Social status - The word "status" comes from the Latin status(position, condition). Status is the position of a subject in the system of interpersonal relations, determining his rights, responsibilities and privileges. In different groups, the same individual may have different status.

Status refers to an individual's rank, value, or prestige within a group, organization, or society. The status reflects hierarchical structure groups and creates vertical differentiation, just as roles separate different occupations. This is another way to reduce uncertainty and clarify what is expected of us.

Status characteristics. Like roles and norms, status exists both inside and outside the organizational environment. At the broadest level of analysis we call it social status.

When we divide people according to their social status, we get social classes.

In addition to the social level, there is also a working level of division into statuses. Professional prestige is the relative status of someone's profession. Occupational prestige is not the same as social status, since it depends on only one variable, while social status includes everything. But here the question arises: why then do not all people strive to get a job associated with high prestige? The answer, based on research results, is that the individually perceived prestige of a particular profession depends on family perception (family background).

Another important status concept relevant to work is called organizational status. Organizational status refers to the informal divisions that take place within an organization. Just like social status, organizational status includes not one variable, but several (for example, position in the organizational hierarchy, professional affiliation and productivity).

Status refers to an individual's group-recognized rank within an organization. Status helps clarify how a person should behave towards others and how they should behave in return.

Status symbols. Status symbols are objects or distinctive signs that define someone's level of status in a group or organization. Status symbols include military insignia, special clothing for judges and doctors, as well as, for example, office furnishings and the presence or absence of a personal secretary for managers. It should be noted that some symbols can increase a person's status in some circumstances and decrease it in others.

Status and group interaction. As a rule, people with higher status tend to play a dominant role in the organization and take more initiative. There is, however, one problem here. Since many variables make up organizational status, it is unclear which one causes these differences in behavior.

Status changes. During our lives, status changes many times. And changes in status imply that a person must sometimes radically change his behavior. At the same time, the question of what exactly should be changed and what should be learned remains open. Situations in which there is no clearly defined sequence of events always cause anxiety.

Status mismatch. A condition called status inconsistency occurs when a person meets some of his characteristics and, according to others, does not meet the requirements of his status. The same problem arises when making decisions about career advancement.

People do not like the fact that someone who is inferior to them in some characteristics occupies a higher position than them. All of this suggests that status incongruence may lead to motivational and behavioral problems.

Two obvious solutions to this problem are to select or appoint only those people who fully satisfy the requirements of status, and to change the group's opinion about what is appropriate for high status and what should lead to its achievement. But it should be recognized that both of these methods are too complex to be used in practice.

The concept of “social status” is generally synonymous with the concept of “social position”, which also denotes the place or position of an individual or group in the system of relations in society, determined by a number of specific characteristics and regulating the individual’s behavior style. However, the word “position” in comparison with “status” has a more active character, that is, “position” seems to depend to a greater extent on the goals and objectives that the individual sets for himself, while “status” is also the result of the prevailing coincidence of circumstances.

SOCIAL SPHERE

LECTURE 20. Social groups, social stratification,

social mobility; social status;

Social role.

Social sphere of society includes relationships between various social

communities and groups.

Social structure of society – This internal organization society, the totality of social

A key element of the social structure of society is social group.

Social group - a collection of individuals (from two to millions) having a common

Social characteristics (gender, age, nationality, profession, hobby,

clothing style, place of residence...).

Types of social groups:

1. By number:

Small (from 2 to 30 people who know each other well, are engaged in some common business and are in direct relationships with each other (family, class, friends).

Large (large group of people; townspeople, students, Russians..)

2. By way of organization:

Formal - associations of people that are built on the basis official documents

(school class, sports team).

Informal - arise on the basis of common interests, values, personal sympathies

(fans of sports teams, fans of artists).

3. Based on its existence:

Real (groups, the criterion for identifying which are people-conscious, sign

characteristics - gender, nationality, profession...)

Nominal (artificially constructed, existing for statistical accounting

airplane passengers..)

Different social groups occupy different positions in society.

Social differentiation(Latin “differentia” - difference) is the division of society into different

Social groups that occupy a certain position.

(for example, professional differentiation: teachers, doctors;

sexual differentiation: men, women….).

The study of the social structure of society from the point of view of social inequality has been carried out from the very beginning of the development of sociology. Here we can mention the name of Karl Marx with his theory of irreconcilable classes of exploiters and exploited.

