Social Processes, changes and development accompany the life of every person. They are called to life by various both subjective and objective circumstances - experiences, ideas, interests, guesses, an external situation. But significant social changes necessarily take place in the process of joint actions of people who are not isolated, but, on the contrary, are unidirectional, interconnected, coupled, interdependent.
A person constantly corrects his behavior, joins in processes, looks for ways out of difficult situations, relationships, changes his position in the economic and political spheres, that is, consciously or unconsciously participates in social processes.
What are social processes?
A Brief Dictionary of Sociology (M., 1988, p. 263) characterizes the social process as a sequential change in the states or movements of a social system, or its subsystems, or any social object. The social process consists of several stages, has a certain structure, direction.
Sociologist Frolov S. S. in the textbook "Sociology" M., Logos, 1998, p. 274 notes that a social process is a set of unidirectional and repetitive social actions that can be distinguished from many other social actions.
Social processes are associated with changes in society in all spheres of social life.
Social Processes- these are the most important changes in social structures, including the consequences and manifestations of these changes in norms, values, cultural elements and symbols.
Social change- this is the transition of social systems, communities, institutions and organizations from one state to another.
Social change - it is any modification that has occurred in a social relationship. In a narrower sense, social change is understood as a change in the social structure of society.
The author of the textbook "Sociology" Volkov Yu.G. (Rostov on Don, Phoenix Publishing House, 2005) notes that it is necessary to distinguish between social dynamics, that is, the processes of social modification, during which the existing structure is preserved and strengthened, and social changes proper, that is, such modifications that lead to profound structural changes.
In sociology, there are constant structures or patterns of social change, there are three proposed:
1. Movement along a downward line from top to decline;
2. Movement in a closed circle - in cycles.
3. The movement from the lowest to the highest is progress.
In the modern period, the development scheme is presented more than others in two positions: cyclical and unidirectional. Unidirectional development is most often understood as the growth or accumulation of something - the level of organization, volume of production, population density. The simplest type of unidirectional change process is linear, when the volume of changes occurring is constant at any given time. Cyclic changes are characterized by the successive passage of stages. They occur in the agricultural, economic and other spheres of society.
Social changes also happen:
Endogenous, due to the internal nature or structure of a changing society, they originate in it;
Exogenous, which are caused by external causes (Protestantism caused the accelerated development of capitalism).
There is a type of social change called modernization.
Modernization denotes the historical process of transition from a traditional agrarian society to a modern industrial society.
Practice shows that modernization is a continuous and endless process. It is divided into primary, reflexive (generating countless dangers and risks), catching up (inclusion of countries that were late in its implementation in the modernization), recurrent (according to the Russian sociologist N.F. Naumova), when the idea of catching up social development is associated with nostalgic regret about the past. imperial power of Russia.
The types of social change can be represented in the form of a diagram.
Scheme 1. Types of social change
Social changes occur due to the interaction of factors, both social and natural.
1. The physical environment is physical beings that live in a certain environment and interact with it through social organization and technologies that contribute to their adaptation.
2. Population. Changes in the size, structure and distribution of the population affect the culture and social structure of society (aging, competition in the labor market).
3. Conflicts are a form of interaction between people in the struggle for resources and values.
4. Values and norms accepted in society act as permits or prohibitions on any innovations or act as stimulants.
5. Innovation. The discovery adds new knowledge to the existing ones (Einstein's theory of relativity, Mendel's genetic theory). The invention is a new combination of old elements. Innovations, both discoveries and inventions, are not isolated acts, but a cumulative (cumulative) sequence of accumulated knowledge transmitted by generations, plus a number of new elements.
Some innovations create a much stronger effect, destroying old or creating new social relations and cultural patterns. So technical innovations like radio, television, automobiles have spawned entire cultures.
In sociology, there are three main forms of social effects of innovation.
1. Dispersion, or multiple effects, of one invention or discovery.
2. Subsequent or derivative effects of one invention or discovery.
3. Convergence, or joining, of several influences from different inventions.
Diffusion Is the process by which cultural characteristics are spread from one social system to another.
The mechanisms of unidirectional processes are: accumulation, choice, differentiation. Models of unidirectional development assume that a change in a certain direction entails further changes in the same direction.
The mechanisms of curvilinear and cyclical change can be considered saturation and exhaustion. Models of development along a curve or in a closed cycle assume that changes in one direction create conditions for further changes in others, including opposite directions.
Conflicts, competition, cooperation, competition can also be viewed as mechanisms of social change.
Sources of social change can be: social causes, accidental causes, political causes, technological causes, changes in demand in the labor market.
Social Processes certainly affect social systems, communities, groups. They transform them, create new ones, modify them, bring new relationships and social interactions to life. These changes are the only comparison unit in the analysis of social systems, communities, relationships, interactions. Many social processes are paired: revolutionary - evolutionary, progressive - regressive, conscious - spontaneous, functional - dysfunctional, integrating - disintegrating. As well as political, economic, managerial, communication, etc.
If, along with the comparative method, we apply the historical method, look at the continuity of various stages of human development, including the physical, intellectual, moral and political, then we note:
Society, as an integral system, develops from simple to complex, from lower to higher
Progress can be achieved only through a specific series of social stages, and therefore, through changes, through development, through processes.
Evolutionary and revolutionary are noted as the leading social processes.
Social evolution in the view of the historical stages of human society includes: the development of society from simple to differentiated, from traditional to rational, from unenlightened to enlightened, from a society with manual technology to a society with machine technology, from a weakly integrated society to a strictly integrated one.
Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist, notes that the transition from a simple society to a complex one depends on the depth of the division of labor in society. The German sociologist Tennis notes that in the village community there were basic types of social ties: people lived according to communal principles and values, observing traditions and customs, specialization was limited and undeveloped, the people relied on religion, the family and community were the main values. In an industrial society, the following interconnections are: striving for personal gain, formal laws are at the heart of life, professional roles are expressed in society, people relied on secular values, society is based on corporate and associative forms of uniting people. The French scientist Aron noted that in a post-industrial society the mastery of knowledge is the main prestigious factor, scientists and consultants play a dominant role, mass production of goods for the market is developed, production and management are mechanized and automated, the scientific and technical revolution has embraced all spheres of life.
Evolutionary processes are understood as gradual, slow, smooth, quantitative transformations of objects. Evolutionary development includes several points:
Differentiation of society;
Specialization, different parts and structures of society;
Integration - the establishment of harmony, structural and functional conformity of all parts of society;
Adaptation of society to new conditions, maintaining balance and the ability to self-preserve.
Revolutionary process- This is a relatively fast, radical, qualitative change in objects and systems. They repeat themselves in time and space, or there and there at the same time. Karl Marx considered social revolutions, i.e. radical qualitative upheavals of all social life as the locomotive of history. It has been historically proven that the more structural elements the process covers, the larger the changes occur, the longer it takes to implement them.
The main types of social processes are:
1) cooperation- translated from Latin “to work together” on the basis of concerted actions, common goals, mutual understanding, consistency and accepted rules of cooperation
2) competition is a struggle between individuals, groups and societies for mastering values, the reserves of which are limited and unequally distributed between individuals or groups (money, power, status, appreciation, love). Competition is the attempt to achieve reward by eliminating or outrunning rivals seeking identical goals. Competition is based on the fact that people can never satisfy their desires.
3) adaptation- this is the acceptance by an individual or a group of cultural norms, values and standards of action of a new environment (emigrants, schoolchildren, students, a rural dweller in a city - forms the type of behavior in the changed conditions)
4) subordination- this is a prerequisite for the adaptation process, because resistance makes it difficult for the individual to enter the new structure and prevents him from adapting
5) compromise is a form of adaptation, when an individual or a group agrees with changing conditions by partially or completely accepting new goals and ways to achieve them
6) assimilation is a process of mutual cultural penetration through which individuals and groups come to a common culture. Assimilation often weakens and dampens conflicts
7) amalgamation is a biological mixing of two or more ethnic groups or peoples, after which they become one group or people. The processes of assimilation and amalgamation lead to the erasure of boundaries between peoples, the destruction of formal division, the emergence of a general similarity among members of the group.
Social changes in society occur as a result of purposeful human activity, which consists of individual social actions and interactions. As a rule, isolated actions can rarely lead to significant social and cultural change. Even if one person made a great discovery, many people should use it, implement it in their practice. Thus, significant social changes occur in the process of joint actions of people who are not isolated, but, on the contrary, are unidirectional, mutually linked. Moreover, this pairing can often be unconscious due to the presence of motives and orientation in people.
The collection of unidirectional and repetitive social actions that can be distinguished from many other social actions is called a social process .. People move from place to place, learn together, produce food, distribute and consume them, participate in political struggle, cultural transformations and many other social processes.
From the whole variety of social processes, one can single out processes that have common features, the totality of which allowed the sociologists R. Park and E. Burgess to create a classification of the main social processes: cooperation, competition (rivalry), adaptation, conflict, assimilation, amalgamation. These are usually joined by two other social processes that manifest themselves only in groups: the maintenance of boundaries and systematic connections.
The word cooperation comes from two Latin words: co - together and operari - to work. Cooperation can take place in dyads (groups of two individuals), small groups, as well as in large groups (in organizations, social stratum or society).
Cooperation in primitive societies usually has traditional forms and proceeds without a conscious decision to work together. On the islands of Polynesia, people fish together, not because they decided so, but because their fathers did it. In societies with a more developed culture, technology and technology, enterprises and organizations are created for the deliberate cooperation of human activities. Any cooperation is based on concerted actions and the achievement of common goals. This requires such elements of behavior as mutual understanding, coordination of actions, the establishment of rules for cooperation. Cooperation is primarily related to the desire of people to cooperate, and many sociologists consider this phenomenon based on selflessness. However, the conducted research and simple experience show that selfish goals serve to a greater extent the cooperation of people than their likes and dislikes, reluctance or desires. Thus, the main meaning of cooperation is primarily in mutual benefit.
Cooperation among members of small groups is so common that the life history of most individuals can be defined mainly as their attempt to become part of such groups, as well as to regulate cooperative group life. Even the most pronounced individualists have to agree that they find satisfaction in family life, in leisure groups, and in groups at work. The need for such cooperation is so great that we sometimes forget that the successful stable existence of a group and the satisfaction of its members largely depend on the ability of everyone to engage in cooperative relationships. A person who cannot easily and freely cooperate with members of primary and small groups is likely to be isolated and may not adapt to life together. Cooperation in primary groups is important not only for itself, but also because it is invisibly connected with cooperation in secondary groups. Indeed, all large organizations represent a network of small primary groups in which cooperation functions on the basis of the inclusion of individuals in a significant number of personal relationships.
Co-operation in secondary groups appears as many people working together in large-scale organizations. People's willingness to work together to achieve common goals is expressed through government agencies, private firms and faith-based organizations, as well as through highly specialized interest groups. Such cooperation not only includes many people in a given society, but also leads to the creation of a network of organizations that cooperate activities at the level of state, regional, national and international relations. The main difficulties in organizing such large-scale cooperation are caused by the geographical extent of cooperative ties, reaching an agreement between individual organizations, preventing conflicts between groups, individual individuals and the subgroups that they make up.
