Society

Definition

As defined by Robert Morrison MacIver, “Society is a system of usages and procedures, of authority and mutual aid, of many grouping and divisions, of controls of human behavior and of liberties. This ever-changing complex system, which we call society, is a web of social relationships”.

As described by Charles Horton Cooley, “Society is a complex of form or processes, each of which is living and growing by interaction with the others, the whole being so unified that what takes place in one part affects all the rest.”

British sociologist Morris Ginsberg stated, “Society is a collection of individuals united by certain relations or modes of behavior which mark them off from others who do not enter into these relations or who differ from them in behavior.”

According to American sociologist Talcott Parsons, “Society may be defined as the total complex of human relationships in so far as they grow out the action in terms of means-ends relationship, intrinsic or symbolic.”

American sociologist John F. Cuber stated, “Society is as a group of people who have lived together long enough to become organized to consider themselves and be considered as a unit more or less distinct from other human units.”

As stated by G.D.H. Cole, “Society is the complex of organized associations and institutions within the community.”

As described by Leacock, ” Society includes not only the political relations by which men are bound together but the whole range of human relations and collective activities.”

In Harkins‘s opinion, “Society is a permanent of a continuing group of men, women, and children, able to carry the process of racial perpetuation and maintenance on their own cultural levels independently.”

Sociological Explanation

A society is any self-sustaining human assemblage that occupies a roughly defined region and has its institutions and culture. The entire network of human connections builds up society. 

There are different levels to the idea of a society. Nation-state usually refers to a particular country’s separate society inside the borders of that nation-state; hence the phrase is often used in combination with society.

The advent of European modernity in the eighteenth century, with its unique public realm comprised of civil society and the state, is often credited with the introduction and application of this term.

Sociologists often think of it as an interconnected web of various social connections. A connection is said to be social when its dynamics are governed by the presence of mutual awareness, more specifically, when the actions of one person affect the actions of another.

It is the collection of people who inhabit the same geographic region, have a shared culture, and consider themselves an integrated and separate entity.

Examples

French society, Industrial society, Indian society, Capitalist society, and Tribal society are some examples of the society.