G Sorokin Pitirim Aleksandrovich (1889-1968), after emigrating from Russia in 1922, became the founder American school sociology and author of theories of social stratification and social mobility.

Social stratification – the same as social stratification; it's hierarchical

location of social strata in society.

Concept "stratification" (“stratum” - layer) came to sociology from geology, where it denotes the vertical arrangement of layers of various rocks. Each layer consists of homogeneous elements.

Also stratum – social stratum of people with similar characteristics income ,

authorities , education And prestige. This stratification criteria.

Historically, four main types of social stratification are known:

slavery, castes, estates and classes(K. Marx as a criterion dividing society into classes suggested ownership of property and level of income; according to the class approach, each specific historical period has its own main classes: “slaves and slave owners”; “feudal lords and dependent peasants”; "bourgeoisie and proletariat").

Today there are many options for the stratification division of society.

In the stratification structure of modern Russian society, there are four main layers.

1) UPPER (6% of the employed population) – elite groups occupying key positions in the system

management, economic, law enforcement agencies. This is the most

educated layer (politicians, bankers, entrepreneurs,

prominent figures of science and culture...)

The income level of this layer is 17 or more times higher than the income

bottom layer.

2) MEDIUM (16% of the employed population) - small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, managers of small

enterprises, farmers, the most skilled workers

Almost 60% are employed in the non-state sector. Level

education is significantly higher than the national average.

3) BASIC (66%) - persons employed primarily in the public sector

economy (workers, a significant part of the intelligentsia,

military personnel, the bulk of the peasantry).

Only 25% have higher education.

The previously low standard of living is declining.

4) BOTTOM (10%) - persons with the least professional and

labor potential (cleaners, elevator operators, watchmen,

auxiliary workers...)

Two thirds of this layer are women. Extremely characteristic

low level life.

MAIN TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES OF THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE RUSSIAN COMMUNITY

- social polarization (large gap between rich and poor).

-decline in the social status of intellectual work

-complication of the social structure of society

-marginalization of society

-erosion of the intelligentsia (leaving the sphere of mental work or “brain drain”)

There is social inequality between strata that cannot be overcome. The main way to ease social tension is the ability to move from one stratum to another.

Social status-the position of a person in society that he occupies in accordance with age, gender, profession, origin, etc.

Types of statuses:

Statuses acquired or not acquired as a result of free choice:

-prescribed(given to a person from birth - gender, age, race, nationality, origin)

-acquired(achieved; a person acquires them in the process of life -

profession, Family status, job title..)

-mixed(have signs of what is prescribed and achieved, but not achieved according to

person's desire: disabled person, refugee, unemployed)

Statuses determined by the influence on an individual’s life:

-basic(defines the main thing in a person’s life, the most characteristic for the person with whom he

identified by other people or himself; most often this status is associated with the main

place of work - engineer, professor, lawyer).

-non-core(affects details of behavior).

In primitive society there were few statuses: leader, man, woman, husband, wife, hunter...

In modern society, there are about 40,000 professional statuses alone, family-marriage-

about 200 relatives (daughter-in-law, cousin...)

One person has many statuses because he participates in many groups and organizations. The totality of all statuses occupied by one person is called status set.

Since social status reflects the level of assessment of a person’s position in society, then this concept is closely related to the concepts of “prestige” and “authority”.

Prestige– society's assessment of the significance of certain human positions.

From a person occupying a certain social position, others expect appropriate behavior. For example, the status of a teacher presupposes a specific set of actions (conducting lessons, checking notebooks, meeting with students’ parents), a certain manner of behavior, and a fairly strict style of dress. Completely different behavior is expected from, for example, a pop star. Thus, when assessing the role behavior of an individual, we correlate it with a certain typical idea of ​​how a person of a given social position should act, behave, and dress.

Social role – a behavior model focused on this status.

Role set- a set of roles performed by a person.

Role conflict - a situation in which individuals face conflicting demands from two or more roles(for example, professional growth requires significant personal effort to master a specialty and time investment. For a woman, this becomes especially difficult due to the fact that she has to fulfill the role of a mother and wife, which, in turn, involve a wide range of responsibilities.

