The dynamic nature of society characterizes. Questions and tasks for the document

Society as a complex dynamic system. Public relations

The existence of people in society is characterized by various forms of life and communication. Everything that has been created in society is the result of the cumulative joint activity of many generations of people. Actually, society itself is a product of the interaction of people, it exists only where and when people are connected with each other by common interests.

In philosophical science, many definitions of the concept of "society" are offered. In a narrow sense society can be understood as a certain group of people united for communication and joint performance of any activity, as well as a specific stage in the historical development of a people or country.

In a broad sense society — it is a part of the material world isolated from nature, but closely connected with it, which consists of individuals with will and consciousness, and includes ways of interaction of people and forms of their association.

In philosophical science, society is characterized as a dynamic self-developing system, i.e., such a system that is capable of seriously changing, at the same time retaining its essence and qualitative certainty. The system is understood as a complex of interacting elements. In turn, an element is some further indecomposable component of the system that is directly involved in its creation.

To analyze complex systems, like the one that society represents, scientists have developed the concept of "subsystem". Subsystems are called "intermediate" complexes, more complex than the elements, but less complex than the system itself.

1) economic, the elements of which are material production and relations that arise between people in the process of production of material goods, their exchange and distribution;

2) social, consisting of such structural formations as classes, social strata, nations, taken in their relationship and interaction with each other;

3) political, including politics, the state, law, their correlation and functioning;

4) spiritual, covering various forms and levels of social consciousness, which, being embodied in the real process of the life of society, form what is commonly called spiritual culture.

Each of these spheres, being an element of the system called "society", in turn, turns out to be a system in relation to the elements that make it up. All four spheres of social life are not only interconnected, but also mutually condition each other. The division of society into spheres is somewhat arbitrary, but it helps to isolate and study certain areas of a truly integral society, a diverse and complex social life.

Sociologists offer several classifications of society. Societies are:

a) pre-written and written;

b) simple and complex (the criterion in this typology is the number of levels of management of a society, as well as the degree of its differentiation: in simple societies there are no leaders and subordinates, rich and poor, and in complex societies there are several levels of management and several social strata of the population, arranged from top to bottom in descending order of income);

c) society of primitive hunters and gatherers, traditional (agrarian) society, industrial society and post-industrial society;

d) primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society and communist society.

In Western scientific literature in the 1960s. the division of all societies into traditional and industrial became widespread (at the same time, capitalism and socialism were considered as two varieties of industrial society).

The German sociologist F. Tennis, the French sociologist R. Aron, and the American economist W. Rostow made a great contribution to the formation of this concept.

The traditional (agrarian) society represented the pre-industrial stage of civilizational development. All societies of antiquity and the Middle Ages were traditional. Their economy was dominated by subsistence agriculture and primitive handicrafts. Extensive technology and hand tools predominated, initially providing economic progress. In his production activities, man sought to adapt to the environment as much as possible, obeyed the rhythms of nature. Property relations were characterized by the dominance of communal, corporate, conditional, state forms of ownership. Private property was neither sacred nor inviolable. The distribution of material wealth, the product produced depended on the position of a person in the social hierarchy. The social structure of a traditional society is corporate by class, stable and immovable. There was virtually no social mobility: a person was born and died, remaining in the same social group. The main social units were the community and the family. Human behavior in society was regulated by corporate norms and principles, customs, beliefs, unwritten laws. Providentialism dominated the public consciousness: social reality, human life were perceived as the implementation of divine providence.

The spiritual world of a person in a traditional society, his system of value orientations, way of thinking are special and noticeably different from modern ones. Individuality, independence were not encouraged: the social group dictated the norms of behavior to the individual. One can even speak of a “group man” who did not analyze his position in the world, and indeed rarely analyzed the phenomena of the surrounding reality. Rather, he moralizes, evaluates life situations from the standpoint of his social group. The number of educated people was extremely limited (“literacy for the few”) oral information prevailed over written information. The political sphere of traditional society is dominated by the church and the army. The person is completely alienated from politics. Power seems to him of greater value than law and law. In general, this society is extremely conservative, stable, immune to innovations and impulses from outside, being a "self-sustaining self-regulating immutability." Changes in it occur spontaneously, slowly, without the conscious intervention of people. The spiritual sphere of human existence is a priority over the economic one.

Traditional societies have survived to this day mainly in the countries of the so-called "third world" (Asia, Africa) (therefore, the concept of "non-Western civilizations", which also claims to be well-known sociological generalizations, is often synonymous with "traditional society"). From a Eurocentric point of view, traditional societies are backward, primitive, closed, unfree social organisms, to which Western sociology opposes industrial and post-industrial civilizations.

As a result of modernization, understood as a complex, contradictory, complex process of transition from a traditional society to an industrial one, the foundations of a new civilization were laid in the countries of Western Europe. They call her industrial, technogenic, scientific and technical or economic. The economic base of an industrial society is industry based on machine technology. The volume of fixed capital increases, long-term average costs per unit of output decrease. In agriculture, labor productivity rises sharply, natural isolation is destroyed. An extensive economy is replaced by an intensive one, and simple reproduction is replaced by an expanded one. All these processes occur through the implementation of the principles and structures of a market economy, based on scientific and technological progress. A person is freed from direct dependence on nature, partially subordinates it to himself. Stable economic growth is accompanied by an increase in real per capita income. If the pre-industrial period is filled with the fear of hunger and disease, then the industrial society is characterized by an increase in the well-being of the population. In the social sphere of an industrial society, traditional structures and social barriers are also collapsing. Social mobility is significant. As a result of the development of agriculture and industry, the share of the peasantry in the population is sharply reduced, and urbanization is taking place. New classes appear, the industrial proletariat and the bourgeoisie, and the middle strata are strengthened. The aristocracy is in decline.

