Chapter One: Sociology- General Concepts, Meaning and Scope of Sociology

1.1.1. Definition of Sociology

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)-the father of sociology recognized the absence of a general science that
deals with society as a whole. Comte combined two terms ‘Socius’ Latin for society and ‘logos’ Greek
for studying and coined ‘sociology ‘, which means “study of society”. Sociology is the systematic and
scientific study of human social life as they form groups and interact with one another such as social
groups, structures, processes, institutions, and events. The definition of Sociology by different
sociologists: Emile Durkheim- the “science of social institutions”. Kingsley Davis- “a general science of
society”. Max Weber-“the science which attempts the interpretative understanding of social action to
arrive at a casual explanation of its course and effects.” Sociology is science (the body of knowledge
obtained by methods based upon systematic observation) because it engages systematic and objective
study of phenomena (human behavior). Sociology places special emphasis on studying societies, both as
individual entities and as elements of a global perspective, which stresses the importance and impact of
social forces external to the individual in shaping people’s lives and experiences.
1.1.2. Origin of Sociology
The radical transformation of society had born hope and anxiety as an old order was gone and replaced by
a new order of unfamiliar and uncertain features. Social upheavals (social, economic and political
changes) in Europe which changed the shape of society had profound effects on the birth of sociology.
Some of the reasons for the birth of sociology are the French Revolution (rise to political power of new
middle classes, instead of aristocrats and kings), the Industrial revolution together with capitalism
(brought industrial society), political and religious Change, Enlightenment (Individualism and
Rationality), urbanization and question of community/social Problems. Sociology has attempted to
provide answers to questions generated about the old and new forms of society. The origin of Sociology,
then, is rooted in the formulation of a theory of industrial society, and observation and description of the
lives of people in new, urbanized environments.
1.2.3. Why learning Sociology?
Becoming aware of the social processes that influence the way humans think, feel, and behave can help
individuals to shape the social forces they face. Learning sociology enables a particular way of looking
the social world beyond individual psychology what sociologists call “sociological imagination”. It helps
to know the effect of the social forces on individuals, groups and communities lives. Sociology provides
more knowledge about the conditions of society and the way the society and social system function. The
application of sociological knowledge, principles, methods, concepts and theories to provide the solutions
to the contemporary social pathologies is possible through the knowledge of sociology because sociology
plays practical roles to tackle social pathologies and in dealing social problems and in facilitating
developmental activities.
1.3. Founding fathers of sociology
August Comte (1798-1857): Comte proposed that to understand society one had to follow certain
procedures. He believed in positivism (the application of the scientific method to the analysis of society)
and he felt that sociology could be used to inspire social reforms and to make society in a better place.
Herbert Spenser (1820-1903): Societies evolve from lower (‘barbarian’) to higher (‘civilized’) forms.
Spenser proposed social Darwinism by which the most capable and intelligent (“the fittest”) members of
the society survive, while the least capable dying out. He discouraged interference with this process.
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917): Durkheim identified the effect of social forces on people behavior. He
conducted a study on suicide and social factors that may contribute to suicide. He identified two types of

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social solidarity. Mechanical solidarity- integration based on similar life and shared values which are
common in traditional society and organic solidarity- integration based on difference/division of labor
and dependency of roles which is common in modern society. Anomie is a social disintegration and
more individualism as a result of uniqueness and independence due to decline of collectivity identity,
shared values and interests.
Karl Marx (1818-1883): His sociological contribution is economic determinism (economic power as the
basis of other forms of powers), wealth distribution and social conflict. The bourgeoisie are in conflict
with the proletariat due to alienation (separation of workers from the products of their labor). Marx
claimed wealth is the central force in social change. Marx believed that Religion is an 'opiate for the
people' and perpetuates social inequality. Religion was a way for the poor to accept their poverty and for
the wealthy to control the poor.
Max Weber (1864-1920): Not economy (Marx), but meaning underlies human action/interaction. At a
time when organizations were run like families, Max Weber looked for ways to bring a more formalized
structure to organizations. Weber created the idea of bureaucratic/impersonal management where
organizations are more authoritative, rigid and structured. He believed that society can exist independent
of individuals that comprised it because there is much more in society than the particular individuals who
make it up.
1.4. Subject matter and Scope of Sociology
The proper units of analysis for sociology are social practices not individual. Human
interaction/interdependence is the subject matter of sociology. Sociology has been concerned with the
study of fundamental bases of social life such as social relationships, personality, culture, social groups,
institution, association, Social Conflicts, community, social change and social system. The scope of
sociology is extremely wide, ranging from the analysis of passing encounters between individuals on the
street to the investigation of national, multi national and international relations. Sociology extends in
scope to deal with such institutions, conditions and constraints as family life, population, crime,
community life, poverty, deviant behavior among others. Furthermore, there are special sociological
aspects of the economic, political, religious, educational institutions and other activities. The study of
these by sociologists has given rise to specialties like sociology of education, political sociology,
agricultural sociology, economic sociology among others. These sub-specialties or branches provide the
intellectual tools or instruments for the study of rural sociology
1.6. The relationship of Sociology to other disciplines
Social sciences concern people’s relationships and interactions with one another. Sociology is a social
science that draws from a variety of other social sciences, including anthropology, political science,
psychology, and economics.
Sociology is similar with all other sciences in that it employs the scientific methods and its major aim is
production of scientific knowledge. Sociology is related to other social and behavioral sciences in that all
of them have more or less similar subject matter; they all in one way or another study society, human
culture, social phenomena; and aim at discovering the laws that govern the social universe. However,
sociology differs from other social sciences in terms of its focus of study, approach of study, and the
method of study. The closest discipline to sociology is social anthropology. The two share concepts,
theories and methods, and have similar historical background. However, they are different in that
sociology is primarily interested in the problems of modern society, whereas anthropology is primarily
interested in the problem of traditional, non-western society. Further, sociology focuses mainly on
quantitative techniques whereas anthropology on qualitative research techniques. Perhaps, the methods of

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research are more important in differentiating the two. Anthropology's heavy focus on qualitative method
and sociology's on quantification are still persistent natures of the two disciplines. Further, one point of
difference worth mentioning is that sociology is narrower in scope than anthropology and anthropologists
tend to stay in the field for long period (several months to few years) while sociologists prefer brief stay
(weeks to few months).
Political Science: Political science concerns the governments of various societies. It considers what kind
of government a society has, how it formed, and how individuals attain positions of power within a
particular government. Political science also concerns the relation of people in a society to whatever form
of government they have.
Psychology: Psychology takes the individual out of his or her social circumstances and examines the
mental processes that occur within that person. Psychologists study the human brain and how it functions,
considering issues such as memory, dreams, learning, and perception.
Economics: Economics focuses on the production and distribution of society’s goods and services.
Economists study why a society chooses to produce what it does, how money is exchanged, and how
people interact and cooperate to produce goods.
1.7. The general concepts of sociology
A concept is an idea that helps us to organize our thoughts and perceptions, or make sense of what we
observe. In sociology, the concepts social structure, social action, functional integration, power, and
culture are basic.
1. Social Structure: Social structure (sometimes referred to as just structure) refers to patterns of social
relationships (such as marriage or employment), of social positions (such as president or priest), and of
numbers of people (such as the size of countries or how many of their citizens are over age sixty).
2. Social Action: Social action (or just action) exists to the extent that people’s behavior is based on
meaningful understandings of what they do, and is a response to, coordinated with, or oriented toward
people.
3. Functional Integration: Functional integration refers to the interdependence among the parts of the
social system.
4. Power: Power is the capacity of one social actor-a person, group, or organization-to get others to do its
will, or to ensure that it will benefit from the actions of others.
5. Culture: Sociologists and other behavior scientists use the word culture as a basic concept to classify,
describe and explain a great number of objects, thoughts, feelings, and actions that are produced by
human individuals especially when they interact. This popular usage of culture makes the concept into a
value judgment. Culture is the sum of human activities and achievements. It is the way of life of any
society. Culture is the language, norms, values, beliefs, knowledge, and symbols that make up a way of
life. It is the understanding of how to act that people share with one another in any stable, self-
reproducing group.
Society: Society can be defined as the largest group of people who share a common culture as a result of
interacting on regular and continuous basis according to agreed behavior and those inhabiting a specific
territory. Society differs from many other kinds of groups because within society people live common
life. Society is not an organization limited to a specific purpose as, rather it is the most
self-sufficient/independence group based on the techniques developed for fulfilling the needs of its
members. Society is the interrelated network of social relationships that exists within the boundaries of
the largest social system. This definition of society stresses social relationships or interaction, rather than
individuals.

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Social Control
For achieving the social control society has to control the animal nature of man: if order is to be
established and maintained, man’s tendency to pursue his self-interest to the point of a war of all against
all must be limited through learning or selection, or both. Some of the specific purposes of social control
are to bring about social control; to bring about solidarity and to ensure the continuity of social group or
society. Social control is the mechanisms and processes employed by a society to ensure conformity. It is
any cultural or social means by which restraints are imposed upon individual behavior and by which
people are initiated to follow the traditions and patterns of behavior accepted by society. It is a means by
which conformists are rewarded and non-conformists are punished.
Types of Social Control
The types of social control mechanisms are negative and positive social control mechanisms.
Negative Social Control: involves punishment or regulating behavior of deviants. This social control
may be at micro/ informal level social control that occurs at the level of small groups such as peer groups,
family, and interpersonal relationships and at macro or formal level include: fining, firing, demotion,
imprisonment, banishment or excommunication, capital punishment and so on.
Positive Social Control: involve rewarding and encouraging those who abide by the norms. It involves
rewarding the model behavior. The informal psychosocial reward mechanisms include simple smiles,
saying encouraging word, shaking hands, thanking, showing appreciation, etc. Formal positive social
control mechanism may include giving awards, promoting to a higher level of status, etc.
Social Group
In our day-to-day life and social activities, we interact with each other, belonging to a group of some
kind.
Group is central to sociological analysis. A social group is the collectivity or set of people who involve in
more or less permanent or enduring social interactions and relationships. Members of a social group have
common basis for interaction and shared characteristics, a feeling of identity or belongingness, shared
psychology or consciousness and a definite set of norms to govern the behaviors of the individual
participant in the group.
Basic Features of a Social Group
For a set or collectivity of people to be a social group, it has to have the following essential traits or
features : Members of the group continue to interact with one another; Membership requires living by
norms that are special to the group; Members view each other as part of the group; members feel some
sense of identification with the group and with one another; and there is a social boundary between
members and non-members; Members are functionally integrated through role and status relationship in
the group structure; and Others see members as group and Social interaction among the members is
relatively permanent it is not causal.
Classification of Groups
The groups are classified as primary and secondary based on: the quality of relationship between or
among the members of the group and the degree of group identity.
The Features of Primary Groups-There is face-to-face interaction among members; There is high
sentiment or loyalty; Identification (group identity) and close cooperation among members; There is a
high level of emotional, spiritual satisfaction to be derived from involvement in primary social groups;
Concern for friendly relations as an end in themselves, not as a means to an end; Primary groups are often
small in size; Primary group gives its members (individuals) their ''first acquaintance with humanity''.