Social status is the position of a person in society, which he occupies in accordance with gender, age, profession, origin, family ties, marital status, level of income, education, etc. Varieties of social status are ascribed and achieved status. Ascribed is a status into which a person is born (innate status), but which is later necessarily recognized as such by society or a group. This includes gender and race. In the strict sense, ascribed is any status acquired against one's own free will, over which the individual has no control. The achieved or acquired status depends on the profession, education, and place of work. This status is acquired as a result of a person’s choice, his personal efforts and is under his control. These are the statuses of a student, professor, manager, member of a political party, etc.

It is necessary to distinguish between social and personal statuses. If social status is associated with the position a person occupies in society as a representative of a large social group, then personal status is the position of a person in a small social group, depending on how he is assessed and perceived by members of this group (acquaintances, relatives) in accordance with his personal qualities. To be a leader, the soul of a company or an expert means to occupy a certain place in the structure of interpersonal relationships, to have a certain personal status.

One person has many statuses because he participates in many groups and organizations. The set of all statuses occupied by one person is called a status set. In a status set, there must be a main status. This is the most characteristic status for a given person, with which other people identify him or with which he identifies himself. Most often this is a status associated with the main place of work (engineer, professor, lawyer, etc.). IN modern society a person has the opportunity to change his status by getting an education, showing business and scientific activity.

Since social status reflects the level of assessment of a person’s position in society, this concept is closely related to the concepts of “prestige” and “authority”. Prestige is a special category used to indicate the social importance of positions held by various groups or individuals in society. Prestigious in society can be professions, residential areas and streets, individual houses, resorts, car brands, shops, educational institutions, clothes from famous fashion designers, and other consumer goods. Signs characterizing prestige do not always adequately reflect a person’s position in certain groups of society. For example, a situation may arise when a person has a prestigious profession, but it does not allow him to provide himself and his family with a decent standard of living, or, conversely, non-prestigious professions and occupations allow a person to receive high incomes or any benefits, thereby providing him with the most access to prestigious consumer goods. The concept of “authority” has a different meaning. It means recognition by a group or society as a whole of the personal and business qualities of members of the group or society. Authority usually reflects the degree of influence an individual has in a group or society. This is a personal characteristic that always relates to a very specific person and is not always associated with prestige. Thus, in politics or social activities, an academician, an engineer, or a worker can become authoritative.

The concept of social status is very close to the concept of social role. The difference between them lies mainly in the context in which they are used. If the concept " social role"applies mainly to how a person behaves, i.e. to his behavior, then the concept of "social status" relates mainly to social system. The social role is a more detailed unit of analysis, since behavior within a given interaction depends not only on the context of this interaction, but also on the status that a person has in a given society.

5. Ethnic communities

One of the significant types of communities in modern world are ethnic communities. The word "ethnos" (Greek) means tribe, people, clan. Ethnic groups represent one of the oldest types of social communities of people. Grouping of people according to ethnic principles is based on:

unity of language, norms of behavior, self-awareness, customs;

sameness of food preferences, forms of housing, style of clothing;

common origin and culture;

settlement area.

An ethnos, as a community, is characterized by specific social institutions - an endogamous family (formed when representatives of the same ethnic group marry), an institution of elders, a cult organization. Ethnic groups act as associations of people, their union, solidarity.

Ethnic culture includes the following social institutions: custom, ritual, religion, morality, law. Culture creates special mechanisms for the accumulation and transmission of created ethnocultural information from generation to generation. Such mechanisms include language, printing, libraries, museums, television, education and other channels for transmitting information. Through their means, the most significant information for the ethnic group is transmitted - ideals, values, symbols, norms of behavior, etc.

Thus, an ethnos can be defined as a community that is distinguished by specific cultural traits that have developed over many centuries and are transmitted through generations.

Within the framework of industrial society, there are two types of ethnic processes caused by interethnic contacts - those that occur without changing ethnic identity (ethno-unifying); and those that cause its changes (ethnic divisions). The most common unification processes at present include ethnic consolidation, ethnic assimilation and interethnic integration.

Ethnic consolidation is a process of internal cohesion of a fairly significant ethnic group, in which the differences between the local groups present in it are smoothed out or previously territorially separated parts are united. Several neighboring ethnic groups that are close in culture and language can also consolidate and unite into one, often turning into parts of this new ethnic group - subethnic groups.

Ethnic assimilation is a process in which a previously independent ethnic group (or part of it) dissolves into the environment of a larger ethnic group. For the assimilated people, this process occurs with a change in ethnic identity, loss of language and traditions. Ethnic assimilation is most characteristic of modern developed countries.

