Class 11 › Sociology › Understanding Society Social Structure, Stratification and Social Processes in Society Class 11 Sociology · Understanding Society · Chapter 1
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Browse all 60 kits → SummaryThis 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.
Social Structure, Stratification and Social Processes in Society Key termsSocial structure
The patterned, repetitive regularities in social behaviour and relationships that constrain and direct individuals.
Social stratification
Structured inequalities between groups in access to material or symbolic rewards, persisting across generations.
Cooperation, competition and conflict
The three central social processes through which individuals and groups interact, shaped by structure and stratification.
Mechanical and organic solidarity
Durkheim's forms of cohesion: mechanical based on sameness in simple societies, organic based on interdependence in complex ones.
Alienation
Marx's term for workers' loss of control over the content of their labour and over the products they make.
Division of labour
The specialisation of work tasks whose interdependence, for Durkheim, is the basis of cooperation in modern society.
Extra questions & answersQ1 What is social structure? Answer Q2 How do Durkheim and Marx view the individual's relation to social structure? Answer Q3 Define social stratification and name the advantages it distributes unequally. Answer Q4 Contrast the functionalist and conflict views of social processes. Answer Q5 Distinguish between voluntary and enforced cooperation. Answer Q6 Differentiate mechanical and organic solidarity. Answer Q7 What did Marx mean by alienation? Answer Q8 Why is competition not a natural phenomenon? Answer Q9 Why does the ideology of competition assume false equality? Answer Q10 Why can the absence of an open movement not be taken as the absence of conflict? Answer Try one from this chapter
Social structure refers to:
A Random and unconnected events B An individual's private mood C The physical buildings of a city D The patterned, repetitive regularities in social behaviour and relationships
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