2. Social Structure
• social structure = the complex system of
institutions and patterns that organize a society.
• Social structure provides a framework consisting
of an orderly, fixed arrangement of parts like
institutions, statuses, groups, roles, and norms.
• We’ve looked at norms (Chapter 3), and we will
look at statuses, groups, and roles in other
chapters. Here, we are concerned with the big
picture of social institutions.
3. Social Structure
• social institutions = organized patterns of beliefs
and behavior centered on basic social needs.
• There are five basic institutions that have organized
every society:
– The Family
–The government
–The economy
–Religion
–Education
4. Gerhard Lenski
• Lived 1924-2015.
• Wrote Power and Privilege (1966).
• Concerned most with what factors contributed to different degrees of
social inequality in societies.
• Like Weber, Lenski compared past societies, developing a socio-
cultural evolutionary scale (NEXT TWO SLIDES).
• Lenski’s main point: As the economic surplus increases in society, the
distribution of wealth is based on the organization of power rather
than economic need or productive contribution – whoever controls
distribution of surplus resources has the power..
Sizable surplus + high concentration of power = severe inequalities.
5. Lenski on Society
• Hunting & Gathering societies: use simple technology for hunting
animals and gathering vegetation.
• Pastoral societies: based on technology that supports the
domestication of large animals to provide food.
• Horticultural societies: based on technology that supports the
cultivation of plants to provide food.
• Agrarian societies: use technology of large-scale farming, including
animal-drawn or energy-powered plows and equipment, to produce
their food supply.
• Industrial societies: based on technology that mechanizes production.
• Postindustrial societies: technology supports a service- and
information-based economy.
6. Lenski’s Scale of Social
Evolution
Hunter-
Gatherer
Society
•Prehistory
•Nomadic
Horticultural
•Limited
settlement.
•Beginnings of
agricultural
technology.
Agrarian
•5,000 years
ago.
•Stable society
with
improved
technology.
Industrial
•1760-1850
•Shift to
mechanical
power.
•Division of
labor.
Postindustrial
•1960s
•Shift to service
economy.
•“Information
Age”
Postmodern
•1970s +
•High
technology
•Mass
consumption
•Globalization
7. Marx on Society
• Social class was the main factor in social inequality, which
results from the unequal distribution of wealth.
• In every period of history, whoever controls the means of
production is at the top and maintains their position on the
backs of everyone else.
• Two groups are in class conflict within industrial capitalism:
– capitalist class = bourgeoisie = owners of the means of production
= the elite = the “haves.”
– working class = proletariat = must sell their labor to survive = non-
elite = the “have-nots.”
8. Marx conceived of society like a pyramid. The superstructure
contained factors like the media, politics, and religion. The
infrastructure, however, was entirely economic. Factors like the
media, politics, and religion served only to maintain the status
quo. Real change would never result from changes in the
superstructure, but only from change at the base.
media
politics
religion
ECONOMIC SYSTEM
9. Marx on Society
• The capitalist class – in various ways – promotes false
consciousness among the workers, who suffer from
alienation.
– Workers were alienated from their work.
– Workers were alienated from what they produced.
– Workers were alienated from each other.
– Workers were alienated from realizing their own potential.
• Eventually, the workers will achieve class
consciousness, becoming aware of their common
plight and the need for political action.
10. Marx: Phases of History
Primitive
Communism
•Hunter-
gatherer
societies
Ancient
Slavery
•Masters vs.
Slaves
Feudalism
• Nobility vs.
Serfs
Capitalism
•Owners vs.
Workers
Socialism
•Classless
Society
11. Marx’s Scenario
Capitalist Elite
dominate the
worker
through false
consciousness
Working class,
though
oppressed
and exploited,
fights among
themselves
As frustration
and alienation
increases, the
working class
achieves class
consciousness
The working
class revolts,
overthrows
the Elite, and
ushers in
Socialism
12. Weber on Society
• Weber saw society as shifting from traditional forms of action
to rational forms of action.
