SOCIAL STRUCTURE

• The twin concepts of ‘structure’ and ‘function’ are crucial in modern sociological literature.
• These concepts are complementary, and understanding one depends on understanding the other.
• Herbert Spencer and Emile Durkheim inspired the application of structure and function in sociology.
• Spencer compared societies to living organisms, where an organism has a structure with interrelated parts, each having a function.
• Similarly, Spencer argued that a society has a structure consisting of interrelated parts, such as the family, religion, and state.
• Each component of society has a function contributing to the overall stability of the social system.
• Modern sociologists do not emphasize the analogy between society and organism but retain the idea of society as a system of interrelated systems.
• Each system in society has its own structure and function.
• This idea has been emphasized by functionalists in sociology.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

• Several sciences study structure to understand the characteristics of structures in their respective fields.
• Atomic physics studies the structure of atoms, chemistry studies the structure of molecules, crystallography and colloidal chemistry study the structure of crystals and colloids, while anatomy and physiology focus on the structure of organisms.
• In sociology and social anthropology, the concept of social structure is important for discovering the characteristics of social structures whose components are human beings.
• Social Structure is a key concept in sociology but has been used inconsistently and ambiguously.
• After World War II, the concept of social structure became widely used in social anthropology and could be applied to any ordered arrangement of social phenomena.
• The term structure originally referred to building construction, arrangement of parts, or organization, but by the 16th century, it was used to describe interrelations between the component parts of a whole.
• Herbert Spencer popularized the term social structure in sociology, applying biological analogies (organic structure and evolution) to analyze society.
• Durkheim, Morgan, and Marx also contributed their interpretations of social structure.
• George Murdock (USA), A.R. Radcliffe-Brown (Britain), and Claude Lévi-Strauss (France) extensively used and popularized the concept of social structure.
• Murdock’s use of structure relates to the building analogy or a dead organic model.
• Radcliffe-Brown likened society to a living organism or a working mechanism, asserting that society has its own life, not just an object.
• The study of structure is linked to the study of function, as it involves understanding how the components of a system interact and work together.

Definitions of Social Structure

The concept of social structure has different definitions by various thinkers:

1. Radcliffe-Brown defines it as “an arrangement of persons in institutionally controlled or defined relationships,” such as the relationship between King and subject or husband and wife.
2. In British social anthropology, social structure refers to “a body of principles underlying social relations, rather than their actual content”.
3. Morris Ginsberg sees it as “the complex of principal groups and institutions which constitute societies”.
4. In current sociological usage, social structure applies to small groups, as well as larger associations, communities, and societies. Ogburn and Nimkoff state that “In society, the organisation of a group of persons is the social structure. What the group does is the function”. They use the terms ‘social organisation’ and ‘social structure’interchangeably.
5. In a loose sense, social structure refers to any recurring pattern of social behaviour.
6. Many sociologists define social structure as “the enduring, orderly, and patterned relationships between elements of a society”. There is disagreement on what constitutes an “element”:
   • A.R. Brown considers general and regular kinds of relationships between people as the elements.
   • S.F. Nadel sees the elements as roles.
   • Functionalists believe that social institutions are the elements of social structures, viewing them as “functional prerequisites” necessary for society’s survival.

Toward An Understanding of the Terms ‘Structure’ and ‘Social Structure

• The term ‘structure’ refers to “some sort of ordered arrangements of parts or components.”
• Examples of structure include:
  • A musical composition,
  • A sentence,
  • A building,
  • A molecule,
  • An animal, etc.
• In these examples, structure involves an ordered arrangement of different parts.
  • For instance, a building consists of parts like stones, sand, bricks, iron, cement, wood, glass, etc., which are ordered and arranged in relation to each other.
• Similarly, society has its own structure called ‘social structure’.
  • The components or units of social structure are persons.
  • A person is a human being occupying a position in a social structure.
• Even though persons change (due to membership changes, mobility, or death), the structure maintains its continuity.
• Examples of structures maintaining continuity:
  • A nation, tribe, a body like Indian Institute of Technology, a political party, or a religious body like Vishwa Hindu Parishad can continue existing as an arrangement of persons, even as the personnel change.
  • Similar to how the human body maintains structure despite changes in its molecules.
• The continuity of the structure is maintained even though the personnel change over time (e.g., in the political structure of India, the position of Prime Minister remains constant, though different people hold the position at different times, such as Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi, or Atal Bihari Vajpayee).

