SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION WHAT MAKES THEM

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION: WHAT MAKES THEM POWERFUL DETERMINANTS OF SOCIAL REGULARITIES (ORDER, CONSISTENCY AND CHANGE) IN OUR LIVES AND THE SOCIAL WORLD © Dr. Francis Adu-Febiri 2019

Presentation Outline n n n n n 1. Introduction: Main Theme, The Central Question, and Main Thesis 2. Main Argument: The Power of Social Scripts 3. Major Concepts 4. Order and Consistency: Facts & Evidence 5. Structure and Dynamics of Social Structure and Social Interaction 6. Components of the Social Structure 7. Structure and Dynamics of Social Interaction 8. Changes in Social Structure and Dynamics 9. Theoretical Perspectives of Social Structure and Social Interaction 2021 -12 -20 2

MOTIVATE ◦ Why sociologists care about Social Structure and Social Interaction 2021 -12 -20 3

INTRODUCTION: Main Theme, Central Question and Main Thesis MAIN THEME: Determinants of Social Regularities CENTRAL QUESTION: What are the determinants of the social regularities (order, consistency, and change) in our lives and in the social world? MAIN THESIS: S(p) There are social scripts at the core of Social forces—the unseen statics and dynamics of social structure and social interaction—that drive the social forces as well as determine the social regularities (order, consistency, and change) in our social behaviour, social condition, and social destiny. 2021 -12 -20 4

MAIN ARGUMENT: The Power of Social Scripts Social scripts emerge from individual and group social interaction. Once they are established, social scripts shape the human agency and social relationships that are embedded in cultures and structures of property, power, prestige and patriarchy that guide peoples’ definitions and responses to situations, including authority. Social scripts in the social structure and social interaction tend to 1) render people obedient or conformists either voluntarily or involuntarily and 2) determine the processes of social change/transformation. 2021 -12 -20 5

MAIN ARGUMENT: THE POWER OF SOCIAL SCRIPTS The Solar System as a Metaphor for social structure and social interaction, and orbits as a metaphor for Social Scripts Social Orbits/Social Scripts embedded in Macro and Micro Social Forces such as culture, political economy (property & power), social closures, patriarchy, and human agency in interaction situations are the underlying determinants of social regularities—social statics (order and consistencies) and social dynamics (change/transformation) in our lives and the social world. 2021 -12 -20 6

MAIN ARGUMENT: The Power of Social Scripts SOCIAL STATICS: EVIDENCE OF SOCIAL CONFORMITY AS SOCIAL REGULARITY DRIVEN BY SOCIAL SCRIPTS ◦ 1. Social Inequality/Inequity ◦ ◦ 2. Classroom Behaviour 3. Interment 4. Genocide or Ethnic Cleansing 5. The Holocaust: How was it possible for many thousands of ordinary Germans— products of what was regarded as the most advanced civilization on earth—to murder millions of defenseless and innocent Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and people with mental disabilities systematically in German death camps? And why did the innocent often march to gas chambers without protest? ◦ 6. Other examples: See Chapter 4 of textbook: Single Ladies and Gentlemen (p. 104), Secrecy (Page 117), photos on pages 110, 122, 128, and 132. ◦ 7. Watch Video: https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=-z 6 a. L 5 Ti. Ic 0 2021 -12 -20 7

MAIN ARGUMENT: The Power of Social Scripts SOCIAL DYNAMICS: EVIDENCE OF SOCIAL CHANGE/TRANSFORMATION AS SOCIAL REGULARITY DRIVEN BY SOCIAL SCRIPTS ◦ 1. From Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft ◦ 2. From Pre-capitalism through Capitalism to Socialism and Communism ◦ 3. From Androcentrism to Egalitarianism ◦ 4. From Reality to Hyperreality to Reality 2021 -12 -20 8

EXPLORE ◦To develop awareness and understanding of concepts 2021 -12 -20 9

MAJOR CONCEPTS Social Structure ◦ Culture ◦ Social Groups ◦ Statuses and Roles ◦ Social Institutions Social Interaction ◦ Dramaturgical Sociology ◦ Front Stage and Back Stage Interactions: Impression making and impression management Social Statics and social Dynamics Social Scripts Social Transformation or Social Change: ◦ Fuctionalist Paradigm: From Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft ◦ Social conflict Paradigm: From Capitalism to Socialism to Communisim ◦ Feminist Paradigm: From Androcentrism to Egalitarianism ◦ Interactionist Paradigm: Multidirectional Fluidity ◦ Postmodernist Paradigm: From Reality (egalitarian plurality) to Hyperreality (hegemonic homogeneity) to Reality (egalitarian plurality) Functionalism, Social Conflict, Interactionism, Feminism, Postmodernism 2021 -12 -20 10