• This can only occur when the strong hold of traditional ways of
thinking is broken, a shift called disenchantment.
• Our society has evolved in such a way – through rules and
larger social structures – that people have been driven to
discover the optimum means to desired goals.
• The next slide illustrates the four basic characteristics of
rationalization.
14. Weber on Society
• Four Characteristics:
– efficiency = the optimum way to complete a task.
– predictability = standardization – everything begins to look the same.
– calculability = emphasis on numerical aspects (cost, speed, size) –
quantity over quality.
– control through technology = predictable non-human labor (machines)
replace people.
• This process creates a society designed to function like a
machine.
• George Ritzer has re-characterized Weber’s process as
McDonaldization (discussed in Chapter 3 and Chapter 7).
16. A major question for Weber …
“Why did modern capitalism
emerge in Western Europe
rather than in one of the other
great civilizations – China, India,
Rome, the Islamic world?”
(Randall Collins, Four Sociological Traditions, 83)
17. Two Protestant Influences on Capitalism
• vocation (Luther) = one’s “calling” from
God, democratized by Luther.
– The Catholic Church of the Middle Ages
regarded “holy”/”sacred” callings as being
only church positions: priest, cardinal, nun,
monk, etc.
– One of Luther’s Protestant principles was the
priesthood of all believers = that every
Christian – whether a blacksmith or a
bartender – was called by God.
• predestination (Calvin) = being completely
sovereign over everything – and given that
humans are incapable of seeking God due
to their sin – God has “elected” some to
salvation while leaving others to be
condemned. Thus, some are “predestined”
for Heaven and some for Hell.
18. Weber on Society
• The Puritans (16th & 17th centuries) were Calvinists
who believed strongly in predestination.
• This belief, however, produced anxiety as they lived
their day-to-day lives: How does one know if they are
predestined for Heaven, or damned to Hell?
• The problem, then, was one of personal assurance.
• Also believing in Luther’s concept of vocation, the
Puritans reasoned out a way to be assured that they
were among those predestined for Heaven …
19. Weber on Society
• Searching for criteria for assurance of their election by God, the
Puritans came up with their famous work ethic: work hard at
your vocation and if you are successful, God is blessing His elect.
• Over time, as the United States was created and grew, this idea
lost its original religious meaning (given disenchantment and
secularization) and became the American work ethic: work hard
and you will be successful.
• Although the Puritan theology was not retained, there was an
elective affinity between this Puritan idea and later American
interests.
20. Weber on Society
• Weber believed that the bureaucracy represented the central
feature of the society of his day.
• This rational form of social organization was the ultimate
expression of the process of rationalization.
• Weber set forth an ideal type of bureaucracy in order to
evaluate real-life bureaucracies.
• This ideal type, perhaps more than any other, has stood the test
of time and predicts our contemporary society in an amazing
way.
• There are six characteristics of Weber’s ideal bureaucracy …
22. Weber on Society
• In general, Weber outlined seven characteristics of
rational social organization:
1) The emergence of specialized social institutions.
2) The emergence of large-scale organizations.
3) Specialized tasks (butchers, bakers, candle-stick makers).
4) A priority on personal self-discipline.
5) A constant awareness of time (“time is money”).
6) Judging people based on what they are (educated, competent,
etc.).
7) Interaction and work based on impersonality.
23. Marx & Weber
• Conflict theory finds its beginnings in the classical theories of
both Karl Marx and Max Weber (both previously considered in
detail).
• While Marx and Weber were certainly different in significant
ways, they shared the basic principle that society is
characterized by conflict(s) between groups.
• Marx was explicitly political, while Weber had a greater impact
on contemporary sociology by constructing a more complete
sociological theory.
• The conflict tradition has evolved from both Marx and Weber,
with much mixture going on between Marxist and Weberian
concepts.