Ethnic separation processes take place in two types. This may be the division of a previously unified ethnic group into several parts, each of which recognizes itself as a new community. This process is called ethnic divergence. But even if the ethnic group is preserved, some part may break off from it, potentially capable of developing into an independent ethnic group. This process is more common today and is called ethnic separation.

The most common and comprehensive ethnic groups in the world are also called different types ethnic groups. They are characterized by such features as a common gene pool, a long history of coexistence, and self-assignment of the subject to a given ethnic group. Thus, we are dealing with both biological and social factors, which is why ethnic groups are also called socioethnic or ethnosocial.

The first ethnic group that replaced the primitive horde was a clan - a consanguineous association of people bound by collective labor and joint defense of their interests. The union of several clans constituted a tribe - a type of ethnic community and social organization of people of pre-class society.

The formation of tribal unions, accompanied by the strengthening of intertribal ties, military clashes, population migration, the emergence of classes and states led to the gradual mixing of tribes, to the replacement of previous consanguineous ties with territorial ones and to the emergence of a new ethnic community - a nationality. A nationality is a territorial, linguistic, economic and cultural community of people formed on the basis of slave-owning and feudal modes of production.

With the beginning of the New Age in Europe, with the advancement of commodity-money relations, the formation of the market, and the transition to capitalism, nationalities turned into nations. Unlike a nationality, a nation is a more stable community of people, and deep economic factors give it stability. Nations arose both from tribes and nationalities related to each other, and from people of unrelated tribes and nationalities. The historical features of the formation and development of a nation, the uniqueness of its economic system, culture, way of life, traditions, and geographical environment leave an imprint on the spiritual appearance of the nation, forming specific features of national character and national self-awareness. Each historically established nation rises to an awareness of its national interests, the characteristics of its culture, traditions, and development prospects. She has her own special way of thinking and form of expression of feelings, her own sense of national dignity. All this makes the nation a unique historical entity.

A nation was usually defined as a historically stable community of people, characterized by a common economic life, territory, language, and mental makeup. Currently, many scientists conclude that this definition no longer fully corresponds to modern realities. As a basis for developing a new definition of a nation, these scientists consider it necessary to introduce such a feature as spiritual culture. It is a key feature of a nation, the core that determines its essence. What concerns the community of mental makeup, it is derived from the community of spiritual culture. Another important component of the national community of people is their self-awareness, which also belongs to the sphere of spiritual culture. National self-awareness is the core of the national spiritual culture. It is in self-awareness that a nation determines its common ones. fundamental interests, goals and ideals, their identity in a multinational world, their attitude towards other nations and states.

A nation is not only an objective, but also a subjective entity, whose representatives say in relation to themselves: “this is us,” and in relation to others: “this is them.” In most countries of the world, a person himself determines his nationality, i.e., belonging to one or another nation. The entire course of historical development of ethnic groups testifies to the growing role of sociocultural factors in their functioning. A modern nation can hardly be classified as an ethnic group at all.

6. Interethnic relations

The development of interethnic relations in the modern world is associated with two objectively existing and contradictory trends: the tendency towards the unification of nations - interethnic integration - and the tendency for each nation to function independently - national differentiation. The objective reasons for interethnic integration lie in the development of economic ties and relationships, the unfolding of globalization processes. In the course of these processes, nations overcome their isolation and enter into ever closer interaction with each other. Currently, integration processes have acquired visible forms in Europe, where 25 states are already members of the European Union. At the same time, the second trend is also making itself felt.

These two trends operate constantly, but without conflict. The contradiction between them is the main contradiction in the sphere of interethnic relations. Others follow from the main contradiction, for example, the contradiction between the interests of individual nations and the interests of society as a whole. The aggravation of the national question is associated with the contradictions between the growing scientific and technological revolution, which requires maximum cooperation, the international division of labor, and the national identity of states and peoples. Contradictions arise between the national states themselves due to the presence of specific interests: the use of natural resources, transport communications. Contradictions arise between representatives of different nationalities in work and other multinational teams. The reasons for the aggravation of national interests may be political, economic, or demographic in nature.

