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Understanding Social Institutions and Change

Dive into the scientific study of societies and human social behavior to analyze social institutions and their impact on social change. Explore historical and cross-national comparisons to understand societal evolution.

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Understanding Social Institutions and Change

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  1. OSU Spring 2011 Contemporary World Societies: Social Institutions and Social Change www.worldsocieties.wordpress.com Irina Tomescu-Dubrow Office Hours:Tu/Th: 13:30-15:30 in 145 Townshend Hall tomescu.1@sociology.osu.edu

  2. Goal of (Social) Science Know and understand the world around us. Research questions - need to be scientific We should be able to answer them based on observations that identify the conditions under which the event of interest occurs. Sociology = the scientific study of societies and human social behavior. (Auguste Comte 1798-1857) Latin socius(companion) + Greek logos(study of). Sociology is concerned with relations btw: - individuals (micro-level); - organizations (meso-level) - institutions (macro-level).

  3. Society as a social system System means any collection of interrelated parts, which maintain some boundary or unity. Structure:how is the system build? What are the parts and what are relationships among them? (Anatomy). Ex: In stratification research, to describe the social structure generally involves: a) to enumerate its parts (i.e. social classes), and b) to provide information about where these parts are located with regard to certain resources (education; occupation; income).

  4. Social institutions and Social Change 5 major complexes of institutions: - economic institutions (produce and distribute goods & services); - political institutions (regulate the use of, and access to, power); - stratification institutions (determine the distribution of social positions); - kinship institutions (deal with marriage, the family & socialization of the young); - cultural institutions (are concerned with religious, scientific, and artistic activities). Social institution = social practices that (a) are regularly and continuously repeated, (b) are sanctioned and maintained by social norms, (c) have a major significance in the social system.

  5. Aspects of change: (1) what kind of social institutions are affected (2) the range/extent/span of change (whether macro/meso/ micro) (3) the nature of change (gradual diffusion vs. radical disruption) (4) the agent of change (e.g. innovative elites, social deviants) (5) the cause of change (demographic pressure, technology, etc.) Does change occur due to factors from within (i.e. endogenous) or from outside (i.e. exogenous)?

  6. Historical and cross-national comparisons to analyze and try to understand/explain social change What means historical comparison? Analyzing societies at various points in history in order to be able to compare types of social institutions as well as their evolution. What means cross-national comparison? Analyzing social institutions across two or more countries in order to grasp variations and characteristic features. Comparative social science research can be historical and/or cross-national.

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