Social Institutions

11 Key excerpts on "Social Institutions"

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  Sociology

  The Essentials

  • Margaret Andersen, Margaret Andersen, Howard Taylor(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  In this chapter, we continue our study of sociology by starting with the macro level of social life (by studying total social structures), then continuing through the micro level (by studying groups and face- to-face interaction). The idea is to help you see how large-scale dimensions of society shape even the most immediate forms of social interaction. Sociologists use the term social organization to describe the order established in social groups at any level. Specifically, social organization brings regularity and predictability to human behavior. Social orga- nization is present at every level of interaction, from the whole society to the smallest groups. Social Institutions Societies are identified by their cultural characteristics and the Social Institutions that compose each society. A social institution (or simply an institution) is an established and organized system of social behavior with a recognized purpose. The term refers to the broad systems that organize specific activi- ties in society. Unlike individual behavior, Social Institutions cannot be directly observed, but their impact and structure can still be seen. For example, the family is an institution that provides for the care of the young and the transmission of culture. Religion is an institution that organizes sacred beliefs. Education is the institution through which people learn the information and skills needed to live in the society. The concept of the social institution is important to sociological thinking. You can think of Social Institutions as the enduring consequences of social behavior, but what fascinates sociologists is how Social Institutions take on a life of their own. For example, you were likely born in a hospital, which itself is part of the health care institution. The simple act of birth, which you might think of as an indi- vidual experience, is shaped by the structure of this social institution.

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  Human Behavior

  A Cell to Society Approach

  • Michael G. Vaughn, Matt DeLisi, Holly C. Matto(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 13

  Institutions

  Formal and informal institutions use rules and customs to organize and structure activities that attempt to meet the needs of a given society. In some respects they are analogous to what the skeletal system does for the human body. Institutions are formed and aggregated from individual behavioral choices that are influenced by a nexus of biosocial factors examined previously in this book, comprising individual behavior, micro-level exchange, cooperation, and social network processes. Institutions are also built upon the technological, demographic, and environmental needs of a society, and in turn they influence changes in these spheres as well (see Figure 13.1 ). Institutions are a result of greater social complexity and scale and are used as a means to solve problems that technology, population, and environment impose. Combined, these interactions have important effects on the ways in which societal institutions are expressed. This chapter describes the major institutions of human societies and considers the constraints they place on human behavior. Although people do make choices, they operate under varying political-economic and institutional contexts, and this chapter illustrates the roles these large-scale macro structures have on human behavior within a cell to society framework.

  Figure 13.1

  Relationship Between Institutions and the Technological, Demographic, and Environmental Needs of a Society

  Case Study: The Overthrow of Institutions: Revolution and the Arab Spring

  As demonstrated throughout Chapter 13, institutions are an unavoidable and necessary part of modern society. As mentioned at its start, institutions become embedded into society and can become very difficult to change or alter. Although it may be difficult to change institutions that exhibit negative behaviors, such as exploiting oppressed populations or certain groups of people, it is still possible to do so. Under a democratic system of government, there is an assumption that change is possible by altering the very system in which the institutions are housed by voting, protesting, or lobbying, among other ways.

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  Migration Policies and Political Participation

  Inclusion or Intrusion in Western Europe?

  • P. Odmalm(Author)
  • 2005(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  That is, its meaning and impact would become diluted as it would come to include everything that guides individ- ual behaviour (Peters, 1999; Rothstein, 1996). The word 'institution' has been used loosely in, especially, political science to refer to everything from a formal structure (e.g. a parliament) to more abstract entities (e.g. social class), but also to describe such components dwelling in the socio-economic world such as laws and markets. Although providing some insight into what serves as a structure or constraint to behaviour, the term needs further spec- ification. According to Lowndes (2001), new institutionalists are not only concerned with formal rules and structures but also with informal conven- tions, paying closer attention to the way in which these institutions embody values and shape power relations as well as to study the interaction between individuals and institutions. Similarly, March and Olsen (1984) remark that an institution does not necessarily have to be understood as a merely formal structure but also as a collection of norms, rules, understandings and routines deriving from the structures in place. 18 More concretely, Diermeier and Krehbiel (2001) define institutions as a set of contextual features in the setting of collective choice that defines con- straints on, and opportunities for, individual behaviour in the setting. Comparatively, Hall (1986) suggests that institutions are also procedures and standard operating practices that structure the relationship between individuals in various units of the polity and economy. Lane and Ersson (2000) find the term to be more or less impossible to define but do propose

