Society and Community

Society
It is contended that whenever there is life there is society, because life
means hereditary and, so far as we know, can arise only out of and in the
presence of life. Aristotle (philosopher) had once said ‘Man is a social animal’.
Man never lives alone he needs society for his living, working and to enjoy life.
Man lives in towns, cities, tribes, villages but never alone. Human life and
society always go together. Society has become an essential condition for
human life to arise and to continue.

What is society?
The term society carries a wide variety of meanings. ‘Society’ is derived
from the Latin word ‘socius’ which means companionship or friendship,
companionship means sociability. Society is the totality of human relationships.
It means any self-reproducing human group that occupies a reasonably bounded
territory and has a reasonably distinctive culture and set of social institutions.

Definition:
According to Morris Ginsberg, “A Society is a collection of individuals
united by certain relations or mode of behaviour which mark them off from
others who do not enter into these relations or who differ from them in
behaviour”.
According to Mac Iver, “society is a system of usages and procedures, of
authority and mutual aid, of many groupings and divisions, of controls of human
behaviour and of liberties. This ever-changing complex system we call society. It
is the web of social relationships. And it is always changing”.
Society is usually a relatively large grouping of people in terms of size.
Society may thus be regarded as the largest and the most complex social group
that sociologists study. The most important thing about a society is that its
members share common and distinct culture. This sets it apart from other
population group.
Society we have said, is the changing pattern of social relationship.
Without mutual recognition there is no social relationship, no society. Society
exists only where social beings behave toward one another in ways determined
by their recognition of one another. A sociologist studies both the conditions that
unite and separate human beings. But if there is no sense of community, if there
are no co-operative undertakings by man, there would be no social system, no
society or societies.

