From micro - to macro social structures

Part I
I.Social groups - definitional approaches

The starting point is the analysis of relations within microstructures,

which are social groups.

What do we mean by a social group?

A social group is usually two or three people with a sense of

belonging to the group in which they participate, also a sense of
common identity, between whom there is mutual interaction with each
other.

A social group is a collective united by a social bond and taking over

certain functions of society. There are different types of social groups.

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A social group is a collective united by a social bond and

taking over certain functions of society.

It's a miniature of society. We also use the concept| on the basis of

sociology. “aggregate". An aggregate is a collection of individuals
separated in some way, e.g. the population of the Rzeszów district.
But between these people there are - by definition - no social relations
(relations), there are no social ties between all individuals entering the
collection. The members of the collection were separated on the basis
of a certain statistical operation, there are no social relations between
them. A set (aggregate) becomes a social group only when relations,
contacts, social relations begin to form between the units of the set,
when individuals begin to interact with each other. But not every set
transforms into a social group.
II. How do social groups arise?
Several important group-forming criteria can be pointed out:

1) Number - already two people form a social group, because

between them there can be various types of social relations.

2) Group structure - there is a division into groups:

a) homogeneous (homogeneous in the structural sense), e.g.

the traditional rural community was an example of a
homogeneous group. Today, this is no longer the case.

b) heterogeneous (internally diverse), e.g. a group of people

living in a housing estate, in a district, etc. Differentiation
occurs due to, for example, age, education, language
profession, etc.

3) Language - is more often a distinguishing feature of large

social groups, e.g. the national language. But, for example, the
language of a prison flu can be a distinguishing feature of a
small group that sends each other encoded content.

4) Norms of collective life - these are the rules determining the

types of conduct that should be applied in a specific situation
and norms prohibiting certain types of activity, e.g. the
prohibition of plural marriage in European culture.

5) Conformity or convergence of attitudes or behaviors - the

group regulates the behavior of its members, as a result of which
we get a similarity of people's behavior in certain situations. This
is the so-called group conformity – that is, the compatibility of
ways of behavior and ways of thinking behind this behavior, e.g.
in youth groups the attitude towards the elderly defined as the
rebellion of generations, which after some time passes.
 6) Group organization - groups differ in the degree and type of
organization, e.g. strongly organized, formalized or in a loose
relationship with each other.

7) Group activities - this is about the action of the group as a

whole. It can often confuse us external observation, e.g. we
observe the behavior of children in the sandbox and ask: who's
having fun? - and the children answer: I am playing!; I'm
having fun!. So we have here to dealing with individualized
action. When children answer the same question: We play!!!!! –
then we are dealing with the action of the group as a whole.

8) The tasks (purpose) for which the group exists and acts - the
social group undertakes certain tasks that he/she sets for
himself/herself and which are recognized by the wider
community as tasks of this groups, e.g. the family is treated as a
group in which giving birth takes place and raising children.

What ultimately determines that a group of people can be considered a

social group?

- this is social consciousness, that is, a subjective criterion. A group

exists when people consider themselves a group. People belonging to
a certain set consider themselves members of a group, and in their
opinion this group is a whole.

Conclusion: social reality has a dual character:

the objective and the subjective side.

Microstructure - is the arrangement of individuals, their roles and

relations into a more or less harmonized whole. The microstructure
occurs in small groups and is formed by the arrangement of social
positions of its members.

Macrostructure - refers to large groups, is a complex structure and is

more than the sum of the structures of small groups. It includes, in
addition to members, small and medium-sized groups, appropriately
developed organizations, various components, such as territory, assets,
infrastructure and symbols, and values. All these elements are
organized and arranged in a coherent system capable of functioning
and development.

Part II

I.Typology of social groups

We distinguish groups due to:

a)the type of bond between the members of the group - this

criterion concerns the degree of organization of the group.
We distinguish groups: 1) formal, organized and 2) informal,
unorganized.