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  Society and Economy

  Framework and Principles

  • Mark Granovetter(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Belknap Press

    (Publisher)

  And we need always keep in mind, as I emphasized in the preceding three chapters, that important as what happens to individuals and small 136 S O C I E T Y A N D E C O N O M Y groups is, as important as single norms and cultural elements may be, neither individuals nor norms can exist or be understood without discussion of their larger social context and the structures that emerge from the interaction and aggregation of these elements. This leads us to the consideration of Social Institutions. 5.1 Institutions and “Logics” We must begin by saying what we mean by “Social Institutions.” The most typical definition is that they are sets of persistent patterns defining how some specified collection of social actions are and should be carried out. Mahoney and Thelen, in Explaining Institutional Change, describe institutions as “ rela-tively enduring features of political and social life (rules, norms, procedures) that structure behavior and that cannot be changed easily or instantaneously” (2009: 4). This leaves open how large and what kind of boundary is drawn around what we call a single “institution,” and here there is no standard prac-tice, as analysts typically define as “institutional” that set of patterns they par-ticularly want to understand. Thus the set of rules that govern a particular legislature, such as the U.S. Congress, may be the object of what comes to be called “institutional” analysis (cf. Sheingate 2010), but in some broader dis-cussion this would be seen as a relatively small subset of the subject “political institutions.” The “institutional theory of organizations” (cf. the seminal papers by Meyer and Rowan 1977 and DiMaggio and Powell 1983) has pro-duced an offshoot that refers to “institutional logics,” typically focused on single industries, which I discuss in more detail in the following section.

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  Self, Identity, and Social Institutions

  • D. Heise, N. MacKinnon(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  C H A P T E R F O U R Language and Social Institutions Social Institutions arose in chapter two as an aspect of cultural theories of people, and they arise again in chapter five as constric- tions on self-actualization. Since Social Institutions are a key part of our arguments, we examine Social Institutions in detail in this chapter, substantiating our proposal in chapter two that Social Institutions are implicit in the meanings of social identities, and that knowledge of identities thereby provides an individual with practical knowledge of the macro-sociological structure of society which the individual uses for defining self and others in various situations. In the course of doing this we clarify the nature of Social Institutions, and provide a method for discovering what Social Institutions exist in a society and what iden- tities are aligned with each. “Social institution” has multiple references in social science—to habitual actions like hand-shakes (Berger and Luckmann 1966, p. 54), to organizations grounded in cognitive or rational systems (Hechter, Opp, and Wippler 1990; Jepperson 2002), and to the largest units of social structure (Parsons and Shils 1951). Our concern in this book fol- lows the Parsons and Shils (1951, p. 39) definition: “an institution will be said to be a complex of institutionalized role integrates which is of strategic significance in the social system in question. The institution should be considered a higher order unit of social structure than the role, and indeed it is made up of a plurality of interdependent role- patterns.” Sociological overviews of specific societies often proceed by dis- cussing each social institution in turn, as Williams (2000) did in his synopsis of American society. Despite the popularity of the concept, however, no principled method exists for determining the number and Self, Identity, and Social Institutions 74 composition of a society’s Social Institutions.

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  Institutional Theory in Political Science

  The New Institutionalism

  • B. Guy Peters(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Continuum

    (Publisher)

  Individuals and Institutions In some ways the crucial question for the sociological conception of institutions is how are individuals and institutions linked. This has been the source of some SOCIOLOGICAL INSTITUTIONALISM 139 controversy in the discipline, and is fundamental to some differences among scholars over the nature of organizations and institutions. On the one hand, some scholars, most importantly Meyer and Rowan (1977), argue that institutions are primarily a symbolic manifestation of the needs of a society or a group in society for legitimation and can be decoupled from action. In the public arena Edelman (1992, pp. 1540–2) has argued that institutions that fulfill more symbolic functions are likely to be as effective as or even more effective than institutions that more closely affect behav-iors. 7 Similarly, other scholars (see Preuss, 1991) have argued that in the public sector the less determinate an institution is, the more legitimacy it is likely to have. In this view, individuals and (successful) institutions tend to exist apart from one another, especially within the public sector. On the other hand there are scholars such as Giddens (1979), who argue that institutions are manifestly not institutions if they do not shape the behavior of indi-viduals within them. Institutions as systems of meaning do convey a sense of how their members should behave, whether that is the profit maximization of economic organizations or the altruism of religious and charitable organizations. The view that institutions must shape behavior is the dominant perspective within the soci-ological study of institutions, with emphasis on the manner in which individuals within organizations become habituated to accepting the norms and values of their organization. One perspective on this controversial issue argues that the process of institu-tionalization progresses through three distinct stages (Tolbert and Zucker, 1996): habitualization, objectivication, and sedimentation.