Where there are national conflicts, the ideology of nationalism and chauvinism always flourishes. Nationalism is the psychology and ideology of national superiority, which is based on the hypertrophy of national feeling. Nationalism is often associated with the ideas of the chosenness of a given people, the predetermination of its fate by Higher powers. At the same time, to substantiate the idea of ​​national superiority, the facts of the actual history of a given people and the specific properties of its culture are interpreted in a special way. The nationalism of large nations in its most extreme form manifests itself in the form of chauvinism (named after the French grenadier Chauvin, an enthusiastic admirer of Napoleon’s aggressive policy, a satirical character in the Cognard brothers’ vaudeville “The Tricolor Cockade,” popular in the 19th century). Chauvinism is expressed in political, economic, spiritual suppression of other peoples, disregard for their rights and national values. The ways to resolve interethnic problems are not easy, but they cannot be resolved exclusively by force and military methods. Nothing can replace the political path to resolving conflicts, no matter how difficult and long such a path may be in each specific case.

When people interact in a multinational society, the easiest way in a conflict situation is to blame all the troubles on the national minority, and that, in turn, on the indigenous nation. Apparently, the harmonization of relations between people in a multinational society requires compliance with such conditions as the existence of a rule of law, the renunciation of separatism by national minorities, the provision of compactly settled minorities with broad autonomy and self-government, the right to decide their own local affairs, and recognition of the cultural autonomy of territorially dispersed national minorities. The basic principles of modern national policy are as follows.

A harmonious combination of national and international interests, finding optimal forms of correlation between the national and international.

This means, firstly, the prevention of legal norms and laws that perpetuate national inequality; secondly, respect for the cultural traditions and interests of all national groups; thirdly, condemnation of violence in resolving national issues; fourthly, restoration of the rights of repressed peoples.

Rejection of any forms of national chauvinism, special sensitivity and caution in everything related to interethnic communication, affects the national feelings of people.

A multinational society is, as a rule, also multi-confessional (the Latin word “confession” means religion). People can live peacefully and interact in such a society only if they are guided by the principles of religious tolerance and freedom of conscience. More. in the 17th century The English philosopher D. Locke, in his famous letters on religious tolerance, put forward the demands that the state must recognize freedom of religion, provide people with the right of religious self-determination, and should not deprive its subjects of civil and political rights depending on their belonging to a particular confession. In the 18th century French writer and philosopher Voltaire proclaimed that freedom of conscience is a right that a person received from nature, and no one can force him in matters of faith, everyone should be allowed to pray in his own way, everyone has the right to profess one or another faith in accordance only with his conscience . The principle of freedom of conscience is recognized by all modern democratic states, including Russia. It is important to actually realize freedom of conscience in relations between people. From an early age, it is necessary to cultivate feelings of mutual tolerance and respect between citizens who profess a religion and those who do not, between followers of different religions.

(for example, professional differentiation: teachers, doctors; gender

differentiation: men, women….).

The study of the social structure of society from the point of view of social inequality has been carried out from the very beginning of the development of sociology. Here we can mention the name of Karl Marx with his theory of irreconcilable classes of exploiters and exploited.

G Sorokin Pitirim Aleksandrovich (1889-1968), after emigrating from Russia in 1922, became the founder of the American school of sociology and the author of theories of social stratification and social mobility.

Social stratification – the same as social stratification; it's hierarchical

location of social strata in society.

Concept "stratification" (“stratum” - layer) came to sociology from geology, where it denotes the vertical arrangement of layers of various rocks. Each layer consists of homogeneous elements.

Also stratum – social stratum of people with similar characteristics

income , authorities , education And prestige.

This stratification criteria.

Historically, four main types of social stratification are known:

slavery, castes, estates and classes(K. Marx proposed property ownership and income level as a criterion for dividing society into classes; according to the class approach, each specific historical period has its own main classes: “slaves and slave owners”; “feudal lords and dependent peasants”; “bourgeoisie and proletariat”) .

MAIN TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES OF THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE RUSSIAN COMMUNITY

- social polarization (large gap between rich and poor).

-decline in the social status of intellectual work

-complication of the social structure of society

-marginalization of society

There is social inequality between strata that cannot be overcome. The main way to ease social tension is the ability to move from one stratum to another.

Social status -the position of a person in society that he occupies in accordance with age, gender, profession, origin, etc.

Types of statuses:

Statuses acquired or not acquired as a result of free choice:

-prescribed(given to a person from birth - gender, age, race, nationality, origin)

-acquired(achieved; a person acquires them in the process of life -

profession, marital status, position...)

-mixed(have signs of what is prescribed and achieved, but not achieved according to

person's desire: disabled person, refugee, unemployed)

In primitive society there were few statuses: leader, man, woman, husband, wife, hunter...