Competition is a struggle between individuals, groups or societies for mastering values, the reserves of which are limited and unequally distributed between individuals or groups (this can be money, power, status, love, appreciation and other values). It can be defined as an attempt to achieve reward by eliminating or getting ahead of rivals seeking identical goals. Competition is based on the fact that people can never satisfy all their desires. Therefore, competitive relations flourish in an environment of abundance, just as competition for higher, higher-paying jobs exists in full-time employment. If we consider the relationship between the sexes, then in almost all societies there is also intense competition for attention from certain partners of the opposite sex.
Competition can manifest itself on a personal level (for example, when two leaders are fighting for influence in the organization) or be impersonal (an entrepreneur is fighting for sales markets without personally knowing his competitors. In this case, competitors may not identify their partners as rivals). Both personal and impersonal competition is usually carried out in accordance with certain rules that focus on achieving and outrunning rivals, rather than eliminating them.
Although competition and rivalry are inherent in all societies, the acuteness and forms of their manifestation are very different. In societies where there are mostly prescribed statuses, competition is generally less visible; it moves into small groups, into organizations where people strive to be "first among equals." At the same time, in societies with achieved statuses, competition and rivalry permeate all spheres of social life. For a person living in such a society, competitive relations begin from childhood (for example, in England or Japan, a further career largely depends on the school in which the child begins his education). In addition, in each group or society, the relationship between the processes of cooperation and competition develops in different ways. In some groups, there are pronounced processes of competition occurring at the personal level (for example, the desire to advance, to win more material reward), in others, personal rivalry can fade into the background, personal relationships are mainly in the nature of cooperation, and competition is transferred to relationships with other groups.
Competition is one method of distributing insufficient remuneration (that is, one that is not enough for everyone). Other methods are of course possible. Values can be distributed on several grounds, for example, according to priority need, age or social status. You can distribute insufficient values through a lottery or divide them equally among all members of the group. But applying each of these methods presents significant challenges. The overriding need is most often challenged by individuals or groups, as many see themselves as deserving the most attention when establishing a priority system. The equal distribution of insufficient remuneration among people with different needs, abilities, as well as among those who put in different efforts is also highly controversial. However, competition, although it may not be a rational enough mechanism for distributing remuneration, “works” and, in addition, removes many social problems.
Another consequence of competition can be considered the creation of certain systems of attitudes from competitors. When individuals or groups compete with each other, they develop attitudes associated with an unfriendly and hostile attitude towards each other. Experiments carried out in groups show that if the situation develops in such a way that individuals or groups cooperate to pursue common goals, then friendships and attitudes are maintained. But as soon as conditions are created under which undivided values arise that give rise to competition, unfriendly attitudes and unflattering stereotypes immediately arise. It is known, for example, that if national or religious groups enter into competitive relations with each other, national and religious prejudices appear, which, as competition grows, constantly intensifies.
The advantage of competition can be considered the fact that it is widely practiced as a means of stimulating every person to the greatest achievements. They used to believe that competition always increases motivation and thus increases productivity. In recent years, competition studies have shown that this is not always true. So, we can cite many cases when different subgroups arise within the organization, which, competing with each other, cannot positively influence the effectiveness of the organization. In addition, competition, which does not give any individual a chance of promotion, often leads to abandonment of the struggle and a decrease in his contribution to the achievement of common goals. But despite these caveats, it is clear that no stronger incentive has yet been invented than competition. It is on the stimulating significance of free competition that all the achievements of modern capitalism are based, the productive forces have developed unusually, opportunities have opened up for a significant increase in the standard of living of people. Moreover, competition has led to progress in science, art, and significant changes in social relations. However, incentives through competition can be limited in at least three ways.
First, people themselves can weaken competition. If the conditions of the struggle are associated with unnecessary anxiety, risk and loss of a sense of certainty and security, they begin to protect themselves from competition. Businessmen develop a monopoly price system, go to secret deals and collusion to avoid competition; some industries require the government to protect their prices; scientific workers, regardless of their abilities, demand universal employment, etc. Almost every social group seeks to protect itself from tough competitive conditions. Thus, people may withdraw from competition simply because they are afraid of losing everything they have. The most striking example is the rejection of contests and competitions of representatives of art, since singers or musicians, occupying low places in them, may lose popularity.
Second, competition appears to be a stimulating agent only in some areas of human activity. Where the task facing people is simple and requires the implementation of elementary actions, the role of competition is very great and there is a gain due to additional incentives. But if the task gets more difficult, the quality of work becomes more important, competition is less beneficial. When solving intellectual problems, not only does the productivity of groups working according to the principle of cooperation (and not competition) increase, but the work is done more efficiently than in those cases when the members of the group compete with each other. Competition between individual groups in solving complex technical and intellectual problems really stimulates activity, but within each soil it is not it that is most stimulating, but cooperation.
Third, competition tends to turn into conflict (conflict will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter). Indeed, consent to a peaceful struggle for certain values, rewards through competition is often violated. A competitor who loses in skill, intelligence, ability, may succumb to the temptation to take possession of values through violence, intrigue or violation of existing laws of competition. His actions can generate backlash, and competition turns into conflict with unpredictable results.
Adaptation - the acceptance by an individual or a group of cultural norms, values and standards of action of a new environment, when the norms and values learned in the old environment do not lead to the satisfaction of needs, do not create acceptable behavior. For example, emigrants in a foreign country are trying to adapt to a new culture; schoolchildren go to college and must adapt to new requirements, to a new environment. In other words, adaptation is the formation of a type of behavior suitable for life in a changed environment. To one degree or another, the adaptation processes proceed continuously, since the conditions of the external environment are constantly changing. Depending on the individual's assessment of changes in the external environment and the significance of these changes, adaptation processes can be short-term or long-term.
Adaptation is a complex process in which a number of features can be distinguished. This is obedience, compromise, tolerance.