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  Theories of Institutions

  • Joseph Jupille, James A. Caporaso(Authors)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  3 Institutional Sociality 3.1 introduction Institutions engage people, in the plural, and thus it is unsurprising that the connective tissue of human relations, sociality, stands as a conceptual pillar of institutional theory. Indeed, it forms part of our definition. 1 At the same time, institutions form “the foundation of social life,” infusing it with order, sense and color. 2 The disciplinary connotations of these connections jump out immediately, with Emile Durkheim founding modern sociology as “the science of institutions,” themelves defined as “all the beliefs and all the modes of conduct instituted by the collectivity.” 3 The “old institutionalism” in sociology rooted itself in something like this conception, but it was barely discernible as institutional theory because it was really just sociology, with no institutional specialty yet recognized. While during the prewar twentieth century main- stream economics excommunicated Veblen, Commons, and the other “old institutionalists,” and political scientists embraced behavioralism over the study of formal rules, sociologists never abandoned the study of institutions, even if it went by other names. 4 Max Weber has been called “perhaps the most influential modern institutionalist,” who should get the finder’s fee any time analysts “posit institutions as an independent and nonepiphenomenal vari- able.” 5 In the contemporary period, sociologists still explicitly “find institutions everywhere” and have “paid more attention” to them than scholars in any 1 Searle seems to allow for individual institutions, but for us they are inherently collective. Thus, an “individual institution” is an oxymoron, while a “social institution” is redundant. 2 Campbell 2004, 1. 3 Durkheim 1966 [1895], lvi; see also Hughes 1942, 307. 4 March and Olsen 1989, 2; Hirsch 1997, 1706; Scott 2001, 8; Hinings and Tolbert 2008, 473. 5 Barkanov 2013; see also Wendt 2017. 45

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  Human Behavior in the Social Environment

  A Macro, National, and International Perspective

  • Rudolph Alexander, Jr., Rudolph Alexander(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  Johnson and Rhoades (2005) divided Social Institutions into the political economy, consisting of the economic system and the political system; governmental social systems, consisting of the social welfare, education, and criminal justice systems; and nongovernmental Social Institutions, consisting of the health care, religion, and mass media systems (Escobar-Chaves et al., 2005). Given the definition of Social Institutions provided by Johnson and Rhoades (2005), several more institutions can be identified that meet social needs. These include such entertainment institutions as sports, vacation spots, movies, clubs, and the arts. 110 Human Behavior in the Social Environment Further, many Social Institutions are interconnected, such as the home, school, and community (Epstein & Sanders, 2000). Also, some Social Institutions partner with other Social Institutions to impact public policy, such as the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest law firm that protects the free expression of all religions and provides equal protection of religious people in public life and public benefits ( Beard v. Banks, 2006). In 2005, New Strategist, a political organization, published the extent to which individuals had confidence in various Social Institutions (see Table 4.1). Most people had a great deal of confidence in medicine and the least confidence in television. 111 Major Social Institutions Impacting Human Behaviors Source: Compiled from multiple tables in New Strategist (2005). Institutions A Great Deal Only Some Hardly Any Don’t Know Banks & Financial Institutions 22.0% 58.2% 18.3% 1.4% Major Companies 17.3% 62.8% 17.9% 2.0% Education 24.9% 58.9% 15.6% 0.7% Executive Branch of Government 26.7% 50.0% 21.2% 2.1% Medicine 37.0% 51.3% 11.2% 0.5% Scientific Community 36.8% 48.2% 8.9% 6.0% Television 9.5% 47.0% 42.5% 0.9% U.S.