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The features of Secondary Groups- There is little or no emotional involvement; Members are more
competitive than cooperative; Members are less intimate; Group identity is less relevant; Economic
efficiency is given higher emphasis than psychological identity; The group is mainly a means to an end
rather than an end in itself; Membership is unlimited; Some critical observations must be made
concerning the classification of groups.
Quasi-Social Groups: lack the essential features of social groups and there may be no functional
integration among members. They characterize individualistic societies. Such groups lack meaningful
social structures and social interaction. Aggregates and categories are the two quasi groups.
Aggregates: two or more people are physically together at a certain time and at a certain place. There is
physical proximity without enduring social interaction. There is no shared psychological-identity.
Categories: consists of a plurality or collectively of people who are physically dispersed, but who share
common traits and interests. It refers to a social class; or a group of people who are more or less of similar
lifestyles, and physical and psychosocial characteristics. There may be little or no social interaction,
social structure, social norms, etc., but there is the feeling of belongingness, even though the people may
never know each other.
Social Processes
As different societies interact with each other, different social processes take place in the organized life of
society. In the social system, these social processes are necessary for the very life, existence and smooth
functioning of the system. Social processes are certain repetitive, continuous forms of patterns in the
social systems that occur as individuals, groups, societies, or countries interact with each other. They are
interaction patterns or modes, among members (individual) within a society or a group involving
particular repetitive features, occurring both at micro and macro levels. They help us interpret and
understand our social behavior.
Modes of Social Processes
Social processes are manifested in a number of ways, which take place in an unending cycle. One mode
of social process may balance another and one may also yield another they take place in an unending
cycle.
Competition: It is real in our day-to-day interpersonal encounters and in the global situations.
Competition is the process where by individuals, groups, societies, and countries make active efforts to
win towards getting their share of the limited resources. It is an impersonal attempt to gain scarce and
valued resources of wealth, land, services, power, status etc. As a result of competition, stratification and
physical separation may happen in a given society. Competition involves struggle, efforts, decisions,
actions, etc., to survive. Competition is balanced by cooperation.
Cooperation: Cooperation is a social process whereby people join hands towards achieving common
goals. Competition is more likely to occur in advanced, modern, industrialized societies than in traditional
and homogenous societies where cooperation appears to be more important.
Conflict: In the process of competition for power (which could be economic, social, and political) and
resources, conflict is certain to take place. Conflict involves disagreement and disharmony, which results
due to differences in ideology, living standard, and other social factors. Conflict involves clash of interest
between individuals in a social group like in a family or between groups or societies. It results due to
power imbalance, due to unfair distribution of resources. Conflict produces social class and stratification.
Accommodation: is a social process whereby people try to accept one another, avoiding the sources of
conflict to live in peaceful coexistence. It is a conscious adjustment and compromise among conflicting
groups so that they can live with one another without overt conflict.

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Assimilation: is a social process whereby a group of individuals learns and accepts the values, norms,
etc., of another group and becomes sometimes identical with the dominant groups. Assimilation involves
the acceptance or the internalizing of the larger or dominant group's culture, values and life styles by the
smaller or minority group. Assimilation could imposed or voluntary. In this age of globalization there are
westernization processes, whereby peoples of the Third World are taking up the values, notions and
practices of the Industrialized West.

Chapter Two: The Development of Social Systems

2.1. Social Systems
Social organization, structure and function stem from the attempt to view human social life as an ordered
system. The structure aspects of social relations are the principles or rules on which their form depends.
The social system has been conceptualized as an orderly purposive and stable system. Social systems are
also dynamic: people adopt different strategies to secure their ends; people succeed one another in desired
position groups contained with one another. The organizational aspects of social activities are then the
directional activities which maintain forms and serves ends. Social organization, in this way, is the
systematic ordering of social relations by acts of choices and decisions. The concept of social
organization emphasizes the arrangement of activities and variations.
Social systems consists of two or more individuals interacting directly or indirectly in a bounded
(physical or territorial) situation. It is the patterned series of interrelationships existing between
individuals, groups, and institutions and forming a coherent whole. It is the way societies, cultures,
organizations, groups and families—are organized and operate through roles; made up of extensive and
intertwined networks of communication processes. Social system is diversified and subjected for change
by social change agents.
a society considered as a system organized by a characteristic pattern of relationships major units of a
social system are said to be collectivities and roles. The major patterns or relationships linking these units
are values (ends or broad guides to action) and norms (rules governing role performance in the context of
system values). (Talcott Parsons), roles become the primary linkage between the social systems.
Processes in social system: Decision making, communication, institutionalization, boundary maintenance,
Systemic linkage, and social control.
2.2. Sociological Imagination
An awareness of the relationship between an individual and the wider society. The ability to see the
relationship between individual experiences and the larger society. Comprehend the links between their
immediate, personal social settings and the remote, impersonal social world that surrounds them and
helps to shape them. A key element in the sociological imagination is the ability to view one’s own
society as an outsider would, rather than from the limited perspective of personal experiences and cultural
biases.
Personal vs. Society’s Structure: Sociological imagination can bring new understanding to daily life
around us. Sociological imagination is an awareness of the relationship between an individual and the
wider society. This awareness allows all of us (not just sociologists) to comprehend the links between our
immediate, personal social settings and the remote, impersonal social world that surrounds us and helps to
shape us.
The sociological imagination allows us to go beyond personal experiences and observations to understand
broader public issues. The sociological imagination is an empowerment tool. It allows us to look beyond

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a limited understanding of human behavior to see the world and its people in a new way and through a
broader lens than we might otherwise use. It may be as simple as understanding why a roommate prefers
country music to hip-hop, or it may open up a whole different way of understanding whole populations in
the world.
2.3. Sociological Approaches and Perspectives
Sociology as science employs perspectives or theories to understand, explain, analyze and interpret social
phenomena. To interpret social facts, they must be subjected to a theoretical framework. A theory is a set
of interconnected hypotheses that offer general explanations for natural or social phenomena about how
some parts of the world fit together and how they work. The theoretical perspectives in sociology that
have provided an overall framework for sociological studies are structural functionalism, social conflict
theory and symbolic interactionism. Having sociological perspectives is important for the following
reasons: Help to assess the existing assumption of society; Helps us to understand the existing situation
and to plan better future; Helps us to participate in social activities; and Are important source of
information about the existence of other's culture (communities, societies).
The Structural-Functionalist Theory
The theory tries to explain how the relationships among the parts of society are created and how these
parts are functional (meaning having beneficial consequences to the individual and the society) and
dysfunctional (meaning having negative consequences). It focuses on consensus, social order, structure
and function in society. It saw society as composed of many parts, each with its own function.
The structural-functionalist theory sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to
promote solidarity and stability; it states that our social lives are guided by social structure (Structures
guide and constrain action by providing boundaries for action and they are generated and reproduced by
actors), which are relatively stable patterns of social behavior, but they can be changed when people don`t
obey or refuse to follow. People are not only constraints by the structures of the society they evolved in
but they can define it and can lead to social changes by their practices or position-taking. Social structure
is understood in terms of social functions, which are consequences for the operations of society. All social
structure contributes to the operation of society. Actors have a role and exercise some agency in the
society. People are partly reflexive not acting following only rational choices but rather some collective
schemes because they monitor their action and orient it to behavior of others. Personal experiences and
emotions depend on and are made by collective activity/associations. E.g. religious celebration as a result
Individual identities are embedded in wider social actors/ interactions.
The Structural functionalist theory pays considerable attention to the persistence of shared ideas in
society. The functional aspect in the structural-functionalist theory stresses the role played by each
component part in the social system, whereas the structural perspective suggests an image of society
wherein individuals are constrained by the social forces, social backgrounds and by group memberships.
This theory was challenged by its main critics. The theory was attacked for its emphasis on stability and
order while neglecting conflict and changes which so vital in any society and it ignores complexity and
dynamic of social phenomena and life.
The Social Conflict Theory: Marxism
This theory sees society in a framework of class conflicts as a result of Socio-economic inequality in
power and wealth and the domination of some group by others (workers by capitalists; females by males;
non-whites by whites) and focuses on the struggle for scarce resources by different groups in a given
society. This theory is useful to explain how the dominant groups use their power to exploit the less
powerful groups in society. Exploitation of the "have nots" by the "haves;" here the conflict has a class,

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economic, political, power rather than moral/value basis. It is criticized for its overemphasis on inequality
and division, but neglect the fact of how shared values and interdependence generate unity among
members of society. Karl Marx, the founder of conflict theory witnessed the industrial revolution that
transforms Europe. For Marx, the history of civilization is the history of class struggles, and conflict is the
main source of social change.
Symbolic Interactionism
This perspective views symbols as the basis of social life. Society is viewed as composed of symbols that
people use to establish meaning, develop their views of the world, and communication with one another.
Symbols are things to which we attach meanings. Actors choice in symbolic terms to occupy, maintain
and signal position their social status in society relative to others by signaling to others E.g. dressing. The
theory stresses the analysis of how our behaviors depend on how we define others and ourselves. It
concentrates on process, rather than structure, and keeps the individual actor at the center. According to
symbolic interactionism, the essence of social life and social reality is the active human being trying to
make sense of social situations. In short, this theory calls attention to the detailed, person-oriented
processes that take place within the larger units of social life.
Sociological Approaches
There are two sociological approaches (Hebding and Glick, 1996):
1. Macro-Sociology: It is the broad level sociological analysis. It is devoted to the study of the
broad structure, organization, and features of society. Macro perspectives includes- Social-Conflict
Theory and Structural-Functionalism: look at social processes throughout society. interrelationships
of large-scale social structures and interrelationships
2. Micro-Sociology: Here the emphasis is placed on social interaction, what people do when they
come together. It is devoted to studying how people behave and interact in everyday social settings.
Includes- Symbolic Interactionism: focus on patterns of individual interactions; daily interactions we
have on an individual level.
Chapter three: Rural Sociology-Definition, Scope and Importance
3.1 Definition of Rural Sociology
What is "rural?"
To refer to a location as "rural" used to indicate that it was located a considerable distance from
civilization. Rural sociology is the sociology of rural society. It is concerned with rural community's life.
The social structure, social process, social dynamics and social control in rural society are in contrast to
urban society. Rural Sociology is a special field of sociology.
Rural sociology is the study of social organization and social processes that are characteristic of
geographical localities where population size is relatively small and density is low (Warner 1974).
The study of social and cultural factors affecting the lives of those in rural or agrarian communities.
The study of social interactions of the rural population in their group. (Ekong (1988); social processes and
the whole system of interpersonal and group relationships involved in rural life.
Interested in the farmers’ participation and their families in the wider systems of social relationships (e.g.
mosque/church, Community, local government, state, and nation)
3.2. Scope Rural Sociology
The scope of rural sociology is limited to the study of the following area of society: Rural Community,
Rural Social Structure, Rural Social Organizations and Institutions, Rural Social life, Rural
Disorganization, Rural-Urban contrast. It is the systematic body of knowledge which has resulted from
the application of the scientific method to the study of the rural society’s: social processes, basic social

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systems, social organization, institutions and group dynamics studies the influence of physical, biological
and cultural factors on the sociology of groups of persons considered to be rural or non-urban addresses
the relation of rural society to the larger society.
3.3. Importance of Rural Sociology
Rural sociology is particularly important in those societies, which are primarily rural. Ethiopian societies
are cases in point. Rural sociology is very much important in rural reconstruction, rural welfare and
solving complex and multidimensional rural problems (economic, environmental and social problems).
Exposes the characteristics and problems of ruralites, Provides feedback to the agricultural agencies, Acts
as a change agent interaction with rural people, Develops greater understanding, Equips learners with
tools of understanding: sociological concepts and their application, analysis and understanding of rural
social organization, rural economic problems and the responses of ruralites to social change. Provides
professional training for a future career as a rural sociologist (teacher, consultant). Provides direct
change program
Chapter Four: Rural and Urban Communities
Types of Rural Settlements
Most rural settlements have changed considerably as a result of rural electrification, water supply
schemes, etc. Factors of rural settlement: agricultural economy (nomadic/permanent); Social conditions
(defense); the nature of physical conditions (topography)
A settlement pattern is the manner in which a population distributes itself within the geographical space it
occupies. With specific relation to the rural people, the term refers to how the people locate themselves on
their farms. Village organization on the other hand, could be referred to as a settlement pattern but it
involves more than the distribution of the population on the land it occupies. It includes the patterns of
social interaction, ordering and the governance of the people within that settlement.
The two main types of settlements are: cluster /nucleated/compact and Scattered/dispersed settlements.
The Cluster or Nucleated Settlements
These types of settlements are more thickly populated and highly “urban” that origin from the people’s
need in the past. E.g. self-defense against quarrelsome neighbors.
Advantages: Security from attack by either wild animals or external enemies; Closer social interaction
due to proximity; There is easier transmission of information on technologies (innovations) to a large
number of people within a short time; There is enhancement of a more efficient use of social amenities.
That is, more people have access to a single social amenity in such settlements.
Disadvantage: The system encourages interference in the private life of neighbors; the system worsen the
problems of sanitation and makes such settlements susceptible to epidemic outbreaks
In case of fire outbreak, more destruction of life and property occur; Farmers have to travel long distances
to get to their farms. This discourages mixed farming (raising of crops along with rearing of livestock)
Scattered Settlement Pattern
These types of settlements are less thickly populated and highly “rural”. A number of people from one
extended family may occupy dwellings along a single branch path forming a ward and a number of such
wards scatter over the whole territory owned by a particular village.
Advantage: allows the farmers to practice mixed farming; Save money and time travelling long distances
between their homes and the farms. Better for proper town planning if the area has to be rebuilt or
resettled; better for privacy; gives room for expansion; household and farm yard manure
Disadvantage: Difficult to provide Social amenities (e.g. road, health service, etc.); If so not
economical; Slow diffusion of information and technology; Being more suspicious of strangers,

