SOCIOLOGY

Culture is people’s way of life. It is their pattern of behavior, which has been created by human beings. Culture includes: Intangible(non-material) items like values, beliefs,norms, language, and ideas (ideologies: perception of reality) thatgovern the way of life. The way we play our roles. + Tangible things – material objects. Human beings have created this way of life, which includes both material and non-material objects. Hence some Anthropologists call it as man- made part of the environment. Culture is the patterns of behavior and the products of the patterns of behavior. Some specific features of culture: •  Universality: Culture is universal. There is no society without culture. As part of the cultures there are many aspects that are found in almost all the societies. For example the institutions like marriage and family, religion, education, polity, economy, and sports are found all over the world. Societies have developed values, norms, beliefs, and other p...

Bureaucracy is an organizational model rationally designed to perform complex tasks efficiently. In a bureaucratic business or government agency, officials deliberately enact and revise policy to make the organization as efficient as possible. Characteristics of Ideal-Typical Bureaucracy  1.  Specialization .There is division of labor in the bureaucracy and each member has a specific task to fulfill. All the tasks are coordinated toaccomplish the purpose of the organization. 2.  Hierarchy of offices. Bureaucracies arrange the personnel in a vertical ranking. Each person is supervised by ‘higher ups’ and in turn supervising others in lower positions. Usually with fewer people in higher positions, the structure takes the form of a bureaucratic ‘pyramid’. In this hierarchy  assignments flow downward and accountability flowing upward. Each level assigns responsibilities to the level beneath it, while eachlower level is responsible to the level above for ful...

Formal organizations are large, secondary groups that are organized to achieve their goals efficiently. They are the product of rationalizationof society, which means the acceptance of rules, efficiency, and practical results as the right way to approach human affairs.Past is the best guide for the present i.e. traditional orientation tends to be abandoned. Rationality was a totally different way of thinking that came to permeate society. This new orientation transformed the way in which society is organized. As a result, formal organizations,secondary groups designed to achieve explicit objectives, have become a central feature of contemporary society. Examples can be business corporations, government departments, colleges and universities, hospitals, prisons, and military organizations. Such organizations are deliberately created ‘social machines with human parts’. In these organizations social relations are impersonal, formal, and planned. These organizations have major in...

Different meanings of group: 1.  Any physical collection of people. Group shares nothing but physical closeness. It is just an aggregation, a collectivity. 2.  Number of people who share some common characteristic – which is often called as category. 3.  Number of people who share some organized pattern of recurrent interaction. It can be an educational institution where people comeand work, study, play. 4.  Number of people who share consciousness of membership together and of interaction.  Two essentials of social group  social interaction and consciousness of membership. A social group is two or more people who identify and interact with each other.Human beings come together in couples, families, circles of friends, neighborhoods, and in work organizations. Whatever it form, a group is made up of people with shared experiences (through social interaction), loyalties, and interests . Not every collection of individuals can be called a social ...