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL INTERACTION SOCIAL STRUCTURES are macro patterns of relationships and interaction that endure from one generation to the next. The social structure of each society determines who does what and how things are done. The concept sociological imagination apply here. Social structure is made up of various components: CULTURE defines the social structure, SOCIAL GROUP [CLASS] differentiates and ranks groups of people; SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS are complex systems of roles organized around a social need; SOCIAL STATUSES are socially defined positions. Each status comes with a set of expected behaviours called SOCIAL ROLES SOCIAL INTERACTION refers to the micro processes by which people act towards or respond to others. It is the foundation of all relationships and groups in society. Social interaction is determined by the social construction of reality. What this means is that in any social situation, our perception (and behaviour) is shaped by our subjective definition of the situation and the meanings we give to it. This is the essence of the concept looking-glass self. The sociologist W. I. Thomas observed that “if a person perceives a situation as real, it is real in its consequences”. This statement is known as the Thomas Theorem, and it suggests that our behaviour depends not so much on the objective reality of a situation as on our subjective interpretation of the reality. REFERENCE: Marc Belanger, 2019, pp. 57, 58 and 65

C RA TE R IN SOCIAL STRUCTURE: Our social interaction creates the social structure which in turn N constructs O social scripts that organize our social interaction, behaviors, conditions and I T destinies AC IN T ER AC TI O 2021 -12 -20 N Poli ion tics Mass Media y l i Fam processes as well as INDIVIDUAL & GROUP BEHAVIOR, IMAGES, IDENTITIES, EXPERIENCES, CONDITIONS, V n o i g i l Re Social Institutions ol u In Volu vo lu Primary Social Groups/closures CULTURE uca t lu INTERACTION h Ed Achieved In vo Ascribed om y He alt CULTURE Social Institutions on ON Ec TI CULTURE Statuses & Roles TE N I Secondary Social CULTUREGroups/Closures O TI T 12 IN AC R E N

COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE DEFINED 1. CULTURE: Everything people create and share as members of society. 2. SOCIAL GROUPS/CLOSURES: People connected together and having awareness of their connectedness. 3. STATUSES: Social positions people occupy in social groups/closures 4. ROLES: acting or playing out organized or negotiated scripts that accompany social positions in social groups/closures. 5. SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: Organized patterns of rules/norms, values, beliefs, functions and interaction centered on basic social needs of people.

SOCIAL GROUPS/CLOSURES Social groups are social closures because they have closed boundaries that include some people and exclude others. PRIMARY (Informal Relationships): Involuntary & Voluntary; Usually small n SECONDARY (Formal Relationships): Involuntary & Voluntary; Usually large n » INFORMAL RELATIONS in Secondary Groups/Closures: CLIQUES n NETWORKS n 2021 -12 -20 14

SOCIAL GROUPS: NETWORKS Connections with people in same and/or different social circles in both the concrete/real and virtual worlds: Social Networks as a Resource: ◦ shaping our economic/employment, marriage, political, academic, and social opportunities. ◦ What is “The Market Value of Friendship” (Kazemipur, Abdolmohommad 2006, CES vol 38(2) pp. 47 -71) ◦ Social Networks as a Liability: ◦ Damaging Gossips, Scandals, Constraints, and relationships that limit the range and quality of our opportunities. Our social networks constitute our net worth

STATUS: Socially Defined Position within a social group/society THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL POSITIONS Master Status Set STATUS (ASCRIBED & ACHIEVED) Status Symbol Your Social Status determines your access to valued resources in your society 2021 -12 -20 16

STATUS: Socially Defined Position within a social group/society Status Set: The many and sometimes conflicting social positions one holds (Schaefer & Haaland 2006, p. 97) Master Status: What others view as one’s overall social position. It is a status that dominates others in one’s status set and thereby determines one’s general position within society. For example, Arthur Ashe who died of AIDS in 1993, had a remarkable career as a tennis star; but at the end of his life, his status as a well known personality with AIDS may have outweighed his statuses as retired athlete, an author, and a political activist. Throughout the world many people with disabilities find that their status as “disabled” is given undue weight, which overshadows their actual ability to perform successfully in meaningful employment (Ibid. ). Status Symbol: Usually a sign to identify one’s social position

APPLY QUIZ #1 Ellen Bains has observed that in most party and social interaction situations in Victoria, people want to know what she does for living. This suggests that in Victoria one’s job or occupation or profession constitutes… A) a status set B) a status symbol C) a master status D) none of the above

STATUS: Socially Defined Position within a social group/society Ascribed Status: Social Position society assigns to a person without regard for the person’s unique talents or characteristics. Examples are racial background, ethnicity, gender, age. In most cases one can do little to change an ascribed status (Shaefer & Haaland 2006, p. 67). Achieved Status: Social Position one occupies largely through ones own efforts. Examples are bank president, prison guard, lawyer, pianist, convict, social worker (ibid. ).