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superstitious and conservative than compact settlers. Prone to robberies and criminal attacks; difficult to
put definitely village boundaries either for service purposes or research.
The Socio-Cultural Features of Rural Communities
There are 11 important socio-cultural features of rural communities: 1. Habits and traditions regulate the
day-to-day life of rural communities; 2. Primary relations govern all actions of the community; 3.
Kinship, clientship and friendship lead usually to ready and just communities; 4. Rural people live in
close commune with the people, plants and animals in their locality; 5. Interdependence, mutual
assistance, the social and cultural occasions strengthen and promote such close relationships; 6. A
traditional society (Indigenous people) they heavily rely and depend on their past experiences for their
survival since they know their effects very well; 7. Show mutual distrust in interpersonal relations
(suspicion, envy, fear, defensive, withdrawal, reluctance, etc.); 8. Fatalism: is the degree to which an
individual perceives luck of ability to control her/his future; 9. Lack of innovativeness;10. Limited
aspirations; 11. Limited view of the world: Limited time perspective, Localities-the degree to which
individuals are oriented within, rather than external, to their social system, Geographical immobility, and
Limited mass media exposure.
Difference between Rural and Urban Communities
A study of the main points of contrast between the rural and urban settings will explain how the different
"structures and life processes" on rural and urban communities are to a great extent is the consequence of
the difference between those different settings. There are nine points of comparison to clearly understand
the difference between rural and urban communities.
1. Difference in the social institutions
A) Family: In the villages the families are comparatively stronger than the families in the towns, where
greater importance is attached to the individual than to the families.
B) Marriage: In the towns there is a preponderance of love marriages in comparison with the villages;
Greater number of divorces in urban areas than in rural villages and Greater freedom in urban
communities than rural communities in choosing life partner.
2. Condition of Women: Less educated women in rural communities than urban communities; Low
social status of women in rural communities than urban communities.
3. Neighborhood: in a village the neighborhood has a greater importance than it has in the towns. In
towns people do not know even about their neighbors.
4. Difference in social restrictions: A great difference is evident between the social control
characteristics of the rural and urban societies. In the rural community custom is the king, the folkways
and mores control most of the behavior.
The control of police, law court, etc. is greater in the towns than in villages.
5. Difference in the social relationships and interaction: More personal relations in villages than in towns;
greater degree of tolerance and accommodation in urban communities than in rural communities.
6. Difference in View Point: Rural culture tends to be conservative; People in urban areas have interest to
participate in politics; Greater importance is attached to religion and rituals in rural areas than in urban
areas.
7. Differences in Social Mobility and Stability: Greater social disorganization in the town than in the
village; There is more stability in rural areas and high mobility in urban areas.
8. Difference in Economic Life: Agriculture is common occupation in rural areas while occupations in
urban areas have industrial and service nature.

10
9. Difference in cultural life: Culture is more static in rural communities than in urban communities.
Traditions have a very important place in rural culture, while urban culture does not attach much
importance to them.
In general
 Rural communities are usually smaller than urban communities
 Population density is lower in rural area than urban.
 Rural occupations: Farming, pastoral, petty trading, arts, craft, weaving, pottery and primary
industries
 Urban Occupations: manufacturing, commercial and administrative occupations.
 Rural people have cultural simplicity than urban ones. (B/c urban people are ethnically more
heterogeneous)
 Social contacts are greater in quantity, quality and variety in urban than in rural areas.
 Social classes are fewer in rural area than the urban
 There is more rigidity in caste and class principles (or close systems in rural areas than in the
urban areas).
 Social infrastructure are better in urban areas than in the rural areas.
Rural-Urban Continuum
Rural-Urban continuum, the merging of town and country, a term used in recognition of the fact that in
general there is rarely, either physically or socially a sharp division, a clearly marked boundary between
the two with one part of the population wholly urban, the other wholly rural. It stands that communities
represent various modernization stages on a linear scale between the two extremes are found communities
at different stages of modernization.
Urbanization
Urbanization refers to the growth in the percentage or proportion of people living in cities relative to
those living in rural areas. It also refers to the masses of people moving to cities and a growing urban
influence on society. Urbanization has direct negative impact on cities and indirect negative impact on
rural areas. When masses of people are moving to cities, there is high unemployment rate and a lot of
social crisis in cities. When productive people are moving from rural areas to cities the agricultural
production in rural areas is affected. Urbanization is the increasing percentage of a population living in
urbanized areas. Urbanized areas are densely settled central places and adjacent territories. Cities are
types of incorporated places with defined geographic boundaries.
Urban ecology focuses on the interaction between human population and the environment.
Suburbanization, the process of population moving out of central cities to surrounding areas. Youth and
school leaves to urban areas from the rural area. Bring socio-cultural change.
With growth of urbanization, many social problems have emerged (Zerihun Doda, 2005): Urban slums,
Increasing poor quality of life and poverty, Shortage of basic social services such as clean water,
electricity, communications facilities, housing, etc. Growing rate of crimes and deviance.
Chapter Five: Rural Social Structure
5.1. Features of Rural Social Structure
Social structure impinges upon all aspects of our lives, even those which appear to be purely natural
processes. The Stratification of society based upon age helps determine the availability of social roles, the
meaning attached to members of various age groups, and the opportunities provided to the members.
Social structure, the patterns of interactions and expectations we have with others, shapes the reality of
our everyday experiences. The way society is organized around the regulated ways people interrelate and

11
organize social life is called social structure. The patterns of organization and interaction built upon that
cultural background. Rural people give a greater emphasis to formed social structure to not to be changed
easily. Ideologies or strongly held beliefs & values, are the cement of social structure in that they help a
group maintain its identity as a social unit.
5.2. Socialization and Social Structure
Socialization is a life- long social process of learning cultural patterns, behaviors, and expectations.
Through socialization, we learn cultural values, norms, and roles. We develop a personality, our unique
sense of who we are. We also pass along culture and social patterns to our children through socialization.
Starts informally in the family, churches, mosques, the community and then formally in schools.
Socialization is on-going/never ending process of making somebody social and fully human whereby
individual persons learn and are trained in the basic norms, values, beliefs, skills, attitudes, way of doing
and acting as appropriate to a specific social group or society. It is the process whereby the culture, skills,
norms, traditions, customs, etc., are transmitted from generation to generation – or from one society to
another. Socialization may be formal or informal. It becomes formal when it is conducted by formally
organized social groups and institutions, like schools, religious centers, mass media universities, work
places, military training centers, internships, etc. It is informal when it is carried out through the informal
social interactions and relationships at micro-levels, at interpersonal and small social group levels. The
process of socialization, whether it is formal or informal, is vitally important to both individuals and
society. Without some kind of socialization, society would cease to exist.
Goals of socialization
The goal of socialization is to equip a person with the basic values, norms, skills, etc., to act properly in
the social group to which they belong. The goals of Socialization are: To indoctrinate basic disciplines; to
instill aspirations; to teach skills and social roles and to create acceptable and constructive personal
identities. The integrative function of socialization is not equally beneficial to all people because social
values are not equally absorbed by members of a society or group. Here the ideological role of
socialization with the issues of differential power, control, domination and conflict become important.
Human biological bases of socialization
Humans are capable of socialization because they are endowed with the necessary biological bases that
are lacking in other animals. The key biological characteristics of human beings on which socialization is
based are:
Absence of Instincts- complex behavior patterns for which some animal species as biologically
programmed. Human have biological drives or impulses such as hunger, thirst, sex, etc, rather than
instincts. This absence of instincts makes humans dependent on social direction and their behaviors are
amenable to such direction.
Social Contact Needs- humans need sustained social contacts. Satisfaction of the social contact and
initiations needs in humans is a strong biological imperative.
Longer Period of Childhood Dependence-human infant needs much longer period of physical
dependence and sexual immaturity than other animals. The need to acquire the techniques and skills of
social living further prolongs the dependence. Such longer period of dependence, during which the child
is cared for and controlled by others, results in an intense emotional dependence that remains throughout
life.
Capacity to Learn- A high level of intelligence is an innate human biological potential. Human can
learn much more than other animals and can continue to learn more over a longer period of time.

12
Language- human's ability to learn is a function of his capacity for language. Other animals may have
some degree of intelligence but only humans have reasoning capacity because they have language.
Language expresses and arouses emotion; conveys feelings, values and knowledge. Language is the key
factor in the creation of human society. Symbolic communication, which is possessed only by humans,
makes language possible.
Modes, patterns and types of socialization
Modes of Socialization
Although sociologists identify four modes of socialization, there is no full answer regarding the
mechanisms of socialization. No single mode of social learning fully accounts for socialization.
Conditioning: is the response pattern which is built into an organism as a result of stimuli in the
environment and it involves learning based on the principle of association. Classical conditioning-the
response remains constant while the stimuli vary. In operant or instrumental conditioning, response is
controlled. It is creation of built-in responses a result of systematic reinforcement.
Identity Taking: Although individuals take their identity of maleness and femaleness through approval
and disapproval as well as reward and punishment. As their linguistic and cognitive skills gradually
develop, children begin to learn that they are being called boys or girls, accept what others label, learn by
observation, and report what boys and girls do and behave accordingly.
Modeling After: Children learn to model their behavior after someone who is an admired, loved or
feared figure. It is a typical stage in personality formation and in the development of personal autonomy
and social involvement. Through modeling after someone, our behavior acquires meaning and coherence.
Problem Solving: Social learning is not only to internalize the values and norms of society, but also
learning is beyond simply internalizing values and norms. It also includes learning to involve in
cooperative and conflict-ridden activities, to cope with new situations and provide context-base response
and to achieve one's goals.
Patterns of socialization
The two patterns of socialization are:
Repressive socialization is characterized by punishing wrong behavior, material rewards and
punishment, obedience, non-verbal communication, communication as command, Parent-centered
socialization and considers Family as significant other.
Participatory socialization has the following features: rewarding good behavior, symbolic rewards and
punishment, autonomy, verbal communication, communication as interaction, child-centered socialization
and needs Family as generalized other.
Types of Socialization
There are different types of socialization. The major once are discussed below:
Primary or Childhood Socialization: It occurs between the individual and those people in their life
with whom they have primary relationships/the individual has a close, personal, face-to-face relationship
with the people responsible for the socialization process. Socialization at this stage of life is a landmark;
without it, we would cease to become social beings. The human infant who is a biological being or
organism is changed into a social being mainly at this early stage.
Secondary or Adult Socialization: A secondary relationship is one in which the individual does not
have a close, personal, relationship with the people responsible for the socialization process. The
socialization experienced by adults generally falls in the category of secondary socialization, building on
the socialization experiences of childhood. It socialization when individual take up new roles, reorienting

13
themselves according to their changes social statuses and roles, as in starting marital life. E.g. fresh
college graduates, first jobs and immigrants.
Re-socialization and De-socialization: In the lives of individuals, as they pass through different stages
and life experiences, there is the need for resocialization and de-socialization. Re-socialization means the
adoption by adults of radically different norms and life ways that are more or less completely dissimilar to
the previous norms and values. Desocialization refers to stripping individuals of their former life styles,
beliefs, values and attitudes so that they may take up other partially or totally new life styles, attitudes and
values. The individuals have to abandon their former values and take up new ones in order to become part
of the new social group.
Anticipatory Socialization: This is the process where a person is preparing to cope with the situation
where s/he is supposed to be in the future. It is the process of adjustment and adaptation in which
individuals try to learn and internalize the roles, values, attitudes and skills of a social status or occupation
for which they are likely recruits in the future.
Reverse Socialization: is the process of socialization whereby the dominant socializing persons, such as
parents, happen to be in need of being socialized themselves by those whom they socialize, such as
children. In reverse socialization, children, for example, may happen to socialize their parents in some
roles, skills, and attitudes which the latter lack.
Theories of Socialization
Freud’s Theory
To Sigmund Freud, there are four stages for socialization between infancy to adulthood.
Oral: This begins with the birth of the child and continues up to the completion of one year. The child in
this stage starts crying and giving signals according to his/her instincts and needs. By crying the child
establishes its oral dependency and develops some definite expectations about satisfying his/her needs
like feeding.
Anal: This starts immediately after the first year and is completed during the third year. The child learns
that s/he cannot depend entirely on the mother and that s/he has to take some degree of care for
he/himself. The child understands so many normative behaviors such as what is required and what is not
required, what are punishable and what appreciable.
Oedipal: This starts from the fourth year and lasts up to puberty (twelve to thirteen years) period. The
child familiarizes his role as a male or female and becomes the member of the family as a whole.
Adolescence: the boys and girls want to become free from the parental control. But they would still
depend on them for their life. Therefore, the boy or girl who wants to escape from the parental control on
the one hand and who is still needed the dependence on the parents, would be in conflictual situation in
themselves.
George Herbert Mead’s categorization:
The socialization process is discussed by George Herbert Mead by his analysis called the role taking. He
says that the individual is internalizing the methods and forms of interaction with other members of the
society are through understanding others at various stages. He categorizes the process of socializing into
two stages.
Game Stage: the child understands the particular others around him/her. S/He internalizes the life
patterns of the family members and he differentiates various sexual statuses and the roles they have to
play.
Play stage: the child understands the pattern of social interaction with general others. S/He finds her/his
position among the wide range of people from all the people.

