government
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23. Economy Family
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24. Health Care System
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25. FUNCTIONALIST VIEW
 Replacing personnel
 Teaching new recruits
 Producing and distributing goods and services
 Preserving order
 Providing and maintaining sense of purpose
CONFLICT VIEW
 Major Institutions
– -education
– -religion
INTERACTIONIST VIEW
“Social Institutions affect our everyday behavior, whether we are
driving down the street or waiting in a long shopping line.”
-Sociologist Mitchell Duneier
“The Network Center”
Interactionist theorists emphasize that our social behavior is
conditioned by the roles we accept, the grounds, the groups to which
we belong, and the institutions within which we function.
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26. CONFLICT VIEW VS. FUNCTIONALISM
 Functionalists believe that society is a social system consisting of
various integrated parts. Each of these parts fulfills a specific role that
contributes to the overall functioning of society.
 The conflict view of life regards all social interactions as a struggle for
authority and privilege. Each person in society and every group is
seen as being in competition for scarce and valued resources.
Comparison and Contrast.
 Functionalists view society as a social system with a variety of needs
of its own which have to be met if the requirements and needs of its
members are to be met. Conflict theorists view society as the setting
within which they strive over wealth and power.
 The functionalist regards the principal bodies of every society as
value neutral entities within which various struggles occur.
 Functionalists argue that coercion plays only an insignificant role and
that disparity arises as a necessary result of the fact that there is a
compromise within the society on its most important values and jobs
and differential rewards are essential to a society’s effective
functioning.
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27.  Social and economic inequality, in the conflict view,
arises because of the operation of coercive institutions, which
put a great emphasis on power, deception, and inheritance as
the main avenues for obtaining rights and privileges.
Functionalists have stressed such things as hard work, inborn
talent, and selection by others as the way by which economic
advantages can be obtained by some and not by others.
 Functionalists see class categories as mere objects or
categories. Conflict theorists see classes as social groups with
distinguishing interests, which inescapably bring them into
conflict with other groups with opposed interests.
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28. Conclusion
 Conflict view became popular in the late nineteenth
century with the rise of socialism but we have seen its failure in
all the failed governments of socialist republics. Functionalism
on the other hand has been the most successful as seen by us
in the US Government and democratic setup. The above
discussion concludes that the Functionalist view provides a
better explanation for the democratic process and an
understanding of the reasons contributing to social inequality.
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29. Social Structure
in Global
Perspective
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30. Durkheim’s Model of
Social Structure
A. Mechanical Solidarity
B. Organic Solidarity
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31.  Social structure depends on the division of
labor in a society or on the manner in which
tasks are performed
 Task/labor in societies can be carried out by
an individual or can be divided among
many people
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32. Mechanical Solidarity
 minimal division of labor
A collective consciousness develops
that emphasizes group solidarity
Implies that all individual perform the
same tasks
There is a little concern for individual
needs
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33.  Few social roles
Both social interaction and
negotiation are based on
close, intimate, face-to-face
social contacts
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34.  as societies become more advanced
technologically, greater division of
labor takes place; with increasing
specialization, many different task
must be performed by many different
individuals
Social interactions become less
personal in societies
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35. Organic Solidarity
 Dependence on others becomes
essential for group survival
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36. Tonnies’s Model of Social
Structure
A.Gemeinschaft
B. Gesellschaft
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37. Gemeinschaft
 rural life/close-knit community
A small community in which people
have similar backgrounds and life
experiences
Social interactions are intimate and
familiar
There is a commitment to the larger
social group and a sense of
togetherness among members
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38. Consequence: less privacy
Social control: (informal) moral
persuasion, gossip and even gesture
SOCIAL CHANGE is limited
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39. Gesellschaft
 modern urban life
Relationships are governed by social
roles that grow out of immediate tasks
Self-interest dominates and there is a
little consensus concerning values or
commitment to the group
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40.  social control: (formal) laws and
legally defined punishments
SOCIAL CHANGE is an important
aspect of life
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41. Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
• Rural life typifies this • Urban life typifies this
form form
• People share a feeling • People have a little
of community that sense of commonality.
results from their similar Their differences
backgrounds and appear more striking
experiences than their similarities
• Social interactions are
• social interactions are impersonal and task-
intimate and familiar specific
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42. Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
• People maintain a • Self-interest
spirit of cooperation dominates
and unity of will • The task being
• Task and personal performed is
relationships cannot paramount;
be separated relationships are
subordinate
• People place little • Privacy is valued
emphasis on
individual privacy
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43. Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
• Informal social control • Formal social control is
predominates evident
• people are not very • People are more
tolerant of deviance tolerant of deviance
• Emphasis is on ascribed • more emphasis is put
statuses on achieved statusses
• Social change is very
• Social change is evident, even within a
relatively limited generation
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44. Stages of Sociocultural Evolution
Societal Type First Appearance Characteristics
Hunting-and-gathering Beginning of human life Nomadic reliance on readily
available food and fibers
Horticultural About 10, 0000 to 12, 000 years More settled; development of
ago agriculture and limited
technology.
Agrarian About 5,000 years ago Larger, more stable settlements:
improved technology,
increased crop yields and
specialization of labor
Industrial 1760-1850 Reliance on mechanical power
and new sources of energy;
centralized workplaces;
economic interdependence;
formal education
Postindustrial 1960’s Reliance in services, especially
the processing and control of
information; expanded middle
class
Postmodern Latter 1970’s High technology; high
consumption goods and media
images; cross culture of
integration.
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45.  Lenski’s Sociocultural Evolution Approach
 Sociologist Gerhard Lenski sees human society as
undergoing a process of change according to a
dominant pattern, known as Sociocultural Evolution.
 Sociocultural Revolution – process of change and
development in human societies that results from
cumulative growth in their stories of cultural
information.
 Technology – information about the ways in which
the material resources of the environment may be
used to satisfy human needs and desires.
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46. Preindustrial Societies
 Hunting-and-gathering society
 Horticultural society
 Agrarian society
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47.  Hunting-and-gathering society – people simply rely
on their environment for their survival
 Horticultural society – people place greater
emphasis on the production of tools and
households objects.
 Agrarian society – introduced new technological
innovations but still continues to rely on physical
power of humans and animals.
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48.  Industrial society – is a society that depends in
mechanization to produce its goods and services
but it had distinctive social consequences.
 Postindustrial society – is a society wherein
Economic system is engaged in primarily in the
processing and control of information.
 The main output of a Postindustrial society is services
rather than manufactured goods.
 Postmodern society - is a technologically
sophisticated society that is preoccupied with
consumer goods and media images.
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49. Agencies of Socialization
1. Family
2. Peer groups
3. Media
4. School
5. Workplace
6. Church
7. neighborhood
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50. …end…finally…
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