In the spiritual sphere, there is a significant transformation of the value system. The man of the new society is autonomous within the social group, guided by his personal interests. Individualism, rationalism (a person analyzes the world around him and makes decisions on this basis) and utilitarianism (a person acts not in the name of some global goals, but for a certain benefit) are new systems of personality coordinates. There is a secularization of consciousness (liberation from direct dependence on religion). A person in an industrial society strives for self-development, self-improvement. Global changes are also taking place in the political sphere. The role of the state is growing sharply, and a democratic regime is gradually taking shape. Law and law dominate in society, and a person is involved in power relations as an active subject.

A number of sociologists somewhat refine the above scheme. From their point of view, the main content of the modernization process is to change the model (stereotype) of behavior, in the transition from irrational (characteristic of a traditional society) to rational (characteristic of an industrial society) behavior. The economic aspects of rational behavior include the development of commodity-money relations, which determines the role of money as a general equivalent of values, the displacement of barter transactions, the wide scope of market operations, etc. The most important social consequence of modernization is the change in the principle of distribution of roles. Previously, society imposed sanctions on social choice, limiting the possibility of a person occupying certain social positions depending on his belonging to a certain group (origin, pedigree, nationality). After modernization, a rational principle of distribution of roles is approved, in which the main and only criterion for taking a particular position is the candidate's preparedness to perform these functions.

Thus, industrial civilization opposes traditional society in all directions. The majority of modern industrialized countries (including Russia) are classified as industrial societies.

But modernization gave rise to many new contradictions, which eventually turned into global problems (environmental, energy and other crises). By resolving them, progressively developing, some modern societies are approaching the stage of a post-industrial society, the theoretical parameters of which were developed in the 1970s. American sociologists D. Bell, E. Toffler and others. This society is characterized by the promotion of the service sector, the individualization of production and consumption, an increase in the share of small-scale production with the loss of dominant positions by mass production, the leading role of science, knowledge and information in society. In the social structure of the post-industrial society, there is an erasure of class differences, and the convergence of the incomes of various groups of the population leads to the elimination of social polarization and the growth of the share of the middle class. The new civilization can be characterized as anthropogenic, in the center of it is man, his individuality. Sometimes it is also called informational, which reflects the ever-increasing dependence of the daily life of society on information. The transition to a post-industrial society for most countries of the modern world is a very distant prospect.

In the course of his activity, a person enters into various relationships with other people. Such diverse forms of interaction between people, as well as connections that arise between different social groups (or within them), are usually called social relations.

All social relations can be conditionally divided into two large groups - material relations and spiritual (or ideal) relations. Their fundamental difference from each other lies in the fact that material relations arise and develop directly in the course of a person’s practical activity, outside the consciousness of a person and independently of him, and spiritual relations are formed, having previously “passed through the consciousness” of people, determined by their spiritual values. In turn, material relations are divided into production, environmental and office relations; spiritual on moral, political, legal, artistic, philosophical and religious social relations.

A special type of social relations are interpersonal relations. Interpersonal relationships are relationships between individuals. At In this case, individuals, as a rule, belong to different social strata, have different cultural and educational levels, but they are united by common needs and interests in the sphere of leisure or everyday life. The well-known sociologist Pitirim Sorokin identified the following types interpersonal interaction:

a) between two individuals (husband and wife, teacher and student, two comrades);

b) between three individuals (father, mother, child);

c) between four, five or more people (the singer and his listeners);

d) between many and many people (members of an unorganized crowd).

Interpersonal relations arise and are realized in society and are social relations even if they are in the nature of purely individual communication. They act as a personified form of social relations.

The concept of society covers all spheres of human life, relationships and relationships. At the same time, society does not stand still, it is subject to constant changes and development. We learn briefly about society - a complex, dynamically developing system.

Society features

Society as a complex system has its own characteristics that distinguish it from other systems. Consider the identified by different sciences traits :

complex, multi-layered

The society includes different subsystems, elements. It can include various social groups, both small ones - the family, and large ones - the class, the nation.

Public subsystems are the main areas: economic, social, political, spiritual. Each of them is also a kind of system with many elements. So, we can say that there is a hierarchy of systems, that is, society is divided into elements, which, in turn, also include several components.

the presence of different quality elements: material (technology, facilities) and spiritual, ideal (ideas, values)

For example, the economic sphere includes transport, facilities, materials for the manufacture of goods, and knowledge, norms, and rules in force in the sphere of production.

main element is man

Man is a universal element of all social systems, since he is included in each of them, and without him their existence is impossible.

Social institutions

The idea of a society cannot be complete without knowledge of its basic institutions.

Social institutions are understood as such forms of organizing the joint activities of people that have developed as a result of historical development and are regulated by the norms established in society. They bring together large groups of people engaged in some kind of activity.

The activity of social institutions is aimed at meeting the needs. For example, people's need to procreate gave rise to the institution of family and marriage, the need to gain knowledge - the institution of education and science. Average rating: 4.3. Total ratings received: 204.

1. Name any three characteristics of society as a dynamic system.

2. What socio-economic formations do Marxists single out?

3. Name three historical types of society. By what signs they are allocated?

4. There is a statement: “Everything is for a person. It is necessary to produce as many goods for it as possible, and for this it is necessary to "invade" nature, violating the natural laws of its development. Either man is his well-being, or nature and her well-being.

