Social relation can refer to a multitude of social interactions, regulated by social norms, between two or more people, with each having a social position and performing a social role. Social interaction is a dynamic changing sequence of Social actions between individuals (or groups who modify their actions and reactions according to the actions by their Social norms have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values beliefs attitudes and behaviors Social position is the position of an Individual in a given Society and Culture. A role (sometimes spelled rôle) or a social role is a set of connected Behaviors Rights and Obligations as conceptualized by actors In sociological hierarchy, social relation is more advanced than behavior, action, social behavior, social action, social contact and social interaction. @@@ main@@@ - title Hierarchy@@@ keywords structure; sociology; information@@@ review@@@ - Behavior or behaviour (see spelling differences) refers to the actions or Reactions of an object or Organism, usually In Sociology, social actions refer to any action that takes into account the actions and reactions of other Individuals and is modified based on those events In Biology, Psychology and Sociology social behavior is behavior directed towards society or taking place between members of the same species In Sociology, social actions refer to any action that takes into account the actions and reactions of other Individuals and is modified based on those events Social contact is a pair of Social actions with no further consequence - i Social interaction is a dynamic changing sequence of Social actions between individuals (or groups who modify their actions and reactions according to the actions by their Social relations form the basis of concepts such as social organization, social structure, social movement and social system. Social organization or social institution, refers to a group of Social positions connected by Social relations performing a Social role. Social structure is a term frequently used in Sociology and Social theory — yet rarely defined or clearly conceptualised (Abercrombie et al Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of Individuals and/or Organizations focused on specific Social structure is a term frequently used in Sociology and Social theory — yet rarely defined or clearly conceptualised (Abercrombie et al
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Specific meaning
Although Harvard University has featured a Department of Social Relations (in which Talcott Parsons played a prominent role), and although the term "social relations" is frequently used in social sciences, there is in fact no commonly agreed meaning for this concept (see also the entry social). Scholars Associated with Social Relations at Harvard Talcott Parsons, (1902-1979 sociologist Talcott Parsons ( December 13, 1902 - May 8, 1979) was an American sociologist, who served on the faculty of Harvard University Definition In the absence of agreement about its meaning the term "social" is used in many different senses referring among other things to attitudes "Social" connotes association, co-operation, mutual dependence and belonging.
It could be argued that a social relation is, in the first instance, simply a relation between people, but more specifically
- a relation between individuals insofar as they belong to a group,
- a relation between groups of people, or
- a relation between an individual and a group of people. As commonly used, individual refers to a Person or to any specific object in a collection In Sociology, a group can be defined as two or more Humans that interact with one another accept expectations and obligations as members of the group and share a
The group could be an ethnic or kinship group, a social institution or organisation, a social class or social stratum, a nation, a population, or a gender etc. Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin through either biological cultural or historical descent Social organization or social institution, refers to a group of Social positions connected by Social relations performing a Social role. An organisation (or organization &mdash see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals which controls its own performance and Social class refers to the hierarchical distinctions (or stratification) between individuals or groups in Societies or Cultures. In Sociology, social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of Social classes Castes and strata within a Society. A nation is a Human Cultural and Social Community. In as much as most members never meet each other yet feel a common bond it may be considered In Biology a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular Species; in Sociology Gender comprises a range of differences between men and women extending from the biological to the social
This definition contrasts with the relationship between people and inanimate objects.
Examples
In this sense, a social relation is therefore not necessarily identical with a unique interpersonal relation or a unique individual relation of some type, although all these kinds of relations presuppose each other; a social relation refers precisely to a condition which groups of people have in common or share. An interpersonal relationship is a relatively long-term association between two or more people
For example, the simple statement "Jack and Jill love each other" might refer to a unique interaction between two people, the meaning of which might be difficult to define for an outsider. Yet, Jack and Jill may also be socially related in many different ways, insofar as they both are, as a matter of fact, members of the same or different social groups, and thus their identity is shaped in good part by the fact that they belong to those groups. If we wanted to understand and explain their behaviour, we would need to refer to those social relations. We might establish the milieu they grew up in, their ancestors, the jobs they do, where they lived, who their friends are, and so on, all of which helps explain why they necessarily interact in the way that they do, and not in some other way.
At a higher level of abstraction, we might consider two groups which are socially related, for example, although they live in different places, they depend on each other in trading goods and services.
At an even higher level of abstraction, we might consider the relationship between an individual and the whole of the world population, or the relationship of the world population to itself.
Some might indeed argue that a social relation exists between mortals and God (or the Gods), though others would regard this more as an imaginary relation. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. In flights of fancy, we could extend the analysis to the relation of all sentient organisms in the universe.
Theorists
However, the difficulties only start here, because now it needs to be established how these social relations exist, how we know they exist, what kinds of social relations there are, and how we can find out about them, verify them or identify them. About these questions researchers often disagree and debate, proposing different kinds of methodology to obtain knowledge of social relations. Methodology (also called manner) is defined as "the analysis of the principles of methods rules and postulates employed by a discipline" Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding
At one end of the spectrum, Karl Marx approvingly quotes Giambattista Vico's argument that humans can understand their society in its totality because "they made it themselves"; the limits to what humans can know are mainly practical in nature. Giambattista Vico, Giambattista Vigo or Giovanni Battista Vico ( June 23, 1668 – January 23, 1744) was an Italian A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions At the other end of the spectrum, Karl Popper rejects the possibility of objective knowledge about society as a whole, suggesting that methodological holism must lead to totalitarianism; progressive social change can only be achieved through the small steps of piecemeal social engineering. Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( July 28 1902 &ndash September 17 1994) was an Austrian and British Philosopher and a professor Distinguish from the suffix -holism, which describes addictions Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe Political systems where a State regulates nearly every aspect of public and private Social development redirects here For the aspect of Human biological development, see Psychosocial development Social change is a general term which
Understanding social relations
There are at least three problems in understanding social relations.
