Arba Minch University

Arba Minch Institute of Technology

Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning

Urban Sociology
ARCH 1032, ECTS-4

Lecture-Note

Prepared by: Melese Becha (MSc.)

January, 2023
Arba Minch, Ethiopia
 Course objective
 To introduce the concepts of;
 Social, psychological and physiological processes affecting individual
development throughout the life span.
 family, socialization, and social institutions, as interconnected with gender,
age, ethnicity/race, economics, and diverse populations.
 Social institutions and group behaviour; social order and change.
 distribution of privilege and power, sources of cooperation and conflict,
deviance and social control
 Social spaces and behaviours, individual and group behaviours in individual
and social space
 Course Content
1. Urban Sociology;
2. Society and Culture
3. Social organization and institution
4. Social space and behavior
5. Urbanism as a way of life
 “Urban Sociology”: A Sociology of Settled Space
 Urban Sociology:
• the study of social phenomena that are of the city.
• assumed its character at a time when cities were growing rapidly.
• was a creature of a particular time and space,
 Its ideas evolved over the course of the 20th c as cities evolved and changed
 it contains two very different sets of interests and approaches.
 the urban environment affects the way people feel as well as what they do.
 (size, density, and heterogeneity, as they were identified by Wirth)
 the spatial manifestation of the political and economic organization of a society,
 the dynamic global political and economic order
 Cities represented intensive nodes of power and economic manipulation, instruments through which the
underdevelopment of poor nations was bound to the development of rich nations (Frank 1967).
 “Urban” Sociology: A Sociology of Settled Space
 Urban Sociology:
• as the branch of sociology concerned with the organization of space,
o the sociology of spatial relations, the articulation of the world system in rural areas as in urban areas, the
economic linkages among all regions has erased the rationale for the conventional division of labor, the
local manifestation of global trends.
• remains productive as a sociology of locality within the global perspective on spatial relations offered by
structural sociology or political economy.
 there are three components to be considered with reference to the urban dimension of societies:
• Function: urban spaces are conduits for the global economic and communication flows, but at the same time
are places that frame the local orientations of inhabitants.
• Meaning: cities are sites occupied by individualism (“individuation”), or self interest, and “communalism,”
which here refers to shared identity: the two processes coexist within individuals and within society in an
uncomfortable and unsettled tension.
• Forms: sites once again of growing tensions because cities simultaneously operate as spaces of
flows (multi-content communication or transmission nodes) and spaces of places (the local
orientations of individuals and activities).
 “Urban” Sociology: A Sociology of Settled Space
 Urban Sociology:
• describes the study of human life and interaction with urban systems from a sociological standpoint.
• the study of society and culture in urban regions
 Society refers to the social world with all its structures, institutions, organizations, etc around us, and
 Culture refers to specifically to a group of people who live within some type of bounded territory and who
share a common way of life
 Society: a group of people who live within some type of bounded territory and who share a
common way of life
 Culture: is common way of life shared by a society or a group.
 “Society and Culture ”
 Society:
• means association, togetherness, gregariousness, or simply group life.
• refers to a relatively large grouping or collectivity of people who share more or less
common and distinct culture, occupying a certain geographical locality, with the feeling of
identity or belongingness, having all the necessary social arrangements or insinuations to
sustain itself.
 "A society is an autonomous grouping of people who inhabit a common territory, have a
common culture (shared set of values, beliefs, customs and so forth) and are linked to one
another through routinized social interactions and interdependent statuses and roles."
 “Society and Culture ”
 Basic Features of a Society:
1. a relatively large grouping of people in terms of size.
2. its members share common and distinct culture
3. has a definite, limited space or territory.
4. have the feeling of identity and belongingness.
5. have a common origin and common historical experience.
6. has all the necessary social institutions and organizational arrangements to sustain the
system.
7. members of a society may also speak a common mother tongue or a major language that
may serve as a national heritage.
 Note that the above features of a society are by no means exhaustive and they may not