In modern society, there are about 40,000 professional statuses alone, family-marriage-

about 200 relatives (daughter-in-law, cousin...)

One person has many statuses because he participates in many groups and organizations. The totality of all statuses occupied by one person is called status set.

Since social status reflects the level of assessment of a person’s position in society, this concept is closely related to the concepts of “prestige” and “authority”.

Prestige– society's assessment of the significance of certain human positions.

From a person occupying a certain social position, others expect appropriate behavior. For example, the status of a teacher presupposes a specific set of actions (conducting lessons, checking notebooks, meeting with students’ parents), a certain manner of behavior, and a fairly strict style of dress. Completely different behavior is expected from, for example, a pop star. Thus, when assessing the role behavior of an individual, we correlate it with a certain typical idea of ​​how a person of a given social position should act, behave, and dress.

Social role – a behavior model focused on this status.

Role set- a set of roles performed by a person.

Role conflict - a situation in which individuals face conflicting demands from two or more roles(for example, professional growth requires significant personal effort to master a specialty and time investment. For a woman, this becomes especially difficult due to the fact that she has to fulfill the role of a mother and wife, which, in turn, involve a wide range of responsibilities).

Social mobility is the movement of groups or individuals in the social structure of a society.

Types of social mobility:

By direction of movement:

A ) horizontal – the transition of an individual or group from one social position to another lying at the same level; movement, changes in geographic space without changing social status(change of residence, transfer from one enterprise to another; transfer of a student from one school to another, transfer of a believer from one religious group to another, transfer from one family to another upon remarriage; transfer of a team from one sports society to another).

b) vertical – the transition of an individual or group from one social layer to another;

moving up or down the social structure.

a) vertical upward (promotion...);

b) vertical downward (a person lost his job; the team “flipped out”)

By the number of people making mobility:

a) group

b) individual

The ways in which people move from one social group to another are are called channels of social mobility, or social “elevators”.

These include:

army, family, school, church; party activities, marriage.

"Closed Society" - a society with low social mobility.(for example, the caste system in India. It was almost impossible for a person belonging to a lower caste to occupy a higher social position.

"Open Society" -a society with high social mobility(any industrial

society)

Lumpen– representatives of the social bottom (beggars, homeless people..)

Social movements lead to the emergence of intermediate, border layers, which are called marginal.

Marginalized - persons who have fallen out of the social structure of society, occupying an intermediate position between layers; those who left one stratum, group and did not join others (emigrants, refugees, unemployed...). In general, marginalized people experience great psychological stress and experience a kind of crisis of self-awareness. They may exhibit such traits as increased anxiety, excitability, aggressiveness, a desire to circumvent the law...

Note:

Question from the Unified State Exam:

Do you agree with the statements?

a) social mobility always leads to a change in status.

Answer: A type of horizontal mobility is geographic mobility; it does not imply changes in status or group, but movement from one place to another while maintaining status (for example, moving from one enterprise to another).

b) a change from one status to another involves a transition from one social group to another.

Answer: for example, the transition from schoolchild to student; from cadets to officers.

even horizontal mobility, not to mention vertical, presupposes a transition from one social group to another located at the same level (transition from the Orthodox faith to the Catholic faith, from one family to another upon remarriage)

LECTURE 5. Family and marriage.

The family in sociology is considered both as a small social group and as an important social institution. As a small social group, it satisfies the personal needs of people, and as an institution, it satisfies the socially significant needs of society.

The family is an important element of the social structure of society, the activities of which are regulated by both marriage and family legislation and moral standards.

FAMILY is an association of people based on marriage and consanguinity, bound by a common life and mutual responsibility.

A family is usually a more complex system than a marriage. It unites not only spouses, but also their children, as well as other relatives.

Family functions –

-reproductive(biological reproduction)

-socialization(formation of the individual as a personality)

- economic(housekeeping, caring for children and elderly family members, compiling family budget)

-recreational(stress relief, emotional support)

-leisure(organization of rational leisure)

-social status(providing a certain social status to family members)

The following are distinguished: family classifications.

• by number of children(large families - 3 children, small families - 1.2 children, childless)

• by the nature of the distribution of household responsibilities

-traditional (patriarchal family) ; the husband is the breadwinner, the head of the family, the wife

And accordingly, the owner of many different statuses. The entire set of human statuses is called status set. The status that the person himself or those around him consider to be the main one is called main status. This is usually professional or family status or status in the group where the person has achieved the greatest success.

