Features of the social system are examples. Social systems, their signs and types. Describe the main social institutions

Specificity of social systems. Society as a system. The levels of systems analysis of society.

Specificity of social systems.

A social system is a structural element of social reality, a definite holistic formation, the main elements of which are people, their connections and interactions.

There are two possible approaches to defining a social system.

Under one of them, the social system is viewed as the orderliness and integrity of a multitude of individuals and groups of individuals. With this approach, interaction turns into an adjective, which clearly does not take into account the specifics of social systems and the role of social relations in them.

But another approach is also possible, in which the consideration of the social as one of the main forms of motion of matter is taken as the starting point. In this case, the social form of the movement of matter appears before us as a global social system. What, then, are the characteristic features of the social system?

First, it follows from this definition that there is a significant variety of social systems, for the individual is included in various social groups, large and small (planetary community of people, society within a given country, class, nation, family, etc.). As long as this is so, then society as a whole as a system acquires a super-complex and hierarchical character.

Secondly, it follows from this definition that since we have integrity in the face of social systems, the main thing in systems is their integrative quality, which is not characteristic of the parts and components that form them, but is inherent in the system as a whole. Thanks to this quality, a relatively independent, separate existence and functioning of the system is ensured.

Third, it follows from this definition that a person is a universal component of social systems, he is certainly included in each of them, starting with society as a whole and ending with the family.

Fourth, from this definition it follows that social systems are self-governing. This feature characterizes only highly organized integral systems, both natural and natural history (biological and social) and artificial (automated machines). The role of this subsystem is extremely important - it is it that ensures the integration of all components of the system, their coordinated action.

Society as a system.

Society is heterogeneous and has its own internal structure and composition, including a large number of diverse and diverse social phenomena and processes.

The constituent elements of society are people, social connections and actions, social interactions and relationships, social institutions and organizations, social groups, communities, social norms and values, and others. Each of them is in a more or less close relationship with others, occupies a specific place and plays a peculiar role in society. The task of sociology in this regard is, first of all, to determine the structure of society, to give a scientific classification of its most important elements, to find out their relationship and interaction, place and role in society as a social system.

Some of the most significant systemic signs of society for sociological analysis: integrity (this internal quality coincides with social production); stability (relatively constant reproduction of the rhythm and mode of social interactions); dynamism (change of generations, change of social substratum, continuity, slowdown, acceleration); openness (the social system preserves itself due to the exchange of substances with nature, it is possible only if it is in equilibrium with the environment and receiving a sufficient amount of matter and energy from the external environment); self-development (its source is within society, it is production, distribution, consumption based on the interests and incentives of social communities); spatio-temporal forms and methods of social life (masses of people are spatially connected by joint activities, goals, needs, norms of life; but the running of time is inexorable, generations change, and each new one catches already established forms of life, reproduces and changes them).

Thus, society as a social system is understood as a large ordered set of social phenomena and processes, more or less closely interconnected and interacting with each other and forming a single social whole.

The levels of systems analysis of society.

The systems analysis of society is differentiated into a number of relatively autonomous levels that complement but do not replace each other.

The most abstract level of its consideration is a philosophical analysis of the universal, invariant properties of social organization, expressing its generic, historically constant essence (the presence of which allows us to call both the tribe of savages and modern technocratic countries by the same word - "society"). It must be borne in mind that we are talking here about the most important level of knowledge of the social. It would be a serious mistake if science, recognizing the real existence of specific human societies, concluded that "society in general", devoid of tangible bodily existence, is a fiction, an empty play of the human mind.

The analysis of society as an integral system is not limited to the extremely abstract level of consideration of the universal properties of "society in general". Along with and in connection with it, much more specific objects are the subject of a systemic consideration of society. First of all, we are talking about those specific social organisms - countries and peoples that represent the real embodiment of society in human history, combine the generic characteristics of sociality with the mechanisms of its constant reproduction in time and space.

For science, it is equally necessary both a systemic view of “society in general”, which gives the correct methodological orientation to scientists, and a systematic analysis of specific social organisms, which makes it possible to understand the specifics of their functioning and development.

