Social Structure and Social Interaction

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Chapter 4

• Social Structure and Social Interaction

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Chapter Outline

• Intertwining Forces Social Structure and Social
  Interaction
• Social Structures
• Types of Societies
• A Case Study When Institutions Die
• Social Interaction and Everyday Life
• Identity Work

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Intertwining Forces Social Structure and Social
Interaction

• Example Racial inequality in the U.S.
• Social Structure Forces
• There arent enough good-paying jobs near
  nonwhite communities.
• Social Interaction Forces
• Racial inequality is reinforced when police
  officers assume nonwhites are more likely than
  whites to be criminals.

4
 Social Structure

• Recurrent patterns of relationships that revolve
  around
• Status
• Role
• Institutions

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 Five Basic Social Institutions

1. Family, to rear children.
2. Economy, to produce and distribute goods.
3. Government, to provide defense.
4. Education, to train new generations.
5. Religion, to supply answers about the unknown or
   unknowable.

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Structural-functional Theory of Institutions

• The order and stability institutions provide
  offers people a liberating dependence.
• Patterned solutions are present for the most
  common of everyday problems.

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Conflict Theory of Institutions

• Patterned norms hold people in thrall to norms
  that may only oppress us.
• Stability and order, for example, may require the
  oppression of women and the inequality of
  socially defined races.

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Hunting, Fishingand Gathering Societies

• Economically the least complex.
• Division of labor is based on age and sex.
• Economic activity is an adaptation to the natural
  environment, and does not produce surpluses.

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Horticultural Societies

• Began when people began to cultivate crops.
• Allowed some in the society to pursue art,
  writing, and warfare.
• Status hierarchy began to develop.

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 Agricultural Societies

• Began 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.
• Surpluses became far greater and a complex class
  system developed.
• Kings, priests, merchants, soldiers, and peasants
  were among the new social classes.

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Industrial societies

• Arose only a few hundred years ago.
• Animal and human labor was replaced by complex
  energy technologies.
• A new class order reflected a highly specialized
  division of labor.

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The Tragedy of the Ojibwa

• Ojibwa society before 1963
• Retained the way of life of a hunting and
  gathering society.
• Centered on the family.
• Almost no contact with whites.

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The Tragedy of the Ojibwa

• In 1963, Ojibwa society changed forever
• Canadian government moved them from reservation
  lands to a prepared community.
• The result was a collapse of institutions that
  depended on their traditional ways.
• A 1999 decision allowed their land to be clear
  cut.
• Their future remains uncertain.

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Sociology of Everyday Life Assumptions

• The problematic nature of culture.
• Roles must be negotiated to go along with the
  cultural script.
• The I/Me dialectic.
• Interactions are a dialectic between human
  expression and social forces of restraint.
• Biography.
• Social actors bring unique biography to each
  interaction, so interactions tend to be unique.

15
Identity Work

• Managing identities to support and sustain our
  self-esteem.
• Consists of two general strategies
• avoiding blame
• gaining credit

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Two Ways of Avoiding Blame

1.  Accounts. Tell stories to justify behavior.
   Sometimes, they are excuses sometimes, they are
   justifications.
2. Disclaimers. Efforts to evade blame or judgment
   before an act. We explain that is not our fault,
   but.