Any change in the situation in the environment surrounding an individual or a group makes them either submit to him or enter into conflict with him. Submission is a prerequisite for the adaptation process, since any resistance significantly complicates the entry of an individual into a new structure, and conflict makes this entry or adaptation impossible. Submission to new norms, customs or rules can be conscious or unconscious, but in the life of any individual it occurs more often than disobedience and rejection of new norms.
Compromise is a form of accommodation, which means that an individual or group accepts changing conditions and culture by partially or completely accepting new goals and ways to achieve them. Each individual usually tries to reach an agreement, taking into account his own strengths and what forces the surrounding changing environment has in a particular situation.
Compromise is a balance sheet, a temporary agreement; as soon as the situation changes, a new compromise has to be found. In cases where the goals and ways of achieving them for an individual or a group cannot satisfy the individual, a compromise cannot be reached and the individual does not adapt to the new environmental conditions.
A prerequisite for the successful course of the adaptation process is tolerance in relation to the new situation, new samples of culture and new values. For example, as we age, our perceptions of culture, change and innovation change. We can no longer fully accept youth culture, but we can and should treat it tolerantly and, through such adaptation, peacefully coexist with our children and grandchildren. The same can be said about an emigrant leaving for another country, who is simply obliged to tolerate samples of a culture alien to him, put himself in the place of the people around him and try to understand them. Otherwise, the adaptation process will not be successful.
Assimilation is a process of mutual cultural penetration through which individuals and groups come to a common culture shared by all participants in the process. It is always a two-way process, in which each group has the ability to penetrate its culture into other groups in proportion to its size, prestige and other factors. The assimilation process is best illustrated by the Americanization of immigrants from Europe and Asia. The large numbers of immigrants who arrived between 1850 and 1913 mainly formed immigrant colonies in cities in the northern United States. Within these ethnic colonies (Little Italy, Little Poland, etc.), they lived in many ways in accordance with the models of European culture, perceiving some complexes of American culture. However, their children begin to very sharply reject the culture of their parents and absorb the culture of their new homeland. They often come into conflict with their parents about following old cultural patterns. As for the third generation, their Americanization is almost complete and the newly minted Americans feel the most comfortable and familiar American samples of culture. Thus, the culture of the small group was assimilated into the culture of the large group.
Assimilation can significantly weaken and extinguish group conflicts by mixing separate groups into one big one with a homogeneous culture. This is because social conflict involves the separation of groups, but when the cultures of the groups are assimilated, the very cause of the conflict is eliminated.
Amalgamization is the biological mixing of two or more ethnic groups or peoples, after which they become one group or people. Thus, the Russian nation was formed by biological mixing of many tribes and peoples (Pomors, Varangians, Western Slavs, Meri, Mordovians, Tatars, etc.). Racial and national prejudice, caste isolation, or deep conflict between groups can form a barrier to amalgamation. If it is incomplete, status systems may appear in society, in which status will be measured by "blood purity." For example, in Central America or parts of South America, Spanish descent is required to achieve high statuses. But once the amalgamation process is completely over, the boundaries between groups are blurred and the social structure is no longer dependent on "blood purity."
Maintaining boundaries. The significance of the processes of assimilation and amalgamation lies mainly in the erasure of boundaries between groups, the elimination of formal division, the emergence of a common identification of the members of the group.
The boundary lines between social groups are a central aspect of social life, and we devote a lot of time and energy to establishing, maintaining and modifying them. National states define their territorial boundaries and establish signs, fences, which prove their rights to a limited territory. Social groups without territorial boundaries establish social boundaries that separate their members from the rest of society. For many groups, such boundaries can be language, dialect or special jargon: "If he does not speak our language, then he cannot be one of us." Uniforms also help to separate group members from other groups: doctors are separated from soldiers or militia by their white coats. Sometimes the separating symbol can be decals (with their help, for example, members of Indian castes differ). However, more often than not, group members do not have an explicit symbolic identification, they only have a subtle and difficult to fix sense of "belonging" associated with group standards that separate the in-group from everyone else.
Groups not only need to establish certain boundaries, but must also convince their members that they recognize these boundaries as important and necessary. Ethnocentrism usually develops in the individual a belief in the superiority of his group and in the disadvantages of others. Patriotism plays a significant role in fostering this conviction, which tells us that the weakening of national sovereignty through international agreement can be fatal.
The desire to preserve the boundaries of the group is supported by sanctions applied to those who do not respect such boundaries, and by rewarding individuals who seek to consolidate and preserve them. The reward may consist in access to certain positions through membership in associations, closeness in spirit in a friendly company, etc. Punishments, or negative sanctions, most often consist in the cancellation or deprivation of rewards. For example, someone cannot get a good job without the support of a certain group or association; someone may be undesirable in a prestigious group, in a political party; someone may lose friendly support.
People who want to overcome social barriers in groups often seek to reduce social boundaries, while those who have already overcome them want to create and strengthen such boundaries. For example, during the election campaign, many candidates for people's deputies fought for the expansion of the parliamentary corps and for frequent re-elections, but as soon as they were elected as deputies, their aspirations became completely opposite.
Sometimes the boundaries between groups can be drawn formally, for example, in cases of direct instructions or the introduction of special restrictive rules. In all other cases, the creation of boundaries is an informal process, not enshrined in the corresponding official documents and unwritten rules. Very often the existence of boundaries between groups or their absence does not correspond to their official prohibition or, conversely, the introduction.
The creation and modification of boundaries between groups is a process that occurs constantly with more or less intensity in the course of interaction between groups.