APPLY QUIZ #2 The latest Canadian census data show that the face of poverty in Canada is an Aboriginal female living on reserve. What social position does this representation suggest? ◦ A) Achieved Status ◦ B) Ascribed Status ◦ C) Status Inconsistency ◦ D) Status Deflation

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG STATUS, ROLE AND IDENTITY n ROLE/IDENTITY AS DYNAMIC SIDE OF STATUS (pp. 144, 148, 293, and 294 of Ravelli & Webber 2014). Role Conflict ROLE: STATUS Performance related to status Role Strain Role Exit 2021 -12 -20 IDENTITY 21

ROLE CLASHES: ROLE CONFLICT AND ROLE STRAIN ROLE CONFLICT: ◦ Incompatible expectations arising from two or more social positions held by the same person. ROLE STRAIN: ◦ The difficulty arising from one (the same) social position creating conflicting demands and expectations on the person holding this one position. ROLE EXIT: ◦ Process of disengagement from a social expectation that is central to one’s self-identity in order to establish a new role and identity: E. G: Ex-convicts, divorcees, recovering alcoholics, ex-nuns, former doctors, retirees, and transsexuals.

TWO TYPES OF ROLE CLASH ILLUSTRATED You Daughter or Son Friend Student Worker Visit mom in hospital Go to 18 tht Birthday party Prepare for tomorrow’s exam Come in for emergency overtime Role Conflict Student Do well Not make others feel bad Role Strain

APPLY QUIZ #3 Anita Bradford, a sociology major, had the privilege to meet Tiger Woods, the famous professional golfer. Anita asked Mr. Woods to do her a favour by teaching her how to golf. Tiger’s response was, “I love playing golf but I hate to teach it to others. ” From her knowledge in sociology, Anita concludes that this response of Mr. Woods’ represents…………… A) Role strain QUIZ #4 Ameto Guluu is experiencing a confusion. He loves his girlfriend, Amie, but his mother hates Amie. Which of the following concepts would help you to correctly represent Ameto’s situation sociologically? A) Role Exit B) Role Exit C) Role Conflict D) Role ambiguity. B) Role strain D) Role ambiguity

SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS ◦ THE WEB OF ENDURING, PREDICTABLE SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS THAT EXISTS TO MEET COMMON HUMAN NEEDS. RELIGION EDUCATION ECONOMY FAMILY POLITICS HEALTH LEISURE MEDIA

SOCIAL SCRIPT At the core of social forces are social scripts which are invisible. They include social norms (rules of etiquette), expectations, social values, practices, and conventions that drive the statics and dynamics of macro social forces of the social structure and micro social forces of social interaction (see page 105 of your textbook).

The Story of Social Scripts of the Social Structure The facts [social scripts] of contemporary history are also facts about the success and failure of individual men and women. When a society is industrialized, a peasant becomes a worker; a feudal lord is liquidated or becomes a businessman. When classes rise or fall, a man is employed or unemployed; when the rate of investment goes up or down, a man takes new heart or goes broke. When wars happen, an insurance salesman becomes a rocket launcher, a store clerk, a radar man; a wife lives alone; a child grows up without a father (C. Wright Mills 1959: Sociological Imagination). Like in the solar system, order/consistency provided by social scripts is the key to maintaining [the homeostasis of] social structures, according to the functionalist paradigm (Tepperman 2015, p. 109).

APPLY QUIZ 5: APPLICATION OF SOCIAL SCRIPTS CONCEPT a) b) c) d) Once people, through their social interaction, construct social structure (culture, social institutions, social groups and accompanying statuses and roles), human behaviour as well as actions, images, identities, experiences, conditions, destinies, and further social interaction are scripted by the social structure. From this point, individuals and groups can only edit the social scripts. The photo on page 128 of your textbook……. . this perspective of society. refutes affirms Confounds critiques EXAMINE THE PHOTO ON PAGE 128 OF YOUR TEXTBOOK FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THIS SUMMARY, AND ANSWER QUIZ 1

