Social structure;
Social structure can be defined as the organized set of social institutions and recurrent patterns of relationships among individuals within institutions that together create society. Usually, our daily life encounters have similar patterns. Each day we interact with our family members at home (brothers, sisters and parents) or we come across same people at school or college — university or office (friends, colleagues and teachers). These patterned or repeated social interactions are called social structure.
Moreover, every society comprises of five basic social institutions including, family, politics, economy, religion and education. These basic social institutions have established norms that defines the appropriate behavior, status and roles of individuals within a particular institution. Each individual has different status and roles within different social institutions. Institutional norms specify individual roles in accordance with their status for instance, at home an individual status may be of son or daughter, brother or sister, husband or wife and father or mother. But at work he or she might be janitor or president of the state.
Furthermore, social structure can be found at every level of society. It could be found in peer group, family, recreational groups, Public Corporation, Private Corporation and so on. Individuals with in these groups have patterned relationships which are repeated Day by day. These relationships are either enforced via formal norms or through customs. However, sociologist study Social structure on three levels these include, macro, maso and micro level.
Macro level;
At macro level social scientist study the social structure via analyzing social institutions and their interdependence to identify how these factors form patterns of social relationship that are repeated day by day. Family, economy, politics, religion, media, law and education are interconnected social institutions which together form the social structure of society. Individuals’ relationships are organized by social institutions through established norms. Institutional norms regulate behavior of individuals. It defines set of appropriate behaviors, status and roles of individual in a given institution.
Social institutions organize patterned relationships among individuals. These relationships have hierarchical order that result in power differential. Hierarchical positions grant some individuals more power than others in a given institution and social relationship. For instance, institution of family is the organization of different social relationships and roles such as, father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, etc… members within institution of family hold power in accordance with their hierarchical position. Usually, parents stand at the top of hierarchical ladder within family because of customs, status, roles, age and financial position. Therefore, they hold greater amount of power to make family decisions. Moreover, corporations or educational institutes organize social relationship among individuals such as, teacher and student —chancellor and teachers — employer and employee etc… however, an individual acquires the amount of power consistent with his or her hierarchical positions in a given institution or relationship. For instance, If we analyze the social relationship between chancellor and teachers at university. Chancellor holds more power compare to teachers because he stands at the top of hierarchical ladder. Therefore, he obtains the ability to formulate and change university policies. On the other hand, teachers cannot do so because their hierarchical position does not grant them authority of policy making. Moreover, teachers cannot defy the orders of chancellor. Whereas, chancellor could ignore and not consider the suggestions or concerns of teachers.
Like individuals some institutions or organization obtain more power than others. As discussed earlier that social institutions are interdependent. Malfunctioning of one institution can disorganize the entire structure of society. The actions or operations of individuals or institutions who obtain greater amount of power determine the structuring of individuals lives and society. For instance, in some societies women do not have a right to seek education which implies that, such societies have established gender biased norms. Which grant more privileges and power to men compare to women. Discriminatory institutional and social norms may give rise to social problems such as socioeconomic stratification. Social stratification is not merely product of class system but the outcome of systematic racism, sexism and other types of discrimination as well.
Maso level;
Maso level social structure refer to the institutionalized social networks. Social institutions organizes social relationships which determine the formation of different social networks and groups. The nature of social networks depend on the patterns of relationships organized by social institutions. Such social networks are the manifestation of meso social structure. Systematic Racism, sexism and other types of discrimination within social institutions result in Socioeconomic stratification. Social networks where relationships among individuals are structured by, difference in level of wealth, social status, ethnicity, race and level of education are the expression of social stratification.
Micro level;
Micro level Social structure refer to daily social interaction among individuals. Social interaction occurs on daily bases among peers, family members, colleagues etc… Institutional norms and customs shape patterned relationships further these relationships shape social interactions among individuals. For instance, we can use informal language in our peer group however, we cannot use informal language when we interact with our teachers, parents or elders.