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 Agencies of socialization
Agents of socialization are the different groups of people and institutional arrangements which are
responsible for training new members of society. Some of them could be formal, while others are
informal. They help individual members get into the overall activities of their society.
The family: When we are born into a family we are ascribed a status in terms of class, ethnicity, religion
and race. The family is naturally the major influence by passing down morals and values that they have
learnt during their life.
The school: The school’s mission is concerned with the formal instruction and the development of
children’s cognitive skills. In this sense, the school context is less involved in primary socialization and
more involved in secondary socialization. In school, things other than skills and knowledge also are
learned, such as norms, values, attitudes, and various aspects of a child’s personality and self-concept.
The peer groups: Peers are those of who are the same age, and share common interests who offer
different viewpoints. Peers may influence decisions, morals and how to behave toward others.
The church or the religious institution: The moral aspects of the individual are designed by the
religious institutions in the society. What individual gets from the family, peer group and any other
institutions of the society is entirely different from what is achieved from the religious institutions
because the basic philosophy of religious institution is to impart the good and morale elements and
values.
Social Norms: the group shared standards of behavior based on social values, which set a limit on
individual behavior.
Conformity: Conformity is enforced in society through sanctions when desirable behavior is rewarded
with positive sanction which promotes conformity.
Deviance: Deviance is any behavior that violates social norms, and is usually of sufficient severity to
warrant disapproval from the majority of society. Deviance can be criminal or non- criminal. activities as
alcoholism, excessive gambling, being nude in public places, playing with fire, stealing, lying, refusing to
bathe, purchasing the services of prostitutes, and cross-dressing—to name only a few—are examples of
deviant. People who engage in deviant behavior are referred to as deviants.
The mass media such as television, radio, movies, videos, tapes, books, magazines and newspapers are
also important agents of socialization.
5.3. Social Interaction and Social Structure
Social structure dealt at Micro-sociological level. Social structures refers to patterns of social action and
interaction. Social interaction involves interpersonal contact, reciprocal response and inner adjustment of
behavior to the action of others. Individual and group relations/interactions are the outcomes of social
processes. Social interaction assumes a repetitive pattern becomes a social process.
Types of social interaction:
Cooperation: A social interaction in which two or more people work together as a team to achieve a
common goal(s).
Accommodation: adjustment by a person or group to a conflict or threat
Assimilation: The process of a cultural group losing its identity and being absorbed into the dominant
culture.
Acculturation: This is the acquisition of new cultural traits by individuals or groups and the use of these
in their new patterns of living.
Competition: When people struggle for the possession of material and nonmaterial rewards which are in
limited or scarce supply.

15
Conflict: social interaction in which the actors seek to obtain scarce rewards by eliminating or weakening
other contenders.
Social interaction and relationship
Social interaction and relationship can be studied between the whole societies linked in the world system
to those between two individuals.
Individuals are the main components of society; they are building blocks. In other words society is the
product of the actions of individuals, which is a representation of the collective behavior of individual
actors. Individuals are social actors who act in a social environment; their social interactions are
influenced by the social environment and existing social pattern. This implies that the actions of
individuals take place in patterned relationships.
Social relationship is any routinized, enduring patterns of social interactions between individuals in
society under the limits and influences of the social structure. Every person surrounds himself/herself
with personal space which is protected. There are sufficient gaps between us and “outsiders”. The
common used distance space or zones are:
Intimate distance: This is a space very close to the individual’s body. The space is reserved for love-
making, comforting, protecting, hugging and intimate touching.
Personal distance: It is reserved for friends, and acquaintances and ordinary conversation.
Social distance: It marks impersonal or formal relationships. We use this zone for such things as job
interviews.
Public distance: This zone marks even more formal relationships. It is used to separate dignitaries and
public speakers from the general public.
Social interaction is directed behavior or action towards others that is symbolic – verbal and gestural
and the individual is aware of how others will probably respond. Interaction is reciprocal; each is aware
of and responsive to the actions and reactions of others.
The key patterns of interaction constitute “the microelements of social bonds, or the molecular cement of
society”. One or more of these patterns, also called “social process” are at work any time interaction takes
place.
Chapter Six: Social Organizations and Institutions in Rural Setting
6.1. Social Organizations in Rural Setting (Definition, Types and Functions of Rural Social
Organizations)
Organizations are those classes of human relationship structures wherein people purposefully associate in
systematically arranged units to promote and achieve some common interests. Organizations are groups
of people formed in pursuit of some common interests with their own self-contained administrative
structures and functionaries. They are structures of recognized and accepted roles. Organizations are
social creations that require order and cooperation. Organizations are consciously coordinated and
deliberately structured. An organization differs from an institution by its focus on a narrowly limited
purpose. It is a group of people organized to pursue a specific objective. An institution purses broader and
more general purposes. Institutions are crystallized mechanisms, clearly defined ways in which society
meets its need that have existed long enough to become embedded in the social structure. Social
organizations are identifiable groups that have a specific purpose.
Informal organizations: do not involve formalized or rigorous rules, roles, and responsibilities. Does
not work well in many areas of our lives. Aggregate of norms, personal and professional connections.
Local government and processes structures in rural society are highly informal.
Governed by traditional mores, practices and relationships.

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Formal organizations: are large, secondary social collectivities that are organized and regulated for
purposes of efficiency by structured procedures. Coercive formal organization that people join
involuntarily. Normative organizations, that people join voluntarily (e. g. Political campaigns, religious
organizations, etc.), utilitarian organizations, are those people join to gain some material benefit e.g. job
at a bank or hospital
Social Organization and Social Interaction
Human beings are social animals by nature and whatever we do or say are related to social environment.
The lives of human beings have meanings in organized relationships. Social organization is the pattern of
individual and group relations. Organization is technical arrangement of parts in a whole and social
indicates individual and group relations are the outcomes of social processes. An organization is a
persistent social system with a collective identity and a programme of planned activity directed toward
the achievement of explicit goals.
Features of Social Organization
Interaction in the social processes is occurred within the framework of a social system. A social system
refers to how social relationships work. Every social group is considered a social system, within which
each part interdependent and inter connect to the other parts and to the whole in which the members of the
social system are guided both by actual behavior and by shared pattern. The network of patterned
behavior that both guides and is the product of interaction is “social organization”. It is a dynamic process
in which stable and predictable patterns are continually redefined and changed to fit the changing
conditions of the social and physical environment.
Levels of Social Organization
Social interaction occurs on three levels of social organization.
First Level: this level occurs when two persons occupy definite positions in relation to each other:
husband to wife, father to son, teacher to student, girlfriend to boyfriend, and so on.
Second Level: this level occurs within and between organized groups.
Third Level: A Social Reality Level that emerges as a result of the features that groups develop as they
become organized. It is external to the individual and is not merely a total or interpersonal relationship.
Groups, in short, are not simply individuals multiplied by numbers: they become something more than the
sum of their parts.
Role and Status in Social Organization
Status is a position in a social group that implies ranking (high or low), or value rating according to the
prevailing values of the group or society.
A role is the carrying out of the status, which guides the occupant of a status in behavior. Statuses are
continually subject to change because growth and replacement by the individuals involved in them, social
change and daily interaction constantly serve to redefine roles.
Ascribed and Achieved Status: Some statuses and their salient roles are ours by birth; we cannot avoid
occupying them. Ascribed statuses are involuntary and they are not attained through any individual effort
or merit. Achieved statuses achieved through individual effort and choice.
The Multiplicity of Statuses and Roles: Each person occupies a large number of statuses in society and
is expected to perform the roles associated with them. But people select the roles they consider important.
In other words, there is a relationship between a person’s self-image and the role s/he chooses to play.
Role Conflict: A person performs one role better than another because of his/her personality affect and
learned role imperfectly. Role conflict may also contribute to the problem. Sometimes role conflict exists
within the limits of a single role.

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Types and functions of Rural Organizations
Rural organizations are broadly grouped into formal and informal organizations. Formal organizations are
those , which are set up by an outside agent, for example by a government body or a development agency
(e.g NGO) for some defined purpose; while informal organizations are initiated and set up by local people
themselves out of emerging social, economic, and environmental problems or needs. Ethiopian rural
society is endowed with a variety of important traditional organizations. These organizations are of
different kinds with distinct purposes, functions, membership structures and management. Some are
socio-religious and self-help associations like “Mahber”, “Senbete”, “idir”, others are a kind of labor
exchange parties like “Debo”, “Wonfel”, “Jige”, still others are engaged in keeping harmonize social
relations and solidarity like traditional courts; some are economic ones like “Equb”. The basic functions
of rural organizations are further elaborated as follows:
1. Resource mobilization: Organized rural people can mobilize consider amount of material, money,
labor and even managerial skills. Governments can multiply resources they allocate to rural development
by working through local organizations that have sufficient membership and managerial capacity.
2. Resource Management:- Rural Organizations can keep track of funds, collect loans, maintain
buildings and equipment, operate irrigating structures, repair roads, manage services like schools, health
institutions and ethers and manage natural resources like water, forest , soil and others.
3. Provision of services: well organized and managed rural organizations can provide very necessary
services adequately and efficiently Services include input supply, output marketing, credit, floor mill and
others. Rural organizations know the real needs of members, are less bureaucratic and more controllable,
can provide services on time of a lesser prices, and elicit member commitment and concern.
4. Information exchange: - It is wastage of resources and services that are provided by the government
unless they are appropriate to the intended groups. This requires reliable source of information about the
needs, priorities and capacities of the rural people. Rural organizations can be important and reliable
sources of information as they know well the needs of their members. In such a way they can facilitate
planning, service delivery and serve as feedback channels to governments and other agencies. They can
also provide opportunities for group communication in such scattered settlements and difficult accesses
(transport).
6.2. Social Institutions in Rural Setting (Definition, Concepts and Functionalist View of Rural
Social Institutions)
Social institutions:
Institution is a patterns or habits. Institutions combine a “concept” (doctrine defining patterns of activity
which are socially approved) with a “structure” (instrumentalities which provide the organizational
patterns for the realization of the concept). The structure brings the concept to life and it is this connection
(sparks) across the poles of thought and action that empowers institutions to serve the needs and interests
of associated men (members of society). Mores are transformed into institutions when they are given a
higher degree of definiteness which clearly defines the specific norms, the approved behavior, and the
organizational apparatus which men must uniformly and consistently adhere to in the daily business of
satisfying their vital needs and interests.
The following institutions have become basic to the society.
I. Family: Every society develops a social arrangement to legitimize (authorize) mating and the care and
socializing of the young. Kinship group linked by blood and marriage and occupying a common
household. As an institution provides for protection, care and nature of children. Household refers to all
persons occupying the same house.

