Social Institutions

A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value. Obviously, the sociologist does not define institutions in the same way as does the person on the street. Lay persons are likely to use the term "institution" very loosely, for churches, hospitals, jails, and many other things as institutions.

Sociologists often reserve the term "institution" to describe normative systems that operate in five basic areas of life, which may be designated as the primary institutions. (1) In determining Kinship; (2) in providing for the legitimate use of power; (3) in regulating the distribution of goods and services; (4) in transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next; and (5) in regulating our relation to the supernatural. In shorthand form, or as concepts, these five basic institutions are called the family, government, economy, education and religion.

The five primary institutions are found among all human groups. They are not always as highly elaborated or as distinct from one another as into the United States, but, in rudimentary form at last, they exist everywhere. Their universality indicates that they are deeply rooted in human nature and that they are essential in the development and maintenance of orders. Sociologists operating in terms of the functionalist model society have provided the clearest explanation of the functions served by social institutions. Apparently there are certain minimum tasks that must be performed in all human groups. Unless these tasks are performed adequately, the group will cease to exist. An analogy may help to make the point. We might hypothesize that cost accounting department is essential to the operation of a large corporation. A company might procure a superior product and distribute it then at the price which is assigned to it, the company will soon go out of business. Perhaps the only way to avoid this is to have a careful accounting of the cost of each step in the production and distribution process.

Social institutions Each society has its own social institutions. These are not buildings or places, but structures of relationship, obligation, role and function. These are social concepts and practices, but also involve cognitive structures. Members of a society have a similar mental concept of right and wrong, order and relationships, and patterns of good (positive values). Those who do not honor these concepts are "criminals," or at least antisocial.

Linguist Noam Chomsky provides a good model for cognitive culture. He presents a coherent theory of how children create language by organizing the early language experiences around them by using a native analytical "faculty" in the human psyche. The same pattern applies to culture. Let's look at some of the social institutions that insiders learn through their socialization experiences, which affect insider identity.

Political: Every society has an organizational principle, with authority figures, with defined roles and obligations. There are written or oral laws. Some societies are tightly knit, while others are very loosely organized. The Luo people, for instance, traditionally had no chiefs, the society being organized around families.

Economic: This involves the production of goods and the organization of labor, the provision of care and similar factors, not just money, buying and selling. Every society has systems of provision or procurement. Economic and political institutions are related.

Religious: This entails beliefs about the world, universal order and good, spiritual beings and powers, as well as rituals and ceremonies. For many peoples, religion is not separated into a separate sphere of life but is part of the fabric of society, making "conversion" difficult, because of the "religious" identity of the society. Concepts of loyalty, identity, faithfulness and personhood are in this category. Political and religious institutions are often related. This may involve "religious" ceremonies of cultural identity.

Linguistic: Language usages may involve role and function, affecting social identity or status, so can be considered "institutions." There are often subtle but significant meanings in the languages used or choice of words used in certain situations or topics.

Educational: Even in "primitive" societies, there are highly developed methods of conveying knowledge and values. These methods will affect reception of new ideas. The effective communicator learns and uses the insider formats and channels.

Aesthetic (Art and Architecture): The artistic self-expressions of a people become part of their cultural identity. These are also communication media. Think of "gothic architecture," "Dixieland Jazz," "Shakespeare," "Magnum," "Snow White."

These significant factors in a society's identity are important for understanding the society and integration into the society. An outsider normally has to become aware of these social institutions to gain acceptance and credibility in the host society.

1.3.4 Social Institutions Definition: Groups of persons banded together for common purposes having rights, privilages, liabilities, goals, or objectives distinct and independant from those of individual members.

Definition Source: Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary

Social Institutions Categories:

1.3.4.1 Community: A group of people residing in the same locality and under the same government or a group or class having common interests. (Definition Source: Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary)

1.3.4.2 Community Service Organizations: Non-profit, charitable organizations dedicated to assisting others meet basic needs, resolve personal or family problems, or improving their community. This includes soup kitchens, rotary clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs, scouts, etc. (Definition Source: None)

1.3.4.3 Educational Institutions: Social organizations dedicated to teaching skills and knowledge to individuals. (Definition Source: None)

1.3.4.4 Ethnic or Cultural Groups: A social organization consisting of many extended family groups related by a distant, common ancestry. (Definition Source: None)

1.3.4.5 Extended Family: A social organization consisting of several nuclear family groups related by common ancestry. (Definition Source: None)

1.3.4.6 Families and Households: A fundamental social group consisting especially of a man and a women and their offspring; a domestic establishment including the members of a family and other who live under the same roof. (Definition Source: Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary)