- many social relations are not directly observable by an individual, and can only be inferred with the aid of abstractions. In Physics, particularly in Quantum physics, a system observable is a property of the system state that can be determined by some sequence of physical --> Abstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information citation required This raises the question of how we know they exist, and how they exist.
- reflexivity: in the case of social science, the scientist is in a very obvious way himself or herself part of the social world being studied (this occurs also in natural sciences; not just in the sense that a biologist is also a biological being, but also even in theoretical physics - cf. the reflections of David Bohm). David Joseph Bohm ( December 20 1917, Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania – October 27 1992, London) was an American
- animal and insect populations for example also display a kind of "social" behaviour, so that social relations are not necessarily uniquely human relations (cf. Insects ( Class Insecta) are a major group of Arthropods and the most diverse group of Animals on the Earth with over a million described Human beings, humans or man (Origin 1590–1600 L homō man OL hemō the earthly one (see Humus the insights of sociobiology), and social relations might exist between humans and animals (though some dispute this; they argue that associative relations are confused here with true social relations; a human being could associate with all sorts of things or organisms, without a social relation being involved). Sociobiology is a neo-Darwinian and Socialism Synthesis of Scientific disciplines that attempts to explain Social behavior
Types of social relations
In broad terms, we can distinguish six basic levels of human awareness:
- unconscious awareness (studied by e. g. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Milton Erickson). Sigmund Freud (ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt born Sigismund Shlomo Freud (May 6 1856 &ndash September 23 1939 was an Austrian Psychiatrist who founded Milton Hyland Erickson, MD (born 5 December 1901 in Aurum Nevada, died 25 March 1980 in Phoenix Arizona) was an
- conscious subjective awareness (dissociated, focusing inward on the inner world, or expressing an inner state outwards) (studied e. g. in phenomenology and general psychology). Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and
- intersubjective awareness (an awareness which occurs in association with other people and is internal to that association) (studied e. g. in social psychology and sociology). Social psychology is the study of how people and groups interact Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge"
- objective awareness (dissociated, focusing outward to a world that exists mind-independently, as is developed e. g. in science to a high level). Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding
- reality-transforming awareness (transitions in practical action reframing the boundaries of different forms of awareness and changing consciousness, or connecting different forms of awareness - occurring in work, play, love, activism, politics etc. Reframing is a technique in Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP where an undesirable behavior or trait is conferred a positive intention. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. Play is a Rite and a quality of mind in engaging with one's worldview. Love is any of a number of Emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong Affection. Activism, in a general sense can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions
- transcendent awareness (going beyond personal knowledge or experience - some would include intuition and spirituality under this heading; it is the subject of much writing in religion and New Age thought). Intuition is apparent ability to acquire knowledge without a clear inference or the use of reason Spirituality, in a narrow sense concerns itself with matters of the Spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and Faith, a transcendent reality A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos New Age ( New Age Movement and New Age Spirituality) is a Social Collective Phenomenon and a Spiritual Nature
Corresponding to these levels of human awareness, we could also define different kinds of social relations; i. e. , the different ways in which humans might experience the connections among their own kind:
- subconscious social relations (for example at the level of the collective unconscious or between parents and children,
- social relations which exist only in subjective awareness or subjective perceptions (a person might act as though a social relation exists),
- intersubjective social relations involving shared meanings conveyed through communication,
- objective social relations which exist whether someone is aware of them or not (they might nevertheless be communicated insofar as we communicate with everything we are and do);
- social relations in the process of being transformed from one kind into another, or being interrelated with each other;
- spiritual or intuitive social relations of some kind. Collective Unconscious or known to laymen as Collective Subconscious is a term of Analytical psychology, Coined by Carl Jung. A parent is a Father or Mother; one who sires or gives CHILD syndrome (or congenital hemidysplasia with ichthyosiform erythroderma and limb defects) is a genetic disorder Spirituality, in a narrow sense concerns itself with matters of the Spirit, a concept closely tied to religious belief and Faith, a transcendent reality
As illustration, we can apply the foregoing to the notion of a group.
- A person might almost out of instinct identify with a group or relate to it;
- s/he might imagine being a member of a group, regardless of whether this is really the case;
- a group might exist only in the form of intersubjective relations among its members;
- a group might exist as an objective description, or as an objective reality, even regardless of whether one was aware of belonging to it;
- a group might be forming or dissolving, or both at once, and it might be changing its boundaries of inclusion and exclusion, perhaps overlapping with other groups;
- a group might also exist at the level of a common spiritual affinity or identification (Cf. Instinct is the inherent disposition of a living Organism toward a particular Behavior. the notion of a noosphere). In the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, the noosphere (sometimes spelled noösphere) can be seen as the " sphere of
However the group may exist, or be perceived to exist at some level - with the obvious consequences that has for the kinds of social relations involved - it is clear that understanding different kinds of group relations require different methods of inquiry and verification.
Precisely because social relations may be experienced at different levels of awareness, they are not necessarily transparent at all. Indeed, Karl Marx wrote ironically in this respect that "science would be superfluous if the outward appearance and the essence of things directly coincided. "
References
- Dick Houtman, Class and Politics in Contemporary Social Science: Marxism Lite and Its Blind Spot for Culture
- Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities
- Karl Marx, The German Ideology
- Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies
- Frank Furedi, Where have all the intellectuals gone?
- Piotr Sztompka, Socjologia
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