Understanding Social Groups and Communities: Definitions, Characteristics, and Differences, Slides of Sociology

Download Understanding Social Groups and Communities: Definitions, Characteristics, and Differences and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! 97 Culture and SocietyUNIT 8 SOCIAL GROUPS AND COMMUNITY* Structure 8.0 Objectives 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Definitions of Community 8.3 Characteristics of Community 8.4 Elements of Community Sentiment 8.5 Community and Association 8.6 Definition of Social Group 8.7 Bases of Classification of Groups 8.7.1 Primary Group and Secondary Groups 8.7.2 Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft 8.7.3 In Group and Out Group 8.7.4 Reference Group 8.8 Social Group and Community Differences 8.9 Let Us Sum Up 8.10 References 8.0 OBJECTIVES After reading this Unit, you will be able to understand: • To give a definition of community; • To identify the bases and elements of community; • To explain the relation between community and association; • To discuss the characteristics of community; • To describe social groups and their different classifications; • To explain the major concept of social group; • To describe the nature and types of social groups; and • To discuss the different aspects of social groups. 8.1 INTRODUCTION Wherever the members of any group, small or large, live together in such a way that they share, not this or that interest but the basic conditions of a common life, we call that group a community. A community is essentially an area of social living. It is marked by some degree of social coherence. Thus, community is a circle of interwoven relationships. Within the ranges of a community the members may carry on their economic, political, religious, * This unit is contributed by Rukmini Datta, Research Scholar, IGNOU. 98 Basic Concepts educational and other activities. Hence community is the total organization of social life within a defined social space; e. g. Village, tribe, city, district. Group means a collection of human beings who have social relationships with one another. Social relationship involves some degree of reciprocity as well as awareness of mutuality. On the basis, of this criterion, many of those divisions of a population that are sometimes named social groups may not be so. For general understanding we regard any collection of two or more individuals to be a group, whose members identify and interact with each other in a personalized manner. The small size of some groups (often no more than 15-20 People) enables all the members to know and to interact with the help of shared values and norms. As a result the members of a group feel strong inter-personal bonds among themselves and with the group as a whole. There are countless kinds of groups in contemporary societies, including families, friendship cliques, work crews, teenage gangs, sport teams, juries, rap groups and committees of all sorts. All of us are members of numerous social groups that influences or shape many of our daily activities. The family is an extremely important group in most of our lives, since bonds of love and affection, commitments, marriage and kinship link us closely within the family. Even if we do not live with all the members of our family or interact with them on daily basis, we commonly maintain these interpersonal ties through letters, phone calls and visits. Categorizing groups as either primary or secondary is a convenient way of indicating the depth and inclusiveness of their social relationship. 8.2 DEFINITIONS OF COMMUNITY 1) According to Bogardus, Community is a social group with some degree of ‘we feeling’ and ‘living in a given area. 2) For Kingsley Davis, Community is the smallest territorial group that can embrace all aspects of social life. 3) Ginsberg defines Community as a group of social beings living a common life including all the infinite variety and complexity of relations which result from that common life which constitutes it. 8.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNITY All communities need not be self-sufficient. Some communities are all-inclusive and independent of others. Among primitive people, some communities of no more than a hundred persons, (Examples: Yurok tribes of USA) which are almost isolated. But modern communities, especially large ones are much less self- contained. Economic and political interdependence rather than kinship and family relationships, is a major characteristic of our modern communities. Apart from this, a community has the following characteristics: 1) Definite territory 2) Population 3) Close social relationship 4) Cultural similarity 101 Social Groups and Community of the restricted range of functions of the inhabitants. But are human functions always limited by the nature of one’s community? We should be inclined to answer this query in the affirmative. 2) Shall we call immigrant groups, which in the midst of large American cities cherish their own customs and speak their own language, communities? According to McIver such groups clearly possess the requirements. 3) Shall we call a social caste, the members of which exclude their fellow citizens from the more intimate social relationships, a community? Here the negative answer is more appropriate because, in order to satisfy our definition, the community group must by itself occupy a particular location. A social caste has social coherence, no doubt, but it lacks the community’s territorial basis. As a conclusion, community has been defined in following ways – a) A grouping of people b) Within a geographic area c) With a division of labour into specialized and interdependent functions d) With a common culture and a social system which organizes their activities e) Whose members are conscious of their unity and belonging to the community f) Whose members can act collectively in an organized manner. 