Another, complementary division is: division into groups:

1. primary and 2.secondary. It was introduced by the American
sociologist Charles Cooley in 1909 in the work "Social Organization"
and is used to this day.

The primary groups are, according to Cooley, the first groups in the
human experience. These include: family, neighborhood group and
play group.

Secondary groups are those in which secondary, factual, mediated ties

prevail, they have many members, mostly anonymous, who do not
know each other. Relations between members are mostly formalized
and involve specific specialized activities, e.g. political parties, trade
unions, scientific corporations, etc.

b) the degree of permanence of that bond, in other words: the

duration of the group
 - we distinguish:1)occasional groups that exist for a short
period of time. These are, for example, people stopping and taking
some action in the event of an accident occurring on the street,
2) continuous groups that last longer than the lives of the
members of the group. These are intragenerational or intergenerational
groups, e.g. family.

(c) group sizes - here the criterion of direct contact between the
members of the group determines membership in the group. We
distinguish:
1) small groups - in them direct contacts between members prevail
(face-to-face contacts), e.g. a circle of friends and
2) large groups - in this case, a significant part of the contact between
members is secondary, indirect, e.g. a group of students within the
Faculty.
In between, in the middle of these groups, there are medium-range
groups that are closer in size to small or large groups.

(d) the nature of membership

- we distinguish:
1) natural groups - are the groups to which he/she belongs on the
basis of the conditions of birth, e.g. belonging to a group of both
parents or one of them . Family, tribe are examples of natural groups.
2) artificial groups - all other groups to which membership is not
determined by the birth certificate, e.g. a social club, a professional
group, a scientific society.

Group membership can be:

a) voluntary - by your own choice, e.g. membership in scouting.
b) automatic - that is, natural, for example, a Catholic who was born
in a Catholic family and until the age of 18 automatically belongs to
the Catholic community (precedes this membership baptism).

Forms of occurrence from the group:

a) ruptured by: 1) leaving the group or 2) exclusion from the group,
b) indissoluble - e.g. family (except for divorce of spouses).
) the type of solidarity between the members of the group.
There is a division into:
1) internal groups (in-group)- and
2) external (out-put).
This is a subjective division - its criterion is the way the members of
the group see reality. Each individual generally distinguishes between
internal groups - those to which it belongs and external (foreign), e.g.
fans of sports clubs.
There is often - in connection with belonging to internal and external
groups - an attitude that is referred to as ethnocentrism - is an
intensification of maximally positive attitudes towards the internal
group and extremely negative towards the external group.

f) the importance of the group bond for explaining the behaviour

of individuals entering group composition
- what's going on here? People belong simultaneously to many social
groups (they are members of a family, political party, professional
association, peer circle, sports club, etc.). All these groups have some
significance for shaping the behavior of individuals participating in
these groups.

Sometimes we want to decide which of the groups to which we belong

binds us most strongly and influences our attitudes and behaviors,
which of them we approve the most. Here we introduce the concept of
reference groups - this term was introduced into sociology in 1942
by the American sociologist Herbert Hyman - and means that these
are groups that are the source of norms and patterns according to
which the individual evaluates himself and in which he/she wishes to
participate.

There are normative reference groups - these are the groups

from which we draw and adopt norms and values that occur within
them. Occur:
- negative reference groups
- positive reference groups.
 There are comparative reference groups - these are the groups
with which we confront our attitudes and behaviors, the resource of
influence/power, the level of prestige, etc.
In connection with belonging to many social groups, the
phenomenon of "intersecting pressure"/pressure group may occur
at the same time - it means that there may be parallel intersecting
norms and expectations related to belonging to different social groups.

Social capital is the bonds, trust, loyalty and solidarity expressed in

self-organization and self-government within social groups, mainly
within voluntary associations.

Sociological vacuum is an empty space between the public sphere

and the private sphere, which is most often filled by voluntary
associations,