atheists? Why?

2) Describe the role of religion in the life of a person, society, state. What is the moral force of religion?

3) What is a world religion? What is the essence of the discussion about the number of world religions? What do you think, what criteria are used by those experts who name more than three world religions?

4) What role have world religions played and are playing in the history of mankind?

5) What role does the religious factor play in contemporary conflicts? Is it possible to say that often it is only a pretext for starting an armed confrontation?

to this problem, Émile Durkheim says: "Society is not a simple sum of individuals, but a system formed by their association."

This statement by Emile Durkheim means that society is a systematized, regular community of people, and not just a sum of individuals.

We all know from textbooks that society is a part of the material world isolated from nature, which includes the ways in which people interact. This is a kind of integrity of people, which has a collective character. However, is society necessarily systematized?

I think so: originally people existed outside of society, united in small groups, just like animals. However, in the process of anthroposociogenesis, man became a social being. Sociums were formed: at first they were tribes, then peoples and nations. In them, a person has a set of social roles that determine his place (son, student, Russian, and so on). Society, gradually becoming more complex, was divided into strata, classes, spheres, which are also divided within themselves. All this together forms a complex dynamic natural system - society.

2. What is culture? Tell us about the origin of this concept.

3. How do traditions and innovation interact in culture?

4. Describe the main functions of culture. On the example of one of the phenomena of culture, reveal its functions in society.

5. What kind of “cultures within a culture” do you know? Describe a situation in which the interaction of several cultures would manifest itself.

6. What is the dialogue of cultures? Give examples of interaction and
interpenetration of various national cultures using knowledge,
obtained in the courses of history and geography.

7. What is the internationalization of culture? What are her problems?

8. Describe the manifestations of folk culture.

9. What is Mass culture? Tell us about its symptoms.

10. What is the role of funds mass media in modern society?
What problems and threats can be associated with their spread?

11. What is elite culture? How is its dialogue with the masses?

society political power social

System analysis of public life

Throughout the history of sociology, one of its most important problems has been the problem: what is a society? Sociology of all times and peoples has tried to answer the questions: how is the existence of society possible? What are the mechanisms of social integration that ensure social order, despite the huge variety of interests of individuals and social groups? Consideration of this problem is our task in this topic.

Let's start with how sociology interprets the concept of "society". E. Durkheim considered society as a supra-individual spiritual reality based on collective ideas. According to M. Weber, society is the interaction of people, which is the product of social, that is, other people-oriented actions. The prominent American sociologist T. Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the connecting beginning of which are norms and values. From the point of view of K. Marx, society is a historically developing set of relations between people that develop in the process of their joint activities.

It is obvious that in all these definitions, to one degree or another, an approach is expressed to society as an integral system of elements that are in a state of close interconnection. This approach to society is called systemic. The main task systems approach in the study of society is to combine various knowledge about society into a coherent system that could become a theory of society.

Consider the basic principles of a systematic approach to society. To do this, it is necessary to define the basic concepts. System- this is a certain way ordered set of elements interconnected and forming some integral unity. The internal nature, the content side of any integral system, the material basis of its organization is determined by the composition, the set of elements.

The social system is a holistic formation, the main element of which are people, their connections, interactions and relationships. These connections, interactions and relationships are stable and are reproduced in the historical process, passing from generation to generation.

social connection is a set of facts that determine joint activities in specific communities at specific times to achieve certain goals. Social ties are established not at the whim of people, but objectively. The establishment of these connections is dictated social conditions, in which individuals live and act. The essence of social ties is manifested in the content and nature of the actions of people who make up this social community. Sociologists single out connections of interaction, relations, control, institutional, etc.

social interaction is a process in which people act and are affected by each other. The mechanism of social interaction includes individuals who perform certain actions, changes in the social community or society as a whole caused by these actions, the impact of these changes on other individuals that make up the social community, and, finally, the feedback of individuals. Interaction leads to the formation of new social relations. social relations are relatively stable and independent connections between individuals and social groups.

So, society is made up of many individuals, their social connections, interactions and relationships. But is it possible to consider society as a simple sum of individuals, their connections, interactions and relationships? Supporters of a systematic approach to the analysis of society answer: "No." From their point of view, society is not a summative, but an integral system. This means that at the level of society, individual actions, connections and relationships form a new, systemic quality. System quality-- this is a special qualitative state, which cannot be considered as a simple sum of elements. Public interactions and relations are supra-individual, transpersonal in nature, that is, society is some kind of independent substance, which is primary in relation to individuals. Each individual, being born, finds a certain structure of connections and relations, and in the process of socialization is included in it. Due to what is this integrity, that is, systemic quality, achieved?