There is no third".

What is your attitude to this judgment? Justify your answer, based on the knowledge of the social science course, the facts of social life and personal experience.

5. Give three examples of the relationship between global j problems of mankind.

6. Read the text and do the tasks for it. “Gaining more and more strength, civilization often showed a clear tendency to impose ideas with the help of missionary activities or direct violence coming from religious, in particular Christian, traditions ... Thus, civilization steadily spread across the planet, using all possible ways and means for this - migration, colonization, conquest, trade, industrial development, financial control and cultural influence. Little by little, all countries and peoples began to live according to its laws or created them according to the model established by it ...

It is unlikely that she will be able to withstand this new test, especially now, when her own body is torn apart by numerous ailments. NTR, on the other hand, is becoming more and more obstinate, and it is becoming more and more difficult to pacify it. Having endowed us with unprecedented strength and instilled a taste for a level of life that we did not even think about, NTR sometimes does not give us the wisdom to keep our abilities and demands under control. And it’s time for our generation to finally understand that now it depends only on us ... the fate of not individual countries and regions, but of all mankind as a whole.”

A. Lenchey

1) What global problems of modern society does the author highlight? List two or three issues.

2) What does the author mean when he says: “Having endowed us with unprecedented strength and instilled a taste for a level of life that we did not even think about, the scientific and technological revolution does not sometimes give us the wisdom to keep our abilities and demands under control”? Make two guesses.

3) Illustrate with examples (at least three) the author's statement: "The development of civilization ... was accompanied by the flowering of bright hopes and illusions that could not be realized."

4) Is it possible in the foreseeable future to overcome the contrast between rich and poor countries, in your opinion. Justify the answer.

7. Choose one of the proposed statements and express your thoughts on the issue raised in the form of a short essay.

1. "I am a citizen of the world" (Diogenes of Sinop).

2. "I am too proud of my country to be a nationalist" (J. Voltaire)

3. “Civilization does not consist in more or less refinement. Not in the consciousness common to the whole people. And this consciousness is never refined. On the contrary, it is quite healthy. To represent civilization as the creation of an elite means to identify it with culture, while these are completely different things. (A. Camus).

ABOUT SOCIETY AS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON, ITS ESSENCE, FEATURES AND STRUCTURE

As noted above, the object and subject of study of sociology as a science is society and the diverse processes of cooperation, mutual assistance and rivalry of people united in large and small social groups and communities - national, religious, professional, etc.

A summary of this topic should begin with what constitutes a human society; what are its distinguishing features; what group of people can be called a society, and what - not; what are its subsystems; what is the essence of the social system.

With all the external simplicity of the concept of "society", it is unambiguously impossible to answer the question posed. It would be wrong to consider society as a simple collection of people, individuals with some of their original qualities that manifest themselves only in society, or as an abstract, faceless integrity that does not take into account the uniqueness of individuals and their connections.

In everyday life, this word is used quite often, widely and ambiguously: from a small group of people to the whole of humanity (Anatomical Society, Surgical Society, Belarusian Society of Consumers, Alcoholics Anonymous Society, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, Society of Earthlings, etc.).

Society is a rather abstract and multifaceted concept. It is studied by various sciences - history, philosophy, cultural studies, political science, sociology, etc., each of which explores only its inherent aspects and processes occurring in society. Its simplest interpretation is the human community, which is formed by the people living in it.

Sociology provides several approaches to the definition of society.

1. The well-known Russian-American sociologist P. Sorokin, for example, believed: in order for a society to exist, at least two people with a certain relationship of interaction (family) are needed. Such a case would be the simplest kind of society or social phenomenon.

Society is not any mechanical aggregate of people, but such an association within which there is a more or less constant, stable and fairly close mutual influence and interaction of these people. “Whatever social group we take - whether it be a family, a class, a party, a religious sect or a state,” wrote

P. Sorokin, - they all represent the interaction of two or one with many or many people with many. The whole endless sea of human communication consists of interaction processes: one-way and two-way, temporary and long-term, organized and unorganized, solidary and antagonistic, conscious and unconscious, sensory-emotional and volitional.

The whole complex world of people's social life is divided into outlined processes of interaction. A group of interacting people represents a kind of collective whole or collective unity. The close causal interdependence of their behavior gives grounds to consider interacting persons as a collective whole, as one being made up of many people. Just as oxygen and hydrogen, interacting with each other, form water, which is sharply different from the simple sum of isolated oxygen and hydrogen, so the totality of interacting people is sharply different from their simple sum.

2. Society is a collection of people united by specific interests, goals, needs or mutual ties and activities. But even this definition of society cannot be complete, since in one society there can be people with different and sometimes opposite interests and needs.

3. A society is an association of people with the following criteria:

- the commonality of the territory of their residence, which usually coincides with state borders and serves as the space within which relationships and interactions of individuals of a given society are formed and developed (Belarusian society, Chinese society

and etc.);

– its integrity and stability, the so-called "collective unity" (according to P. Sorokin);

– a certain level of cultural development, which finds its expression in the development of a system of norms and values that underlie social ties;

– self-reproduction (although it can increase its numbers as a result of migration processes) and self-sufficiency guaranteed by a certain level of economic development (including through imports).

Thus, society is a complex, holistic, self-developing system of social interactions between people.

and their communities - family, professional, religious, ethno-national, territorial, etc.

Society as a complex, dynamic system has certain features, structure, stages of historical development.

1. Sociality, which expresses the social essence of people's lives, the specifics of their relationships and interactions (as opposed to group forms of interaction in the animal world). A person as a person can be formed only among his own kind as a result of his socialization.