apply to all societies.
 “Society and Culture ”
 Types or Categories of Societies:
 Sociologists classify societies into various categories depending on certain criteria.
1. level of economic and technological development;
i. First World Countries: those which are highly industrially advanced and economically
rich, such as the USA, Japan, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, and Canada and so on.
ii. The Second World Countries: industrially advanced but not as much as the first category.
iii. The Third World societies: least developed, or in the process of developing.
iv. Fourth World countries: regarded as the "poorest of the poor"
2. temporal succession and the major source of economic organization
 “Society and Culture ”
 Types or Categories of Societies:
 Sociologists classify societies into various categories depending on certain criteria.
2. temporal succession and the major source of economic organization
i. hunting and gathering societies: depends on hunting and gathering for its survival
ii. pastoral and horticultural societies: those whose livelihood is based on pasturing of
animals, such as cattle, camels, sheep and goats.
iii. Horticultural societies: those whose economy is based on cultivating plants by the use of
simple tools, such as digging sticks, hoes, axes.
iv. agricultural societies : most parts of the world, is based on large-scale agriculture, which
largely depends on ploughs using animal labor
v. Industrial Society: goods are produced by machines powered by fuels instead of by animal
and human energy.
 “Society and Culture ”
 The Concept of Culture:
 Culture;
• refers to the whole ways of life of the members of a society.
• It includes what they dress, their marriage customs and family life, art, and patterns of work,
religious ceremonies, leisure pursuits
• It also includes the material goods they produce: bows and arrows, plows, factories and machines,
computers, books, buildings, airplanes
 Basic Characteristics of Culture:
• organic and supra-organic: no culture without human society, culture remains and persists
• overt and covert: material and non-material cultures; tangible human made objects such as
tools, automobiles, buildings, and Non-tangible-culture consists of any non-physical aspects
like language, belief, ideas, knowledge, attitude, values
 “Society and Culture ”
 The Concept of Culture:
 Basic Characteristics of Culture:
1. explicit and implicit: actions which can be explained and described easily by those who
perform them as well as things we do, but are unable to explain them,
2. ideal and manifest (actual): the way people ought to behave and what people actually do
3. stable and yet changing: handing over to the next generation in order to maintain their
norms and values,
4. shared and learned: the public property of a social group of people and individuals get
cultural knowledge of the group through socialization.
5. symbolic: based on the purposeful creation and usage of symbols, unique and crucial to
humans and to culture
 “Society and Culture ”
 The Concept of Culture:
 Elements of Culture:
1. Symbols; the central components of culture
• refer to anything to which people attach meaning and which they use to communicate with others
• are words, objects, gestures, sounds or images that represent something
• is unique and crucial to humans and to culture
2. Values; essential elements of non-material culture
• defined as general, abstract guidelines for our lives, decisions, goals, choices, and actions.
• are shared ideas of a groups or a society as to what is right or wrong, correct or incorrect, desirable
or undesirable, acceptable or unacceptable, ethical or unethical, etc., regarding something
 “Society and Culture ”
 The Concept of Culture:
 Elements of Culture:
3. Norms; essential elements of culture
• are implicit principles for social life, relationship and interaction.
• are detailed and specific rules for specific situations.
• tell us how to do something, what to do, what not to do, when to do it, why to do it.
• Social norms may be divided mores and folkways;
4. Language; the distinctive capacity and possession of humans
• a system of verbal and in written symbols with rules about how those symbols can be strung
together to convey more complex meanings
• Without language it would be impossible to develop, elaborate and transmit culture to the future
generation.
 “Society and Culture ”
 The Concept of Culture:
 Elements of Culture:
• Folkways; the ways of life developed by a group of people.
o distinguished from laws and mores in that they are designed, maintained and enforced by public
sentiment, or custom, whereas laws are institutionalized, designed, maintained and enforced by the
political authority of the society.
o are detailed and minor instructions, traditions or rules for day-to-day life that help us function
effectively and smoothly as members of a group
o are less morally binding, appropriate ways of behaving and doing things.