8.5 COMMUNITY AND ASSOCIATION One of the most important divisions of social groups is an association. An association is a group of people united for a specific purpose or a limited number of purposes. Such is an army or a school, the object of which is to defend the nation or to impart knowledge. A community on the other hand, is a permanent social group embracing a totality of ends or purpose. In contrast with an association the life of the members of a community is wholly lived init; here they find all their social relations, while outside it there is little but they need. The task of deciding whether a group is a community or an association is not always easy. The greater the plurality of ends of an association the nearer it approaches the concept of community, though that may never be reached. Thus in India the so-called communities, which gave rise to the problem of communalism, are not communities in the sociological sense. They are rather ethnical groups within which certain social and religious interests are satisfied; but owing to the dependence of these groups on one another and on the larger provincial or national unit, they cannot fulfill the definition of a community. For the samereason a religious community or an Ashram cannot be strictly called a community though it is largely self-contained. Yet many of the Utopian communities of the USA in pioneer times and not a few Indian villages may be considered as real communities inasmuch as their inhabitant live a simple self- contained life separated from the rest. 102 Basic Concepts Check Your Progress 1 1) Define the concept of community. Explain various elements of community sentiments. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. 2) What are the characteristics of community? Describe its various bases with examples. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. 3) Distinguish between community and association in brief. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. 4) Explain the basic aspects of great and small communities .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. .................................................................................................................. 8.6 DEFINITION OF SOCIAL GROUP Definition of Social Group 1) Albion Small defines a group as ‘any number of people, larger or smaller, between whom such relations are discovered that they must be thought of together.’ 103 Social Groups and Community 2) Bogardus defines ‘a social group may be thought of as a number of persons, two or more, who have some common objects of attention, who are stimulating to each other, who have common loyalty and participate in similar activities.’ 3) Green Arnold defines ‘a group is an aggregate of individuals which persists in time which has one or more interests and activities in common and which is organized.’ 4) Williams defines ‘a social group is a given aggregate of people playing inter-related roles and recognized by themselves or others as a unit of interaction.’ 8.7 BASES OF CLASSIFICATION OF GROUPS Sociology considers human groups its primary unit of analysis. If asked to describe the bases on which social groups exist, different answers may exist for different kinds of groups.There are several criteria by which social groups may be classified. They, for instance, include the nature of their interests, the degree of organization, the extent of their permanence, the kind of contact among the members and the like. Ginsberg also takes the same view and says, ‘Groups can be classified in numerous ways, size andspatial distribution. Permanence and inclusiveness of the relationships on which they rest, mode of formation, type of organization and so forth.’ Thus, while some sociologists give a simple basis for classifying groups, others have given an elaborate classificatory scheme. George Simmel considered size as the criterion for classification of groups. Since the individual with his societal conditioning is the most elementary unit of sociology, Simmel began with the nomad. He took the single person as a focus of group relationships and pursued his analysis through the ‘dyad’ and the ‘triad’ and other smaller collectivities on the one hand and the large scale groups on the other. Dwight Sanderson takes structure as the basis for classifying groups. He classifies them into involuntary, voluntary and delegate groups. C.H. Cooley divides groups into two types, namely primary group and secondary group on the basis of the kind of contact. F.H. Giddings classifies groups into genetic or congregate on the basis of the type of relationship. W.G. Sumner makes a distinction between the in-group and out-group on the basis of consciousness of kind. Geroge Hasen classifies groups on the basis of their relations to other groups into unsocial, pseudo-social or pro-social. Miller divides social groups into horizontal and vertical groups. 106 Basic Concepts 4) Sentimental Realistic, ‘hard-boiled’ 5) General Specialized 8.7.3 In Group and Out Group These twin terms were introduced by WG Sumner to refer insiders in a ‘we’ relationship, in contrast with outsiders to the relationship. Sumner used the term ‘in-group’ in his celebrated book Folkways (1906).There are some groups to which I belong, my family, my religion, my university, my clique, my profession, my sex, my nation – any group which precede with the pronoun, “my”. These are in-group, because I feel, I belong to them. There are other groups to which I do not belong other families, cliques, occupations, races, nationalities, religions, the other sex – these are out groups, for I am outside them. The simplest societies live in small, isolated bands which are usually clans of kinsfolk. It was kinship which located one’s in-group and out-group and when two strangers met, the first thing they had to do was establish the relationship. If kinship could be established they were friends, both members of the in group. If no relationship could be established, then in many societies they were enemies and acted accordingly. In modern society, people belong to so many groups that their in-group and out-group relationship may overlap. For example, in a hostel there are various in-groups who consider others as members of out-groups. However, in a cricket match against another hostel, all the hostel inmates will behave as in-group and cheer their team on the field. In-groups and out-groups are important then, because they affect behaviour. From fellow members of an in-group we expect recognition loyalty and helpfulness. From out-group our expectation varies with the kind of out group. From some out-group we expect hostility; from others, a more or less friendly competition; from still others, indifference. From the same out group, we may expect neither hostility nor indifference yet in our behavior a difference undeniably remains. For example, the 12 year boy who shuns girls grows up to become a romantic lover and spends most of his life in matrimony. Yet when men and women meet on social occasions they tend to split into sex groups, perhaps because each sex is bored by many of the conversational interests of the other. The clique is one kind of in-group. Thus, our behavior is affected by the particular kind of in- group or out-group which is involved. However, it should also be obvious that in-group and out-group are not actually groups in-so-far as people create them in their use of the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘they’ and develop a kind of attitude towards these groups. Nevertheless, this distinction is an important formal distinction because it enables us to construct two significant sociological principles. a) The in-group members tend to stereotype those who are in the out-group. Thus the people of Delhi may have stereotypes of those who live in Bihar or UP. The significant thing is that such stereotypes are usually formed by considering what appears to the members of the in-group as the least respectable traits to be found in the members of the out-group. The people of each linguistic state in India have tendency to form a stereotype of the people of other linguistic states. A Punjabi, for instance, has stereotype or a generalized perception of what a Guajarati do not fit into that stereotype. In fact, social distance (a concept developed by Bogardus) encourages such categorization and discourages individual differentiation. Knowledge of this 107 Social Groups and Community principle helps to considerably reduce the unfortunate effects of such categorization into stereotypes and to demolish the barriers that obstruct the easy communication between people. b) Any threat, real or imaginary, from an out-group tends to bind the members of the in-group against the members of the out-group. This may be illustrated with references to our experience in the family situation. Mecinus, the Chinese sage, said many years ago: “Brothers and sisters who may quarrel within the walls of their home, will bind themselves together to drive away any intrude”. 8.7.4 Reference Group Reference group refers to any group accepted as model or guide for our judgments and actions. However, it needs further elaboration for clarity. In some situations, we conform not to the norms to which we belong but rather to those of the groups to which we would like to be identified. A reference group may not be an actual group. It may even be an imaginary one. Any group is a reference group for someone if his conception of it, which may or may not be realistic, is part of his frame of reference for assessment of himself or of his situation. 1) Thus, an individual who is anxious to move up the social ladder usually, has a tendency to conform to the norms of etiquette and speech of a higher social class than his own because he seeks identification with this class. ‘Sanskritization’ in the Indian context, is one of the best illustrations of the concept of reference group where people in the upper ladder of the caste hierarchy are taken as a ‘model’ and imitated by those below them. For members of a particular group, another group is a reference group if any of the following circumstances prevail 1. When members of the first group aspire to membership of the second group, the second group becomes the reference group for the next. For example, IAS trainees serve as the reference group for many of the university students in India. 2) When members of the first group strive to be like the members of the second group in some respect, the second group serves as the Positive reference group of the first. It is to be noted here that the first group wants to be like the second group. For example, the non-Brahmins, in some parts of India have a tendency to emulate the ways of behavior of the Brahmins in order to acquire the prestige of the Brahmins (as noted by Srinivas). 3) When the members of the first group derive some satisfaction from being unlike the members of the second group in some respect, and even strive to maintain the difference between themselves and the members of the second group, the latter group is the Negative reference group of the first. For example, in USA, the whites strive to remain unlike the African Americans and in this case the African Americans become the negative reference group for the whites. 4) When without necessarily striving to be like or unlike or to belong to the second group, the members of the first group appraise their own group or themselves by using the second group or its members as a standard for comparison; the second group becomes the reference group of the first. For 108 Basic Concepts examples, in some situation the non-teaching employees of the colleges are found to assess their own performance or record attendance in reference to those of the teachers. Vertical and Horizontal Groups A vertical group (concepts by Miller) consists of members from all walks of life, while a horizontal group consists mainly of members from one social class. Occupational groups of doctors, electricians, engineers etc. are examples of the first, while caste groups are examples of vertical groups. Institutional and Non-Institutional Groups Institutional group are those which function through rituals, symbols, officers, codes of conduct, regulatory power including power to punish. The nation is an institutional group. The state as an association of citizens for power is an institutional group in contrast to picnic party which is a non-institutional group. Contractual and Non-Contractual Groups The contractual groupsborn with a contract within a definition of power and responsibilities of the members as well as of the group. It is a formal group with definite tendency toward institutionalization. The framers of Indian Constitution, the corporation, a labor union are some examples of contractual group. The non- contractual groups are students, passengers on a train etc. Voluntary and Involuntary Groups A voluntary group is one which a person joins his own. It is his option whether he wants to remain a member or not. For example, a club membership is voluntary. An involuntary group is one which is based on kinship or caste group and it is beyond own will an example of involuntary group members. Informal and Formal Groups An informal group is one in which a number of persons work together to attain a common goal. There is no set of formal rules and regulations to govern the relationship. It has no definite structure. Crowd is an example of an informal group. A formal group consists of a number of persons working together toward a given goal according to a set of rules under the direction of a set of officers. It has a definite structure. A bureaucratic group is an example of a formal group. 8.8 SOCIAL GROUP AND COMMUNITY DIFFERENCES Social Group 1) Group is an artificial creation. 2) Group is formed to realize some. 3) Membership of group is voluntary. 4) Group is comparatively temporary. 5) Group is a part of community. Community 1) Community is a natural growth. 2) Community includes the whole circle of social life. 3) Membership of community is compulsory. 4) Community is comparatively permanent. 5) Community is a whole.