It is important to understand, however, that these two levels of analysis do not exhaust the tasks of a full-scale study of society in the real historical dynamics of its existence. In fact, between the level of extreme socio-philosophical abstractions and the analysis of specific social organisms, theories of the middle rank of generalization are necessarily built, which are designed to study not "society in general" and not specific countries and peoples, but special types of social organization found in real human history. We are talking about logical models in which not universal and not isolated, but special properties of the social structure inherent in groups of socio-culturally related societies are recorded.

What are the characteristic features of society as a system? How is this system different from natural systems? A number of such differences have been identified in the social sciences.

First, society as a system is complex, since it includes many levels, subsystems, and elements. So, we can talk about human society on a global scale, about society within one country, about various social groups in which each person is included (nation, class, family, etc.).

The macrostructure of society as a system consists of four subsystems, which are the main spheres of human activity - material-production, social, political, and spiritual. Each of these spheres known to you has its own complex structure and is itself a complex system- So, the political sphere acts as a system that includes a large number of components - the state, parties, etc. But the state, for example, is also a system with many components.

Thus, any of the existing spheres of society, being a subsystem in relation to society, at the same time itself acts as a rather complex system. Therefore, we can talk about a hierarchy of systems consisting of a number of different levels.

In other words, society is a complex system of systems, a kind of supersystem.

Secondly, a characteristic feature of society as a system is the presence in its composition of elements of different quality, both material (various technical devices, institutions, etc.) and ideal (values, ideas, traditions, etc.). For example, the economic sphere includes enterprises, vehicles, raw materials and materials, manufactured goods, and at the same time economic knowledge, rules, values, patterns of economic behavior, and much more.

Thirdly, the main element of society as a system is a person who has the ability to set goals and choose the means of carrying out his activities. This makes social systems more changeable and mobile than natural ones.

Social life is in constant flux. The pace and magnitude of these changes may vary; in the history of mankind there are periods when the established order of life has not changed in its foundations for centuries, but over time the pace of change began to increase.

From the course of history, you know that in societies that existed in different eras, certain qualitative changes took place, while the natural systems of those periods did not undergo significant changes. This fact indicates that society is a dynamic system with a property that in science is expressed by the concepts of “change”, “development”, “progress”, “regression”, “evolution”, “revolution”, etc.

Therefore, a person is a universal element of all social systems, since he is certainly included in each of them.

Like any system, society is an ordered integrity. This means that the components of the system are not in a chaotic disorder, but, on the contrary, occupy a certain position within the system and are connected in a certain way with other components. Consequently, the system has an integrative quality that is inherent in it as a whole. None of the components of the system, considered in isolation, has this quality. It, this quality, is the result of the integration and interconnection of all components of the system. Just as individual human organs (heart, stomach, liver, etc.) do not possess human properties, so the economy, health care system, the state and other elements of society do not have the qualities that are inherent in society as a whole. And only thanks to the diverse connections that exist between the components of the social system, it turns into a single whole, that is, into a society (just as through the interaction of various human organs there is a single human body).

Various examples can be used to illustrate the connections between subsystems and elements of society. The study of the distant past of mankind allowed scientists to conclude that the moral relations of people in primitive conditions were built on collectivist principles, that is, in modern terms, priority was always given to the collective, and not to the individual. It is also known that the moral norms that existed among many tribes in those archaic times allowed the killing of weak members of the clan - sick children, old people - and even cannibalism. Have these ideas and views of people about the limits of the morally permissible influenced the real material conditions of their existence? The answer is clear: undoubtedly, they did. The need to jointly obtain material wealth, the doom of a quick death of a person who has broken away from his family, and laid the foundations of collectivist morality. Guided by the same methods of struggle for existence and survival, people did not consider it immoral to get rid of those who could become a burden for the collective.

Another example would be the relationship between legal norms and socio-economic relations. Let's turn to the well-known historical facts. One of the first codes of laws of Kievan Rus, called Russkaya Pravda, provides for various punishments for murder. In this case, the measure of punishment was determined primarily by the place of a person in the system of hierarchical relations, his belonging to a particular social stratum or group. So, the penalty for killing a tiun (steward) was enormous: it was 80 hryvnia and was equal to the cost of 80 oxen or 400 rams. The life of a smerd or a slave was estimated at 5 hryvnia, that is, 16 times cheaper.