• Mores;
o important and stronger social norms for existence, safety, well-being and continuity of the society or
the group or society.
o The strongest norms are regarded as the formal laws of a society or a group.
o other kinds of mores are called conventions.
 “Society and Culture ”
 The Concept of Culture:
 Elements of Culture:
• Laws; written and codified social norms
o Conventions are established rules governing behavior; they are generally accepted ideals by the
society.
o regarded as written and signed agreements between nations to govern the behaviors of individuals,
groups and nations.
• Customs; a pattern of action shared by most or all members of a society
o a folkway or form of social behavior that has become traditional and well established in a society and
has received some degree of formal recognition
• Fashion; a form of behavior
o type of folkways that is socially approved at a given time but subject to periodic change.
 “Society and Culture ”
 The Concept of Culture:
 Culture Variability and Explanations;
• Cultural variability refers to the diversity of cultures across societies and places.
• The diversity of human culture is remarkable.
• Cultural variability between societies may result in divergent health and disease conditions.
• no one explanation is sufficient by itself; anthropologists now reject particular
deterministic explanation such as those based on race; rather cultural variations are
accounted for by more holistic explanations.
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and institution
 The Concept of Socialization:
 Socialization: a process of making somebody social and fully human.
 a process whereby individual persons learn and are trained in the basic norms, values, beliefs,
skills, attitudes, way of doing and acting as appropriate to a specific social group or society.
 is an on-going, never ending process- from cradle to the grave, from birth to death.
 the process whereby the culture, skills, norms, traditions, customs, etc., are transmitted from
generation to generation – or from one society to another
 may be formal or informal
 Formal: when it is conducted by formally organized social groups and institutions, like schools,
religious centers, mass media universities, work places, military training centers, internships, etc
 Informal: when it is carried out through the informal social interactions and relationships at micro-
levels, at interpersonal and small social group levels.
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and institution
 The Goals of Socialization;
 at individual person;
• the goal of socialization is to equip him or her with the basic values, norms, skills, etc, so that
they will behave and act properly in the social group to which they belong
 specific goals of Socialization is to;
• inculcate basic disciplines by restraining a child or even an adult from immediate gratification;
• instill aspirations; teach social roles; teach skills; teach conformity to norms;
• create acceptable and constructive personal identities.
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and institution
 Modes of Social Learning;
• the mechanisms by which socialization is accomplished
• Four modes of social learning
i. conditioning,
ii. identity taking,
iii. modeling-after and
iv. problem solving
 Conditioning: refers to the response pattern which is built into an organism as a result of stimuli
in the environment.
• Classical conditioning: environment vs. stimuli.. vary
• Operant or instrumental conditioning: response is controlled, a behavior which is guided by an
anticipated result
o creation of built-in responses a result of systematic reinforcement.
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and institution
 Modes of Social Learning;
 Identity taking:
• children begin to identify themselves and others by sex and learn to behave in the normative gendered
ways according to the society of which they parts
• As their linguistic and cognitive skills gradually develop, children begin to learn that they are being called
boys or girls, accept what others label, learn by observation, and report what boys and girls do and behave
accordingly.
 Modeling After:
• Children learn to model their behavior after someone who is an admired, loved or feared figure.
• a typical stage in personality formation and in the development of personal autonomy and social
involvement.
• our behavior acquires meaning and coherence.
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and institution
 Modes of Social Learning;
 problem solving:
• is applied to a problematic social situation in which individuals find themselves uncomfortable
and need a context -based response
• is essential particularly in societies where complexity and fluidity dominate the social world.
• includes learning to involve in cooperative and conflict-ridden activities, to cope with new
situations and to achieve one's goals.
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and institution
 Patterns of Socialization;
• There are two broadly classified patterns of socialization.
1. Repressive socialization: a tabular representation of the two modes of
socialization.
 is oriented towards gaining obedience,
2. Participatory socialization:
 is oriented towards gaining the participation of
the child
• Punishment of wrong behavior and rewarding and
reinforcing good behavior are involved in the two kinds of
socialization
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and institution
 Major Types of Socialization;
 the major types of socialization include;
1. primary or childhood socialization,
• basic or early socialization, childhood period for socialization.
2. Secondary or adulthood socialization,
• necessitated when individual take up new roles, reorienting themselves according to their changes
social statuses and roles, as in starting marital life.
3. de-socialization and re-socialization.
• De-socialization refers to stripping individuals of their former life styles, beliefs, values and attitudes
so that they May take up other partially or totally new life styles, attitudes and values.
• Re-socialization means the adoption by adults of radically different norms and life ways that are
more or less completely dissimilar to the previous norms and values.
• de-socialization and re-socialization often take place in what is called total institutions; mental
hospitals, prisons, religious denominations and some other political groups, and military units.
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and institution
 Major Types of Socialization;
 Other minor types of socialization include:
1. Anticipatory socialization;
• refers to the process of adjustment and adaptation in which individuals try to learn and internalize the
roles, values, attitudes and skills of a social status or occupation for which they are likely recruits in
the future.
• involves a kind of rehearsal and preparations in advance to have a feel of what the new role would
look like
2. Reverse socialization
• refers to the process of socialization whereby the dominant socializing persons, such as parents,
happen to be in need of being socialized themselves by those whom they socialize, such as children.
• Socialization is a two-way process; involves the influences and pressures from the socializees that
directly or indirectly induce change the attitudes and behaviors of the socializers themselves.
 “SOCIALIZATION ”: Social organization and social interaction