2. Ability to maintain and reproduce high intensity socio-psychic interactions between people, inherent only in human society.

3. An important feature of society is the territory and its climatic conditions, where various social interactions take place. If we take for comparison the way of producing material goods, the way of life, culture and traditions of different peoples (for example, the African tribes, small ethnic groups of the Far North or inhabitants of the middle zone), then it will become clear the great importance of territorial and climatic features for the development of a particular society, its civilization.

4. Awareness by people of the changes and processes taking place in society as a result of their activities (as opposed to natural processes that are independent of the will and consciousness of people). Everything that happens in society is carried out only by people, their organized groups. They create special bodies for the implementation of self-regulation of society - social institutions.

5. Society has a complex social structure, consisting of different social strata, groups and communities. They differ from each other in many ways: the level of income and education, the ratio

to power and property, belonging to different religions, political parties, organizations, etc. They are in a complex and diverse relationship of interconnection and constant development.

Nevertheless, all of the above features of society interact with each other, ensuring the integrity and sustainability of its development as a single and complex system.

Society is divided into structural components, or subsystems:

1. Economic subsystem.

2. political subsystem.

3. Sociocultural subsystem.

4. social subsystem.

Consider these structural components in more detail:

1. The economic subsystem of society (often called the economic system) includes the production, distribution, exchange of goods and services, the interaction of people in the labor market, economic

stimulation of various types of activities, banking, credit

and other similar organizations and institutions (studied by students

in course in economics).

2. The political subsystem (or system) is the totality socio-political interactions between individuals and groups, the political structure of society, the regime of power, the activities of government bodies, political parties

and socio-political organizations, political rights

and freedoms of citizens, as well as values, norms and rules governing the political behavior of individuals and social groups. Students get acquainted with this system in the course of political science.

3. Sociocultural subsystem (or system) includes education, science, philosophy, art, morality, religion, organizations

and cultural institutions, mass media, etc. It is studied in such courses as cultural studies, philosophy, aesthetics, religious studies, and ethics.

4. A social subsystem is a form of people's life activity, which is realized in the development and functioning of social institutions, organizations, social communities, groups and individuals and unites all other structural components of society. It is the subject of sociological research.

The interaction of the main subsystems of society can be represented

in in the form of a diagram (Fig. 3).

Society as an integral system

Rice. 3. The structure of society

The social subsystem of society, in turn, includes the following structural components: social structure, social institutions, social relations, social ties and actions, social norms and values, etc.

There are other approaches to determining the structure of society as a social system. Thus, the American sociologist E. Shils proposed the study of society as a certain macrostructure, the main elements

the cops of which are social communities, social organizations and culture.

In accordance with these components, society must be considered in three aspects:

1) as a relationship of many individuals. As a result of the interconnection of many individuals, social communities are formed. They are the main side of society as a social system. Social communities are real-life aggregates of individuals that form a certain integrity and have independence in social actions. They arise in the process of the historical development of society and are characterized by a variety of types and forms.

The most significant are socio-class, socio-ethnic, socio-territorial, socio-demographic, etc. (for more details, see separate topics of the manual).

Forms of interaction between people in social communities are different: individual - individual; individual - social group; individual - society. They are formed in the process of labor, practical activities of people and represent the behavior of an individual or a social group, significant for the development of the social community as a whole. Such social interaction of subjects determines the social ties between individuals, between individuals and the outside world. The totality of social ties is the basis of all social relations in society: political, economic, spiritual. In turn, they serve as the foundation for the functioning of the political, economic, spiritual and social spheres (subsystems) of the life of society.

At the same time, all spheres of society's life, any social community cannot function successfully, and even more so develop without streamlining, regulating relations between people in the process of their practical activities and behavior. To do this, society has developed a peculiar system of such regulation and organization of public life, its "tools" - social institutions. They represent a certain set of institutions - the state, law, production, education, etc. In the conditions of stable development of society, social institutions play the role of mechanisms for coordinating the common interests of various groups of the population and individuals;

2) the second most important aspect of society as a social system is social organization. It means a number of ways to regulate the actions of individuals and social groups to achieve certain goals of social development. In other words, social organization is a mechanism for integrating the actions of individuals and social communities within a particular social system. Its element is

They are social roles, social statuses of individuals, social norms and social (public) values (in a separate topic).

The joint activity of individuals, the distribution of social statuses and social roles are impossible without a certain governing body within the social organization. For these purposes, organizational and power structures are formed in the form of administration, as well as a managerial link in the form of managers and specialist leaders. There is a formal structure of social organization with different social statuses, with an administrative division of labor according to the principle "leaders - subordinates";

3) the third component of society as a social system is culture. In sociology, culture is understood as a system of social norms and values fixed in the practical activities of people,

a as well as this activity. The main link in the social

and cultural systems are values. Their task is to serve to maintain the pattern of functioning of the social system. Norms in sociology are predominantly a social phenomenon. They mainly perform the function of integration, regulate a huge number of processes, and promote the implementation of normative value obligations. In civilized, developed societies, the basis of social norms is the legal system.

AT The focus of sociology is the question of the social role of culture in society - to what extent certain social values contribute to the humanization of social relations, the formation of a comprehensively developed personality.

MAIN STAGES OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIETY, ITS TYPES AND CONCEPTS

As noted above, society is a constantly evolving, dynamic system. In the course of this development, it goes through a series of historical stages and types, characterized by special distinctive features. Sociologists have identified several basic types of society.