Integral, that is, general, inherent in the entire system, qualities of any system are not a simple sum of the qualities that make up its components, but represent a new quality that has arisen as a result of the relationship, the interaction of its components. In its most general form, this is the quality of society as a social system - the ability to create all the necessary conditions for its existence, to produce everything necessary for the collective life of people. In philosophy, self-sufficiency is seen as the main difference between society and its constituent parts. Just as human organs cannot exist outside the integral organism, so none of the subsystems of society can exist outside the whole - society as a system.

Another feature of society as a system is that this system is self-governing. The administrative function is performed by the political subsystem, which gives consistency to all the components that form social integrity.

Any system, be it technical (unit with an automatic control system), or biological (animal), or social (society), is in a certain environment with which it interacts. The environment of the social system of any country is both nature and the world community. Changes in the state of the natural environment, events in the world community, in the international arena are a kind of "signals" to which society must respond. Usually it seeks to either adapt to changes in the environment, or adapt the environment to its needs. In other words, the system reacts to "signals" in one way or another. At the same time, it realizes its main functions: adaptation; goal achievement, that is, the ability to maintain its integrity, ensuring the implementation of its tasks, influencing the natural and social environment; maintaining the pattern - the ability to maintain its internal structure; integration - the ability to integrate, that is, to include new parts, new social formations (phenomena, processes, etc.) into a single whole.

Society as complex dynamic system.

Galchenko L.I.

Social studies teacher

Novouralsk

(according to the textbook of social studies, edited by L.N.Bogolyubov)

Knowledge update

• Let's analyze the homework page 17 - questions and assignments;
• Working with a document (P. Sorokin)
• "Thoughts of the Wise" p.18

Practical conclusions of the studied material.

• What conclusions can be drawn from the fact that society is a joint activity of people (at least 2 conclusions)?
• What practical conclusions follow from knowledge about the interdependence of society and the natural environment?
• Do you think it is important for you to study social studies in school?

Plan for learning new material.

• The system and the system is social.
• Social institutions.

Task number 25 USE format

• What is the meaning of social scientists in the concept of "system"? Drawing on knowledge of the social science course, make two sentences: one sentence containing information about social institutions, and one sentence revealing.
• Difficulties? Let's work on them together.

System (Greek) - “whole, made up of parts. These are subsystems and elements. A dynamic system?

Are system individual parts of the water meter, laid out on the table? When do the parts of the water meter perform the function of the system?

Conclusion: the properties of a system do not belong to its individual parts, but only to the system as a whole.

You have been instructed to prepare a detailed answer on the topic "Features of the social system." Make a plan according to which you will cover this topic (18-21). The plan must contain at least 3 points, of which two or more are detailed in sub-points.

• Assignment (No. 28 USE)

Features of the social system Plan

• Natural and social system.
• Macrostructure of society: a) supersystem b) subsystems (industrial, social, political, spiritual)
• The presence of elements of different quality: a) material (technical devices, institutions, etc.) b) ideal (values, ideas, traditions)
• Man is the main element of society makes the social system more mobile.
• Dynamism social system: a) progress b) regression v) the revolution G) evolution

Features of the social system Plan

6. Integrative the quality of the system as a whole (connections between the components transform society into a system)

7. Social system - self-governing.

8. The environment of society as a system.

9. Functions public system:

a) adaptation;

b) goal achievement;

c) maintaining the sample;

d) integration.

Key findings:

• Society as a system has a complex hierarchical nature, it is possible to distinguish different levels in the form of subsystems.

• Man is a universal component of social systems, he is certainly included in each of them, from society to family.

Social institutions

Main activities

Main social institutions

Social institutions

Essential life needs

Main activities

Reproduction of the genus

Main social institutions

Livelihood

Spiritual problems

Social institutions

Essential life needs

Main activities

Reproduction of the genus

Safety and social order

Main social institutions

Family and household

Livelihood

Political, state

economic

Knowledge acquisition and socialization

Scientific, educational, educational

Spiritual problems

religious

Social institutions.

Essential life needs

Main activities.

The need for the reproduction of the genus.

The main social institutions.

Family and household activities.

The need for security and social order.

Political, government activities.

The need for funds

existence.

Institute of Family and Marriage.

The need for knowledge acquisition, socialization of children.

Political institutions,

state.

Labor, economic activity.

Economic institutions, production.

Scientific, educational educational activities.

The need for a solution

spiritual problems.

Religious activities

Institutes of science, education, culture.