 Agents and Components of Socialization;

 Agents of socialization:
• are the different groups of people and institutional arrangements which are responsible for training new
members of society.
 Components to socialization process:
1. Socializee: who could be either a newborn child, a recruit to the army or the police force or a freshman in a college or
an intern in medical service
2. Socializers: who may be parents, peer groups, community members, teachers or church members.
3. socialization settings: a social environment which plays an important role in the socialization process.
 The most socializing agencies are the family, peer relationships, schools, neighborhoods (the community), the
mass media, etc.
 other agents of socialization (in modern societies) such as day-care-centers, nurseries and kindergarten, as
well as primary and secondary schools and universities.
 Various agents of socialization have partially taken over the function of the parents
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Concept of Social Organization;

 refer to the pattern of individual and group relations.
 "organization“ signifies technical arrangement of parts in a whole,
 "social", indicates individual and group relations are the outcomes of social processes
 Social Groups:
• defined as the collectivity or set of people who involve in more or less permanent or enduring social
interactions and relationships.
• have common basis for interaction and shared characteristics, a feeling of identity or
• belongingness, shared psychology or consciousness and a definite set of norms to govern the
behaviors of the individual participant in the group
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Basic Features of a Social Group;

1. Members of the group continue to interact with one another;
2. Membership requires living by norms that are special to the group;
3. Members view each other as part of the group; members feel some sense of identification
with the group and with one another; and there is a social boundary between members
and non-members;
4. Members are functionally integrated through role and status relationship in the group
structure; and
5. Others see members as group.
 Social interaction among the members is relatively permanent; it is not causal.
 Common interests should characterize as a basis for interaction.
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Classification of Groups;
a) based on quality of relationship between or among the members of the group, and the degree of group identity
1. Primary groups : family, neighborhood and children's play groups.
• were the ''nursery of human nature'' where the essential sentiment of human group loyalty and concern for others
could be learned
• could be learned. Primary groups are distinguished by some of the following characteristics:
o face-to-face interaction among members.
o high sentiment or loyalty
o a high level of emotional, spiritual satisfaction to be derived from involvement in primary social groups
o gives its members (individuals) their ''first acquaintance with humanity''.
2. Secondary groups: the more formal types of groups to which peoples belongs
• do not give people the feeling of close identity
• Considerable effort must be devoted to making people proud of the corporation for which they work
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Classification of Groups;
 Secondary groups: Main features (traits)
• There is little or no emotional involvement.
• Members are more competitive than cooperative.
• Members are less intimate.
• Group identity is less relevant.
• Economic efficiency is given higher emphasis than psychological identity.
• The group is mainly a means to an end rather than an end in itself.
• Membership is unlimited.
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Classification of Groups;
 Quasi-Social Groups;
• those kinds of social groupings which lack the essential features of social groups.
• ay be no functional integration among members.
• are little or no structured and patterned social relationships.
• lack meaningful social structures and social interaction
• There are two types of quasi groups: aggregates and categories.
 Aggregates
• is quasi-social grouping in which two or more people are physically together at a certain time and at a certain
place.
