Some of the important elements of social structure are discussed as under:
(1) Values:
At the top level are the societal values. These are the most general or abstract normative conceptions of what the ideal society itself would be like.
Image Courtesy : static.disabroad.org/media/galleries/sociology_mc_dsc00941.jpg_jpg_800x600_crop_q85.jpg
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Individuals or groups are found to be emotionally committed to values. These values help to integrate personality or a system of interaction.
(2) Groups and Institutions:
Social structure can be viewed in terms of inter relationships of the component parts. Social structure includes social groups and institutions. These are called the major groups and institutions. Four of these – the family, economic institutions, political institutions and religious institutions – centre upon getting food and other items of wealth, procreation, worship and ruling.
The community, the total organized life of a locality, is the most inclusive spontaneous grouping in the social structure. There are also the enduring phenomena of social classes, the ethnic or racial in group and the temporary grouping of crowd. These are more or less spontaneous configurations responsive to various interests that develop within the community.
(3) Organisations:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
In the larger societies of modern time, human beings deliberately establish certain organizations for the pursuit of their specific ends or purposes. These organizations, very often called associations, are group manifestations of life and common interests. To quote Maclver and Page, “The associations constitute the most conspicuous part of the social structure and they gain in coherence, definite number and efficacy as the conditions of the society grow more complex”.
(4) Collectivities:
There are specialized collectivities such as families, firms, schools, political parties etc. (Differentiated institutional patterns almost directly imply the existence of collective and role units whose activities have different kinds of functional significance).
(5) Roles:
Finally, within all such collectivities one can distinguish types of roles. “Concretely these are the relevant performances of their individual occupants. Functionally, they are contributions to collective goal attainment”.
Role occupants are expected to fulfill their obligations to other people (who are also role occupants). For example, in family the husband has obligations towards his wife. According to Nodal, the elements of social structure are roles.
(6) Norms:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
According to H.M. Johnson, sub-groups and roles are governed by social norms. Social norms are of two types: (i) obligatory or relational and (ii) permissive or regulative.
Some norms specify positive obligations. But they are not commonly applied to all the roles and sub-groups. For example, the positive obligations of a family are not the same as those of business firm.
Some other norms specify the limit of permissible action. A role occupant of a sub-group in this case ‘must’ do certain things, ‘may’ do certain things and ‘must not do sill others. They are called regulative norms. They do not differentiate between roles and sub-groups. For example in our society, regardless of one’s role, one must not seek to influence others by threat of violence or by violence itself.
The components of social structure are human beings, the structure being an arrangement of persons in relationship institutionally defined and regulated.