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ii. Education: The young must also be inducted into the culture and taught the necessary values and
skills. In simple societies this is accomplished largely within the kinship system, but in modern societies a
separate system of education develops. It is way of transmitting the socially approved cultural heritage of
any society from one generation to another and established for knowledge, skills and society acceptable
attitudes.
iii. Economy/occupation: Every society organizes its population to work, to produce, and to distribute
material goods. It deals with economic and property relations and provides basic physiological needs of
the body- food, shelter and clothing (provides farming and industry.)
iv. Polity: Every society develops a governing system of power and authority, which ensures social
control within a system of rights and rules, protects and guarantees established interests, and mediates
among conflicting groups. It concerned with social control with politics and law government, the police,
court, etc. and provides law orders, settlement of disputes, administration affairs.
v. Religion and Science: Religion gave cultural expression in symbol and rite to the sense of the sacred.
It concerned with the supernatural magic and religion; prescribes prayers and worship as a part of relation
with God. Science claims to possess the only valid knowledge, and which then legitimizes a wide range
of practices and actions in modern society.
Characteristics of Social Institutions
Social institutions exhibit the following characteristics
Durability: the members of each generation maintain ties with both the past and the future through their
parents and their children.
Dynamism and Constant Change: People are not totally conforming but act as individuals. Societal
members both follow institutional patterns, and continually create new patterns.
Pattern Maintenance: Besides helping individuals satisfy some of their basic needs, institutions also
provide the cement that holds society together. If individual lived his own way and did only his “own
thing”, we would soon face utter chaos. Without some means of steady support, parents might abandon
their infants or let them die. Institutions enable societies to keep functioning and they are foundations, or
pillars of society.
Interdependence: the child first learns about the value of making a good living, about the necessity for
order, about religious principles, and about educational goals in the family setting. The family institution
supports the other institutions, and is in turn supported by them.
Institutions are mere abstract concepts of organized habits and standard ways of doing things. We
cannot see institutions. What we can see are families, schools, banks, churches, prisons, mental hospitals.
But these would be nothing but empty symbols without one vital ingredient: individuals. The behavior of
individuals gives institutions their form. And institutions give form to individual behavior.
Importance of institutions: Provide means of fulfilling the human needs. Organize and regulate the
system of social behavior; Institution simplifies actions for the individuals. Contribute to a system and
order in society. Institutions assign roles and statuses to the individual; means of regulating and
controlling man’s activities
Functionalist View of Social Institutions
Social institutions fulfill the following essential functions:
Replacing Personnel: replace personnel when they die, leave or incapacitated;
Teaching New Recruits: finding or producing new members is not sufficient; the group or society must
also encourage recruits to learn and accept its values and customs;

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Producing and Distributing Goods and Services: provide and distribute desired goods and services to
its members. Each society establishes a set of rules for the allocation of financial and other resources.
Preserving Order: This is a critical function of every group or society-preserving order and protecting
itself from attack;
Providing and Maintaining a Sense of Purpose: People must feel motivated to continue as members of
a group or society in order to fulfill the previous four requirements.
Chapter Seven: Social Stratification in Rural Setting
7.1Definition/Meaning and Concepts of Social Stratification
Social stratification is the outcomes of social processes. Every society is segmented in to different
hierarchies. Social stratification is the segmentation of society into different hierarchical arrangement or
strata. It is the differences and inequalities in the socioeconomic life of people in a given society. It
represents the ranking of individuals or social positions and statuses in the social structure. It is the
hierarchical arrangement of people into different classes or strata which is the division of a population
into two or more layers, each of which is relatively homogenous, between which there are differences in
privileges, restrictions, rewards and obligations.
Society ranks its members into various social classes or hierarchy on the basis of wealth, birth, status etc.
The structured hierarchy, or social strata, that exist in a society is supported by social values and belief
systems and it results in inequalities of valued resources (wealth, social opportunities, power, etc.)
between groups or categories of people. Inequality is the degree of disparity of this distribution within
society.
This impact us (both materially and no materially) on access to health treatment, way if life, quality
education and how we divide responsibilities.
7.2. Types of Stratification Systems/ Forms of Social Stratification
Among the common systems of stratification: slavery, castes, estates, and social classes. Any
stratification system may include elements of more than one type. To understand these systems better, it
may be helpful to review the distinction between ascribed status and achieved status. Ascribed status is a
social position assigned to a person without regard for that person’s unique talents or characteristics. In
contrast, achieved status is a social position attained by a person largely through his or her own efforts.
Slavery: What distinguishes this oppressive system of stratification is that enslaved individuals are owned
by other people who treat these human beings as property, just as if they were household pets or
appliances.
Estates: was associated with feudal societies during the Middle Ages. The estate system, or feudalism,
required peasants to work land leased to them by nobles in exchange for military protection and other
services.
Social Class: Social classes are groups of people who are stratified into different categories. It is a
category or level of people found in similar positions in the social hierarchy. The criteria or the bases for
dividing people in a given society into different social classes may include wealth, occupation, education,
sex, family background, religion, income etc. Social class is characterized as an open and flexible system.
It is social stratification is based on a combination of ascribed and achieved statuses. On the contrary, in
classless societies there is no economic strata. E.g. hunting and gathering societies.
A class system is a social ranking based primarily on economic position in which achieved characteristics
can influence social mobility. In contrast to slavery and caste systems, the boundaries between classes are
imprecisely defined, and one can move from one stratum, or level, of society to another. Even so, class
systems maintain stable stratification hierarchies and patterns of class divisions, and they too, are marked

20
by unequal distribution of wealth and power. Class standing, though it is achieved, is heavily dependent
on family and ascribed factors, like race and ethnicity.
Cast: is based on religious and other strongly rooted traditional belief that cannot be changed or are very
difficult to change. This is the form of social stratification whereby classification of people into different
strata is made on the basis of usually religious and other very strong conventions/ traditions that are
difficult to change. The features of caste system include: It is a very rigid and closed system; People
belonging to the same stratum practice endogamy; Intermarriage between strata is not permitted; there are
occupational differences between strata; Food sharing, social drinking, friendships, etc., are permitted
only within a stratum, not between strata.
In caste societies a person is located in the social strata by birth rather than individual accomplishments.
E.g. rural area of India, apartheid based on race.
Consequences of Social Stratification on the Lives of Individuals
Social stratification is directly related to the issue of inequality, power imbalance etc. It directly or
indirectly influences the life chances of individuals in the social strata. The different stratification systems
on the basis of age, sex, gender, ethnicity, religion, occupation, etc. directly or indirectly promote unequal
chances of living standards.
The Importance of Studying Social Stratification:
Some of the importance of studying social stratification are: To investigate the class membership of
individuals; to explore the bases for the assignment of individuals into various hierarchies of the social
structure; to understand the relationship between individuals assigned into different hierarchies; to
investigate the relationship between individuals or groups belonging to the same hierarchy and to
understand what type of social system gives rise to what or which types of hierarchies.
7.3. Social Stratification and Social Mobility (Types of social mobility, Democracy and Vertical
Social Mobility)
The different individuals and groups who occupy a certain social position may not remain in that position
permanently. Some may move from one position to another, from higher social class position to lower
social class position, and vice versa. Social mobility implies a set of changes in opportunities, incomes,
lifestyles, personal relationships, social status and ultimately class membership.
Social mobility is a type of movement but it is not physical movement over geographical space although
social mobility could involve, and be brought about by, physical mobility. It is movement in the social
space, the shifting or changing of statuses or class positions. Social mobility is a social process that takes
place among individual members or groups in a society, as they interact with each other. It is a process by
which individuals or groups move from one status to another; or from one class or stratum to another.
Social mobility describes the volume and quality of movement among strata. That is the kind of
movement that people make between the different social classes. The unit of analysis in social mobility
may be an individual, or a social group or a nation.
Social mobility is a movement within the stratification system from one position, or strata, to another.
People may move vertically from a lower to higher or higher to lower class via specific achievements
such as success in economic pursuits, education, political change, or job creation.
Types of Social Mobility
The different types of social mobility are:
Vertical Social Mobility is a type of social mobility that individuals experience when they move from
their social status to other higher or lower social status. It is a radical social change in an individual's
position. It is a movement between different social classes and it involves a change in social position of

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an individual, a family or a group. It may be upward or downward. It is a move from one social status to
other higher or lower social status.
Horizontal/lateral social mobility is movement within a social class or a social position where the
individual slightly improves and/or declines in his social position with in his/ her class level. Unlike
vertical social mobility, it doesn't involve drastic changes. It occurs within a social class or a social
position.
Inter-generational Social Mobility involves the movement up or down, between the social class of one or
two generations of a family, or a social group. It occurs from generation to generation.
Intra-generational mobility concerns individual changes in positions during one's lifetime that occurs
within the lifetime of an individual. It is the change that occurs in social groups or a country’s
socioeconomic position over a specified period of time. It may be upward or downward social mobility.
There is climbing up the social ladder until s/he becomes a member of privileged social and economic
position. Others may happen to lose their once prestigious socio-economic position and as a result move
down until they end up in destitution.
Positional mobility is movement that occurs due to individual effort
Avenues of Social Mobility
The avenues of social mobility are the doors through which a person moves upward in the social
hierarchy. The major avenue to social mobility in most modern societies is access to appropriate modern
education. Change of profession/ occupation and geographical mobility are also avenues. There are also
some sudden or short cut avenues to social mobility. These include windfall gains in terms of inheritance,
gambling, theft or financial corruption, winning a lottery game, etc. The opportunities for upward social
mobility are great in modern societies which have open systems. In such societies, there is freedom of
vertical social mobility and any member of a society may move up or down the social hierarchy. There
are no legal and/or traditional restrictions that are put on social mobility on either direction. What count a
lot are personal merits, competitions and efforts for achievement. On the other hand, in societies with
closed system vertical, especially upward, is very difficult. In such societies, individuals born to a certain
social position remain within that category for their lifetime. The most important determinants here are
not individual's achievements, merits or personal effort, but what counts most are one's ancestry, racial
background, family background, religion, sex, ethnicity, etc.
Barriers to Upward Social Mobility
These are factors that make it difficult to individual families or groups to move from one status position
to another. Such barriers may include various social, psychological, cultural, economic, political and
other related factors like lack of opportunity, motivation, commitment, interest, or positive attitude,
physical condition, , lack of access to an appropriate modern education; inequality in the distribution of
inherited wealth; one's color or ethnic origin, religion, etc.
7.4. Social Power and Stratification
Social power refers to degree of influence that an individual or organization has among their peers and
within their society as a whole. Social power has two aspects:
The ability to influence others so as to fulfill our own interests or desires.
The ability to resist the activities of others.
Democratic societies are built on some form of power, and this power typically resides within the
government.
Power difference is one of the most important source of stratification in rural society.
Men have more power and prestige than women in most societies.

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Rich people have more power than poor ones.
Legitimate power, power given to individuals willingly by others, is called authority. Illegitimate power,
power taken by force or the threat of force, is called coercion
The functionalist conception of power sees power as a positive resource and, as such, characterized by
consensus and legitimacy. Power results from the sharing of collective resources in order to achieve
social and cultural goals. If A and B work together, they will both increase their power as well as benefit
society. Power is a functional resource working for the benefit of the social system. It helps maintain
social order and strengthens social solidarity.
Democracy and Vertical Social Mobility
In democratic societies, the social position of an individual, at least theoretically, is not determined by
his/her birth; all positions are open to everybody who can get them. There are no judicial or religious
obstacles to climbing or going down. All these facilitate a "greater vertical mobility" in such societies.
7.5. Theories of Social Stratification:
There are various theories of social stratification concerning its importance, origin and value.
Functionalists argue that stratification is necessary to motivate people to fill society’s important positions;
conflict theorists see stratification as a major source of societal tension and conflict. Interactionists stress
the importance of social class in determining a person’s lifestyle.
Functionalist theory: social stratification is functional and purposeful and also essential in any society.
Social stratification is universal, functional, inevitable, and beneficial and something which can't be
avoided.
According to the proponents of the functionalist theory, segments or hierarchies and social inequalities
exist in all societies. Their main argument is that social stratification is functional and purposeful and also
essential in any society. They deal with that no society is classless or not stratified and social stratification
is universally necessary. Social stratification in short is universal, functional, inevitable, and beneficial
and something which can't be avoided.
Conflict Theory: On the other hand the proponents of the conflict theory of social stratification also
accept the fact that social inequality exists in every society. But they do not believe that social
stratification is functional. According to conflict theorists, it is the way of oppressing one group of people
by another.
Social inequality exists in every society, but they do not believe that social stratification is functional. It is
the way of oppressing one group of people by another.
Chapter Eight: Culture and Society in Rural Setting
8.1. Culture: Definition and Concepts
Sociologists and other behavior scientists use the word culture as a basic concept to classify, describe and
explain a great number of objects, thoughts, feelings, and actions that are produced by human individuals
especially when they interact. This popular usage of culture makes the concept into a value judgment.
Culture is the sum of human activities and achievements. It is the way of life of any society. Culture is the
language, norms, values, beliefs, knowledge, and symbols that make up a way of life. It is the
understanding of how to act that people share with one another in any stable, self-reproducing group.
8.2. Elements of Culture (Material and Non-Material Culture
Material Culture: culture consists of all the physical objects, or artifacts, that people make and attach
meaning to-books, clothing, schools, churches, and guided missiles, to name just a few.

