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.

Societal Problem...................................................................................Institution
Sexual regulation; maintenance of stable units that ensure
continued births and care of dependent children .....................................Family
Socialization of the newcomers to the society..........................................Education
Maintenance of order, the distribution of power......................................Polity
Production and distribution of good and services; ownership
of property...............................................................................................Economy
Understanding the transcendental; the search for meaning
of life and death and the place of humankind in the world.......................Religion
Understanding the physical and social realms of nature............................Science
Providing for physical and emotional health care.....................................Medicine

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.

Social institutions are established or standardized patterns of rule-governed behavior. They include the family, education, religion,
and economic and political institutions.

 
1. The Family:
A socially defined set of relationships between at least two people related by birth, marriage, adoption, or, in some definitions, long-
standing ties of intimacy.

Marx: The family upholds the capitalist economic order by ensuring the reproduction of the working class and by maintaining
housewives as a reserve labor force.
Functionalist theory: Functions of the family include socializing children, regulating sexual behavior and reproduction, distributing
resources, providing social support.
 
 
2. Education:
A formal process in which knowledge, skills, and values are systematically transmitted from one individual or group to another.

Marx: Education serves the capitalist order by producing skilled workers with habits such as punctuality and respect for authority.
Functionalist theory: Functions of education include transmitting shared values and beliefs, transmitting specific knowledge and
skills, sorting individuals based on skill, and establishing social control over youths.
 
3. Religion:
A unified system of beliefs and practices pertaining to the supernatural and to norms about the right way to live that is shared by a
group of believers. Sociologists treat religion as a social rather than supernatural phenomenon.
Durkheim: Religion provides social solidarity and collective conscience; it expresses and celebrates the force of society over the
individual.
 
4. Economic Institutions:
Sociologists understand the economy as the set of arrangements by which a society produces, distributes, and consumes goods,
services, and other resources.
 
5. Political Institutions:
Institutions that pertain to the governance of a society, its formal distribution of authority, its use of force, and its relationships to
other societies and political units. The state, an important political institution in modern societies, is the apparatus of governance
over a particular territory.

Inequalities of Race and Ethnicity

Racial and Ethnic Stratification

Stratification represents institutionalized inequality in the distribution of social rewards and burdens. In this chapter we examined a
system of stratification based on race and/or ethnicity.
Races.   The use of the concept of race for sociologists is as a social construct; a race is a group of people who see themselves—and
are seen by others—as having hereditary traits that set them apart. An important concept based on race is racism, the belief that
some racial groups are naturally superior and others are inferior.
Ethnic Groups.   Groups that we identify chiefly on cultural grounds—language, folk practices, dress, gestures, mannerisms, or
religion—are called ethnic groups. Ethnic groups often have a sense of peoplehood, and to one degree or another many of them
deem themselves to be a nation.
Minority Groups.   Racial and ethnic groups are often minority groups. Five properties characterize a minority. The critical
characteristic that distinguishes minority groups from other groups is that they lack power.
The Potential for Conflict and Separation.   Although racial and ethnic stratification is similar to other systems of stratification in its
essential features, there is one overriding difference. Racial and ethnic groups have the potential to carve their own independent
nation from the existing state. The question is whether the racial or ethnic segments of the society will be willing to participate
within the existing nation-state arrangement.
Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice.   Prejudice refers to attitudes of aversion and hostility toward the members of a group simply because they belong to it
and hence are presumed to have the objectionable qualities ascribed to it. A new form of prejudice against African Americans that
appears among affluent, suburban whites has been labeled symbolic racism by sociologists.
Discrimination.   Discrimination is action, what people actually do in their daily activities, and involves the arbitrary denial of
privilege, prestige, and power to members of a minority group. Since World War II whites have shifted from more blatant forms of
discrimination to more subtle forms.
Institutional Discrimination.   In their daily operation, the institutions of society may function in such a way that they produce
unequal outcomes for different groups. This is called institutional discrimination. Gatekeeping and environmental racism are
mechanisms by which institutional discrimination occurs.
Patterns of Intergroup Relations: Assimilation and Pluralism
In multiethnic societies, ethnic groups may either lose their distinctiveness through a process of assimilation or retain their identity
and integrity through pluralism.
Assimilation.   Assimilation refers to those processes whereby groups with distinctive identities become culturally and socially fused.
Two views toward assimilation have dominated within the United States, the "melting pot" view and the Anglo-conformity view.
Pluralism.   In U.S. society, Jews, African Americans, Chinese Americans, and numerous other groups have retained their identities
and distinctiveness for many years, an example of pluralism, a situation in which diverse groups coexist and boundaries between
them are maintained. In equalitarian pluralism, ethnic group members participate freely and equally in political and economic
institutions. In inequalitarian pluralism, economic and political participation of minority groups is severely limited by the dominant
group and may even entail genocide.
Gender Inequality

