case study

Answer

6 – Social Structure1

1 Except where otherwise indicated, the text in this chapter comes from University of Minnesota (2010).

6.1 What is Social Structure?

Statuses

Roles

Groups

Organizations

Social Networks

Social Institutions

Societies

6.1 What is Social Structure?

Social life is composed of many levels of building blocks, from the very micro to the very macro. These building blocks combine to form social structure. Social structure refers to the stable recurring patterns of behavior people create through interaction and through which a society is organized. Social structure can be both horizontal and vertical. While chapter seven deals with vertical social structure, this chapter focuses on horizontal social structure. Horizontal social structure refers to the relationships and characteristics of the communities to which we belong. Horizontal social structure comprises several components, to which we now turn, starting with the most micro and ending with the most macro.

Statuses

Social status is defined as the socially-defined position that someone occupies in society. While this position is often a job title, many other types of statuses exist: student, parent, sibling, relative, friend, etc. In sociology, status does not refer to the prestige of a position: “physician” is a social position with more prestige than “shoe-shiner,” but both are equally considered a social status.

An individual can occupy several different statuses at the same time: someone can simultaneously be a banker, a troop leader, a father, a school board member, a volunteer at a homeless shelter, and a spouse. Status set refers to all of the social positions that an individual occupies.

Sociologists usually speak of three different types of statuses. The first is ascribed status, which refers to a status that someone is born with and has no control over. There are relatively few ascribed statuses; some common examples are our race, parents’ social class, parent’s religious affiliation, and our biological relationships (child, grandchild, sibling, and so forth).

The second is achieved status, which refers to a status that you accomplish, at some point after birth. This achievement is sometimes the result of your own efforts and sometimes the result of good or bad luck. The status of “student” is an achieved status, as is the status of “restaurant server” or “romantic partner.” Significantly, our ascribed statuses, like our race and social class, can have an impact on our ability to acquire and maintain many achieved statuses (such as “college graduate”). Likewise, our achieved statuses can be viewed positively or negatively. While society usually views achieved statuses like “college student” positively, it generally views achieved statuses such as “burglar” negatively.

The third is master status, which refers to a status that is so important that it overrides all other statuses one may hold. For example, while “working parent” is a social position defined by two achieved statuses, the expectations and importance of parenting may make “parent” (not “worker”) one’s master status.

Roles

Whatever its type, every status is accompanied by a role, which is the behavior expected of someone – and, in fact, any and everyone – with a certain status. For example, you are a “student,” and you share this status in common with other readers of this text. As a student, there are roles expected of you; these roles include coming to class regularly, doing all of the assigned reading, and studying for exams. A major dimension of socialization is learning the roles our society has for each status and then behaving in the way that status’ roles demand.

Regular and predictable interaction is aided by our socialization into statuses and roles. Suppose you are shopping in a department store. Your status is “shopper,” and the roles expected of you as a shopper – and of all shoppers – include looking quietly at items in the store, taking the items you want to purchase to a checkout line, and paying for them. The person who takes your money is occupying another status in the store, that of “cashier.” The roles expected of that cashier – and of all cashiers in all stores – is to accept your payment in a businesslike way and to put your items in a bag. Because shoppers and cashiers have these mutual expectations, their social interactions are possible.

Groups

Groups are the next component of social structure. A group consists of two or more people who regularly interact and share a common identity. To paraphrase John Donne, the 17th-century English poet, no one is an island; almost all people are members of many groups, including families, groups of friends, and groups of coworkers in a workplace.

It is important to distinguish social groups from two related concepts: social categories and social aggregates. A social category is a collection of individuals who have at least one attribute in common but who do not necessarily interact or identify with each other. “Music-lover” is an example of a social category. All music-lovers have at least one thing in common, their love of music, even though they don’t interact, share any other similarities, or identify with each other. Gender, race, and ethnicity are the basis for many social categories. Other common social categories are based on our religious affiliation, geographical residence, and social class.

A social aggregate is a collection of people who share a common physical location but who do not necessarily interact or identify with each other. A crowd at a sporting event, the audience at a movie, and a long line of people at the Department of Motor Vehicles are all examples of social aggregates.

A common distinction is made between primary groups and secondary groups. A primary group is usually small, characterized by extensive interaction, defined by strong emotional ties, and lasting for a long period of time. Members of such groups care a lot about each other and identify strongly with the group. Indeed, their membership in a primary group gives them much of their social identity. Charles Horton Cooley (1909) called these groups primary because they are the first groups we belong to and because they are so important for social life. The family is the primary group that comes most readily to mind, but small peer friendship groups are also primary groups.

Although primary groups are the most important groups in our lives, we belong to many more secondary groups, which are groups that are larger and more impersonal and that exist, often for a relatively short period of time, to achieve a specific purpose. Secondary group members feel less emotionally attached to each other and less identified with or loyal to the group. The sociology class for which you are reading this is an example of a secondary group, as are the clubs and organizations to which you might belong. Other secondary groups include religious, business, governmental, and civic clubs. In some of these groups, members get to know each other better than in other secondary groups;

these members might find themselves creating primary groups out of their secondary-group memberships.

Organizations

One of the most important types of groups is the formal organization, a large secondary group that follows explicit rules and procedures to achieve specific goals and tasks. For better or for worse, organizations are an essential feature of modern societies. Our banks, our hospitals, and our supermarkets are just a few organizations that we encounter regularly.

