W10.2 May 10 (Fri) Kim da young

 summary

The notion of social structure as relationships between different entities or groups or as enduring and relatively stable patterns of relationship emphasizes the idea that society is grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles, with different functions, meanings or purposes. One example of social structure is the idea of "social stratification", which refers to the idea that society is separated into different strata (levels), according to social distinctions such as a race, class, disability or gender. Social treatment of persons within various social structures can be understood as related to their background. The notion of structure as embedded institutions or norms that shape the actions of social agents is important, because it explains how “structural determination” may occur. Structural determination occurs when the actions of people and organizations are guided (if only partially) by the underlying structures in the social system. This approach has been important in the academic literature with the rise of various forms of structuralism. It is important in the modern study of organizations, because an organization's structure may determine its flexibility, capacity to change, and many other factors. Therefore, structure is an important issue for management. Social structure may be seen to influence important social systems including the economic system, legal system, political system, cultural system, and others. Family, religion, law, economics|economy and social class|class are all social structures. The "social system" is the parent system of those various systems that are embeddrelationship structures (in family or larger family-like clan structures), communication structures (how information is passed in organizations) and sociometry|sociometric structures (structures of sympathy, antipathy and indifference in organizations - this was studied by Jacob L. Moreno). 

Interesting point

Social rule system theory reduces the structures of (3) to particular rule system arrangements, that is, the types of basic structures of (1 and 2). It shares with role theory, organizational sociology|organizational and institutional sociology, and network analysis the concern with structural properties and developments and at the same time provides detailed conceptual tools needed too generate interesting, fruitful propositions and models and analyses.ㅡSociologists also distinguish between: 

normative structure — pattern of relations in given structure (organisation) between norm (sociology)|norms and modes of operations of people of varying social positions

ideal structure — pattern of relations between beliefs and views of people of varying social potions

interest structure — pattern of relations between goals and desires of people of varying social positions

interaction structure — forms of communications of people of varying social positionsg point

Points to discuss

What can social structure be divided into?