Institute of Religion.

Let's remember.

• A social institution arises on the basis of joint activities large masses of people.
• This activity is aimed at satisfying fundamental needs society.
• A social institution is a stable form of organization of such activities.
• These forms have developed historically .
• Such activities are regulated by norms, customs, traditions.

Each social institution performs its own functions. What are the functions of the Institute of Education?

Functions of social institutions

• What are the functions of the institution of religion?

Functions of social institutions

• What are the functions of the media institute?

• The concepts "element", "structure", "interconnection" characterize society as
• part of the material world
• human social environment
• an integral system
• set of communities

• The process of meeting the biological needs of society is directly related to the sphere of public life:
• economic
• social
• political
• spiritual

• Find the features of society as a dynamic system in the above list and circle the numbers under which they are indicated.

• isolation from nature
• lack of interconnection between subsystems and public institutions
• ability for self-organization and self-development
• separation from the material world
• constant changes
• the possibility of degradation of individual elements

text

Words to insert

• Read the text below where a number of words are missing.

A) state

B) activity

C) commandments

E) parliament

E) sign

G) elements

Social institutions of society are its most important _____________ (1). They can be considered as a stable set of people, ______________ (2) of which is aimed at performing specific social functions and is built on the basis of certain ___________ (3). The main institutions of society are the family, ___________ (4) and the school.

Words to insert

text

The family is one of the most important social _________________ (1)

She performs important _________ (2) in society: the birth and upbringing of children, economic support for the disabled, and many others. Each family member occupies his own special position in it, implying ________________ (3). It is regulated not only by intra-family rules, but also by public ______________ (4) - morality and law.

• A) education
• B) laws
• B) link
• D) institute
• D) norms
• E) behavior
• G) functions

Task number 25 USE format

Homework.

• Read and comprehend the practical conclusions to § 2. What is the orientation of each of the practical conclusions?
• Answer the questions in paragraph p.26
• To independently study fragments from the work of E. Shils, included in the paragraph.
• The teacher is not the one who teaches you, but the one from whom you learn!

Each class and type of management presupposes a deep knowledge of both the object and the subject of management. In social management, the object is at the same time its subject, since in both cases we are talking about people and the social communities (systems) they make up.

Each person has a certain gender, age, orientation, abilities, temperament and character, as well as various degrees of development of the main mental spheres - emotional, volitional and cognitive. The same characteristics are inherent in all of humanity, which is a community of specific people endowed with quite definite socio-psychological characteristics. Therefore, any social community and group (races, meta-ethnic, ethnic, sub-ethnic communities, organizations and collectives) should be considered from the side of not only socially conditioned qualities, but also natural, biological and psychological characteristics.

Knowledge of the naturally determined qualities of a controlled object allows for scientific management, since representatives of different sex, age, type of ability and temperament require different managerial strategies. In addition, in our deep conviction, all the naturally determined features of the object and subject of management are reflected in the socially conditioned characteristics, confirming the well-known thesis about the indissoluble integrity of natural and social in man.

Study levels.

Social and natural-psychological phenomena have, as a rule, a three-level nature of study: global (macrolevel), individual-group (microlevel) and intermediate, middle (mesolevel). A three-level structure is typical for almost all objects and subjects of social management - ethnic and social communities (metaethnos, ethnic groups, subethnos; society, its main spheres, social groups), for the organization of society (macro-, meso- and microlevels of power), for the economy ( macro-, meso- and microeconomics), for the social structure (upper, middle and lower classes), etc. In other words, no matter what object of social management we take, its three-level structure is found everywhere. (Even turning to a specific individual, we will also be forced to study him at three main levels: biological, psychological and social. The same applies to many of his “components.” For example, biological, socio-psychological, social, etc. needs are distinguished. .)

The identification of three main levels of the structure of various biosocial systems does not exclude the presence of corresponding sublevels related to one or another level of the study of social phenomena.

Composite.