1. The Marxist concept of the development of society, proposed in the middle of the XIX century. Marx and Engels, proceeds from the dominant role of the mode of production of material goods in determining the type of society. According to this, Marx substantiated the existence of five modes of production

and their corresponding five socio-economic formations successively replacing one another as a result of the class struggle

and social revolution. These are primitive communal, slaveholding, feudal, bourgeois and communist formations. Although it is known that a number of societies have not gone through certain stages in their development.

2. Western sociologists of the second half of the 19th - mid-20th centuries. (O. Comte, G. Spencer, E. Durkheim, A. Toynbee and others) believed that there are only two types of societies in the world:

a) traditional (so-called military democracy) is an agrarian society

with primitive production, a sedentary hierarchical social structure, the power of landowners, an assembly of armed warriors; undeveloped science and technology, insignificant savings;

b) an industrial society, which takes shape gradually, replaces the traditional one as a result of great geographical and scientific and technical discoveries. A slow growth of technical progress begins, an increase in the productivity of agricultural labor, the emergence of a layer of merchants, merchants, and the formation of centralized states. The first bourgeois revolutions in Europe lead to the emergence of new social strata, as well as to the birth of the ideology of liberalism and nationalism, the democratization of society. The historical framework of this type of society - from the Neolithic era to the industrial revolution, carried out in different countries and regions at different times.

Industrial society is characterized by:

– urbanization, an increase in the proportion of the urban population to 60–80 %;

– the accelerated growth of industry and the reduction of agriculture;

– introduction of achievements of science and technology into production processes and increase in labor productivity;

– the emergence of new industries as a result of scientific and technological progress;

– increasing the share of capital accumulation in GDP and investing them in the development of production(15–20% of GDP);

– change in the structure of employment of the population (increase in the share of workers engaged in mental labor due to the reduction of unskilled, physical);

– growth in consumption.

3. Since the second half of the XX century. in Western sociology, the concepts of a three-stage typology of society appeared. R. Aron, Z. Brzezinski, D. Bell, J. Galbraith, O. Toffler and others proceeded from the fact that humanity in its historical development goes through three main stages and types of societies (civilizations):

a) pre-industrial (agricultural-handicraft) society, the main wealth of which is land. It is dominated by a simple division of labor, manufacturing. The main goal of such a society is power, a rigid authoritarian system. Its main institutions are the army, the church

cow, agriculture. The dominant social strata - the nobility, the clergy, warriors, slave owners, later - the feudal lords;

b) an industrial society, the main wealth of which is capital, money. It is characterized by large-scale machine production, scientific and technological progress, a developed system of division of labor, mass production of goods for the market, the development of the media, etc. The dominant layer is industrialists and businessmen.

c) post-industrial (information) society is replacing the industrial one. Its main value is knowledge, science, producing information. The main social stratum is scientists. Post-industrial society is characterized by the emergence of new means of production: information and electronic systems with billions of operations per second, computer technology, new technologies (genetic engineering, cloning, etc.); the use of microprocessors in industry, services, trade and exchange; a sharp reduction in the share of the rural population and an increase in employment in the service sector, etc. The correlation of various types of society is presented in Table. one.

			Table 1
Differences between traditional, industrial
	and post-industrial types of society

signs		Type of society
signs	Traditional	Industrial	post-industrial
	(agrarian)	Industrial	post-industrial
	(agrarian)
	Natural	commodity economy	Development of the sphere
management	economy		services, consumption
Dominant	Agricultural	Industrial	Production
economic sphere	production	production	information
	Manual labor	Mechanization and auto-	Computerization
way of working		matizationproduction	production
		management	and management
The main social	Church, army	Industrial	Education,
institutions		corporations	universities
	priests,	businessmen,	Scientists, managers
social strata	feudal lords	entrepreneurs	consultants
The method of political	Military Democracy	Democracy	civil
management	tia, despotic		society,
	control		self management
The main factor	physical power,	capital, money
management	divine authority
Main	between higher	between labor	between knowledge
contradictions	and lower	and capital	and ignorance
	estates		incompetence

Alvin Toffler and other Western sociologists argue that developed countries from the 70s and 80s. 20th century experiencing a new technological

a revolution leading to the continuous renewal of social relations and the creation of super-industrial civilizations.

The theory of industrial and post-industrial society combines five trends in social development: technization, informatization, societal complexity, social differentiation and social integration. They will be discussed below in separate chapters of this publication.

However, it must be borne in mind that all of the above applies to developed countries. All the rest, including Belarus, are at the industrial stage (or in a pre-industrial society).

Despite the attractiveness of many ideas of a post-industrial society, the problem of its formation in all regions of the world remains open due to the exhaustibility of many biosphere resources, the presence of social conflicts, etc.

In Western sociology and cultural studies, the theory of the cyclic development of society is also distinguished, the authors of which are O. Spengler, A. Toynbee and others. It proceeds from the fact that the evolution of society is considered not as a rectilinear movement towards its more perfect state, but as a kind of , prosperity and decline, repeating again as it ends (the cyclic concept of the development of society can be considered by analogy with the life of an individual - birth, development, prosperity, old age and death).

Of particular interest to our students is the "healthy society theory" created by the German-American psychologist, physician and sociologist Erich Fromm (1900–1980). Having emigrated from Germany to the USA in 1933, he worked as a practicing psychoanalyst for many years, later he took up scientific activity, and since 1951 he became a university professor.

Criticizing capitalism as a sick, irrational society, Fromm developed the concept of creating a harmonious healthy society with the help of social therapy methods.

The main provisions of the theory of a healthy society.