Statuses are divided into prescribed(obtained by birth) and achieved(which are purchased purposefully). The freer a society, the less important the prescribed statuses become and the more important the achieved ones.

A person can have different statuses. For example, his status set could be as follows: man, unmarried, candidate of technical sciences, specialist in computer programming, Russian, city dweller, Orthodox, etc. A number of statuses (Russian, man) were received by him from birth - these are prescribed statuses. He acquired a number of other statuses (candidate of sciences, programmer) after putting some effort into it - these are achieved statuses. Let's assume that this person identifies himself primarily as a programmer; therefore, programmer is his main status.

Social prestige of a person

The concept of status is usually associated with the concept of prestige.

Social prestige - this is a public assessment of the significance of the position that a person occupies in.

The higher the prestige of a person’s social position, the higher his social status is assessed. For example, the professions of economist or lawyer are considered prestigious; education received in a good educational institution; high post; specific place of residence (capital, city center). If they talk about the high importance not of a social position, but of a specific person and his personal qualities, in this case they mean not prestige, but authority.

Social role

Social status is a characteristic of a person’s inclusion in the social structure. In real life, a person's status is manifested through the roles he plays.

Social role represents a set of requirements that society places on individuals occupying a specific social position.

In other words, if someone occupies a certain position in society, they will be expected to behave accordingly.

A priest is expected to behave in accordance with high moral standards, while a rock star is expected to act scandalously. If a priest begins to behave scandalously, and a rock star begins to read sermons, this will cause bewilderment, dissatisfaction and even condemnation of the public.

In order to feel comfortable in society, we must expect people to fulfill their roles and act within the rules prescribed by society: a university teacher will teach us scientific theories, not; the doctor will think about our health, not his earnings. If we did not expect others to fulfill their roles, we would be unable to trust anyone and our lives would be filled with hostility and suspicion.

Thus, if social status is a person’s position in the social structure of society with certain rights and responsibilities, then a social role is the functions performed by a person in accordance with his status: the behavior that is expected from the holder of this status.

Even with the same social status, the nature of the roles performed can vary significantly. This is due to the fact that the performance of roles is personal, and the roles themselves can have different versions of performance. For example m with r. the owner of such a social status as the father of the family can treat the child in a demanding and strict manner (play his role in an authoritarian manner), can build relationships in the spirit of cooperation and partnership (democratic style of behavior) or can let events take their course, giving the child a wide degree of freedom (permissive style). In exactly the same way, different theater actors will play the same role in completely different ways.

Throughout life, a person's position in the social structure may change. As a rule, these changes are associated with the transition of a person from one social group to another: from unskilled workers to specialists, from rural residents to city dwellers, etc.

Features of social status

Status - it is a social position that includes a profession of this type, economic situation, political preferences, demographic characteristics. For example, the status of citizen I.I. Ivanov is defined as follows: “salesman” is a profession, “a wage worker receiving an average income” is an economic trait, “member of the LDPR” is a political characteristic, “a man aged 25” is a demographic quality.

Each status, as an element of the social division of labor, contains a set of rights and obligations. Rights mean what a person can freely afford or allow in relation to other people. Responsibilities prescribe the status holder with some necessary actions: in relation to others, at his workplace, etc. Responsibilities are strictly defined, recorded in rules, instructions, regulations, or enshrined in custom. Responsibilities limit behavior to certain limits and make it predictable. For example, the status of a slave in the ancient world implied only duties and did not contain any rights. In a totalitarian society, rights and responsibilities are asymmetrical: the ruler and senior officials have maximum rights and minimum responsibilities; Ordinary citizens have many responsibilities and few rights. In our country during Soviet times, many rights were proclaimed in the constitution, but not all of them could be realized. In a democratic society, rights and responsibilities are more symmetrical. We can say that the level of social development of a society depends on how the rights and responsibilities of citizens are related and respected.

It is important that the individual’s duties presuppose his responsibility for their high-quality fulfillment. Thus, a tailor is obliged to sew a suit on time and with high quality; if this is not done, he must be punished somehow - pay a penalty or be fired. The organization is obliged under the contract to supply products to the customer, otherwise it incurs losses in the form of fines and penalties. Even in Ancient Assyria there was such a procedure (fixed in the laws of Hammurabi): if an architect built a building that subsequently collapsed and crushed the owner, the architect was deprived of his life. This is one of the early and primitive forms of manifestation of responsibility. Nowadays, the forms of manifestation of responsibility are quite diverse and are determined by the culture of society and the level of social development. In modern society, rights, freedoms and responsibilities are determined by social norms, laws, and traditions of society.

