Basic Concepts in Sociology: Society, Community, Association, Institution, Social Group and Culture
What this domain tests
This domain tests precise definition and classification. Questions often give examples and ask whether they are a society, community, association, institution, group or culture, or ask you to distinguish two close concepts.
Core definitions
- Society: a web of social relationships. MacIver called it the web of social relationships; it is not a mere aggregate of people.
- Community: a group sharing a locality and a sense of belonging or we-feeling. MacIver and Page distinguish community, which covers total life in an area, from association, which pursues a specific interest. Non-territorial communities such as an academic community also exist.
- Association: an organised group formed for a specific purpose, with rules and membership, such as a trade union, cooperative or club.
- Institution: established patterns of norms, roles and practices around a basic social need, such as family, marriage, education or religion. An institution is not its building.
- Social group: two or more people who interact, share norms and have a sense of identity. Cooley distinguishes primary groups (face-to-face, emotional, such as family and play group) from secondary groups (formal, instrumental, such as an office). Sumner distinguishes in-groups and out-groups.
- Culture: the learned, shared and transmitted way of life of a society. It has material elements (tools, buildings) and non-material elements (values, norms, beliefs, symbols, language). Culture is learned, shared, symbolic, integrated and dynamic.
Worked example
Classify: a village, a trade union, a family and a school. Reasoning: the village is a community because it combines locality with shared life. The trade union is an association because it pursues a specific purpose. The family is a kinship institution and usually a primary group. The school is a formal organisation and the institution of education. The same reality can fit more than one concept, so state the defining criterion rather than giving one label only.
Traps
- Institution is not building; a temple building is not the institution of religion.
- Culture is not education or high culture; it includes ordinary learned behaviour.
- Community is not society; association is not any collection of people.
- A group needs interaction and identity, not just a statistical category such as all 15-year-olds.