Creation of a system of connections. Any nation that has territorial boundaries needs international trade. In the same way, all social groups that are within certain boundaries also need to create some types of connections with other groups in a given society. If the absence of significant boundaries leads to the fact that a given group completely merges with society or any other group, then its lack of relationships with other groups leads to its isolation, loss of opportunities for growth, and performance of functions that are not characteristic of it. Even the hateful and highly insular clans in primitive societies have sometimes turned to a "silent barter" system with their enemies. Without entering into personal contact with them, they left in a certain place goods for exchange, which representatives of other clans exchanged for their goods.
Linkage creation is defined as the process by which the elements of at least two social systems are articulated in such a way that in some respects and in some cases they appear as a single system. Groups in modern society have a system of external relations, consisting, as a rule, of many elements. The modern village is linked to the city through the exchange of crop and livestock products for energy, agricultural machinery, etc. The village and the city exchange human resources, information, and participate in public life. Any organization should be associated with other divisions of society - trade unions, political parties, organizations that create information.
It is obvious that each group is forced to solve a dilemma: to strive to maintain its independence, integrity, independence, or to maintain and strengthen the system of ties with other groups.
In conclusion, it should be said that all the processes considered are closely related and almost always proceed simultaneously, thus creating opportunities for the development of groups and constant changes in society.
Social management- the section of management, the subject of which is the processes reflecting the motivation of human behavior, social relations and their patterns, the analysis of the social consequences of economic and other decisions taken at various levels of personnel management and other areas related to the activities of the organization.
The theoretical core of social management are, demography,. To solve the problems of social management, knowledge of social statistics, knowledge of modern mathematical and statistical methods and mathematical methods of modeling and forecasting the national economy are required.
Social management is closely related to the management of the social development of an organization.
Management of social development of the organization- a specific type of management, which has its own object, methods, forms of development and implementation; a set of methods, techniques, procedures that allow solving social problems based on knowledge of the laws governing the course of social processes.
According to its purpose, the management of the social development of the organization is focused exclusively on people, on the creation of decent working and living conditions for the employees of the organization. Social management recommendations are aimed at developing positive behavioral outcomes among staff.
Subject social management are relations in society, social processes and their patterns.
Objects social management are social phenomena, attitudes, behavior and activities of people in the social sphere.
Social management structures are called upon to implement social policy, to solve problems of social justice. The mechanism of functioning of social management structures is based on a clear goal setting, the development of a sound strategy for achieving it.
Social Processes
Social processes are associated with relationships between individuals and as carriers of various types of activity, differing social positions and roles in society.
Social process- sequential change in the states of social organization as a whole or its individual structural elements.
In the course of social processes, the essential characteristics of the social structure of society, the ratio of social groups, relationships and the nature of the interaction between them change.
Social activity is carried out through the historically established types and forms of human interaction and relations with other people. It can be carried out in different areas and at different levels of social organization.
Each type of social relations plays a certain role in the social system. Society, being a social system, has the property of self-reproduction, which is carried out through a number of differentiated functions that are a consequence of the division of social labor. Complementing each other and interacting, they give society a special character social organism.
The differentiation of social functions is accompanied by the emergence of economic, social, political and other institutions. The functions associated with ensuring the activities of these structures are performed by people with professional knowledge.
Classification of social processes
By highlighting their essence:
- basic (labor and associated value-orientational processes that influence the formation and development of value orientations of team members);
- integrative-supporting (management, communication and regulatory processes. This also includes group integrative-supporting processes: leadership and leadership in primary teams, the inclusion of an individual in a group and exit from it, etc.);
- mobility processes (changing the status of individuals and social groups in an organization, society);
- genetic (progressive and regressive, expressing a change in the status of the organization itself in its environment).
According to the criterion of scale, they are distinguished:
- global processes (their results affect society as a whole);
- local social processes that take place in separate subsystems (industry, region, enterprise, social group) and do not affect the entire society.
Management of social processes- one of the main types of management, the function of which is to ensure the implementation of the needs of society and its subsystems. Its content consists in the formation of criteria for indicators of the social development of society, the allocation of social problems arising in it, the development and application of methods for their solution, in achieving the planned states and parameters of social relations and processes.
Management must ensure a balance in the controlled system, the solution of social problems that have arisen as a result of unjustified economic decisions, exacerbation of the political situation, natural disasters and other reasons.
The following social problems can be identified that need to be addressed:
- employment and unemployment;
- forced migration;
- living wage;
- child neglect;
- formation of the population's income;
- formation;
- Lifestyle;
- assessment of the activities of governing bodies (various levels), authorities and public organizations;
Social processes in Russia
Social processes lead to a change in the essential characteristics of the social structure of society, the relationships of social groups, relationships and the nature of the interaction between them.
In the early 90s. in connection with the transition to the social structure of Russian society, there have been significant changes:
- A layer of large owners emerged (concentrated mainly in the sphere of circulation: banks, stock exchanges, trading firms, industrial and financial companies).
- The stratum of smallholders (farmers, small traders, owners of private workshops, private practitioners, lawyers, teachers, etc.).
- The structure of hired workers has changed (various forms of ownership: state, joint-stock, private).
- The process of merging the two main groups of the elite - the neo-bourgeoisie and the new nomenklatura - is actively underway.
Social changes occurring through the mechanism of introducing innovations into a particular social system presuppose the obligatory process - possibly short or extended in time.
A social process is one-directional actions of people, leading to a change in the state of elements in a social system. A social system cannot exist without processes leading to certain changes.
From all the variety of social processes, sociology singled out the main ones: cooperation, competition (rivalry), adaptation, conflict, assimilation, amalgamation. Cooperation as a set of joint actions and interactions is known to all societies and in all historical periods. Cooperation from Latin means "to work together". At the heart of cooperation is the conscious desire of people to achieve the greatest effect from joint activities. A person who cannot cooperate easily and freely, i.e. engaging in joint actions with other people will ultimately be unsuccessful in life.