• There is physical proximity without enduring social interaction.
• There is no shared psychological-identity.
• Examples of an aggregate include: two or more people in a- taxi, bus, air plane, an elevator, a busy city street, in
a cafeteria
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Classification of Groups;
• There are two types of quasi groups: aggregates and categories.
 Categories

• is a quasi-group which consists of a plurality or collectively of people who are

physically dispersed, but who share common traits and interests.

• refers to a social class; or a group of people who are more or less of similar lifestyles, and
physical and psychosocial characteristics.

• may be little or no social interaction, social structure, social norms, etc; but there is the
feeling of belongingness, even though the people may never know each other. However,
gradually, a meaningful social grouping can grow out of a category.
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Social Interaction and Social Relationship

 Individuals are the main components of society

 society is the product of the actions of individuals.

 society is a representation of the collective behavior of individual actors.

 individuals are social actors who act in a social environment; their social
interactions are influenced by the social environment and existing social pattern
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Social Interaction and Social Relationship

 Social relationship
 refers to any routinized, enduring patterns of social interactions between individuals in society
under the limits and influences of the social structure.
 Social status
 the position or rank a person or a group of persons occupy in the social system
• ascribed social status; acquired by birth, naturally given
• achieved statuses: attained by competitions, making efforts, commitments, choices, decisions, and
other mechanisms
• Both ascribed and achieved Status; citizenships by birth or through other mechanisms
 salient status: a person’s position in most cases at most occasions
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Social Interaction and Social Relationship

 Concept of Social Roles;
 the expectations, duties, responsibilities, obligations, etc, which are associated with a given
social status.
 Every person/ group of persons is/ are expected to behave, act and demonstrate skills, knowledge
and attitude that are fitting to the given status or statuses.
 different roles associated with a single status;
• role set:
o inter-role: conflict between two or more roles
o intra-role: conflicts that occur when a person feels strains and inadequacies in accomplishing a
certain role
i. ideal role_ role strain
ii. actual role
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Social Interaction and Social Relationship

 Social Interaction in Everyday Life
• mean what people do when they are in the presence of one another.
• Four symbolic interactionist micro-sociological perspectives are developed to understand social
interaction in everyday life
1. Symbolic Interaction:
2. Dramaturgy
3. Ethno-methodology:
4. The Social Construction of Reality
 Symbolic Interaction: symbols people use to define their worlds;
• stereotypes in every day life:-the assumptions we have about people; they determine and shape
our reactions and behaviors towards people.
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Social Interaction and Social Relationship

 Symbolic Interaction
• personal space:- Individuals have, and maintain, an important sense of personal space in social
interaction
o open to only those whom we are intimate with such as children, parents, close friends and spouses
o four different distance zones are identified;
i. Intimate distance; 50 centimeter from our bodies; reserved for lovemaking, wrestling,
comforting, protecting
ii. Personal distance; extends from 50 centimeter to 120 centimeter surrounding our bodies; these
spaces are reserved for friends, acquaintances and conversations
iii. Social Distance; extends from 120 centimeter to 3.6 meters for impersonal or formal relationships;
iv. Public Distance; extends from 3.6 meters; it marks a more formal relationship
 is used to separate dignitaries and public speakers from the general public.
• Touching:-
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Social Interaction and Social Relationship