In addition to the three-level structure inherent in objects and subjects of management, they have a number of common features, which include the three-sphere construction of mental and social wholes. Thus, the human psyche as a whole includes the emotional, volitional and cognitive spheres, which correspond to the material (economic), political (organizational and managerial) and spiritual (socio-cultural) spheres of society as a social whole (Scheme 3). At the same time, both in the individual and in society, the dialectical law of the unity and struggle of opposites operates, which is a deep mechanism of psychological and social development. According to this pattern, each natural and social phenomenon has an opposite (femininity - masculinity, introversion - extraversion, rationalism - irrationalism, spiritual - material, the state - civil society, formal - informal structures, etc.). This regularity also operates in relation to the three-sphere structure of psychological and social phenomena. So, each psychic sphere contains the following pairs of opposites:

Scheme 3.

nal - rational feelings and irrational sensations (sensorics); volitional - conscious will and unconscious instincts; cognitive - rational thinking and irrational intuition. The same applies to the main social spheres, where, for example, in the spiritual area (cognitive sphere), on the one hand, religion and philosophy (intuitive principle) coexist, and on the other, science and technical inventions (intellectual principle).

In society, certain social groups (classes, strata, castes, strata, etc.) are the carriers of basic values ​​and the corresponding spheres of human activity. The predominance of certain values ​​in society testifies, first of all, to the domination of the corresponding social strata and certain social spheres in it.

Basic values ​​and social cycles.

Basic values ​​are embedded in the depths of the collective unconscious, the so-called archetypes, which, being unconscious, form through interests the fully conscious needs of the biological, socio-psychological or social (spiritual) levels. All basic values ​​are contained in the collective unconscious at the same time, and they all oppose each other. The dominance of certain values ​​in a certain historical period determines the change in the dominant religious and ethical systems, types of cultures (according to P. Sorokin), social spheres and social strata. At the same time, the change in values ​​and the main "social parameters" associated with it is, as a rule, of a systemic-cyclical nature. Social cycles can be of different lengths and scales. For example, the cultural cycle of the Western Hemisphere personifies the change of social supersystems - spiritually-intuitive ideational, rational-emotional idealistic and sensory-sensory. The religious cycle indicates a change in the world religious and ethical systems: Buddhism (cognitive sphere), Christianity (emotional sphere), Islam (volitional sphere). The estate cycle is an alternation of the dominant social strata and socio-historical times: the hierocratic layer of clergy (spiritual times, the Golden Age according to ancient ideas) is replaced by an aristocratic layer of military and administrative leaders (romantic times, the Silver Age), which gives way to the burgher layer, i.e. e. the "third estate" (civil times, Bronze Age), and the latter - to the lumpenized and marginalized strata (criminal times, Iron Age). The management cycle indicates a change in the leading positions of representatives of various management professions, which corresponds to a change in the main components of the management system (technical and technological, economic, organizational and social): technicians and technologists (engineers), economists and financiers, lawyers and, finally, "human scientists" (psychologists and sociologists).

The change of unconscious values ​​inherent in the archetypes of the collective unconscious is realized in the needs realized through interests, produced by the personal, individual unconscious. Therefore, the selection and "cultivation" of socially approved needs can indirectly contribute to the formation of the necessary system of values ​​in society and the gradual transfer of society (community, organization, group) from the biological level of needs (the predominance of the political sphere of activity) through the socio-biological (dominance of the economy) to the social ( the triumph of the spiritual values ​​of society).

The structure of the human psyche as a being simultaneously biological and social corresponds basically to the structure of society, that is, an individual organism is in many respects identical to a social organism. Man appears as a connecting link between nature and society, combining the natural and the social in their indissoluble unity.

Systems operate in society in the form of classes, social communities, national formations, professional groups, etc. Society itself as a whole is a social organism, or a system that functions according to its specific laws. A systematic approach to the study of society requires the allocation of certain structures in it. A structure is an invariant, or stable state of a system, reflecting a stable connection between its elements. An American sociologist of Russian origin Pitirim Sorokin made a notable contribution to the understanding of society as an integral system, which includes hierarchically organized structures. According to his theory, the totality of social and cultural systems and individuals that interact with each other is in a complex hierarchical subordination, often penetrating each other. To social systems, modern social philosophy includes classes and social strata generated by production, that is, basic relations, social institutions (family, state, business, education, religions), social groups (status groups, crowd, social circles, small groups, large groups ), social organizations (social structures created to achieve certain goals).

Social structure includes primarily social classes. But to address certain cognitive 108

tasks, elements of the social structure can be considered strata (strata), the belonging of people to which is determined by various factors: the level of their income, their way of life, the prestige of the area of ​​residence, the social roles they perform, etc. The transition from one stratum to another is ensured by social mobility, the nature of which is determined primarily by the type of prevailing social relations. It also sometimes depends on the energy of individuals, on specific social situations, for example, from an economic crisis, from war, etc.