1. Developing a holistic concept of personality, Fromm found out the mechanisms of interaction of psychological and social factors

in the process of its formation.

2. He derives the health of society from the health of its members. Fromm's concept of a healthy society differs from Durkheim's understanding, who allowed for the possibility of anomie in society (i.e., the denial by its members of basic social values and norms leading to social

al disintegration and subsequent deviant behavior). But Durkheim applied this only to the individual, not to society as a whole. And if we assume that deviant behavior may be characteristic

most members of society and lead to the dominance of destructive behavior, then we get a sick society. The stages of the "disease" are as follows: anomie → social disintegration → deviation → destruction

→ the collapse of the system.

AT In contrast to Durkheim, Fromm calls a healthy society

in in which people would develop their reason to such a degree of objectivity that allows them to see themselves, other people and nature in their true reality, to distinguish good from evil, to make their own choice. This would mean a society whose members have developed the ability to love their children, family, other people, themselves, nature, to feel unity with it, and at the same time - to maintain a sense of individuality, integrity and transcend nature in creativity, and not in destruction. .

According to Fromm, the goal he had set has been achieved by a minority so far. The challenge is to make the majority of society

in healthy people. Fromm sees the ideal of a healthy society in the transformation of all spheres of public life:

– in the economic field, there should be self-government of all those working in the enterprise;

– incomes should be equalized to such an extent as to ensure a decent life for various social strata;

– in the political sphere, it is necessary to decentralize power with the creation of thousands of small groups with interpersonal contacts;

– changes must simultaneously cover all other areas, since changes in only one have a destructive effect on changes

generally;

– a person should not be a means used by others or by himself, but feel himself the subject of his own strengths and capabilities.

Quite interesting is the theory of social change in society by T. Parsons. He proceeds from the fact that various systems of society are subject to evolution: the organism, personality, social system and cultural system as steps of a growing degree of complexity. Indeed, profound changes are only those that occur in the cultural system. Economic and political upheavals that do not affect the level of culture in society do not fundamentally change society itself. There are many examples of this.

Summing up the above, it should be noted that all scientific, technical and technological radical changes entail revolutions in other spheres of public life, but they are not accompanied by social revolutions, as Marx, Engels, Lenin argued. Class interests, of course, exist, contradictions also exist, but hired workers force property owners to make concessions, raise wages, increase incomes, which means

and raise living standards and well-being. All this leads to a reduction in social tension, smoothing out class contradictions and denying the inevitability of social revolutions.

Society as a social, dynamically developing system has always been, is and will be the most complex object of study that attracts the attention of sociologists. In terms of complexity, it can only be compared with the human personality, the individual. The society and the individual are inextricably linked and mutually determined one through the other. This is the methodological key to the study of other social systems.

IN SELF-CHECKING SURVEYS

1. What does human society mean?

2. What are the main approaches in defining the concept of "society"?

3. Name the main features of society.

4. Describe the leading subsystems of society.

5. Outline the structural components of the social system of society.

6. What theories of social development can you name?

7. Describe the essence of E. Fromm's "theory of a healthy society".

Literature

1. American sociological thought. M., 1994.

2. Babosov, E. General sociology / E. Babosov. Minsk, 2004.

3. Gorelov, A. Sociology / A. Gorelov. M., 2006.

4. Luman, N. The concept of society / N. Luman // Problems of theoretical sociology. SPb., 1994.

5. Parsons, T. The system of modern societies / T. Parsons. M., 1998.

6. Popper, K. Open society and its enemies / K. Popper. M., 1992. T. 1, 2.

7. Sorokin, P. Man, civilization, society / P. Sorokin. M., 1992.

C1. Name any three characteristics of society as a dynamic system.

C2. What socio-economic formations are singled out by Marxists?

SZ. Name three historical types of society. On what basis are they identified?

C4. There is a statement: “Everything is for a person. It is necessary to produce as many goods for it as possible, and for this it is necessary to "invade" nature, violating the natural laws of its development. Either man, his well-being, or nature and her well-being. There is no third".

What is your attitude to this judgment? Justify your answer, based on the knowledge of the social science course, the facts of social life and personal experience.

C5. Give three examples of the interconnection of global problems of mankind.

Gaining more and more strength, civilization often found a clear

tendency to impose ideas through missionary activity or direct

violence coming from religious, in particular Christian, traditions ... So

civilization has steadily spread across the planet, using everything

possible ways and means - migration, colonization, conquest, trade,

industrial development, financial control and cultural influence. Few-

little by little, all countries and peoples began to live according to its laws or created them according to

pattern set by her...

The development of civilization, however, was accompanied by the flowering of bright hopes and illusions that could not come true ... At the heart of her philosophy and her actions was always elitism. And the Earth, no matter how generous it may be, is still not able to accommodate an ever-growing population and satisfy its more and more new needs, desires and whims. That is why a new, deeper split has now emerged - between super-developed and underdeveloped countries. But even this rebellion of the world proletariat, which seeks to partake of the riches of its more prosperous brethren, takes place within the framework of the same dominant civilization ... It is unlikely that it will be able to withstand this new test, especially now, when its own organism is torn apart by numerous ailments. NTR, on the other hand, is becoming more and more obstinate, and it is becoming more and more difficult to pacify it. Having endowed us with unprecedented strength and instilled a taste for a level of life that we did not even think about, NTR sometimes does not give us the wisdom to keep our abilities and demands under control. And it's time for our generation to finally understand that now it depends only on us ... the fate of not individual countries and regions, but of all mankind as a whole.