 Symbolic Interaction
• Touching:-
o Each society has rules about touching in social interaction.
o Frequency of touching and the meaning people attach to it vary between and within cultures
o However, in impersonal social interactions, higher status individuals are more likely to touch those of
lower status; e.g. teacher his/ her students; a boss his secretary, etc.
 Dramaturgy
 refer to the way individuals present themselves in everyday life
 refer to dramaturgical analysis of how people act and behave in social situations.
 social life is likened to a drama or stage.
o role performances: actions and roles played on the stage
 SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL INTERACTION

 Social Interaction and Social Relationship

 Ethno-methodology:
means the study of people’s methods.
 study how people make sense of life.
 involves uncovering people’s basic assumptions as they interpret their everyday world
 how people use commonsense understandings to make sense out of their lives.
 Social Construction of Reality:
 individuals define their own reality and try to live according that definition
 Reality is not something that exists “out there”, independently. It is created socially.
 By “social construction of reality“, we mean the process by which we take the various elements available
in our society and put them together to form a particular view of reality.
 Every individual’s definition of realities derives from his/ her society’s own definition.
 The definitions we learn from our cultures form the basis of not only what we do, but also what we
perceive, feel or think.
 Social organization and institution

 Social Institutions
 defined as practices based on similar principles that display some degree of regularity
 is an interrelated system of social roles and social norms, organized around the satisfaction
of an important social need or social function
 an established pattern of behavior that is organized to perpetuate the welfare of society and
to preserve its form.
 There are three main functions of social institutions:
1. perpetuation of the welfare of society,
2. preservation and maintenance of the form of society, and
3. meeting the major needs of the members of society.
 Social organization and institution

 Social Institutions
• Social institutions are universal.
• They vary from time to time and across cultures, in terms of complexity,
specialization, scope, formality and organization.
• But their basic nature and purpose are similar everywhere.
• Social institutions are resistant to change; they tend to persist.
• However, once a change occurs in particular social institution, it tends to affect the
other institutions as well.
 Social organization and institution

 Major Types and Functions of Social Institutions

 The five social institutions of major significances.
1. Economic institutions: those that deal with economic and property relations;
2. Polity and law: Those that are concerned with social control with politics and law
government, the police, court, etc;
3. Religious institutions: Those concerned with the supernatural magic and religion;
4. Family: those based on principles of kinship, meaning, social relations created by
descent and marriage; and
5. Educational institutions: those that deal with the need for training individuals in the
roles, values, skills, knowledge, attitudes etc which are associated with being a citizen
and a worker.
 Social Institutions
 Major Types and Functions of Social Institutions
 Each institution performs two types of social function.
 These are:
1. primary functions, which are also called manifest, explicit, or direct functions;
and
2. secondary functions, which are also called indirect, hidden, or latent functions.
 The primary functions of the five major social institutions are as follows.
 Social Institutions

 primary functions of the five major social institutions

 The Family;
• the most important social unit in any society
• the building block of any society
 The family fulfills two basic functions.
• Reproduction
• Socialization.
 Society reproduces or recreates itself through the family.
 Children are born in the family to join the society.
 Parents play the roles of nurturing, caring for, teaching and training children; children are
expected to play the roles of good and teachable trainees.
 Social Institutions

 primary functions of the five major social institutions

 The Family;
forms of family organization.
 Nuclear family is a dominant form of family organization in modern, industrialized and
urban societies. It usually consists of husband wife and dependent children.
 Extruded family: dominant in traditional agrarian and rural societies. It consists of
husband, wife/ wives, their children, and other relatives
 Economic Institutions;
• make effective use of the scarce resources.
• produced goods and services have to meet the basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter,
etc
• responsible for organizing the production, exchange, distribution and consumption of
goods and services.
 Social Institutions