Cooperation as a social process is not only joint productive labor. Cooperation appears in the form of many people working in large-scale organizations. The desire of people to cooperate to achieve common goals is expressed through government agencies, private firms, etc. Such cooperation not only includes many people in a given society, but also leads to the creation of a network of organizations that cooperate activities at the level of state, regional, national and international relations.
Cooperation presupposes the simultaneous presence of such a manifestation of the social process as competition next to it. Competition refers to the desire to achieve reward by eliminating or outstripping rivals seeking identical goals. It can be money, power, status, love, etc. Competition is based on the fact that people can never satisfy all their desires. Therefore, competitive relations flourish both in conditions of abundance and in conditions of a shortage of goods, services, positions, freedoms, etc. Competition can manifest itself on a personal level or be impersonal. For example, an entrepreneur is fighting for sales markets without personally knowing his competitors. In this case, competitors may not identify their partners as rivals.
Although competition and rivalry are inherent in all societies, the acuteness and forms of their manifestation are very different. In societies where there are mostly prescribed statuses, competition is generally less visible. At the same time, in societies with generally attainable statuses, competition permeates all spheres of social life. For a person living in such a society, competitive relations begin in childhood and last virtually all life.
The importance of competition in the life of society, in the implementation of social processes in it, lies in the fact that it stimulates elements of society, individuals to achieve victory through creation. At the same time, competition is not a panacea for all ills and is not the only (let alone universal) type of social process leading to social change. People as participants in the competitive struggle and its initiators under certain circumstances may seek to weaken competition. If the conditions of the struggle are associated with unnecessary anxiety, risk and loss of a sense of certainty, security, people begin to protect themselves from competition. Businessmen go to secret deals and collusion to avoid competition, some sectors of the economy require the protection of their interests by the state, and these preferences are not always justified. Almost every social group seeks to protect itself from tough competitive conditions. Thus, people may withdraw from competition simply because they are afraid of losing everything they have.
In addition, competition under certain circumstances can turn into a conflict (the conflict will be discussed in more detail in the next topic). Consent to a peaceful struggle for certain values, reward through rivalry is often violated. A competitor who loses in skill, intelligence, ability, may succumb to the temptation to take possession of values through violence, intrigue or violation of existing laws of competition. His actions can generate a backlash: competition turns into conflict with unpredictable results.
Adaptation (adaptation) is the acceptance by an individual or a social group of cultural norms, values, models, and standards of a new environment. Adjustment begins when the norms and values learned in the previous environment do not lead to the satisfaction of needs, do not create acceptable behavior. For example, emigrants in a foreign country are trying to adapt to a new culture, schoolchildren go to college and must adapt to new requirements, to a new environment. In other words, adaptation is the formation of a type of behavior suitable for life in a changed environment. To one degree or another, the adaptation processes proceed continuously, since the conditions of the external environment are constantly changing. Depending on the individual's assessment of changes in the external environment and the significance of these changes, adaptation processes can be short-term or long-term, take the form of submission, compromise, and tolerance.
Assimilation is a social process of mutual cultural penetration through which individuals and groups come to a common culture shared by all participants in the process. It is always a two-way process, in which each group has the ability to penetrate its culture into other groups in proportion to its size, prestige and other factors. Assimilation can significantly weaken and extinguish group conflicts by mixing separate groups into one big one with a homogeneous culture. This is because social conflict involves the separation of groups, but when the cultures of the groups are assimilated, the very cause of the conflict is eliminated.
Amalgamation is the biological mixing of two or more ethnic groups or peoples, after which they become one group or people. Racial and national prejudice, caste isolation, or deep conflict between groups can form a barrier to amalgamation. If it is incomplete, then status systems may appear in society in which status will be measured by "blood purity." But once the amalgamation process is completely over, the boundaries between groups are blurred and the social structure is no longer dependent on "blood purity."
Assimilation and amalgamation are objectively determined processes that ultimately have undoubted positive social changes. These processes have taken place and will continue to occur, since society constantly produces social boundaries, barriers between newly emerging communities.
The main types of social processes noted above are the result of the efforts of individual individuals or groups of individuals organized into one or another community, organization: under certain circumstances, these efforts acquire a massive character, uniting by collective actions, shared values, ideas of individuals belonging to different strata. It is customary to define this form of the social process as a social movement.
A social movement is a set of collective actions aimed at supporting social changes or supporting resistance to social changes in society, in a social group. This definition unites a wide range of social movements: religious, economic, youth, feminist, political, revolutionary, etc. Social movements are less stable and more dynamic, changeable in their patterns of behavior, usually relatively poorly organized and formalized in comparison with parties and other social political institutions and organizations. But in the process of their development, social movements can reach such a level of organization and formalization that they turn into one or several socio-political organizations.
Social movements are an important object of study in political science. However, sociological analysis differs significantly from political science. The study of the nature of social movements made it possible to better understand their inner content, their essence. Based on this, sociology identifies the so-called expressive movements. The nature of their occurrence is as follows. When a certain group of people feels uncomfortable within a certain social system, recognizes its imperfection for itself, but does not seek to change it, but finds a way out for itself through various expressive, emotionally vivid actions, in which the participation of individuals in this type of social movement is manifested. Such actions can be ritual dances (the ancient world), mysteries (the Middle Ages), youth subcultures (modern times).
Expressive social movements allow those who feel antagonism to the reality around them and are included in these movements to receive some kind of relief through emotional release, make their life bearable.