A holistic system has many connections, interactions and relationships. The most typical are correlative connections, interactions and relationships, including the coordination and subordination of elements. Coordination- this is a certain consistency of elements, that special nature of their mutual dependence, which ensures the preservation of an integral system. Subordination - this is subordination and subordination, indicating a special specific place, the unequal significance of elements in an integral system.

So, as a result, society becomes an integral system with qualities that none of the elements included in it separately have. Due to its integral qualities social system acquires a certain independence in relation to its constituent elements, a relatively independent way of its development.

social connection is a set of conscious or unconscious, necessary and random, stable and spontaneous dependencies of some social subjects on others. To the greatest extent, social ties are manifested in various kinds of adaptive behavior of people, taking into account the norms and values ​​recognized by the group. A high degree of manifestation of social ties is an activity undertaken by people taking into account the needs of others, especially when it does not correspond to the personal interests of the acting people.

Now we will move on to further analysis and raise questions about what is happening between people, between individuals, how connections and dependencies arise between them, how associations appear that unite people into stable communities. Communicating with peers, relatives, acquaintances, with random fellow travelers, each person carries out certain social interactions.

Spatial contact is the initial and necessary link in the formation social relationships. Knowing where people are and how many there are, and even more so observing them visually, a person can choose an object for further development of relationships based on their needs and interests.

Contacts can be:

v transient or persistent, depending on their frequency and duration;

v personal and material;

v direct and indirect.

In the process of social interaction is produced:

ü perception each other's people;

ü mutual evaluation each other;

ü joint action - cooperation, rivalry, conflict, etc.

Let us give a definition of social interaction: social interaction is a system of socially conditioned individual and/or group actions connected by mutual causal dependence, in which the behavior of one of the participants is both a stimulus and a reaction to the behavior of the others.

There are four main features of interaction:

1) objectivity- the presence of an external in relation to interacting individuals or groups of goals, reasons, objects, etc., which encourage them to interact;

2) situationality- a fairly strict regulation of interaction with the specific conditions of the situation in which this process takes place: the behavior of friends at work, in the theater, at the stadium, at a country picnic is significantly different;

3) explication- availability for an outside observer of the external expression of the interaction process, whether it is work at a factory, a game or dancing;

4) Reflective polysemy- the possibility for interaction to be a manifestation of both the main subjective intentions, and an unconscious or conscious consequence of the joint participation of people in interindividual or group activities (for example, teamwork).

Big role in the implementation of interactions the system plays mutual expectations presented by individuals and social groups to each other before performing social actions. Such expectations can be episodic and vague in the case of short-term interactions, say, with a single date, a casual and non-recurring meeting, but can also be stable in frequently repeated or role-playing interactions.

If an interaction is a bidirectional exchange of actions between two or more individuals, then an action is just a one-way interaction. Action can be divided into four types:

1. physical action, for example: a slap in the face, handing over a book, writing on paper;

2. verbal or verbal action, for example: insult, greeting - "hello";

3. gestures as a kind of action: a smile, a raised finger, a handshake;

4. mental action, which is expressed only in inner speech.

Of the four types of action, the first three are external, and the fourth - internal. Examples that reinforce each type of action correspond to the criteria of social action by M. Weber: they are meaningful, motivated, oriented towards the other.

Social interaction is based on social statuses and roles. Hence the second typology of social interaction (by spheres):

The economic sphere, where individuals act as owners and employees, entrepreneurs, rentiers, capitalists, businessmen, unemployed, housewives;

Professional area where individuals participate as drivers, bankers, professors, miners, cooks;

Family-related sphere, where people act as fathers, mothers, sons, cousins, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, godfathers, sworn brothers, bachelors, widows, newlyweds;

Demographic sphere, including contacts between representatives of different sexes, ages, nationalities and races (nationality is also included in the concept of interethnic interaction);

Political sphere where people oppose or cooperate as representatives of political parties, popular fronts, social movements, as well as subjects state power: judges, policemen, juries, diplomats, etc.;

The religious sphere implies contacts between representatives of different religions, one religion, as well as believers and non-believers, if the content of their actions relate to the area of ​​religion;

Territorial-settlement sphere - clashes, cooperation, competition between local and newcomers, urban and rural, temporarily and permanently residing emigrants, immigrants and migrants.

