What Is Society and Culture?

Society and culture!!!

CHAPTER 1- WHAT IS SOCIETY AND CULTURE?

1.1 Intro to society and culture:

 The concepts:

o The central concern of Society and Culture in stage 6 is the interaction of persons, societies, cultures, environments and time.

o Through understanding the interaction, you will begin to understand yourself, the society and culture around you, and the societies and cultures of others around them.

o We also recognise four other concepts that are vital to society and culture. These are power, authority, gender and technology.

SOCIETY:

o This concept refers to the way people organise themselves. For example, the people who make up Australian society are linked through institutions, media networks and sporting organisations.

CULTURE:

o Culture generally refers to the values, arts, technology, laws and beliefs that bind a society together.

o It may include examples as diverse as artwork, language, literature, tattoos and religions.

PERSONS:

o This refers to individuals who are shaped by their society and culture.

o They develop a social and cultural identity, and learn to communicate and interact with other persons in a society.

o We are all examples of persons interacting in some way with our society.

ENVIRONMENT:

o This can refer to the physical setting of the society, but there are other types of environments such as the social and psychological environment.

o As persons, our attitude to and interaction with our environment can be critical. The development of individual attitudes in the environment can reflect society's shared values.

TIME:

o Time is a constant in all societies and cultures. We choose to measure it in terms of past, present and future.

POWER:

o The easiest way to understand power is to think about what is that allows people to bring others to do the things they may not normally do.

o It involves a capacity to influence others to follow a course of action or point of view they would not otherwise follow.

o A clear example was the policy of Australian Governments to displace and break up indigenous families.

AUTHORITY:

o This is often confused for power, and can actually be thought of as a subtype of power. It is difficult to imagine authority without some degree of power.

o Authority implies a legitimate use of influence and/or persuasion.

o Someone in authority has the accepted right to make decisions, someone in power would make decisions regardless of what those affected by the decisions think.

o Police, for e.g. have authority to act in a particular way in specified situations, such as confronting a rioting crowd or a criminal suspect.

GENDER:

o This concept refers to the socially constructed differences between men and women.

o It doesn't refer to the physical or biological differences between males and females, but rather the value society places on those physical and biological differences.

o It may mean that society accepts males as tough and boisterous, while females are accepted as sensitive and shy.

o These beliefs only have meaning because a society gives them one, not because they are based on facts.

TECHNOLOGY:

o Simply put, technology means the tools that make tasks easier, enhancing the natural ability of persons to perform those tasks.

o For example, the Internet makes communication of information faster and more extensive, and robot machines improve the mass production of motor vehicles.

o Technology is not accessed equally across the world, and countries and companies with access to higher levels of technology are able to produce more products more quickly, and distribute them much more efficiently.

CHAPTER 2- THE SOCIAL AND CULTURAL WORLD:

DEFINITIONS:

o Acculturation: This is the learning process where knowledge is transferred from one culture to another. It may occur when someone comes into direct contact with another culture (such anon a trip) or has secondary contact through the media (such as watching a documentary). It explains phenomena such as Michael Jordan T-shirts being worn in African villages.

o Change: This is an important concept throughout the entire course. You will need to identify how societies and cultures conduct themselves in a way that differs from the way they conducted themselves previously. Change can be referred to as a break with tradition. You must also learn to identify the reasons why change occurs.

o Citizenship: Citizenship can have both a legal and social context. Legally, a citizen is a member of a specific country and entitled to a set of accepted rights and responsibilities. In a social context, citizenship can refer to the way people participate in their community. This may involve a range of activities,

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