APPLY QUIZ #6 A psychologist may look at bullying as an individual problem; in contrast. A sociologist looks at bullying as a social problem, by trying to find patterns [social regularities] among the individual cases. The broader social understanding is important here, since it helps us to understand the contagion of violence—for example, the spread of physical and emotional abuse in a public school community. As sociologists, we want to understand the [social] context within which people behave in the ways they do, because people are products of their history and their [social] environment (Tepperman 2015, p. 7). Which of the sociological paradigms would totally agree with this conclusion? A) Interactionism B) Postmodernism C) Functionalism, Social Conflict and Macro Feminism D) All the above

STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL INTERACTION FRONT STAGE BACK STAGE 2021 -12 -20 30

SOCIAL INTERACTION Social Interaction involves responses of people to others/objects on the basis of their interpretation/subjective definition of the symbolic meanings of the actions of others/objects. n There is a structure to social interaction: n – Social interaction is about presentation of the self in everyday life on the front stages and back stages to make or manage impressions. Embedded in these stages are social scripts. 2021 -12 -20 31

SOCIAL INTERACTION INFLUENCE OF STRUCTURE n n FRONT STAGE: THE FAKE OR HYPERREAL SELF: MASKS ARE A NECESSITY On the front stage the individual is usually not of her/his real self. She/he is phony, faking through and through. She/he is in “deep acting”; acting out social scripts. In effect, on the front stage, interacting individuals wear MASKS that social scripts provide Because the front stage is multiple with multiple social scripts, societal members should have multiple masks or “multiple personalities”. They should become social chameleons or they are labeled DEVIANTS. 2021 -12 -20 32

SOCIAL INTERACTION: THE INFLUENCE OF STRUCTURE BACK STAGE: Putting Away Masks “The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. ” (Jim Morrison) 2021 -12 -20 33

APPLY QUIZ #7: QUIZ #8 People ‘overshare’ when they interact with others through the screens of computers and smartphones. Oversharing means to divulge more of their inner feelings, opinions and sexuality than they would in person, or even over the phone. Text messaging, Facebooking, tweeting, camming, blogging, online dating, and Internet porn are vehicles of this oversharing, which blurs the boundary between public and private life. . . we are much more public about what used to be private (Ben Agger 2012). What interactive stage do we actually operate on when we blur boundaries between public and private life? ◦ a) Back Stage ◦ b) Front Stage ◦ c) Both the back and front stages ◦ d) None of the above Examine the photo on page 110 of your textbook (Tepperman 2015). The social interaction shown in the photo is occurring on the ◦ a) Back Stage ◦ b) Front Stage ◦ c) Both the back and front stages ◦ d) None of the above

SOCIAL DYNAMICS: ◦ CHANGE/TRANSFORMATION PROCESSES: 2021 -12 -20 35

SOCIAL CHANGE PROCESSES: FROM GEMEINSCHAFT TO GESELLSCHAFT n n GEMEINSCHAFT : – Close-knit Community: Homeostasis provided by tradition and collectivist practices focusing on primary or informal relations. That is, the local, the personal and the intimate or face-to-face contacts such as family, kinship, friendship and community. GESELLSCHAFT : – Impersonal Mass Society: Homeostasis provided by “large-scale, impersonal, economically based, and utility-driven marketplace with no foundational sense of virtue, morality or home” (Butin 2010, p. 115), but rather individualistic values focusing on impersonal or secondary or formal relations such as occur at the workplace, school, bureaucratic public domains. 2021 -12 -20 36

SOCIAL CHANGE PROCESSES: FROM GEMEINSCHAFT TO GESELLSCHAFT n According to the functionalist paradigm, social systems (gemeinschaft and gesellschaft) persist independently of the efforts and intentions of individuals; they force us to conform whether we are aware or unaware, willing or not (Tepperman 2015, p. 108). – The Social Scripts built into the gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft social systems have the power to compel us to comform. 2021 -12 -20 37

APPLY QUIZ #9 Scotia Bank has employed you as a sociologist to use your knowledge to help it advertise its products/services as if the bank has an informal relations with customers. What sociological concept would best capture the social script embedded in the proposition of the bank? A) Social Closure B) Gesellschaft C) Gemeinschaft D) Androcentrism E) Capitalism QUIZ #10 I received this email in October 2014 from the LG Corporation: ◦ “Dear Francis, Thank you for signing up for Life's Good News. We're very excited to have you as a part of the LG family. You'll be receiving exclusive access to LG news, special offers, as well as tips, tricks and everything in between. Check your inbox soon, we'll be sending our next issue out shortly. ” What sociological concept of the social script of social change does this email contradict? A) Social Closure B) Gesellschaft C) Gemeinschaft D) Androcentrism E) Capitalism