Expressive movements often refer to the glorious past and the exploits of the ancestors. These movements revive bygone rituals, symbolism and find emotional satisfaction in wearing old military uniforms or returning to old customs and behavior. Such movements are most often associated with passive behavior, escape from reality through memories or dreams. At the same time, such expressive motions * pave the way for reforms or lead to revolutions, as they revitalize traditions and can function as a force that arouses passive populations. This is also facilitated by the desire of most people to idealize the past, to oppose the "heroic" times to the present. This property of expressive movements can make them an intermediate link between non-political and active political movements.
One of the forms of social movements is the so-called uto peaky. Utopian (i.e. invented, fantasized) ideas, theories that develop some perfect models of building society, have existed in all centuries of human history and served as the basis for both local (experimental) and mass social movements of the utopian type.
Many prominent writers and thinkers have tried to describe these perfect utopian societies. Especially many attempts were made to theoretically substantiate a perfect human society in the 18th and 19th centuries, when utopian ideas were especially popular. Initially, the authors and / or implementers of utopian ideas, who almost always had significant internal energy, activity, embodied their model of utopia within the boundaries of small communities, circles: for example, the communities of the first Christians, religious sects of the East, the communes of R. Owen, the phalanx of C. Fourier and etc. However, all of them in a relatively short time disintegrated or degenerated as soon as they encountered the outside world or when the number of members of the commune, etc., of ideal communities exceeded the limits of physical control over them by their charismatic leader.
Of course, utopian ideals are viable and enduring. Therefore, they can be forgotten after the disintegration of the movement and, after some time, re-emerge in other movements. This is due to the fact that people will never stop imagining (without sufficient reason) the most perfect models of society.
Utopian social movements are valuable for social change with their ideas that awaken scientific thought and activate the actions of the authorities aimed at harmonizing social relations. Attempts to concretely implement utopian ideas are met with resistance from law-abiding members of society, who are afraid of new cultural patterns of behavior, changing roles, etc.
Sociology views reform movements as social movements as an attempt to change certain aspects of social life and the structure of society without its complete transformation (or this is not set as a goal, but is a consequence of reforms). Reforms are called social, if they relate to transformations in those spheres of society or those aspects of public life that are directly related to people, are reflected in their level or way of life, health, participation in public life, access to social benefits. Changes in the rules for using international telephones, railway transport or metro affect the interests of citizens. But such reforms are hardly called social reforms. On the contrary, the introduction of universal secondary education, health insurance, unemployment benefits or a new form of social protection for the population does not just affect our interests. Such reforms concern social status of numerous layers of the population, restrict or expand the access of millions of people to social benefits - education, health care, employment, guarantees.
For individuals to unite to fight for reforms, two conditions are necessary: participants in such movements must have a positive attitude to order in a given society, focusing only on certain negative aspects of the social order, and also have the opportunity to express their opinions and take active actions in support of any reforms. In this regard, it can be said that complete reform movements arise only in democratic societies, when people have considerable freedom and can criticize existing social institutions and change them at the will of the majority. Numerous types of reform movements, such as, for example, abolitionist (movement for the abolition of a law), feminist (movement for the equality of women), prohibiting (pornography, the construction of nuclear power plants, etc.), cannot develop under totalitarian regimes , in which an attempt at any social change is regarded as a threat to the existing system of power.
One form of social movement is revolution. A revolution is a complete or complex change in all or most of the aspects of social life, affecting the foundations of the existing social system. The revolution is of an abrupt nature and represents the transition of society from one qualitative state to another.
Revolutions should be distinguished from state or palace coups, which are carried out by people who are at the helm of government and leave the institutions and system of power in society unchanged. The term "revolution" is sometimes applied to gradual, peaceful, large-scale changes, such as a technological revolution. But in this case we are dealing with a completely different meaning of this term. So, for example, the longest process in the history of mankind was the so-called neolithic revolution, which represented a qualitative change in the sphere of production - a transition, a leap from gathering to agriculture. The Neolithic Revolution began 10 thousand years ago and lasted 3 thousand years in some regions of the world, and 8 thousand years in others. During this time, developed agricultural civilizations arose in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, Greece, etc.
Industrial revolution of the 18th - 19th centuries led the European states, the USA and a number of other states to the domination of industry in the sphere of productive forces and radically changed the social structure of society, but this did not happen in a leap, but through reforms. Not a technological, but a social revolution changes the foundations of the social system, and destroys the existing social order and establishes a new one, significantly different from the previous one, in the shortest possible time.
But is social revolution a necessary or necessary part of social change? Most sociologists believe not. The very existence of other variants of social movements, alternative to the revolution, testifies to this. A number of researchers have identified the main thing that leads to revolutionary movements with their inevitable negative social consequences for people. In particular, it is the accumulation of deep social anxiety and dissatisfaction over a number of years; the inability of intellectuals to successfully criticize the existing situation in such a way that the bulk of the population understands them; the emergence of an incentive to take action, an uprising of a social myth or belief system that justifies this incentive; a revolutionary explosion caused by the vacillation and weakness of the ruling elite; the period of moderate rule, which soon boils down to attempts to control various groups of revolutionaries or to concessions in order to extinguish the explosion of passions among the people; access to active positions of extremists and radicals who seize power and destroy any opposition, etc.
Historical experience shows that democracy, contrary to popular belief, does not serve as a breeding ground for revolutionary movements. This is because democracy is the foundation of social reform, and reforms inevitably postpone revolution. Revolutionary movements thrive where reforms are blocked to such an extent that a revolutionary movement is the only way to address the flaws in the social system. It is no coincidence that they did not become widespread in such traditionally democratic countries as Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium or Denmark, and are highly developed in those countries where the government is only considered democratic and its activities are ineffective in carrying out social reforms. Under these conditions, even some reformers become revolutionaries.