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  Institutional Theory

  The Cultural Construction of Organizations, States, and Identities

  • Ronald L. Jepperson, John W. Meyer(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  1 These special procedures are often represented as the constituent rules of society (the “rules of the game”). They are then experienced and analyzable as external to the consciousness of individuals (Berger, Berger, and Kellner 1973: 11). This most general denotation may help us understand why some scholars have even identified sociology with the study of institutions. Durkheim did so, for example, calling sociology “the science of institutions” (e.g., [1901] 1950:1x). And one commentator on Weber suggests that “the theory of institutions is the sociological counterpart of the theory of competition in economics” (Lachmann 1971:68). But the import and centrality of the concept of institution (and of its related terms) have not guaranteed clear and thoughtful usage. Some * (a) See Chapter 5 note 1 for two important critical remarks about this chapter. (b) Citations for “this volume” in the text point to other chapters in the book in which this chapter first appeared, namely: W. W. Powell & P. J. DiMaggio, eds., The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1991). 37 scholars invoke institution simply to refer to particularly large, or important, associations. Others seem to identify institutions with envir- onmental effects. And some simply equate the term with “cultural” effects, or with historical ones. 2 This conceptual variety and vagueness is striking. It is also troubling, given the recent emergence of various “new institutionalisms” across the social sciences: in political science (e.g., March and Olsen 1984), in economics (Langlois 1986), in psychology (Farr and Moscovici 1984), and now in organizational analysis. Before such institutionalisms them- selves become institutionalized – reified as distinct “theoretical strat- egies,” codified in textbooks, and taken as given by practitioners – we had better take stock.

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  Social Work Skills and Knowledge

  • Sudha Menon(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  At the most basic level, religious groups may exist in the form of small social groups of believers in a simple system. In advanced stages, religious groups may span geographical boundaries and include millions of believers who are spread across continents and countries. The second important aspect of religion that can be drawn from the definition provided here is that religion as a social institution is based on belief systems, practices, and general outlook. The beliefs and practices of any form of religion normally form the basis for recruitment or conversion. Individuals who join any specific religious group have to ascribe to the belief system of the religious organization that they join. The third issue regarding religion that arises from the definition provided here is that institution of religion Social Institutions 63 is complex. The complexity of the institution of religion stems from the variety of beliefs, level of sophistication of internal structures, and other attributes of religious groupings. Thus, for one to fully understand the nature and function of religion as a human institution, one has to analyze its belief systems, practices, and other important attributes. Moreover, given that there are many religious groups in the world, it is important for one to carefully analyze the specific tenets of any religious group that one wishes to study. There are several attributes of the institution of religion that need to be taken into consideration when examining the role of religion as a social institution. Moreover, these features are important because they are common in all religious groups. Therefore, the universality of these features is what defines the social institution of religion. One of the main features of the social institution of religion relates to their level of organization. All religions have a form of internal structure or organization. The internal organizational structure provides a framework for leadership, control, and guidance.

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  Sociology in Our Times: The Essentials

  • Diana Kendall(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  Edu- cation and religion also share certain commonalities as objects of sociological study; for example, both are social- izing institutions. Whereas early socialization is primarily informal and takes place within our families and friendship networks, as we grow older, socialization passes to the more formalized organizations created for the specific purposes of education and religion. Areas of sociological inquiry that specifically focus on those institutions are (1) the sociology of education, which primarily examines formal education or schooling in industrial societies, and (2) the sociology of religion, which focuses on religious groups and organizations, on the behav- ior of individuals within those groups, and on ways in which religion is intertwined with other Social Institutions. Let’s start our examination by looking at sociological perspec- tives on education. Sociological Perspectives on Education Education is the social institution responsible for the systematic transmission of knowledge, skills, and cultural values within a formally organized structure. In all societies, people must acquire certain knowledge and skills in TRUE FALSE T F 1 The U.S. Constitution originally specified that religion should be taught in public schools. T F 2 Virtually all sociologists have advocated the separation of moral teaching from academic subject matter. T F 3 The federal government has limited control over how funds are spent by school districts because most of the money comes from the state and local levels. T F 4 Private school enrollment nationwide has increased significantly in the 2010s because parents do not want their children to be exposed to teachings in public schools. T F 5 Studies have found that the religious affiliation of schoolchildren may be unrelated to their religious affiliation as adults. T F 6 Debates over textbook content focus only on elementary education because of the vulnerability of young children.

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