Social phenomena. The concept of "social phenomenon." Social phenomena: examples

"Social" is synonymous with the word "public". Therefore, any definition, including at least one of these two terms, presupposes the presence of a connected set of people, that is, society. It is assumed that all social phenomena are the result of joint labor. It is interesting that it does not oblige to participate in the reproduction of anything more than one person. That is, "joint" does not mean a direct relation to the result of labor. Moreover, in sociology, it is considered that any labor is social in one way or another.

Thermae

Social phenomena are a product of the vital activity of people. All phenomena, in principle, can be divided into people created (man-made) and natural (natural). The first are just considered social (social).

What is included in the concept of social? This word is rooted to the "general". Between people there is always something that unites them: sex, age, place of residence, interests or goals. If such people are more than two, they say that they form a society.

What are social phenomena?

Examples of social phenomena are any result of the development and work of society. It can be the Internet, knowledge, education, fashion, culture and so on.

The simplest example that arose as a result of the development of the economic system of commodity-market relations is money. Consequently, almost everything can be imagined as a social phenomenon. All that one way or another has to do with society. For example, culture is considered as a social phenomenon or that society itself. More about these two aspects will be described later.

Why is even the work of one person a social phenomenon?

A little later it was indicated that the work of one person can be defined as the term in question. Why is this happening? Does not the concept of "social phenomenon" include a society that should consist of more than two people?

Here's the point. Any activity of a person is influenced by his environment: directly or indirectly. Close, familiar or even unfamiliar form its activity or rather correct it. Relations with surrounding people and human actions correlate with each other by a complex system of interrelations: causes and effects. Even creating something alone, a person can not unequivocally say that this is only his merit. Immediately remember the delivery of awards to media people who say thank you to their friends and family: this phenomenon has a sociological background.

What then has nothing to do with the term in question? For example, you can take the characteristics of a person like growth and weight, sex and age, which are given to him by nature, his relations with people do not affect them, and therefore they do not fit the definition of "social phenomena."

Classification

In view of the variety of social phenomena, it is customary to distinguish them according to the types of activity. It is problematic to categorize a complete classification: there are as many categories as there are spheres of their application. Suffice it to say that there are socio-cultural, as well as socio-political, socio-religious, socioeconomic and other social phenomena. Examples of each of them constantly surround a person, regardless of his activities. This is because the socialized personality is a part of society, although the relationship of each individual with the society can be different. Even antisocial individuals interact with him - in a negative way. And antisocial behavior can manifest itself as a result of an unsuccessful collision with the society. Man never creates himself, all this is the result of long-term and fruitful cooperation with society.

Two sides

Social phenomena and processes have two sides. The first of these is the inner-psychic, and it expresses the subjectivity of the psychic experiences and feelings reflected in the phenomenon. The second is external-symbolic, objectifies subjectivity, materializes it. Thanks to this, the social value of phenomena and processes is formed.

They themselves are closely related to each other by causal logic: the process is the creation of a phenomenon, and the phenomenon is created by the process.

Definition of culture

The concept of culture comes from the concept of society. The first is a way of realizing the goals and interests of the latter. The main task of culture is to be a bridge between people, to support existing societies and to promote the creation of new ones. Several more are singled out from this function.

Functions of culture

These include:

• Adaptation to the weapons environment;
• Gnoseological (from "gnoseo" - cognition);
• Informative, responsible for the transfer of knowledge and experience;
• Communicative, going inseparably with the previous one;
• Regulative-normative, which regulates the system of norms and morals of society;
• Estimated, thanks to which the concepts "good" and "evil" differ, is closely connected with the previous one;
• Demarcation and integration of societies;
• Socialization, the most humane function that is called upon to create a socialized person.

Personality and culture

Culture as a social phenomenon is seen as a long-term, continuous reproduction of society's benefits. But it has its own characteristics. Unlike other social phenomena, examples of culture and art are created by individuals and creators.

The interaction of man and culture takes several forms. The main such hypostases are four.

• The first represents the personality as the result of culture, a product created from its system of norms and values.
• The second says that man is also a consumer of culture - the remaining products of this activity.
• The third form of interaction is when a person herself contributes to cultural development.
• The fourth implies that a person is capable of performing the informative function of culture.

Society is a unique social phenomenon

Society as a social phenomenon has a number of features that are not characterized by any other of the examples of this term. Thus, the very definition of a social phenomenon includes this concept. It is said, as has already been indicated earlier, that one is the product of another, the result of joint labor.

Consequently, society is noteworthy in that it reproduces itself. It creates social phenomena, being, in fact, them. Culture, for example, which is very important to remember, is not capable of.

It is also important (it is a logical conclusion from the definition given in this article more than once) that society is the pledge of any social phenomenon. Without it, culture, politics, power, religion are not possible, which makes it a basis. From this point of view, it can be seen that the reproduction of himself is an example of the function of self-preservation.

The importance of society and social phenomena

The emergence of the society has become an important stage for progress in the development of mankind. Actually, it is he who is responsible for the fact that individual individuals began to be perceived as one whole, interconnected. The emergence of various social phenomena of different levels at different times testified and continues to testify to the progress of humanity forward. They help control and predict development, are the subject of study of many social sciences, from sociology to history.