There are many scientific theories that contain different, including opposite, assessments of the social movements noted above and which underlie social processes that lead, in turn, to social changes. We believe it will be correct to recognize the most significant theories explaining the nature, content, stages of development of the main social movements as grounded. All of them are possible and even necessary if society does not find other ways for its renewal through socio-cultural changes. On a subjective level, one can give preference to one or another social movement - for example, a revolution. However, in real life, a special process will follow the path that will determine the dominant social movement in a particular society.
In society, the processes of transformation in time, the actions of the driving forces, the results of changes and their scale are of great interest. If in a society there is no interaction of internal and external forces, then it dies, stagnates, decays. Some processes are replaced by others when each of them has exhausted its potentials.
Social Processes, changes and development accompany the life of every person. They are called to life by various subjective and objective circumstances - experiences, ideas, interests, guesses, an external situation. Significant social changes necessarily occur in the process of joint actions of people who are not scattered, but, on the contrary, are unidirectional, interconnected, coupled, interdependent.
A person constantly corrects his behavior, joins in processes, looks for ways out of difficult situations, relationships, changes his position in the economic and political spheres, that is, consciously or unconsciously participates in social processes.
What are social processes?
A Brief Dictionary of Sociology (M., 1988. - p. 263) characterizes the social process as a sequential change in the states or movements of a social system, or its subsystems, or any social object. The social process consists of several stages, has a certain structure, direction.
Sociologist S.S. Frolov in the textbook "Sociology" (Moscow: Logos, 1998. - p. 274) notes that the social process is a set of one-directional and repetitive social actions that can be distinguished from many other social actions.
Social processes are associated with changes in society in all spheres of social life.
Social Processes- these are the most important changes in social structures, including the consequences and manifestations of these changes in norms, values, cultural elements and symbols.
Social Processes certainly affect social systems, communities, groups. They transform them, create new ones, modify them, bring new relationships and social interactions to life. These changes are the only comparison unit in the analysis of social systems, communities, relationships, interactions. Many social processes are paired: revolutionary - evolutionary, progressive - regressive, conscious - spontaneous, functional - dysfunctional, integrating - disintegrating. As well as political, economic, managerial, communication, etc.
If, along with the comparative method, we apply the historical method, look at the continuity of various stages of human development, including the physical, intellectual, moral and political, then we note:
- society, as an integral system, develops from simple to complex, from lower to higher;
- progress can be achieved only through a specific series of social stages, and therefore, through changes, through development, through processes.
Evolutionary and revolutionary are noted as the leading social processes.
Social evolution in the view of the historical stages of human society includes: the development of society from simple to differentiated, from traditional to rational, from unenlightened to enlightened, from a society with manual technology to a society with machine technology, from a weakly integrated society to a strictly integrated one.
Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist, believes that the transition from a simple society to a complex one depends on the depth of the division of labor in society. The German sociologist Tennis notes that in the village community there were basic types of social ties: people lived according to communal principles and values, observing traditions and customs, specialization was limited and undeveloped, the people relied on religion, the family and community were the main values.
In an industrial society, the following relationships are: striving for personal gain, life is based on formal laws, professional roles are expressed in society, people rely on secular values, society is based on corporate and associative forms of uniting people.
The French scientist Aron noted that in a post-industrial society the mastery of knowledge is the main prestigious factor, scientists and consultants play a dominant role, mass production of goods for the market is developed, production and management are mechanized and automated, the scientific and technological revolution has embraced all spheres of life.
Evolutionary processes are understood as gradual, slow, smooth, quantitatively transforming objects. Evolutionary development includes several points:
- differentiation of society;
- specialization of various parts and structures of society;
- integration - the establishment of harmony, structural and functional conformity of all parts of society;
- adaptation of society to new conditions, maintaining balance and the ability to preserve itself.
Revolutionary process- This is a relatively fast, radical, qualitative change in objects and systems. They repeat themselves in time and space, or there and there at the same time. Karl Marx considered social revolutions, that is, radical qualitative upheavals of all social life, to be the locomotive of history. It has been historically proven that the more structural elements the process covers, the larger the changes occur, the longer it takes to implement them.
Five features distinguish the revolutionary process from other forms of social change:
completeness: revolutions take over all spheres and levels of social life;
radicalism: revolutionary processes are fundamental in nature, they penetrate the foundations of the social structure;
speed: revolutionary changes are happening very quickly;
exclusivity: revolutions remain indelibly in the memory of people;
emotionality: revolutions cause an upsurge of mass feelings, unusual reactions and expectations, in them, as in fundamental transformations, a wide masses of people are involved.
The main types of social processes are:
1) cooperation- translated from Latin “to work together” on the basis of concerted actions, common goals, mutual understanding, consistency and accepted rules of cooperation;
2) competition Is a struggle between individuals, groups and societies for mastering values, the reserves of which are limited and unequally distributed between individuals or groups (money, power, status, appreciation, love). Competition is the attempt to achieve reward by eliminating or outrunning rivals seeking identical goals. Competition is based on the fact that people can never fully satisfy their desires;
3) adaptation- this is the acceptance by an individual or a group of cultural norms, values and standards of action of a new environment (emigrants, schoolchildren, students, a rural dweller in a city - forms the type of behavior in the changed conditions);
4) subordination- this is a prerequisite for the adaptation process, since resistance makes it difficult for the individual to enter a new structure and prevents him from adapting;
5) compromise- this is a form of adaptation, when an individual or a group agrees with changing conditions by partially or completely accepting new goals and ways to achieve them;
6) assimilation Is a process of mutual cultural penetration through which individuals and groups come to a common culture. Assimilation often weakens and dampens conflicts;
7) amalgamation Is a biological mixing of two or more ethnic groups or peoples, after which they become one group or people. The processes of assimilation and amalgamation lead to the erasure of boundaries between peoples, the destruction of formal division, the emergence of a general similarity among members of the group.