The Example of University as Having a Structure

• University as an educational group or system has its own structure.
• Every year:
  • Senior students depart,
  • A new batch of freshmen enters.
  • Some faculty members are replaced,
  • New professors are appointed,
  • New classes may be added to the curriculum.
• The administration may include student representation in planning sessions.
• Despite changes in personnel and policy, certain aspects of the university remain unchanged.
  • Faculty members still design courses, assign work to students, and evaluate progress.
  • The ways in which faculty members and students perform their roles may vary, but the general patterns are consistent.
• These patterns fit into an overall structure called a university.
• The structure itself remains invisible, yet it silently shapes actions.
• Analyzing the form and influence of social structure gives sociology its distinctive power in understanding human affairs.

The Necessity and Universality of Social Structures

• Human beings must be social to survive.
• Humans are a member of a social species that cannot survive unless organized into groups and societies.
• These groups and societies develop a culture to meet shared needs.
• Basic needs (biological, economic, social, psychological, etc.) result in the universality of some basic structures.
• These structures lead to general functions that are essential for survival.
• Sociologists can identify a few kinds of structures or groups present in all societies.
• These structures exist in any society, regardless of its ethos, history, or cultural variability.
• Without the functions of these structures, human societies could not survive.
• Examples:
  • A family may be monogamous or polygamous.
  • A government may be democratic or totalitarian.
  • An economy may be capitalist or socialist.
• The nature of the specific structure may vary from society to society, but there is always some structure resulting in the function because functions are universal and essential.

ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE

• H.M. Johnson identifies key elements of social structure:

  1. Sub-groups of Various Types:

     • Society consists of a larger group made up of various sub-groups (political, economic, religious, educational, familial, etc.).
     • People who enact roles are organized within these sub-groups.
     • Some sub-groups persist longer than individual members (e.g., a family persists after the death of its members).
     • Social norms define roles and obligations of sub-groups.

  2. Roles of Various Types:

     • Roles exist both in the larger system and within sub-groups.
     • Roles and sub-groups are interrelated, with role occupants having obligations to others.
     • Example: In a family, the husband has obligations to the wife and children; a teacher has obligations to students, principal, and management.
     • Sub-groups like political, economic, and educational groups are interconnected through social norms.

  3. Regulative Norms Governing Sub-groups and Roles:

     • Sub-groups and roles are governed by social norms, which are of two types:
       • Obligatory or relational norms: Specify positive obligations (e.g., a family’s obligations are not the same as those of a business firm).
       • Permissive or regulative norms: Specify limits on permissible actions (e.g., one must not use violence or threats to influence others).

  4. Cultural Values:

     • Every society has its own cultural values, which refer to measures of goodness or desirability.
     • Individuals or groups are emotionally committed to values, which help integrate personality or interaction systems.
     • Values assist in conflict resolution, though some conflicts persist as no system of action is perfectly integrated.
     • Values are related to norms and can be seen as “higher-order norms.”
• Any of these elements—sub-group, role, social norm, or value—can be called a “partial structure.”

SOCIAL STRUCTURE: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

• Social anthropology is a specialized science of structures and functions of society, focusing on primitive societies due to their simpler structures.
• Radcliffe-Brown emphasizes that social structure denotes the network of existing relations between people, not culture itself.
• Culture is an abstraction, and what is observed in society are the acts of behavior of individuals.
• Human beings are connected by a complex network of social relations, which constitutes the social structure.
• Social structures are as real as individual organisms, with physiological and psychological phenomena being the result of the structure within organisms, just as social phenomena are the result of social structure.
• The study of social structures focuses on the wide network of social relations rather than individual relationships.
• Parts of social structure include:
  • Social relations between persons (e.g., kinship relations).
  • Social roles of individuals.
  • Differentiated social positions (e.g., gender roles, positions of chiefs, employers, etc.).
• Actual structure refers to the existing social relations at a given time, which can be directly observed.
• Structural form is abstract and refers to the patterns or kinds of relations maintained over time, which are relatively stable but can change gradually or suddenly.
• The concept of social structure includes dynamic continuity, similar to the structure of a living organism, where social roles and positions evolve over time.
• Spatial aspect of social structure involves studying networks of social relations within a defined locality, allowing for comparison across different regions.
• Social personality refers to the position occupied by an individual in social structure, including all their social relations.
• Humans are both individuals and persons in society, with their social identity changing according to their roles and relations.
• Social personality can change over a person’s life as their social roles and positions evolve.
• Social structure cannot be studied without considering the persons who make it up, and vice versa.