Social Structure, Stratification and Social Processes in Society — Class 11 Sociology

This chapter examines how far the individual is constrained by, and how far free of, social structure and stratification, and how these shape the social processes of cooperation, competition and conflict. Social structure refers to the patterned, repetitive regularities in how people behave and relate — a structure made of human actions yet, like Durkheim's room with doors, external to and constraining of the individual; Marx adds that humans make history but only within structural limits, reproducing and changing structure at once. Social stratification is the structured inequality between groups in access to material or symbolic rewards, distributing life chances, social status and political influence and persisting across generations. The chapter contrasts the functionalist view (which sees cooperation, competition and conflict as universal and usually self-resolving) with the conflict view (which links them to surplus, class and unequal production relations). Cooperation may be voluntary or enforced, and apparent cooperation can conceal conflict, as in women's reluctance to claim natal property. Durkheim grounds cooperation in solidarity and the division of labour, distinguishing mechanical solidarity (based on sameness) from organic solidarity (based on interdependence); Marx links cooperation to consciousness and warns that under class society cooperation becomes enforced and labour alienated. Competition, far from natural, became dominant only with capitalism and its ideology of free, equal individuals maximising profit — an assumption belied by unequal starting points. Conflict, arising from clashing interests over scarce resources by class, caste, tribe, gender or religion, is not new; it may be overt or hidden, as land conflicts and household studies reveal.