1.3.4.7 Governments and Legal Institutions: The office, function, authority, or organization that sets forth and administer public policy and the affairs. A government consists of a legislative branch which writes law and policy, executive branch which executes law and policy, and judicial branch which enforces law and policy. This includes local, state, and national governments. This includes all branches of the military. (Definition Source: Monitoring Social Indicators for Ecosystem Management)

1.3.4.8 Health Care Institutions: Social institutions that specialize in monitoring public health, providing health maintenance, and treating illness and injury. (Definition Source: None)

1.3.4.10 Intellectual and Cultural Organizations: Social organizations dedicated to search for new knowledge or the development and preservation of art. (Definition Source: None)

1.3.4.11 Market Institutions: Social organizations dedicated to barter and trade. This includes all corporations and businesses. (Definition Source: None)

1.3.4.12 Political and Non Government Organizations: Social organizations dedicated to influencing the processes of government; political parties. This includes non-governmental organizations and groups of people with common goals, interests, or ideals formally bound together by a common set of rules or by-laws that influence public policy. (Definition Source: None)

1.3.4.13 Religious Organizations: Groups of people who share a common, codified belief in and reverence for a supernatural power acepted as the creator and governor of the universe. (Definition Source: Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary)

Social Institutions by D. Stanley Eitzen and Maxine Baca-Zinn From: In Conflict and Order, 9th Edition, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001 (pp. 47-49)

One distinguishing characteristic of societies is the existence of a set of institutions. The popular usages of this term are imprecise and omit some important sociological considerations. An institution is not anyone or anything that is established and traditional (for example, a janitor who has worked at the same school for forty-five years). An institution is not limited to specific organizations, such as a school or a prison or a hospital. An institution is much broader in scope and importance than a person, a custom, or a social organization.

Institutions are social arrangements that channel behavior in prescribed ways in the important areas of social life. They are interrelated sets of normative elements— norms, values, and role expectations—that the people making up the society have devised and passed on to succeeding generations in order to provide permanent solutions to society’s perpetually unfinished business. Institutions are cultural imperatives. They serve as regulatory agencies, channeling behavior in culturally prescribed ways. “Institutions provide procedures through which human conduct is patterned, compelled to go, in grooves deemed desirable by society and this trick is performed by making the grooves appear to the individual as the only possible ones” (Berger, 1963:87).

For example, a society instills in its members predetermined channels for marriage. Instead of allowing the sexual partners a host of options, it is expected in U.S. society that the couple, composed of a man and a woman, will marry and set up a conjugal household. Although the actual options are many the partners choose what society demands. In fact, they do not consider the other options as valid (for example, polygamy polyandry or group marriage). The result is a patterned arrangement that regulates sexual behavior and attempts to ensure a stable environment for the care of dependent children. The current demand by state legislatures that gay partners should not be allowed to marry illustrates the strict institutional demands of society over individual behavior.

Institutions arise from the uncoordinated actions of multitudes of individuals over time. These actions, procedures, and rules evolve into a set of expectations that appear to have a design, because the consequences of these expectations provide solutions that help maintain social stability. The design is accidental, however; it is a product of cultural evolution.

All societies face problems in common. Although the variety of solutions is almost infinite, there is a functional similarity in their consequence, which is stability and maintenance of the system. Table 2.1 cites a number of common societal problems and the resulting institutions. This partial list of institutions shows the type of societal problems for which solutions are continually sought. All societies, for instance, have some form of the family, education, polity, economy and religion. The variations on each theme that are found in societies are almost beyond imagination. These variations, while most interesting, are beyond the scope of this book. By looking at the interrelated norms, values, and role expectations that provide pat solutions to fundamental societal problems we can begin to understand U.S. society.

Institutions are, by definition, conservative. They are the answer of custom and tradition to questions of survival. Although absolutely necessary for unity and stability, institutions in contemporary U.S. society are often outmoded, inefficient, and unresponsive to the incredibly swift changes brought about by technological advances, population shifts, and increasing worldwide interdependence.

As we look at the institutions of U.S. society we must not forget that institutions are made by people and can therefore be changed. We should be guided by the insight that even though institutions appear to have the quality of being sacred, they are not. They can be changed, but critical examination is imperative. Social scientists must look behind the facades. They must not accept the patterned ways as the only correct ways. This is in the U.S. heritage-as found in the Declaration of Independence. As Skolnick and Currie have put it,

Democratic conceptions of society have always held that institutions exist to serve man, and that, therefore, they must be accountable to men. Where they fail to meet the tests imposed on them, democratic theory holds that they ought to be changed. Authoritarian governments, religious regimes, and reformatories, among other social systems, hold the opposite: in case of misalignment between individuals or groups and the “system,” the individuals and groups are to be changed or otherwise made unproblematic. (Skolnick and Currie, 1970:15)