 primary functions of the five major social institutions

 Religious Institution;
 responsible for meeting (providing) spiritual needs of the members of the society.
 provide explanation for puzzling questions about the meaning of the human life, human destiny,
the universe, and other questions.
 provide explanations for paradoxes of life and provides meaning and purpose for life.
 helps people to cope with purposelessness, meaninglessness and sense of alienation and
frustration.
 also help members of society conform to social values and norms, and play their expected
social roles appropriately.
 They also provide a sense of social solidarity among members of society.
 Social Institutions

 primary functions of the five major social institutions

 Political Institution (Government and Law);
 are responsible for protecting the society from internal disorder, crime and chaos; as well as from
external threats and invasion.
 also responsible for maintaining peace and order at micro and macro levels; enforcing social
control; and maintaining the welfare and well-being of society
 Educational Institution;
 responsible for providing training for the members of society.
 serves as center of knowledge production, exchange, and distribution
 Generally responsible for the vertical and horizontal transmission of material and non-material
cultures.
• Vertical transmission: means over time from one generation to another generation;
• horizontal transmission: means over geographical space or from one society to another.
 Social Institutions

 primary functions of the five major social institutions

 Educational Institution;
 play the role of preparing members of society for the statuses and roles that re associate with
being good citizens and workers, holding various occupations.
 SOCIAL CONTROL

 The Concept of Social Control

 social deviance;
 deviations from the accepted norms of a society or group or
 Movement away from the accepted social standards
 to ensure conformity of its members to its norms, social control is required.
• conformist: refers to those members of a society or a group who abide by the rules and norms of
the society
• non-conformist: refers to Those members of a society or a group who do not abide by the rules
and norms of the society
 Therefore, violation of values and norms and deviating from the standard values and norms
are often common.
 Social control is the mechanisms and processes employed by a society to ensure
conformity.
 SOCIAL CONTROL

 The Concept of Social Control

 Social control:
• any cultural or social means by which restraints are imposed upon individual behavior and by
which people are initiated to follow the traditions and patterns of behavior accepted by society.
• a means by which conformists are rewarded and non-conformists are punished.
 Types of Social control;
i. Positive Social Control: rewarding the model behavior
• Involve rewarding and encouraging those who abide by the norms.
• Informal psychosocial reward mechanisms: include simple smiles, saying encouraging word,
shaking hands, thanking, showing appreciation, etc.
• Formal positive social control mechanism: include giving awards, promoting to a higher level
of status
ii. Negative Social Control:
 SOCIAL CONTROL

 Types of Social control;

 Negative Social Control: punishment or regulating behavior of deviants;
• A deviant is a person whose views and actions are different in moral or social standards from
what is considered normal or acceptable in the context of a certain social group
 Micro/ informal level: occurs at the level of small groups such as peer groups, family, and
interpersonal relationships.
• Eg., simple gossip or backbiting, a simple frowning, reprimanding, pinching, beating, ridiculing,
scolding, ostracizing, etc
• The punishments can be in the psychological, social or physical/ material forms.
 Macro/ formal levels;
• fining, firing, demotion, imprisonment, banishment or excommunication, capital
punishment and so on.
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 Concept of Social Processes;

 Social processes: are certain repetitive, continuous forms of patterns in the social systems
that occur as individuals, groups, societies, or countries interact with each other.
 interaction patterns or modes, among members (individual) within a society or a group
involving particular repetitive features, occurring both at micro and macro levels.
 Social processes are bound to take place in the organized life of society.
 necessary for the very life, existence and smooth functioning of the system.
 help us interpret and understand our social behavior.
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 Modes of Social Processes ;

 five modes of social processes;
1. Competition,
2. Conflict,
3. Cooperation,
4. Accommodation
5. Assimilation
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 five modes of social processes;