Thus, status- the individual’s position in, which is connected with other positions through a system of rights, duties and responsibilities.

Since each person participates in many groups and organizations, he can have many statuses. For example, the mentioned citizen Ivanov is a man, a middle-aged man, a resident of Penza, a salesman, a member of the LDPR, an Orthodox Christian, a Russian, a voter, a football player, a regular visitor to a beer bar, a husband, a father, an uncle, etc. In this set of statuses that any person has, one is the main, key one. The main status is the most characteristic for a given individual and is usually associated with his main place of work or occupation: “salesman”, “entrepreneur”, “researcher”, “bank director”, “worker at an industrial enterprise”, “housewife”, etc. P. The main thing is the status that determines the financial situation, and therefore the lifestyle, the circle of acquaintances, and the manner of behavior.

Specified(natural, prescribed) status determined by gender, nationality, race, i.e. characteristics given biologically, inherited by a person against his will and consciousness. Advances in modern medicine make some statuses changeable. Thus, the concept of biological sex, socially acquired, appeared. With the help of surgical operations, a man who has played with dolls since childhood, dressed like a girl, thought and felt like a girl, can become a woman. He finds his true gender, to which he was psychologically predisposed, but did not receive it at birth. Which gender—male or female—should be considered natural in this case? There is no clear answer. Sociologists also find it difficult to determine what nationality a person whose parents are of different nationalities belongs to. Often, when moving to another country as children, emigrants forget old customs and their native language and are practically no different from the native inhabitants of their new homeland. In this case, biological nationality is replaced by socially acquired nationality.

New Status is a status that a person receives under certain conditions. Thus, the eldest son of an English lord after his death inherits this status. The kinship system has a whole set of acquired statuses. If innate statuses express consanguinity (“son”, “daughter”, “sister”, “brother”, “nephew”, “uncle”, “grandmother”, “grandfather”, “aunt”, “cousin”), then non-consanguineous ones relatives have acquired status. So, having married, a person can receive all his wife’s relatives as relatives. “Mother-in-law,” “father-in-law,” “sister-in-law,” “brother-in-law” are acquired statuses.

Achieved status - socially acquired by a person through his own efforts, desire, luck. Thus, a person acquires the status of a manager through education and perseverance. The more democratic a society is, the more statuses are achieved in the society.

Different statuses have their own insignia (symbols). In particular, the uniform of the military sets them apart from the masses civilian population; In addition, each military rank has its own differences: a private, a major, a general have different badges, shoulder straps, and headdresses.

Status image, or image, is a set of ideas about how a person should behave in accordance with his status. To correspond to a status image, a person must “not allow himself too much,” in other words, look the way others expect of him. For example, the president cannot oversleep a meeting with the leader of another country, university professors cannot sleep drunk in the entrance, as this does not correspond to their status image. There are situations when a person undeservedly tries to be “on an equal footing” with a person who has a different rank status, which leads to the manifestation of familiarity (amicoshonism), i.e. unceremonious, cheeky attitude.

Differences between people due to ascribed status are noticeable to varying degrees. Usually, each person, as well as a group of people, strives to occupy a more advantageous social position. Under certain circumstances, a flower seller can become the deputy prime minister of the country, a millionaire. Others do not succeed because their assigned status (gender, age, nationality) interferes.

At the same time, some social strata are trying to improve their status by uniting in movements (women's movements, organizations such as the “union of entrepreneurs”, etc.) and lobbying their interests everywhere. However, there are factors that hinder the attempts of individual groups to change their status. These include ethnic tensions, attempts by other groups to maintain the status quo, lack of strong leaders, etc.

Thus, under social status in sociology, we understand the position that a person (or social group) occupies in society. Since each person is a member of different ones, he is the owner of many statuses (i.e., the bearer of a certain status set). Each of the available statuses is associated with a set of rights that determine what the status holder can afford, and responsibilities that prescribe the performance of specific actions. In general, status can be defined as the position of an individual in the social structure of society, connected with other positions through a system of rights, duties and responsibilities.