Understanding Society as a System

Introduction to Society as a System

• Society is like a biological organism, composed of interdependent parts.
• A system connotes an arrangement of parts.
• Understanding the parts requires studying them in relation to each other.
• All parts work toward the sustenance and fulfillment of the whole, contributing to purposes and goals.
• Understanding any part of society means viewing its contributions to the maintenance of the entire system, including its relationship to other parts.

Meaning of Social System

• A social system is described as a social interaction based on shared norms and values.
• Individuals constitute it, fulfilling statuses and roles.
• Interaction influences the formation of subgroups.
• These function as a unified whole, not in isolation.
• Talcott Parsons (1951) defined a social system as social actors interacting with shared norms and meanings.
• Appelrouth and Edles (2008) defined it as integrated interactions based on shared norms, expectations, and interdependence.
• While Parsons often focused on entire societies, a social system doesn't necessarily have to be a whole society.
• Any organized interaction, whether micro or macro, counts as a social system.

Maintenance of Social Systems

• Social control processes, like socialization and sanctions, maintain a social system.
• Nukunya (2003) defined social control as maintaining law and order, ensuring conformity.
• Worsely (1957) defined socialization as a training process, teaching the rules of a social group.
• Chinoy (1967) viewed it, as a process transforming raw human material into a social being.
• Socialization creates awareness of social roles, integrating individuals into society.
• Sanctions are societal reactions, including approval(positive) or disapproval(negative) of behavior.
• Approved sanctions are the rewards for appropriate actions, while disapproved sanctions are hardships for improper behavior.
• Actors use sanctions to support expectations, rewarding met ones and punishing broken ones.

AGIL Paradigm of Social action

• Sociologists like Talcott Parsons identified four problems in social systems.
• These four problems abbreviated are referred to as AGIL
• AGIL problems are: Adaptation, Goal Attainment, Integration, and Latent Pattern Maintenance.

Adaptation in Social Systems

• Adaptation is a social system dynamically adapting to change.
• It's the system's capability to adjust to its changes and environment.
• It involves gaining control over the environment.
• It strengthens the system to enhance efficiency by developing and enhancing resources.

Goal in Social Systems

• Every social system works to achieve goals and must identify goals to meet needs.
• Involves prioritizing system goals and mobilizing resources.
• The social system needs to change with society's evolving objects and needs to stay relevant.

Integration in Social Systems

• Integration deals with coordinating parts, maintaining actor relations, and avoiding conflict.
• Mutual adjustment brings dependence and attachment, leading to solidarity.
• Integration needs social control to standardize violations to safeguard system integrity.

Latent Pattern Maintenance

• This develops long-term commitment to values and principles, maintaining shared values.
• Social systems ensure important functions are performed properly.
• Social Institutions ensure that this is the case.
• Normative behavior patterns that emerged to meet basic needs are what they ensure
• Social institutions like politics, religion, education, marriage/family, economy, and health (PREMFEH) perform these functions.
• They're structured to satisfy basic, shared needs.

AGIL Structures Importance

• AGIL structures and their functions are all related in a social system.
• Changes in a structure impact other structures.
• Structures are important for any social system's survival.

Conclusion

• A social system includes interdependent cultural and structural elements that are a unit.
• The whole is greater than just the sum of its parts in a social system.