A. Peccei

1) What global problems of modern society does the author highlight? List two or three issues.

3) Illustrate with examples (at least three) the author's statement: "The development of civilization ... was accompanied by the flowering of bright hopes and illusions that could not be realized."

4) Is it possible, in your opinion, to overcome the contrast between rich and poor countries in the foreseeable future. Justify the answer.

C7. Choose one of the suggested statements and express your thoughts on the issue raised in the form of a short essay.

1. "I am a citizen of the world."

(Diogenes of Sinop)

2. "I'm too proud of my country to be a nationalist."

(J. Wolfrom)

3. “Civilization does not consist in more or less refinement. But in the consciousness common to the whole people. And this consciousness is never refined. On the contrary, it is quite healthy. To represent civilization as the creation of an elite means to identify it with culture, while these are completely different things. (BUT. Camus)

C8. Read the text and do the tasks for it.

“Human society is the highest stage in the development of living systems, the main elements of which are people, the forms of their joint activity, primarily labor, products of labor, various forms of property and the age-old struggle for it, politics and the state, a combination of various institutions, a refined sphere of the spirit. Society can also be defined as a self-organized system of behavior and relationships between people of arcs with a friend and with nature ...

The concept of society embraces not only living people, but also all past and future generations, i.e. all mankind in its history and perspective. The unification of people into an integral system occurs and is reproduced regardless of the will of its members ...

The life of society is not limited to the life of its constituent people. Society creates material and spiritual values that cannot be created by individual people... Society is a single social organism, the internal organization of which is a set of certain diverse connections characteristic of a given system, which are ultimately based on human labor. The structure of human society is formed by: production and the production, economic, social relations that develop on its basis, including class, national, family relations; political relations and, finally, the spiritual sphere of society - science, philosophy, art, morality, religion, etc.

People constantly carry out the process of social production of their lives: the production of material goods, the production of people as social beings, the production of the appropriate type of relations between people, the very form of communication and the production of ideas. In society, economic, economic, state, family relations are intertwined in the most intricate way, as well as whole line ideological phenomena...

It is society that is the main condition for a more or less normal existence and development of people ... "

1) Find in the text and write out two sentences in which the author lists the main elements of society.

2) Scientists call society a dynamic system. Find in the text three other words by which the author characterizes society as a system.

4) Based on the content of the text and knowledge of the social science course, give three proofs that society is “ultimately based on human labor”.

C9. Read the text and do the tasks for it.

It seems to me that today, when mankind has come close to an ecological catastrophe, when all the terrible consequences of utopian claims to total control of social processes are extremely clear, the fate of the humanistic ideal is connected with the rejection of the idea of mastery, suppression and domination. The new understanding of the relationship between nature and humanity corresponds not to the ideal of anthropocentrism, but to the idea of co-evolution, the joint evolution of nature and humanity, developed by a number of modern thinkers, in particular, the idea of co-evolution, the joint evolution of nature and humanity, which can be interpreted as a relationship of equal partners, if you like, interlocutors in an unprogrammed dialogue...

This can and should be understood in a broader sense. Freedom as an integral characteristic of the humanistic ideal is conceived not as mastery and control, but as the establishment of equal partnership relations with what is outside of a person: with natural processes, with another person, with the values of a different culture, with social processes, even with unreflexible and " opaque” processes of my own psyche.

In this case, freedom is understood not as an expression of a projective-constructive attitude to the world, not as the creation of such an objective world that is controlled and managed, but as such an attitude when I accept the other, and the other accepts me. (It is important to emphasize that acceptance does not mean simply contentment with what is, but involves interaction and mutual change.) In this case, we are talking ... about free acceptance based on understanding as a result of communication. In this case, we are dealing with a special kind of activity. This is not the activity of creating an object in which a person tries to capture and express himself, that is, an object that seems to belong to the subject. This is a mutual activity, the interaction of equal partners freely participating in the process, each of which considers the other and as a result of which both of them change.

(V.A. Lektorsky)

1) What two realities of modern society require, in the author's opinion, a new understanding of the humanistic ideal? What does he see as the essence of this new understanding?

2) Give any two phrases that reflect the author's understanding of freedom.

3) Explain why anthropocentrism (the idea of mastery and domination) has ceased to correspond to the humanistic ideal at the present stage. Give three explanations based on social science knowledge and the facts of social life.

4) The author writes about the need to “establish equal partnership relations with what is outside of a person.” Based on the content of the text and knowledge of the social science course, guess what these relationships with any three of the partners named by the author might be. (First name the partner with whom the partnership is being established, and then make a guess.)

Answers

Part 1 Level A

job number	answer

Part 2 Level B

job number	answer
	natural
	regression
	A B C D
	C;A;D;B
	V;G;F
	C;A;B;D
	spiritual
	2,3,4
	spiritual
	1,3,4,5,6
	1,2,4,6
	manual
	1,2,4,6
	3,5,6
	WVABG
	Public
	BVA
	3,4,2,1,5
	Spheres, spheres
	Social Progress
	B;A;D;C
	1-a, b, e, h, k, l, o, p, t, c, u, i; 2-in, e, i, m, n, s, y, f; 3-g, f, r, f, x, h, w, w, e
	G;C;B;D;A
	1)2,3,7,8,9,12; 2)4,6,8,11; 3)1,5,10
	1,3,4.7,9
	5,10,12,13,14
	3,4,5,7,8,9

Part 3. Level C

C1.The correct answer may contain the following characteristics:

Integrity;

Consists of interconnected elements;

Elements change over time;

The nature of the relationship between systems is changing;

The whole system is changing.