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 Non-material Culture: Consists of human creations that are not embodied in physical objects-values,
norms, knowledge, systems of government, the language we speak, and so on. Nonmaterial culture
consists of elements termed norms, values, beliefs and language.
Culture includes elements that make up the essence of a society or a social group.
Symbols: Symbols are the central components of culture. Symbols are words, objects, gestures, sounds or
images that represent something else rather than themselves in the sense that there is no obvious natural
or necessary connection between a symbol and what it symbolizes.
Language: Language- a system of verbal and in many cases written symbols with rules about how those
symbols can be strung together to convey more complex meanings. It is the distinctive capacity and
possession of humans. Through language, culture is communicated and transmitted. Without language it
would be impossible to develop, elaborate and transmit culture to the future generation.
Values: general, abstract guidelines/road maps for lives, decisions, goals, choices, and actions. They are
shared, dynamic, diversified, and static and learned ideas of a groups or a society as to what is right or
wrong, correct or incorrect, desirable or undesirable, acceptable or unacceptable, ethical or unethical, etc.,
regarding something. They can be positive or negative. Values are dynamic, meaning they change over
time. Some values are universal, which emanate from the basic similarity of mankind.
Norms: implicit principles for social life, relationship and interaction. Norms are detailed and specific
rules for specific situations. They tell us how to do something, what to do, what not to do, when to do it,
why to do it, etc. Norms are derived from values. Social norms divided into two. Mores: Are important
and stronger social norms for existence, safety, well-being and continuity of the society or the group.
They are formal laws of a society or a group in the sense that written and codified social norms. They are
conventions are established rules governing behavior; they are generally accepted ideals by the society.
Conventions may also be regarded as written and signed agreements between nations to govern the
behaviors of individuals, groups and nations. Folkways: Are the ways of life developed by a group of
people. They are detailed and minor instructions, traditions or rules for day-to-day life that help us
function effectively and smoothly as members of a group. Here, violating such kinds of norms may not
result in a serious punishment unlike violating mores. They are less morally binding. In other words,
folkways are appropriate ways of behaving and doing things. Examples may include table etiquette,
dressing rules, walking, talking, etc. Folkways can be Fashion: Is a form of behavior that is socially
approved at a given time but subject to periodic change. Custom: Is a folkway or form of social behavior
that, having persisted a long period of time, has become traditional and well established in a society and
has received some degree of formal recognition.
8.3. Special Features of Culture/ Basic Characteristics of Culture
1. Culture is organic and supra-organic: It is organic- there is no culture without human society. It is
supra organic- it is far beyond any individual lifetime. Individuals come and go, but culture remains and
persists.
2. Culture is overt and covert: Material culture consists of any tangible human made objects such as
tools, automobiles, buildings, food, dress, etc. Non material culture consists of any non-physical aspects
like language, belief, ideas, knowledge, attitude, values, etc.
3. Culture is explicit and implicit: It is explicit when actions can be explained and described easily by
those who perform them. It is implicit when actions are unable to explain them, yet we believe them to be
so.
4. Culture is ideal and manifest (actual): Ideal culture involves the way people ought to behave or what
they ought to do. Manifest culture involves what people actually do.

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5. Culture is stable and yet changing: Culture is stable- what people hold valuable and are handing
over to the next generation in order to maintain their norms and values. However, when culture comes
into contact with other cultures, it can change. However, culture changes not only because of direct or
indirect contact between cultures, but also through innovation and adaptation to new circumstances.
6. Culture is shared and learned: Culture is shared- the public property of a social group of people.
Individuals get cultural knowledge of the group through socialization. However, we should note that all
things shared among people might not be cultural, as there are many biological attributes which people
share among themselves.
7. Culture is symbolic: It is based on the purposeful creation and usage of symbols; it is exclusive to
humans. Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans and to culture and that symbols/ anything to
which people attach meaning are the central components of culture.
Relationship between Culture, personality and society
Human life and society almost go together. No one can live isolated in a society. Without society there is
no social life and without individual there is no society. It was Aristotle who said long back that man is a
social animal. Solitary life is unbearable for man. An individual, when is isolated from the society will
not be a human being. In order to become a social being, man must acquire those habits, beliefs,
knowledge, attitudes and sentiments as a result of his/her association with other persons who possess
these attributes.
Individual and Society
It is a self-obvious fact man has not only a capacity for social life but also an intrinsic need of it.
Emotional development, intellectual maturity and a certain amount of material goods and comfort for the
full exercise of his liberty and progress are unthinkable without society. No human being is known to
have normally developed in isolation. A person can attain his/her real nature only in society because the
biological potentiality of becoming social is inherent in the very social nature of man.
The relationship between society and individual is real and characterized by mutual dependence or
interdependence. They are the part of single phenomenon. Human nature develops in man only when
he/she lives in society only when he/she shares a common life with his/her fellow beings. Man lives in
society because necessity compels him/her to do so. Many of his needs will remain unsatisfied if he/she
does not have the co-operation of his/her beings. And every individual is the offspring of a social
relationship established between man and woman. The need for self-preservation, which is felt by every
being, makes a man social. After all, society determines personality. Society preserves our culture and
transmits of to the succeeding generations. The cultural heritage directs our personality. Man requires
society as a necessary being, and individual and society are interdependent.
Culture and Personality
Personality is the subjective aspect of culture. Personality and culture are the two sides of the same coin.
The traditions, customs, mores, religious institutions, moral and social standards of a group affect the
personality of the members of the group. The attitudes of an individual are also very much influenced by
culture. It is as a result of cultural values that an individual is able to determine what is right and what is
wrong. Hence culture plays an important role in the development of the personality of the individual.
Personality is a complex of dynamic system that includes all of an individual’s behavioral and emotional
traits, attitudes, values, beliefs, habits, goals and so on. To understand why humans behave as they do, it
is necessary to view them in their physical and social environment; their cultural structure and from the
point of view how biological, psychological and social factors affect them. Some specific influences of

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cultural traits on personality are: Culture influences biological and sexual behavior, sentiments and
emotions, abnormal behavior of individuals, perception and fantasy and unconscious process.
Culture and Socialization
Every society prescribes its own ways and means of giving social training to its new born members so
that they may develop their own personality. This social training is called socialization. The mutual
interplay of culture and socialization in conditioning human personality is more important. Man is not
only social but also cultural. The process of socialization is conditioned by culture. Since every society
has its own culture the way of the process of socialization also differs from society to society. Further, the
same culture and the same ways of socialization may have diverse effects on the development of the
personality of the members of the same society.
Culture and socialization are very much interrelated. Culture refers to the social heritage of a group of
people. It consists of the shared behavior, beliefs and material objects belonging to society or part of a
society. It is more or less organized and persistent patterns of habits, attitudes and values which are
transmitted from generation to generation. Socialization can be understood as all experiences by which
the newly arrived young members learn the culture of the society. Culture not only conditions the process
of socialization but also has an impact on the formation of personality. In fact, it is mainly through the
process of socialization that a child develops a personality in a cultural context. Different cultures provide
for different ways of socialization. These ways of socialization have their own impact in the formation of
personality.
8.4. Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
Ethnocentrism: is the tendency to view one's own culture as superior and to apply one's own cultural
values in judging the behavior and beliefs of people raised in other cultures. Ethnocentrism is a cultural
universal. People everywhere think that the familiar explanations, opinions, and customs are true, right,
proper, and moral. They regard different behavior as strange and immoral. It tried applying own cultural
values to judge the behavior and beliefs of people of other culture.
Ethnic diversity leads to positive group interaction or co-existence or conflict. Conflict will lead to
ethnocentrism.
Cultural Relativism: The argument that behavior in a particular culture should not be judged by the
standards of another. At its most extreme, cultural relativism argues that there is no superior,
international, or universal morality, that the moral and ethical rules of all cultures deserve equal respect.
Opposite of ethnocentrism, it stated that no standing other cultures not from one’s own cultural standard
but in the context of that culture only. It is neutral and objective because no universal cultural or moral
standard by which actions and beliefs have to be judged.
Mechanisms of Cultural Change
1. Acculturation: is one of the mechanisms of cultural change. It occurs when groups of different culture
have a continuous contact. Acculturation is the acquisition of new cultural traits by individuals or groups
and the use of these in their new patterns of living.
2. Globalization: globalization is the other factor for cultural change. Globalization is the worldwide
integration of government policies, cultures, social movements, and financial markets through trade and
the exchange of ideas. It is a process that integrates peoples of different culture and facilitates the process
of interaction among people through electronic media as well as fast transport means.
3. Independent Inventory: It is a process by which humans innovate, creatively finding new solutions to
old and new problems. Innovation is the process of introducing a new idea or object to a culture is known
as innovation. The automobile, and the television are all examples of inventions.

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4. Cultural Convergence: cultural convergence, or convergent cultural evolution, refers to the
development of similar traits, institutions, and behavior patterns by separate groups as a result of
adaptation to similar environment
Society:
Society can be defined as the largest group of people who share a common culture as a result of
interacting on regular and continuous basis according to agreed behavior and those inhabiting a specific
territory. Society differs from many other kinds of groups because within society people live common
life. Society is not an organization limited to a specific purpose as, rather it is the most
self-sufficient/independence group based on the techniques developed for fulfilling the needs of its
members. Society is the interrelated network of social relationships that exists within the boundaries of
the largest social system. This definition of society stresses social relationships or interaction, rather than
individuals.
Every society organizes representative groups and positions to which it gives power of making decisions
and settling conflicts. Each society requires that its members feel greater loyalty to it than any other
group. Such loyalty is possible partly because the members share a language and a culture uniquely their
own.
Features of a Society
The features of a society are not exhaustive and they may not apply to all societies. The basic features of
society are: society is a relatively large grouping of people in terms of size. It is the largest and the most
complex social group that sociologists study. Its members share common and distinct culture at a definite,
limited space or territory by which the people who make up a society have the feeling of identity, oneness
and belongingness. Members of a society are considered to have a common origin and common historical
experience with common destiny and speak a common major language. A society is autonomous and
independent in the sense that it has all the necessary social institutions and organizational arrangements to
sustain the system. However, a society is not an island, in the sense that societies are interdependent.
There has always been inter– societal relations. People interact socially, economically and politically.
Types of Societies: Classification of Society
Sociologists classify societies into various categories depending on certain criteria. According to the
economic and technological development attained by countries, society can be categorized as First
World- industrially advanced and economically rich countries; Second World -countries industrially
advanced but not as much as the first category and Third World/developing- are thus which are least
developed, or in the process of developing. Another important criterion for classifying societies is their
chief mode of subsistence (the way they provide their members with food, shelter and clothing).
The Hunting and Gathering Society: This the earliest and least complex society formed by people
thousands of years ago. This society depends on hunting and gathering for its survival. This kind of
society is characterized by: small nomadic population, with an uncomplicated technology; No division of
labor or any kind of specialization, and particular stress on the importance of kinship ties.
The Horticultural Society: This is the second simplest society which appeared after people discovered
how to cultivate grains whose economy is based on cultivating plants by the use of simple tools, such as
digging sticks, hoes, axes, etc. . In this society, the cultivation of wheat, rice and other grains was the
chief means of sustenance. Hunting and gathering were secondary. In this kind of society, domestic
materials first appeared, and tools were more sophisticated than those of hunters and food gatherers. The
horticultural society contained reasonably large, settled communities, developed the basics of trade; and
produced for the first time, a surplus that had the consequences of dividing members of the society into