Economic Power
Modern economic systems provide a different answer to the question of how economic activity is organized--by the market or by
the plan—and to the question of who owns the means of production—individuals or the state.
Comparative Economic Systems.
Capitalist economies rely heavily on free markets and privately held property, and socialist economies rely primarily on state
planning and publicly held property. Most nations are characterized by mixed economies that include elements of both.
Transition from a Command to a Market Economy.  
Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and China are undergoing a transition from a command to a market economy, with
marketization and privatization proceeding slowly and resulting in a high level of social uncertainty.

The Family

Structure of the Family: A Global View

The way in which we define the family determines the kinds of family we will consider to be normal or deviant and what rights and
obligations we will recognize as legally and socially binding.
Forms of the Family.   In the nuclear family arrangement, spouses and their offspring constitute the core relationship. In the
extended family arrangement, kin provide the core relationship. Most Americans will belong to a family of orientation and a family
of procreation. Descent and inheritance can be patrilineal, matrilineal, or bilineal, and couples may take a patrilocal, matrilocal, or
neolocal residence. Most societies are patriarchal, with some industrialized nations becoming more egalitarian; none are known that
are truly matriarchal.
Forms of Marriage.   Marriage refers to a socially approved sexual union undertaken with some idea of permanence. Two types of
marital regulations define the "right" spouse: endogamy and exogamy. Incest taboos are rules that prohibit sexual intercourse with
close blood relatives. Societies further structure marriage relationships in one of four ways: monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, and
group marriage.
Patterns of Courtship.   Societies "control" love through child and arranged marriage, social isolation of young people, close
supervision of couples, and peer and parental pressures. A variety of factors operate in the selection of a mate: homogamy, physical
attractiveness (the matching hypothesis), and complementary needs. Exchange theory provides a unifying link among these factors.
Marriage and the Family in the United States
Some see the nuclear family as the source of many modern woes, others as the last bastion of morality in an increasingly decadent
world.
Life within Marriage.   Most adult Americans hope to establish an intimate relationship with another person and make the
relationship work. However, increasing numbers of Americans no longer view marriage as a permanent institution but as something
that can be ended and reentered.
Parenthood.   Nuclear families that are not disrupted by divorce, desertion, or death typically pass through a series of changes and
realignments across time, what sociologists call the family life course. Altered expectations and requirements are imposed on a
husband and wife as children are born and grow up.
Two-Income Families.   More than 60 percent of all mothers with children under age six are in the paid workforce. Such women also
do more of the housework and child care than men. Research findings about the effect of working mothers on children are varied. In
one-fifth of such couples the woman is the chief breadwinner.
Beyond the Traditional Nuclear Family.   Americans have a variety of lifestyles, the overall pattern of living that people evolve to
meet their biological, social, and emotional needs. Among the lifestyles Americans find themselves adopting are singlehood, single
parenthood, cohabitation, and relationships based on homosexuality.

Religion
What Is Religion?   Religion has to do with those socially shared and organized ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that concern
ultimate meanings and assume the existence of the supernatural or "beyond." Religion is centered in beliefs and practices that are
related to sacred as opposed to profane things and often involves rituals.