Thus, the first typology of social interaction is based on types of action, the second - on status systems.

Any interaction is exchange. You can exchange anything: signs of attention, words, gestures, symbols, material objects. Perhaps you will not find anything that could not serve as a medium of exchange. Thus, money, with which we usually have an exchange process, is far from the first place.

According to the exchange theory George Homans (1910-1989), the behavior of a person at the present moment is determined by whether and how exactly his actions were rewarded in the past. He brought out the following exchange principles: 1) the higher the act is rewarded, the more often it is repeated; 2) if in the past in certain situation there was a reward, people tend to create such a situation again; 3) the greater the reward, the more people are willing to expend effort to receive it; 4) when a person's needs are almost completely satisfied, he tends to make efforts to satisfy them to a lesser extent. social behavior is an exchange of activities, tangible or intangible, more or less rewarding or costly, between at least two persons. Subinstitutional behavior is real behavior in institutional structures, elementary social behavior is the actual behavior of people in direct contact with each other, where each directly and directly rewards or punishes the other.

Elementary social behavior:

§ socially (orientation to another person);

§ directly (face-to-face);

§ really (this is real behavior, not the norm of behavior);

§ implies social norms, which, however, cannot cover all situations of interaction (role and role performance).

Problem social interactions most thoroughly considered in symbolic interactionism, the theory of social exchange and phenomenology. The main provisions of the theory of social interactions are as follows.

Social interaction is one of the types of social connection - a mutually directed process of exchanging social actions between two or more individuals.

Communication is always mutual, available and feasible (at least in the imagination).

There is two types of connections: direct (as a rule, visual, interpersonal) and indirect (when communication is carried out through intermediaries; in this case, the phenomenon of deindividualization arises - the illusion that everything social relations exist independently of the will and desire of people).

Types of links:

1) social contact (single or regular) - a connection of a superficial, fleeting nature in the absence of conjugated (interdependent, interdependent) actions of partners in relation to each other (you asked a passer-by: "How to get to the pharmacy?"; Do you regularly go to the bakery and make contact with the seller);

2) social interaction (interactionism) - systematic, fairly regular social actions of individuals directed at each other and aimed at evoking a well-defined response from the partner. In this case, the response generates a new reaction of the influencer (that is, a system of actions of partners in relation to each other arises).

Traits of social interaction:

1) conjugation of actions of both partners;

2) recurrence of actions;

3) sustained interest in the partner's response;

4) coordination of partners' actions.

Types of Social Interactions:

1) rigid exchange (exchange on the basis of certain agreements (most often in the economic sphere, in the relationship between the leader and subordinate, in political life));

2) diffuse (non-rigid) exchange (mainly in moral and ethical interactions: friendship, neighborhood, relationships between parents and children, partnership);

3) direct-indirect interactions (direct - direct (two-way) interactions between individuals, indirect - complex, mediated through 3-4 persons (indirect interactions prevail in modern society));

4) individual-group interactions (individual-individual, individual-group, group-group).

I. Goffman, within the framework of a phenomenological perspective, offers a slightly different view of social interactions. To analyze them, he uses a "dramatic approach" based on the premise that individuals are actors playing social roles. Accordingly, interaction is a "performance", an "acting game", designed by an actor with the aim of "making an impression", corresponding to his goals. The actions of the actor, according to I. Goffman, correspond to the concept of "presenting oneself and managing the impression." "Presentation of oneself" includes gestures, intonations, clothes, with the help of which the individual seeks to make a certain impression on his partner, to cause him this or that reaction. At the same time, the individual in the process of interaction, as a rule, provides only selected, partial information about himself, trying to control the impression that he makes on others.

P. Blau, relying on the theory of exchange and structural functionalism, argues that not all social interactions can be considered as exchange processes. The latter include only those that are focused on achieving goals, the implementation of which is possible only in the process of interaction with other people and for the achievement of which funds are needed that are also available to other people. That part of human behavior which is governed by the rules of exchange lies at the basis of education. social structures, but the exchange rules themselves are insufficient to explain the complex structures of human society.

However, it is social exchange that largely determines the interactions of each individual. The success or failure of our interactions ultimately depends on the knowledge and ability (or ignorance and inability) to practically use the principles of their regulation, formulated in the framework of the theory of exchange.