Other characteristics may be given.

C2. Correct answer:

Primitive

slaveholding

feudal

capitalist (bourgeois)

socialist (communist)

NW. Traditional (pre-industrial), industrial, post-industrial.

Signs:

Pre-industrial society: basis - agriculture;

Industrial society: basis - large-scale industry;

Post-industrial (technotronic, technological) society: the basis is information.

C4. The correct answer may contain the following items:

Society and nature are interconnected;

Nature is the natural habitat of society;

The purpose of production is to satisfy the fundamental human needs for food and clothing;

For centuries, man has used the riches of nature, polluting the atmosphere, cutting down forests, extracting minerals, contaminating water, destroying soil;

As a result, there was a threat of a global ecological catastrophe - irreversible changes in the natural conditions of life on Earth, threatening degradation and even death of a person;

The current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for serious liability for such environmental crimes as violation of environmental protection rules in the course of work, water pollution, illegal hunting, etc.

Other positions may be given.

C5. Any three examples of the interconnection of global problems of our time can be given, for example:

The threat of an ecological crisis affects the economy: developed countries seek to transfer "harmful" production to the countries of the "third world", which exacerbates the problem of "North - South";

The threat of international terrorism is intertwined with the problem of the threat of nuclear war in connection with the desire of terrorists to gain access to technologies for the production of weapons of mass destruction;

demographic problem in modern world acts primarily as a problem of rapid demographic growth in third world countries, which increases the gap in economic terms with developed countries.

C6. The content of the correct answers to the tasks to the text.

1) Problems highlighted:
- limited resources;

Uneven development (problem "North - South");

Demographic;

Consequences of NTR.

2) Assumptions can be made:

The fact that humanity has scientific knowledge and technical means for global transformations poses a threat to life itself on Earth;

The formation of a consumer society makes speed and comfort priority values.

Other assumptions can be made that do not distort the meaning of the judgment.

3) Can be specified, for example:
communist utopias;

Belief in the omnipotence of scientific and technological progress;

Faith in the ideals of freedom and justice in the understanding of the figures of the Enlightenment.

Other examples can be given that do not distort the meaning of the judgment.

4) If a negative answer is given, then arguments are given:
the demographic situation in poor countries exacerbates their lagging behind rich countries;

as a result - weak participation in the world division of labor;

as a result - one-sided development of the economy and dependence on rich countries. Other arguments may be given.

C8. Text.

1) The correct answer must contain the following elements:

1) realities modern society:

- “Humanity has come close to an ecological catastrophe”;

- "all the terrible consequences of utopian claims to the total control of social processes are extremely clear";

2) the essence of the new understanding humanistic ideal:

"the idea of co-evolution, the joint evolution of nature and humanity, which can be interpreted as a relationship of equal partners, if you like, interlocutors in an unprogrammed dialogue."

These elements can be given in other formulations that are close in content.

2) The response may include the following phrases:

1) “Freedom as an integral characteristic of the humanistic ideal is conceived ... as the establishment of equal partnership relations with what is outside of a person: with natural processes, with another person, with the values of a different culture, with social processes, even with non-reflective and “opaque” processes my own psyche";

2) "freedom is understood ... as such an attitude when I accept the other, and the other accepts me";

3) "free acceptance based on understanding as a result of communication."

3) The following explanations can be given:

1) The establishment of human dominance over nature has led to irreversible changes in the external environment.

2) Irreversible changes in the external environment have a negative impact on human health, the functioning of society.

3) Significantly reduced the amount of resources that can be used for its development by rapidly growing humanity.

4) The installation of domination has also extended to the attitude of a person towards his own kind, to public interests.

Other explanations may be given.

4) The correct answer may contain the following assumptions:

1) "relations with natural processes": the use of nature-saving and resource-saving technologies by a person, limiting consumption;

2) “relationship with another person”: recognition of the unconditional value of the personality of another person, respect for his freedom;

3) "relations with the values of another culture": a tolerant attitude towards the values of a different culture and the bearers of these values;

4) "relations with social processes": rejection of the installation of personal and group egoism, consumerism, striving for social peace;

5) “relationships with non-reflexible and “opaque” processes of my own psyche”: attentive attitude to one’s own psychological state, sparing its adjustment if necessary, maximum use of one’s own mental abilities and states in activity.

Other hypotheses may be made.

C9.Text.

1) The correct answer must contain the following items:

1) “people, the forms of their joint activity, first of all, labor, products of labor, various forms of property and the age-old struggle for it, politics and the state, a combination of various institutions, a refined sphere of the spirit”;

2) “production and the production, economic, social relations that develop on its basis, including class, national, family relations; political relations and, finally, the spiritual sphere of the life of society - science, philosophy, art, morality, religion, etc.”

2) The correct answer may contain the following characteristics:

1) a living system;

2) complete system;

3) self-organized system.

3) The correct answer may contain the following arguments:

1) only in relations with other people can a person reveal and develop his qualities (socially significant), which distinguish him from animals;

2) society performs numerous functions that ensure physical survival and a relatively comfortable existence of a person;

3) only in society are the social and spiritual needs of a person satisfied.

Other valid arguments are possible.

4) The correct answer may contain, for example, the following explanations:

in the labor process

1) according to the theory of evolution, human ancestors acquired and developed their human qualities;

2) many social and prestigious human needs are realized;

3) the material needs of society are satisfied;

4) a certain social organization is formed;

5) spiritual institutions are being formed.

Portal for the student. Self-training

Society features

Social institutions

RELATED ARTICLES