FEMINIST PARADIGM: SOCIAL CONFLICT PARADIGM SOCIAL CHANGE PROCESSES VIA REVOLUTION: FROM PRE-CAPITALIST THROUGH CAPITALISM TO COMMUNISM VIA SOCIALISM AS TRANSITION SOCIETY PRE-CAPITALISM: This social structure is characterized by: ◦ a) Inequalities based on ascriptive statuses ◦ b) lack of individual freedom. CAPITALISM: This social structure is characterized by ◦ Class struggles: social inequality, violence, crime, alienation, stress and rhetoric of individual freedom COMMUNISM: This social structure is characterized by ◦ Classlessness: social equality and absolute individual freedom SOCIAL CHANGE PROCESSES VIA SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: FROM ANDROCENTRISM TO EGALITARIANISM ANDROCENTRISM: ◦ Male dominance driven by the patriarchal ideology of sexism causing inequality and oppression against girls and women. EGALITARIANISM: ◦ Equity (perfect equality of opportunity) and absolute individual freedom and empowerment

INTERACTIONIST PARADIGM POSTMODERNIST PARADIGM SOCIAL CHANGE PROCESSES VIA DECONSTRUCTION: FROM REALITY IN PREMODERN ERA TO HYPERREALITY IN MODERN ERA TO REALITY AGAIN IN THE POSTMODERN ERA n REALITY: n No politics of culture: Mechanical solidarity organically produced egalitarian pluralism in premodern society n Hyperreality n Politics of culture: Cultural Hegemony or monoculturalism constructed through social interaction controlled by the powerful individuals and groups n Reality n No politics of culture: Deconstruction of cultural hegemony and reconstruction of egalitarian cultural pluralism or “Multiculturalism” as a horizontal mosaic resulting from minority group protests against hegemony. SOCIAL CHANGE PROCESSES VIA DEFINITION OF SITUATION: Fluid, multidirectional micro changes

THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND INTERACTION FUNCTIONALISM SOCIAL CONFLICT Homeostasis: -Emphasizes the importance of social order. Sees social structure as the source of social interaction that carries out key tasks, through social scripts, to ensure cultural consensus that homeostasis requires. Political Economy & Social Closures: -Emphasizes power differential among groups: sees social structure and interaction as reinforcing inequality and maintaining the status quo social scripts produced by ideology of scarcity 2021 -12 -20 INTERACTIONISM & POSTMODERNISM FEMINISM Patriarchy: Human Agency: -Emphasizes how -Emphasize everyday social structure and interaction, shaped by interaction have individual and group subjective definitions of inbuilt gendered social scripts that the situations/symbols based on human patriarchal ideology agency, as the basis for of sexism constructs constructing social to control girls and scripts that produce women. How women reality or hyperreality. and men receive Social structure and differential interaction reflect and treatment in culture reinforce constructed and institutions cultural reality or hyperreality through depends on the politics of culture. gendered social scripts. 41

CREATE: ◦Be a Changemaker 2021 -12 -20 42

CREATE Use your knowledge of the power of social scripts built into social structure and interaction to design new social network for yourself that would improve your net worth. Identify social groups/closures and people you plan to connect with and/or remain connected to. Use this new design to motivate somebody in your family or friendship circle or workplace or school whose current social network is a liability to him/her to start creating a new social network that would be an asset.

CONCLUSION: The Influence of Structure Rhythms in our personal lives and our connections with people and ecosystems are caused by rhythms in the social structure and interaction called SOCIAL SCRIPTS embedded in the social forces. 2021 -12 -20 44

SAMPLE MIDTERM EXAM QUESTION BASED ON LECTURE #2 AND LECTURE #3 2021 -12 -20 45

SAMPLE MIDTERM EXAM QUESTION 1. Gabriel has found out in his reading on culture that theories of the Hindu practice of keeping cattle as sacred animals have no available empirical evidence to support them. Therefore, he has decided to conduct a survey research to produce the necessary empirical evidence to test the existing theories on this issue. This type of research is………. ? ◦ A) Quantitative and Inductive ◦ B) Quantitative and Deductive ◦ C) Qualitative and Inductive ◦ D) Qualitative and Deductive 2021 -12 -20 46

SAMPLE MIDTERM EXAM QUESTION 2. One of your Sociology 100 classmates has expressed to you that she’s having difficulty identifying the correct research method or technique to use to collect data for her research assignment on hidden crimes. You have advised her to use a content analysis to examine backyard party conversations. What sociological paradigm(s) would support this research technique? ◦ A) Interactionism ◦ B) Feminism ◦ C) Functionalism ◦ D) Social Conflict ◦ E) All of the above 2021 -12 -20 47