The social structure of society as an object of study of sociological science.

Every human society has its own structure, by which is meant the totality of classes, strata of the population, diversified by different signs.

The social structure of society is capable of changing with time as the mode of production and other influencing factors change. So, several centuries ago the majority of the countries had a clear gradation of the population according to their belonging to a certain class, nationality and religious confession.

A social community is a stable set of people who share similar living conditions and interests. Communities are subdivided according to the following characteristics:

• Real - those that exist in reality;
• Static - nominal (those that are written in registers);
• Mass - a set of people who have similar behavioral reactions;
• Group - large and small groups;

There are the following types of social communities:

• Production classes - differ in the level of development of society and the principle of attitude to the instruments of labor;
• Professional communities;
• Demographic (sex-age);
• Ethnonational, regional;
• Territorial;
• Industry
• Racial and religious groups;
• Production collectives;
• a family;

Social stratification is a hierarchically distributed social stratification of people on certain grounds on the basis of the initial inequality between each other.

There are also mixed stratification schemes, which are especially characteristic of modern society, which is constantly in motion. That is why one of the hallmarks of our time is high social mobility - a change in the personality of one's place in society. To a greater extent, social mobility is typical of Europeans, Americans and residents of developed countries in Asia, some countries in Africa and Latin America. Social mobility is uncharacteristic for traditional societies.

The social structure of society assumes the following types of social mobility:

Vertical mobility is the movement of social groups or individuals from one social stratum to another, while the social position (downward or upward) is strongly changing;

Horizontal mobility - the transition of an individual from the previous social group to another, which are at the same social level (moving from one professional team to another, changing the family status, religious confession, etc.);

Geographic mobility - change of place of residence;

The concept of the social structure of society - why is it necessary in sociology?

The social structure of society is a group into which the sample of interest to the researcher is divided. They provide the following functions:

• The social groups under study are the engine of the progress and development of society;
• The nature of the most numerous or active social groups can determine the situation in a particular society in a specific historical period, in which case it can even lead to a change in social relations in the world (as, for example, in the case of the October coup in 1917);
• Type of society, the level and pace of its development depend on the structural division of this society into groups and which of them occupy the main positions and have real power.

By studying the subject "social structure of society" in detail, sociology can answer the following questions:

• The definition of the most promising development strategies for a given social group and society as a whole;
• Elucidation of the problems of intrasocial conflicts, the search for ways of their most rational and effective solution;
• Solving the problem of an "ideal society" in which the true needs of the maximum number of people can be met.