As a result, society also exists as a whole, or a system.

Dictionary

Biregulator is a double-acting regulator that works by mutual action of one subsystem on another and ensures the stable functioning of the entire system. Harmony is a category in philosophy and aesthetics that shows a purposeful and organized combination of parts into one whole, evoking a feeling of admiration for beauty and purposefulness. Differentiation is the process of dividing a system into parts. One is a philosophical category that reflects the subordination of everything in the world to the systemic principle and ensures its division into parts and their combination into integral formations. Variability is a change in the internal algorithms for the functioning of systems, allowing them to adapt to changing environmental influences.

Integration is the process of combining disparate elements into a single whole.

A complex is a complex system consisting of many subsystems, including a large number of elements. Space - in the philosophy of the ancient Greeks, the visible or intelligible part of the universe, subject to the principle of integrity, harmony and reasonable understanding.

Feedback principle - the principle of using feedback signals received by the system from the external environment when interacting with it, as a result of which a correction in the behavior of the system is provided.

Self-regulation (self-organization) - the ability of systems to adapt to the environment through internal control mechanisms.

Segregation- the process of separating some parts of the system from others. System- a set of elements in an ordered interaction.

Social group- a set of individuals interacting in a certain way based on shared expectations. Social Institute- a social system that ensures the functioning of society as a holistic education; a certain aspect of the social organism in the form of organized systems of connections and social norms.

Social mobility- the process of people moving from one social group to another, taking place in a natural way under the influence of various factors.

Social organism- society, considered as an integral and structural entity, functioning according to specific laws; society, taken in opposition to nature.

Strata- social strata, belonging to which is determined by the level of income, prestige of the profession, area of ​​residence, etc.

Structure- invariant, or unchanging, state of the system. Sustainability- the property of systems to maintain their structure under adverse influences from outside and from within. Chaos- in the worldview of the ancient Greeks, an unorganized state of the universe that does not obey the principle of integrity, which is the primary potential of the world and the cause of the destruction of its organized parts.

Holism is a trend in foreign philosophy, whose representatives understand the world as a set of values ​​that radiate spiritual energy from themselves.

Self-study questions

1) Show the similarities and differences between the concepts of "single", "whole",
"System", "general", "idea".

2) What is organization from the point of view of A.A. Bogdanov and in
than her criteria?

3) "God is the alienated essence of man."

"God is an organized infinity in which matter and spirit are harmoniously united."

Which of these two statements about God seems more preferable to you and why?

4) Show the difference between the concepts of "spirit", "soul", "energy", "ente
lechia "," essence ".

5) Why in the age of the scientific and technological revolution are used
the concept of spirit and soul?

6) What is a system?

7) The concept of "whole" in philosophy and biology.

8) The concept of "One" in the history of philosophy and religion.

9) What. lies at the heart of the One - matter or spirit?

10) Understanding the systemic principle of the organization of matter in No
all time.

11) The basic principles of the theory of organization L.A. Bogdanov.

12) The concept of hierarchy.

13) What is structure?

14) Types of structures and hierarchies.

15) Equifinality and ways of its implementation.

16) Basic principles of holism.

17) Heredity and stability as properties of systems.

18) Variability as properties of systems.

19) Factors of evolution of systems of different nature.

20) Features of social systems.

21) Types of cultural systems and their specificity.

22) Show the differences in the views of N.Ya. Danilevsky and P. Soro
kin in the understanding of culture.

23) Basic principles of the theory of social stratification.

24) Social mobility and its factors.

25) The role of information in the development of systems.

Computer control issues

1. What is a system?

a. The proximity of objects of any nature

b. The order in the arrangement of objects of the same type

v. Any collection of elements

d. The set of elements in interaction

2. How should an organization be understood?

a. As something whole

b. As a hierarchical structure

v. As an ordered linkage of elements

d. As something controlled

3. What systems are called large?

d. Occupying a large space in space

4. What is holism?

a. The doctrine of the integrity of any nature

b. Teaching about the whole, studying psychic energy

CONSCIOUSNESS, ITS ORIGIN AND ESSENCE