24. Tönnies on Society
• Gemeinschaft = social relationships are based
on personal bonds of friendship and kinship and
on intergenerational stability.
• Traditional pre-urban societies.
• Gesellschaft = social bonds are based on
impersonal and specialized relationships, with
little long-term commitment to the group or
consensus on values.
• Large urban societies.
25. Durkheim on Society
• division of labor = people begin to specialize in particular
areas and industries, depending on others for their
specialties (“butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers”) –
happens as a society becomes more and more complex.
• collective conscience = “the totality of beliefs and
sentiments common to average citizens of the same
society forms a determinate system which has its own
life” (The Division of Labor in Society, 1893/1984: 38-39).
– Individuals may come and go, but the ideas common to
society continue.
• social solidarity = cohesion of social groups, what binds
or unifies individuals together in a society.
26. Durkheim on Society
• Durkheim developed a “law of social gravity” expressed in
a social morphology = refers to the structural relationships
among people.
• social density = structural situations = the physical pattern
of who is in the presence of whom, for how long, and with
how much space there is between them.
– For Durkheim, this was the key to understanding society.
– Various historical changes and the move toward more specialized
social roles concentrate societies by reducing the space between
people and bringing about increased interaction.
27. Low Social Density
• Societies with low social density are characterized by more space, more
physical privacy, more physical isolation, and less people.
• Labor is unspecialized and people are generally self-sufficient.
• The beliefs and values of individuals within the society are more
concrete and generally identical, and there is a low tolerance for
deviance.
• This type of society is homogeneous, with very little diversity.
• Most social control is informal, and genuine social change is rare.
• Low social density areas maintain social cohesion through mechanical
solidarity (= based on common beliefs, values, and norms).
• Although the frequency of interaction with others is much lower, the
quality of those interactions is very high = high levels of social trust,
community, and intimacy.
• The low social density society is illustrated in the pre-urban farm
community.
28. Social Differences: Low Social Density
• Betty works at the diner in
a small town.
• She wears a name tag
every day, but Betty
doesn’t need to wear a
name tag.
• Why not? >>> Because
everyone in town already
knows Betty – she has a
reputation for making the
best peach pie.
• This type of intimate
community is common in
low social density areas.
29. High Social Density
• Societies with high social density are characterized by less space, more
social privacy, more social isolation, and a larger population.
• A complex division of labor brings about specialization and an
interdependent population.
• The beliefs and values of individuals within the society are more
abstract and vary greatly, and there is a higher tolerance for deviance.
• This type of society is heterogeneous and very diverse.
• Most social control is formal, and genuine social change is more
common.
• High social density areas maintain social cohesion through organic
solidarity (= based on everyone depending on one another’s specialized
tasks, like the organs in a human body).
• Although the frequency of interaction with others is very high, the
quality of those interactions is very low = low levels of social trust, with
a corresponding loss of community and intimacy.
• The high social density society is illustrated in the large city.
30. Social Differences: High Social Density
• Joey is a waiter in New York
City.
• Like Betty, Joey also wears a
name tag every day.
• But Joey might as well leave
the name tag at home.
• Why? >>> Because the vast
majority of Joey’s customers
never bother to read it! Not
only do they not know Joey,
most of them don’t care to!
• In high social density areas,
interaction tends to be task-
oriented (“Where’s my
waiter?”) , as opposed to the
more intimate interaction in
a low social density area.
31. What is anomie?
• anomie = normlessness = a situation in which social
norms and values (and perhaps beliefs) breakdown,
causing intense confusion.
• An individual can experience this (as in anomic suicide).
• When social control fails, a group or society is at risk.
– Anomie typically occurs in periods of significant social
change and unrest (EX: rioting and looting after a natural
disaster).
– People become more aggressive or depressed, resulting in
high crime and/or suicide rates.
– Further, “deviance” becomes harder to define and social
control harder to maintain.