 Competition;
• the process where by individuals, groups, societies, and countries make active efforts to win
towards getting their share of the limited resources.
• an impersonal attempt to gain scarce and valued resources of wealth, land, health care services,
etc
• involves struggle, efforts, decisions, actions, etc., to survive.
• Competition is balanced by cooperation.
• in advanced, modern, industrialized societies competition more likely to occur
 Cooperation;
• a social process whereby people join hands towards achieving common goals.
• in traditional homogenous societies where cooperation appears to be more important.
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 five modes of social processes;

 Conflict;
• In the process of competition for power (which could be economic, social, and political) and resources, conflict is
bound to take place
• Conflict involves disagreement and disharmony, which results due to differences in ideology, living standard, and
other social factors.
• It is a universal phenomenon, an ever- present reality, taking place both at micro and macro levels.
• Conflict involves clash of interest between individuals in a social group like in a family or between groups or
societies.
• It results due to power imbalance, due to unfair distribution of resources.
• it produces social class and stratification.
 Accommodation;
• a social process whereby people try to accept one another, avoiding the sources of conflict to live in peaceful
coexistence.
• a conscious adjustment and compromise among conflicting groups so that they can live with one another without
overt conflict.
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 five modes of social processes;

 Assimilation;
• a social process whereby a group of individuals learns and accepts the values, norms, etc., of
another group and becomes sometimes virtually identical with the dominant groups.
• involves the acceptance or the internalizing of the larger or dominant group's culture, values and
life styles by the smaller or minority group.
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 Social Stratification;
 is the segmentation of society into different hierarchical arrangement or strata.
 refers to the differences and inequalities in the socioeconomic life of people in a given
society.
 represents the ranking of individuals or social positions and statuses in the social structure
 hierarchical arrangement of people into different classes or strata which is the division of a
population into two or more layers, each of which is relatively homogenous, between which
there are differences in privileges, restrictions, rewards and obligations
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 Theories of Social Stratification;

 theories of social stratification concerning its importance, origin and value;
• The functionalist theory of social stratification
• The conflict theory of social stratification
 Functionalist Theory ;
• segments or hierarchies and social inequalities exist in all societies
• argue that social stratification is functional and purposeful and also essential in any society
• universal, functional, inevitable, and beneficial and something which can't be avoided.
 Conflict Theory;
• accept the fact that social inequality exists in every society.
• do not believe that social stratification is functional.
• it is the way of oppressing one group of people by another
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 Forms of Social Stratification;

 Social Class;
 are groups of people who are stratified into different categories.
 can be defined as a category or level of people found in similar positions in the social hierarchy.
 The criteria or the bases for dividing people in a given society into different social classes may include
wealth, occupation, education, sex, family background, religion, income, among others.
1. low class, middle
2. class and
3. upper class.
 Caste;
• system. The system is based on religious and other strongly rooted traditional belief that cannot be
changed or are very difficult to change.
• the form of social stratification whereby classification of people into different strata is made on the
basis of usually religious and other very strong conventions/ traditions that are difficult to change.
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 Social Mobility;
 Social mobility implies a set of changes in opportunities, incomes, lifestyles, personal
relationships, social status and ultimately class membership.
• a type of movement but it is not physical movement over geographical space
although social mobility could involve, and be brought about by, physical mobility.
• is movement in the social space, the shifting or changing of statuses or class
positions.
• is a social process that takes place among individual members or groups in a
society, as they interact with each other.
• is a process by which individuals or groups move from one status to another; or
from one class or stratum to another.
 Social mobility describes the volume and quality of movement among strata.
 SOCIAL PROCESSES: Stratification, Mobility and Change

 Social Change;
 defined as the alteration or transformation at large scale level in the social structure, social
institutions, social organization and patterns of social behavior in a given society or social system.
 alteration, rearrangement or total replacement of phenomena, activities, values or processes
through time in a society in a succession of events.
 Some of the basic characteristics of social change;
• Social change occurs all the time.
• There is no society that is static and unchanging.
• Change occurs both at micro-level and macro-level.
• The influence of change in one area can have an impact on other related areas.
• Social change has a rate; it can be rapid or slow.