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social classes. The production of surpluses, or extra supplies of food, laid the foundation for social
inequality, a condition that has existed in all later societies. Surpluses eventually led to a situation in
which some people were rich and others poor, some led and others followed, and so on.
The Agrarian Society: This society, which still is dominant in most parts of the world, is based on large-
scale agriculture, which largely depends on ploughs using animal labor. In this type of society, even
greater surpluses were produced, and people no longer had to move about to search for fertile soils.
People became more differentiated into land holders and landless peasants, and social stratification
deepened. To maintain the system and to oversee the increasingly complex economy, members of the
society developed a bureaucracy. The agrarian society also developed the initial stages of a money
economy, gunpowder, iron smelting, and the use of windmills as a source of power.
Industrial Societies: An industrial society is one in which goods are produced by machines powered by
fuels instead of by animal and human energy. Such societies are characterized by urbanization, massive
mechanization and automation, complex bureaucratization, separation of institutional forms and the
substitution of impersonal ties for kinship ties.
Post-industrial society: This is a society based on information, services and high technology, rather than
on raw materials and manufacturing.
The Reality of Society and individuals
As individuals, we may worry less about collective survival, more about our own individual fate, but our
personal destiny for good or bad is thoroughly tied into the social organization of our society because we
are individually dependent upon the complex social organization needed to sustain life at new levels of
material living. Society as a separate and independent group creates us and then controls and constrains
us. However, society does not exist without individuals. Society and person, then, are “interdependent”,
neither exists without the other. Society is humanly created and as a result it is human efforts, collective
and organized that society changes. Complex changes in society may alter the pattern of our own lives
and force on us new decisions and choices.
Society and Nature
Through modern technology, humans are able to harness and control the forces of nature in many ways.
We mine the earth for coal and minerals, extract gas and oil from deep within the ground, change the
course of rivers and dam them to create great bodies of water, change arid land into fertile soil by
irrigation, domesticate wildlife, and in so many ways turn the natural environment to our own use.
Despite these, there is a necessity for us to live some kind of sensible relation with nature, and for society
to strike a balance with nature. Otherwise, the destruction of nature will be the destruction of society.
Chapter Nine: Social Change
9.1. The concept of Social Change
Society is subject to constant changes. Social change has occurred in all societies and at all times. The
structures of cultures and societies transform into new forms. Social change in the rural area is slower. In
the process of social change, both material and non-material part of cultures are changing continuously.
The material part of culture is changing because of inventions and discoveries of new instruments.
Change in the material product reacts with changes in the non-material aspects of life like norms, values,
customs etc. Social change is the result of changes in the bonds of morality. These bonds he called ‘social
solidarity’ (Emile Durkheim). Nonmaterial cultures change slower than material part of culture. Social
control: the way that society controls the activities of individual members which can bring social
conformity and social solidarity. Education bring about social change through modification of cultural
heritage and development of new knowledge skills, arts and artifacts.

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 Social change is the alteration or transformation at large scale level in the social structure, social
institutions, social organization and patterns of social behavior in a given society or social system. It is the
alteration, rearrangement or total replacement of phenomena, activities, values or processes through time
in a society in a succession of events. Sometimes it may mean the complete wiping out of the
phenomenon and their total replacement by new forms. Some minor changes that take place in the lives of
individuals and small, limited groups may not be regarded as social changes although these kinds of
changes may be the manifestations or effects of changes that are taking place at larger scale. Changes in
the material and non- material contents of a culture also may not be regarded as social changes. However,
it is very difficult to separate social changes from cultural change. Because the two are usually
interdependent, social change may usually introduce cultural changes, and vice versa.
Social change implies an alteration in the existing social order resulting from internal or external forces,
such as technological, economic, or political changes. It refers to change in the structure and social
relationships of the society. It refers to making things different. It is the alteration of patterns of culture,
social structure and social behavior overtime.
Some of the basic characteristics of social change are: Social change occurs all the time; Its process may
be imperceptible and can be cumulative; there is no society that is static and unchanging; Change occurs
both at micro-level and macro level; the influence of change in one area can have an impact on other
related areas and social change has a rate; it can be rapid or slow.
9.2. Types of Rural Social Change
Many types of social change are noticeable in the lives of the rural population of the developing countries
like Ethiopia. The various types of such changes are as follows:
Economic change: Rural areas of the developing world had undergone some degree of economic change
particularly during the post-independence era. E.g. roads construction to link rural with urban areas;
changes in the processing, storage and distribution of goods. …. But slow and not well organized in
developing countries’ rural area.
Political change: This is the change in the distribution and operation of social and political power.
Distributions and operating mechanisms of social and political power within the social system. Change in
Ruling pattern.
Technological change: This is the continuous process of change within the technical materials and
physical practices and objects in a society. Change within technical material and physical practices in a
culture. E.g. Transportation, education, communication, health
Cultural change: Culture consists of material and non-material aspects. Cultural change is therefore
alterations in the non-material and artifacts of the society. Cultural change is interactions in the non-
materials and artifacts of the society. Aluminum cooking pots instead of clay pots; watches to observe
time instead of observing the position of the sun and relying on cock crow.
Behavioral change: This includes favorable change in the knowledge, skill and attitude of people
as a result of their exposures to educational experiences. Change in the knowledge, skill, and attitude of
people as a result of their exposures to educational experiences; Improvements in knowledge of crop and
livestock pest and disease control measures, higher yielding crop varieties, better spacing of crops,
weeding, cultivation, harvesting storage and marketing
Policy reforms, climate changes, globalization, disease, education, natural disasters such as earthquake,
flood, famine, drought, he discovering of natural resources such as, minerals, petroleum, etc. have their
own implications in social change process.
9.3. Barriers to Rural Social Change/Factors That Facilitate and Hinder Positive Social Change

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The various factors that promote or hinder social change may be generally categorized as socio-cultural,
psychosocial, economic, natural, demographic, political, and so on. Natural factors may include climate
changes, the discovering of natural resources such as, minerals, petroleum, etc., are those which are
considered as having positive effects on society. Other natural factors are natural disasters such as
earthquake, flood, famine, drought, and pestilence and so on. The emergence of HIV /AIDS as pestilence
is for example having great effects on the social arrangement and organization of societies. Demographic
factors-migration, urbanization, population growth, etc., are also important ones in bringing about socio-
cultural change. Political factors such as planned change by government, change of state ideology, etc.,
are also important. Other factors such as war, scientific invention and discoveries, diffusion of non-
material and material elements of culture through education and trade relations, etc., also promote social
change. The psychosocial factors like beliefs, vested interests, sacred values, attitudes, resistance to
change or to accept and entertain new things and intending to maintain the status quo are also very
important forces.
The main barriers to rural social change are mainly cultural, social and psychological.
1. Cultural Barriers to change: The values and attitudes of a culture - as embodied in its tradition-
determine how receptive it is to change. Some cultures view change with skepticism; others with
excitement.
2. Social Barriers to Change: There are four main factors here. First, we must recognize the primacy of
some key social units in many cultures: the family, the kinship, the friendship group, the old school-tie
group, etc. Within these groups, there are mutual obligations and reciprocal relationships. Second, the
rural community may be traditionally split into factions. Attitudes to genuinely useful innovations come
to be defined in terms of the roles of leaders and members of the factions in the promotion of the
package. The third problem has to do with locating the centers of authority within the rural community as
these relate to decision making as to whether or not to adopt a particular innovation package.
The fourth problem arises from the presence of rigid social classes, a problem that is particularly
serious in India and other South East Asian countries. The rigid class differentiation (e.g. caste system)
inhibits the free flow of ideas across all strata of society, more so where the distribution of political
power is also along class lines.
3. Psychological Barriers to Change: There are three main problems here. First is the problem of
differential interpretation and/or perception of an innovation. The second main psychological problem
has to do with communication difficulties. This is particularly serious in the multi-ethnic societies of
Africa. The third and last main problem in this area has to do with learning problem themselves.
Under what conditions will rural people successfully learn to adopt change? First, the learner must have no
resource constraints to learning. Second, there must be an opportunity for the learner to experiment
initially without any undue financial commitment. Third, the agent of change - the teacher must be
continuously physically present especially during the “learning process”.
9.4. Dimensions of Social Change
There are three important dimensions of social change.
1. The Structural Dimension: refers to changes in the structural forms of society involving changes in
roles, class structure, and in social institutions such as the family, the government, the school or
educational systems.
2. The Cultural Dimension: refers to changes that take place in the culture of society such as through
invention, new technology contact with other cultures involving diffusion and cultural borrowing.

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3. The Interactional Dimension: refers to changes in social relations in society. Modification and
changes in structure of the components of society together with alteration of its culture bring about
changes in social relations. For example, social change in a village as a result of introduction of television
can be analyzed in terms of variations of frequency of social contacts and relations within the village.
9.5. Sources of social change
Sources of social change are factors, events or systems that may lead to a change. Urbanization,
application of science and technology, religious institutions, natural physical forces, government policies
can be sources of change and brought in to action through the following mechanisms.
Invention: recombination of existing cultural traits to fashion new things, which directly related to the
existing cultural base;
Discovery: perception of a fact, object or relationship which has always existed but was not known to
enhance the cultural base in a society and thus the rate of invention.
Diffusion: spread of cultural traits from one group to another. Cultural diffusion takes place both at the
material and non-material levels.
The following factors are other important sources of social change in a given society:
1. The Physical Environment: Some physical environments have their own effects on social
change. Isolated places, places at geographic crossroads, earth quakes, floods, droughts etc. will
change the social situation of these people.
2. Population: Any significant increase or decrease in population size or growth rates may affect or
even disrupt social change. For example, high population growth rate may lead to mass migration,
cultural diffusion, and sometimes war as migrants invade other territories. It may lead to social
disorganization.
3. Events: refers to random, unpredictable happenings that affect the course of the social change.
Some events lead to a drastic social change. Revolutions are good examples. For example, in
Ethiopia, following the 1974 revolution, the feudal system was abolished and land was proclaimed to
be the property of the tiller but soon a political turmoil happened that led to the red terror.
4. Cultural Innovation: changes in a society's culture tend to involve social changes as well. There
are three distinct sources of cultural innovation: discovery, invention, and diffusion.
5. Human Action: Two types of human action are particularly important. The acts of powerful
leaders and other individuals and the social movements and collective behavior of large number of
people.
6. Technology: The practical application of scientific or other knowledge is a major source of social
change. You can simply look around you to see how your way of life and social behavior are
influenced by various technologies ranging from kitchen utensils to automobiles, telephone and other
media.
9.6. Rate of Social Change
The rate of social change in a given culture or society is affected by the following eleven important
factors:
1. The Intellectual Ability of the Society: Without being endowed substantially with mental
ability, a society cannot be inventive. High intellectual ability of the society means fast social change.
2. The Demand of the Society for Change: Demand means socially perceived needs that may
build to the point where much of the society’s energies are diverted to the satisfaction of these needs.
High demand of the society means fast social change.

