Meaning And Definition Of The Society

Meaning and definition of the society

Sociology is the branch of the science that deals with the society, whereas society is the group of individuals living together for special purposes. Society is the basic concept of sociology. 

Society is one of the basic sociological terms. Many kinds of society have existed over the pasts, and we still find the remarkable diversity today. Society is being used repeatedly to mean an urban society or the rural society, a modern industrial society or primitive society or the open society or closed and so on. Man is the social animal said by the Aristotle years ago. Man needs the society for the attainment of the optimum happiness and where he can work and enjoy his life.Society refers to people who interact in the defined territory and share a culture.

According to the Gisbert,"Society consists of the complicated network of the social relationship by which  every human being is interconnected to the fellowmen."

According to gidding,"Society is the union itself, the organization, the sum of the formal relationship in which the associating individuals are bounded together."This definition of the society place emphasizes on the organizational aspect.

Society can be defined as the set of the people who share the common territory, culture, sense, interaction. However, in a broad sense, characteristics of society is also the social structure and interaction of the group of people.

1. Nature and characteristics of society: Society is composed of people. Without people there cannot be the society, no social relationship and no social life at all.
2. Mutual awareness and the mutual interaction: Society is the group of people in continuous interaction with each other. It refers to the reciprocal contact between two or more people. It is the process by which the men interpenetrate the mind of each other. 
3. Society depends upon the likeness: The principle of the likeness is essential for the society. It exists upon those who resemble one another in the body and the mind to some extent. That is people have the similarities with regards to their needs, works, aims, values and the outlooks towards the life. Just as the birth of the same feather flocks together, men have many things in common. It implies the consciousness of the kind.
4. Society rests on difference too: If men are exactly alike their social relations would be very limited. People differ from one another in their looks, personality, ability, talent attitude, aptitude, interest, taste, faith and so on. People pursue the different activities because of it.
5. Cooperation and division of the labor: Both likeness and differences create the division of the labor. Division of the labor involves assignment to each unit or the specific group with the share of the common task. Division of the labor is possible because of the cooperation. Thus, division of labor and the cooperation have made the social cohesion.

Community

A community is a local grouping within which people carry out full round of social activities. For the true community to be formed and qualified, its member should experience nearly all of the culture within the community boundaries. Regarding the interdependency of the different communities, some are inclusive and independent of each other. Community is the social unit of any size that shares common value based on the geographical area (town, village).It is the group of individuals sharing common norms, values, cultural heritage, and specified location. A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect form the larger society within which it exists.

Culture

Newborn human baby is helpless and it is physically dependent on the older members of the society. Instinctively it lacks the behavior patterns necessary for living in the human society. It depends primarily on the certain biological drives such as hunger and it helps elder to satisfy those drives. In fact, an infant must learn the skills, knowledge, and the accepted ways of behaving in the society in which he is born. It must learn the way of life, which is necessary for him to survive in the society. In the sociological term, they must learn the culture to survive in the society. Due to the higher period of dependency to the senior ones, the human baby has the greater chances to learn the ways of the life so called cultures. Culture refers to the social heritage of a people, those learned patterns for thinking, feeling which is transmitted from one generation to others. Culture varies from one society to other and within the society also. It reflects the living way and the standard of the society

Group

Group is one of the important concepts in the society. Group is among the most stable and the enduring of the social units. They are important for both member and society at large. Through, encouraging regular and the predictable behavior, groups form the foundations union in all social groups. Group is the collection of the people who identify and interact with each other. It refers to the set of individuals with common goals, common interest and common objectives, which includes any size. Common feature of the group is a sense of unity and shares the same characteristics. In the group, there must be interaction among group members.

References

bhandari, Laxman P. fundamentals of sociology. kathmandu: Buddha Publications, 2014.

Bell,Daniel.The coming of post-industrial Society.New York:Harper Colophon Books,1947.

Gisbert,p.2004.Fundamentals of sociology.OrientLongman,India