Max Weber recognized long ago that as societies become more complex, their procedures for accomplishing tasks rely less on traditional customs and beliefs and more on rational (i.e., rule-guided and impersonal) methods of decision making. The development of formal organizations, he emphasized, allowed complex societies to accomplish their tasks in the most efficient way possible (Weber, 1921/1978).

Building on Weber, Amitai Etzioni (1975) developed a popular typology of organizations. This typology is based on how an organization induces and maintains membership. Utilitarian organizations (also called remunerative organizations) provide an income or another personal benefit. Business organizations, ranging from large corporations to small Mom-and-Pop corner stores, are examples of utilitarian organizations. Additionally, colleges and universities are utilitarian organizations – both for the people who work at them and for their students, who certainly see education and a diploma as benefits gained from higher education.

In contrast, normative organizations (also called voluntary organizations) allow people to pursue their moral goals and commitments. Their members do not get paid; instead they contribute their time or money to the organization’s mission. The many examples of normative organizations include the Boy and Girl Scouts, the Kiwanis Club and other civic organizations, and organizations with political objectives, such as the National Council of La Raza. Alexis de Tocqueville (1835/1994) observed some 175 years ago that the United States was a nation of joiners, and contemporary research finds that Americans indeed rank above average among democratic nations in membership in normative organizations (Curtis, Baer, & Grabb, 2001).

Some people end up in organizations involuntarily because they’ve violated the law or been judged to be mentally ill. Juvenile detention facilities and mental hospitals are examples of coercive organizations, which, as total institutions, seek to control all aspects of their members’ lives. Our chance of ending up in coercive organizations depends on various aspects of our social backgrounds. For prisons, one of these aspects is geographical. For example, the imprisonment rate (i.e., the number of inmates per 100,000 residents) is highest in the American South and in the American West. Do you think that this pattern exists because crime rates are highest in these regions or because these regions are more likely to send convicted criminals to prisons?

Social Networks

A social network is a broad web of social ties radiating out from a given individual linking that individual to a large number of others. While humans have always existed in social networks, modern life is increasingly characterized by them. And, as Instagram and other social media show, social networks can be incredibly extensive. In fact, a social network can be so large that one individual in a network may know little or nothing about another individual in that network (e.g., a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend). But these “friends of friends” can sometimes be an important source of practical advice and other kinds of help. They can “open doors” in the job market, introduce a potential romantic partner, and even share information about the next big trend.

When considering career development, we often hear of the importance of “networking,” or taking advantage of your connections with people who have connections to other people who can help you land a job. You do not necessarily know these “other people” who might be of help to you, but you do know the people who know them. Your ties to the “other people” are weak, but research indicates that your involvement in this network can help you find a job (see Granovetter 1973).

Social networks also bring benefits in other areas of life. For example, if you come down with a serious medical condition, you would probably first talk with your primary care physician, who would refer you to a specialist for professional and impartial care. But what if you have friends or relatives who are physicians? Because of their connections with other physicians, you might be able to secure an early appointment. And, because these specialists understand that you know other physicians in their network, they may treat you with more sensitivity and respect. In the long run, you may even get better medical care from these physicians. But who is most likely to have such connections? Factors such as

social class and occupational status, race and ethnicity, and gender affect how likely we are to have social networks that can help us get jobs, good medical care, and other advantages.

Social Institutions

Social institutions are mini systems of social behavior with a recognized purpose rooted in a relatively stable value system. There are seven social institutions in American society: politics, education, family, healthcare, religion, the economy, and mass media. These social institutions help the United States satisfy basic social functions in key areas of social life. For example, education is a social institution through which a society’s children are taught basic academic knowledge, skills, and cultural norms. Additionally, the economy is a social institution through which a society’s resources (i.e., goods and services) are managed. 2

2 This text is from Little (2016).

3 This text is from Openstax (2017).

As macro-level entities, social institutions are an object of analysis for functionalists and conflict theorists, alike. Functionalists argue that a change in one social institution leads to a change in all social institutions. For example, the industrialization of our economy meant that there was no longer a need for large families to produce enough manual labor to run a farm. This same shift also changed the way we view government involvement in the private sector, and it even spurred new religions and forms of religious worship. Industrialization also informed the way we educate our children: while schools were once set up to accommodate an agricultural calendar, teaching models today is largely focused on preparing students for more industrial jobs. In other words, a change – like industrialization – in one social institution brings an interconnected change in another social institution. 3

On the other hand, conflict theorists contend that social institutions have failings that prevent the United States from meeting all of its needs. Given their focus on social inequality, they argue that social institutions often fail people because of their social class, race, ethnicity, and/or gender. Because these institutions affect our behavior, attitudes, and life chances, they have long been, and will continue to be, sources of significant social controversies.

Societies

The largest component of social structure is, of course, society itself. Society refers to a population of people who live in a defined geographic area, share a common culture and identity, and are subject to the same political authority. Societies certainly differ in many ways: some are larger in population and some are smaller; some are modern and some are more traditional. Since the origin of sociology during the 19th century, sociologists have tried to understand how and why modern, industrial society developed. Chapter eight takes up this focus on social or societal change.

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