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 3. Existing Knowledge of the Society: Inventions are dependent on the state of knowledge,
techniques, and skills in a society.
4. Physical Environmental Factors: These include climatic changes, winds, soil erosion, floods,
landslides and earthquakes, etc. which may drastically change the way of life of a people.
5. Migration and Population Changes: The movement of people from one place to another
brings them in contact with new cultural traits prevalent in other areas. Therefore social and cultural
changes are greater in societies where there is constant emigration and immigration.
6. The Culture and Structure of Society: When specific cultural traits become tightly inter-woven
with others in a mutually interdependent manner, change in that direction becomes almost impossible.
7. Prevailing Attitudes and Values: A society that changes rapidly is one in which its members are
critical and skeptical of aspects of its traditional culture and are ready to accommodate and
experiment with new ideas.
8. The Emergence of Great Men and Women: Occasionally, great men and women appear in
some societies-i.e. men and women with a mission and vision, strong willed men and women. The
emergence of such men and women may cause a great deal of change within the society.
9. Perceived Needs: The types of changes which a society emphasizes are determined by the need it
perceives.
10. Relative Isolation and Contact: Societies which have close contact with other societies change
more rapidly than those that are isolated.
11. Cultural Base: This refers to the accumulated knowledge, techniques and trait in a culture.
As knowledge techniques and traits accumulate, an increasing number of inventions become possible
within the society.
9.7. Theories of Social Change
Theories of social change have generally been concerned with the direction of change and the manner in
which change occur. Some of the theories of social change are
Structural Functionalist Theory: This theory states that social change takes place as the diversification
and division of labor increases in the social system of a given society. Structural functionalists focus on
the cohesion, order and stability of social system. Change disrupts the orderly functioning of the system.
Structural- functionalist theory focuses on the effect of social change on the structure of society, the
function and dysfunction of change, stability and equilibrium of the social system. When change takes
place, it affects the order and equilibrium of the social system and thus the system has to bring itself back
to the equilibrium, to smooth functioning of the system.
Conflict Theory: This theory states that social change takes place due to the ever-present class conflicts
in the social system for the better or worse. According to this theory, thus, social change is the result of
social conflicts and is essential and beneficial. Every social system contains within itself the seeds of
change as far as it is a system wherein exploitation of one group by another exists. Social change
continues to become inevitable until a classless society emerges, one in which conflicts cease to exist.
Cyclic Theory: This theory states that society undergoes change in circular manner. Social change takes a
cyclic form, from worse to better, back again from better to worse. Social change is not always for the
better. Societies may grow, advance, and reach peak stage of development, and then they may stagnate
and finally collapse, with the potential for rising again.
Linear Theory: This theory states that change takes place in a linear manner. The direction of social
change is from worse to better, simple to complex and backward to modern. In other words, according to

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linear theory, social change is evolutionary; it is always towards the better way until perfection is
achieved.
Modernization Theory: This theory of social change may be regarded as an extension of linear,
evolutionary theory. It states that the change that is being experienced by most Third World societies is
by imitating or copying the values, experiences and models of already modernized societies. It is by
adopting; assimilating and internalizing those aspects of the industrialized societies which if copied would
bring about an improved social, economic and political development to the society.
9.8. Approaches to Social Change
With regard to the nature of social change, two approaches are prevalent in the literature.
There are two approaches to social change:
1. Episodic Change: The episodic approach assumes that change starts at some point, proceeds through a
series of steps and culminates in some outcome that those involved hope is an improvement over the
starting point. When change is seen as an episodic activity, it has a beginning, middle and an end. In
planned organizational change and in many organizations, change is perceived in an episodic fashion as
described above. The episodic approach is challenged as obsolete that applies to a world of certainty and
predictability. Change was understood as an occasional disturbance in a peaceful world.
2. The Ongoing approach: This approach describes change as a natural state and managing change is a
continual process. The stability and predictability perspective do not exist, nor are disruptions in the status
quo only occasional, temporary and followed by a return to an equilibrium state. Managers today face
constant change due to chaos.
9.9. The Social Change Agents (The Stimulants of Social Change, Managing Successful Change:
Planned Change, Action Research: an Aspect of Planned Change)
Despite the fact that human society seems to stick to its traditions, beliefs, customs and cultural patterns,
there is always an undercurrent of change taking place from time to time. Change is inevitable and
universal; it may take place at the expense of human social life and progress. Planned social change is
essentially a social action to bring about positive social change in the community; it is a conscientious,
deliberate and purposeful action to achieve a determined change in the part of a client system.
These are people who are in need of the guidance and professional assistance of change agents. More
specifically, by client system/ target group, we mean an individual, group or community or any larger or
smaller system that are helped by the professionals.
Change agents are persons who are trained to give guidance and assistance to the community, in need of
desired planned social change. They are different forms of agents who work with (in) the community,
helping the community and introducing new useful ideas and innovation for diffusion.
Change agents should be guided by the fundamental guiding principles of the methods of social action or
social work. Whether the change agents work with an individual person, i.e., casework, a social group,
i.e., group work, or community, i.e., community organization, they have to take into account the basic
working principles and approaches. In any case change agents should play their roles as catalysts, leaders,
organizers, researchers, guides, counselors and brokers; and they should carry out their duties in ethically
and professionally appropriate ways. They should also be equipped with appropriate knowledge of
relevant theories, and be sensitive to the client systems culture, social or community situations,
institutional arrangements, ecology, and other dimensions.
Methods of social Action and intervention
Social action is an individual’s, groups, or community’s effort within the framework of social philosophy
and practices that aim at achieving social progress to modify social policies to improve social services. It

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is an active, conscious, well thought effort. It is the systematic, conscientious effort directed at
influencing the basic social condition and policies. It is part and parcel of social service.
Methods of social work are meant to be the ways, the means and techniques through which social
workers and social work agencies carry out their task (activity). The most effective and known methods
of social work are:
i) Working with individuals/ casework: the individual is a case. It is not working for the individual, but
work with the individual
ii) Working with groups: (technique) of sponsoring and working with voluntary social groups facing
certain social problems. The emphasis is treatment of the individual.
iii) Working with communities, or community based work: It involves the process of creating and
maintaining the progressive and more effective adjustment between community resources and community
welfare needs.
The Social Change Agents
Change agents are individuals who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility of managing change
activities. Change agents can be managers or non-managers, employees of the organization or outside
consultants.
The Stimulants of Social Change
There are six stimulants of social change:
1. The changing nature of the work force: Different generations have different values for work.
2. Technology: Changes in technology changes the nature of the work.
3. Economic Shocks: Economic shocks have continued to impose changes on organizations. The
increased price of oil, the high inflation rate and other economic changes instigate social changes
including job orientation, job satisfaction, political preference etc.
4. Social Trends: Consider shifts in the value placed on higher education in general, view on
marriage and divorce.
5. World Politics: The changing nature of the world politics in a fast rate has its own effect in the
social function of a given community. Now a days more concern is given to economic competition and
globalization.
6. Competition: Heightened competition means that established organizations need to defend
themselves against both traditional competitors who develop new products and services and small
entrepreneurial firms with innovative offerings.
Change agents may change many aspects or parts of a group, organization or society. Three of the major
aspects, which change agents do, include the following:
1. Changing structure: Structural issues include division of labor, allocation of authority, and
various organizational designs.
2. Changing Technology: Major technological changes usually involve the introduction of new
equipment, tools or methods, automation, or computerization. Change agents may induce
technological change to change a group, an organization or a society.
3. Changing People: Change agents operate in helping individuals and groups within the
organization to work more effectively. This involves changing the attitudes and behaviors of members
through processes of communication, decision-making and problem solving.
Managing Successful Change (Planned Change)
Planned change is a productive and purposeful activity for change. Planned change is a change activity
that is intentional and goal oriented. The two essential goals of planned change are:

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 1. It seeks to improve the ability of the organizations to adapt to changes in its environment.
2. It seeks to change employee behavior.
Key points in managing change in organization, which can influence the elements of the social system
and help organizations, avoid some of the problems in managing change are the following:
1. A holistic view: Managers must take a holistic view of the organization and the change project.
2. Start Small: Every truly successful system and wide change in large organizations starts small.
3. Secure Top Management Support: The support of top management is essential to the success
of any change effort.
4. Encourage Participation: Problems related to resistance, control and power can be overcome by
broad participation in planning the change.
5. Foster Open Communication: Open communication is an important factor in managing
resistance to change and overcoming information and control problems during transitions.
6. Reward Contributors: Individuals who contribute to the change in any way need to be
rewarded.
Action Research: an Aspect of Planned Change
Action research refers to a change process based on systematic collection of data and the selection of a
change action based on what the analyzed data indicates. Its importance lies in providing a scientific
methodology for managing planned change. The process of action research consists of five steps:
diagnosis, analysis, feedback, action and evaluation.
9.10. Resistance to Social Change and Mechanisms for Overcoming Resistance to Social Change
Resistance to Social Change
Resistance emanates from various sources and it may be for various reasons of which some are
convincing. There are two sources of resistances for change:
1. Individual resistance
A. Habit: It is very difficult to change our habits whenever change come to our organization.
B. Security: People with high need for security are likely to resist change because it threatens their
feeling of safety.
C. Economic Factor: Changes in job tasks or established work routines can change income, which
arouses economic risk.
D. Fear of the Unknown: Changes substitute ambiguity and uncertainty for the known.
E. Selective Information Processing: Individuals shape their world through their perceptions.
2. Organizational Resistance:
Structural Inertia: Organizations have built in mechanisms to produce stability.
Limited Focus of Change: When a limited section of an entire system is changed it tends to get
notified by the larger system.
Group Inertia: Group norms may act as constraint.
Threats to Expertise: Changes in organizational patterns may threaten the expertise of specialized
groups and hence they may resist change.
Threats to Established Power relationships: any redistribution of decision-making authority can
threaten long-established power relationships within the organization.
Threats to Established Resource Allocation: Group of the organization that control sizable
resources offense change as a threat.
Overcoming Resistance to Social Change
There are six tactics suggested for use by the change agents in dealing with resistance to change:

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 Education and Communication: this reduces resistance by informing people the logic of a change.
This tactic basically assumes that the source of resistance lies in misinformation poor communication
or ignorance.
Participation: Participation of people is very important mechanism for overcoming resistance to
social change.
Facilitation and Support: Change agents can offer a range of supportive efforts to reduce fear and
anxiety for change, such as counseling, new skill training, time to think etc.
Negotiation: change agent may exchange something of value for a lessening of resistance by targets.
Manipulation and Cooptation: Manipulation refers to covert influence to attempt where there is
twisting and distorting facts to make them appear more attractive, withholding undesirable information
and creating false rumor to get people or employees accept a change. Cooption on the other hand, is a
form of both manipulation and participation. It seeks to "buy off" the leader of a resistance group by
giving them a key role in the change decision. For example, some ruling parties give nominal power to
opposition leaders for the purpose of cooptation.
Coercion: The application of direct threats or force on resisters. Some examples of coercion are loss
of promotion, negative performance evaluation and a poor letter of recommendation.
Social Pathology
Social problems/ pathologies have existed as long as humans began living in group because they are as
antique as humans themselves.
Pathology is a Greek word composed of pathos and logos together refers to the pathos of society, i.e., the
"social diseases" that affect the normal functioning of society. A problem that is limited only to the level
of an individual person or to only few groups may not be regarded as a social problem. A social
pathology affects society, or its institutions and organizations at large. However, the very term social
problem may mean any problem that has social origins, affecting at least two persons, that goes beyond
mere psychological and physiological levels. Social pathologies are usually the manifestations of the
failure in the social institutions. When an institution fails to address the basic needs of people, social
problems occur.
Some social problems like pollution are universal in their nature-they occur everywhere across all
societies. They may derive from the fundamental similarity of the nature, origin and destiny of all human
societies. However, some of the social problems are local conditions. They are the manifestations of the
specific cultural and ecological settings of a society, as well as the reflections of the socio-historical and
political dimensions of the society.
Social Deviance and Crime
Deviance is behavior that members of a group or society see as violating their norms, but it varies
according to groups, time, place and social situations.
While the psychological explanation of deviance focuses on the personality of individuals, sociological
theories focus on the forces beyond the individual. People learn deviant acts through socialization.
Control theory states that every person is naturally prone to make deviance, but labeling theory states that
behaviors are deviant when and only because people label them as such.
A Survey of Some Social Problems
Ethiopian society is hosting a multiplicity of social problems. The nature, type, intensity and complexity
of the social problems in contemporary Ethiopia are reflections of: The country's long history of
underdevelopment; Socio-cultural backwardness; Poor level of scientific and technological development;
Lack of good governance and political instability; Uncontrollable natural conditions, such as droughts,

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famine, etc.; The mismatch between rapidly growing population and economic development; and
Urbanization and economic growth, among others.
The major social problems in Ethiopia includes Vulnerability to Famine and the Problem of Food
Insecurity; Prostitution; Unemployment; Drug Addiction; Rural to Urban Migration; Population
Explosion and Ecological Degradation; Urbanization and Urban Poverty, etc.

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