Characteristics of Society:
1. Society consists of People: Society is composed of people. Without the
students and teachers there can be no college. Similarly, without people
there can be no society, no social relationships and no social life at all.
2. Mutual interaction and mutual awareness: Society is a group of
people in continuous interaction with each other. It refers to the reciprocal
contact between two or more persons. An individual is a member of
society as long as he engages in relationship with other members of
 society. It means that individuals are in continuous interaction with other
individuals of society. The limits of society are marked by the limits of
social interaction.
Social interaction is made possible because of mutual awareness.
Society is understood as a network of social relationships. But not all
relations are social relations. Social relationship exists only when members
are aware of each other. Society exists only where social beings behave
towards one another in ways determined by their recognition of one
another. Without this awareness there can be no society. A social
relationship thus implies mutual awareness.
3. Society depends on likeness: Likeness refers to the similarities. People
have similarities with regards to their needs, works, aims, ideals, values,
outlook towards life and so on. Society rests on what F.H. Giddings calls
consciousness of kind. Society exists among like beings and likeminded.
4. Society rests on difference too: If men are all alike, their social
relationship would be very much limited. There would be little give and
take, little reciprocity and life would be boring, monotonous and
uninteresting. The culture of society prospers with the differences in
thought, ideas, opinions etc. People pursue different activities because of
the differences in looks, personality, ability, talent, attitude, interest etc.
5. Co-operation and division of labour: Division of labour involves the
assignment to each unit or group a specific share of a common task.
Division of labour and specialisation are the hallmarks of modern complex
society. Division of labour is possible because of co-operation. Society is
based on co-operation. It is the very basis of our social life. As C.H. Cooley
says, “co-operation arises when men realise that they have common
interests”. Co-operation and division of labour have made possible social
solidarity and social cohesion.
6. Society implies interdependence also: Social relationships are
characterised by interdependence. Family the most basic social group for
example is based upon the interdependence of man and woman. One
depends upon the other for the satisfaction of one’s needs. As society
advances, the area of interdependence also grows. Today not only
individuals are interdependent upon one another, but even, communities,
social groups, societies and nations are also interdependent.
7. Society is dynamic: society is not static, it is dynamic: Change is
ever present in society. Changeability is an inherent quality of human
society. No society can ever remain constant for any length of time.
People may born or die, the existing ones may undergo changes to suit
the demands of time or they may give birth to the new ones. Changes
may take place slowly and gradually or suddenly and abruptly.
8. Social control: Society has its own ways and means of controlling the
behaviour of its members. Co-operation no doubt exists in society. But
side by side competitions, conflicts, tensions, revolts, rebellions and
suppressions are there. Clash of economic or political or religious interests
is not uncommon which if neglected could damage the very fabric of
society. They are to be controlled. Society has various formal and informal
means of social control. Informal social control such as customs, traditions,
conventions and folkways, mores, manners and etiquettes and formal
social control like law, legislation, constitution, police, court, army and
other formal means of social control to regulate the behaviour of its
members.
9. Culture: Each society is distinct from the other. Every society is unique
because it has its own way of life called culture. Culture refers to, as
Linton says, the social heritage of man. It includes the whole range of our
life. It includes our attitudes, judgments, morals, values, beliefs, ideas,
ideologies and our institutions: political, legal, economic; our sciences and
philosophies. Culture is the expression of human nature in our ways of
living and thinking, in behaving, and acting as members of society. Culture
and society go together. What distinguishes one society from the other is
culture. Culture is not society but an element of society.
There is yet another attribute on which society depends. It is the
gregarious nature of man. Psychologists like Mc Dougall, says that man is
social because of the basic human instinct called the gregarious instinct.
Gregariousness refers to the tendency of man to live in groups. Man always
lives amidst men. He cannot live without it. This internal nature of man has
forced him to establish social groups and societies and to live in them.
Man is born in society and bred up in society nourished and nurtured in
society. Society liberates the activities of men as well as limits their activities.
It controls their behaviour in countless ways. It shapes our attributes, our
beliefs, our morals and our ideals.
 Community
Community is a term applied to an early settlement, a village, a city, a
tribe or a nation. Wherever the members of any group, small or large, live
together in such a way that they share the basic conditions of a common life,
that group is called community. A community is essentially an area of social
living. It is marked by some degree of social coherence. It includes all social
relationships – social, economic, religious, political and so on. Hence, community
is the total organization of social life within a limited space. Community is a
concentrated settlement of people in a limited territorial area, within which they
satisfy many of their daily needs through a system of interdependent
relationships. A community forms a local geographic and economic unit,
providing many of the primary goods and services for its inhabitants. It also
implies a certain identification of the inhabitants with the geographic area, and
with each other a feeling of sharing common interests and goals and mutual co-
operation.
The etymology of the word community can be traced back to the Latin
word communitas, which means shared in common and public spirit. Hence,
community is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular
characteristic or a likeness in common. Thus, there is no distinct diversity
among them; they share common characteristics such as religion, language,
caste, age, sex, family and kinship, profession, and, residence. Therefore,
homogeneity acts as a core element in a community. Hence, a social group
known as a community is created based on these common characteristics
among these members or people with similar interests. As a result, there can be
communities based on this likeness they share in common with one another.
Moreover, one distinct characteristic of a community is that the members
should essentially reside in the same geographic place to define themselves as
a community in addition to the other similar interests they share. Therefore,
there are different communities within one social unit as well. For example,
within one society there are different communities such as based on the
profession: fishing community, farming community, the business community,
based on gender; homosexual community, based on a caste system; high caste
community and low caste community, etc.
Hence, community members tend to define these common characteristics
they share among each other as rendering a certain identity to them. Thus,
maintaining them is important as it also maintains their identity. For example,
consider the marriage distinctions among some communities: those of a high
caste community do not prefer their member to have a marriage liaison with
someone of a low caste as it destroys their identity. Therefore, every effort in a
community is to avoid differences or conflicts among its members. Thus,
differences and conflicts cannot exist in a community.

Definitions:
For Kingsley Davis, community is the smallest territorial group that can
embrace all aspects of social life”.
 According to Bogardus, “Community is a social group with some degree of
‘we feeling’ and ‘living in a given area’.”
Ginsberg defines community as “a group of social beings living a common
life including all the infinite variety and complexity of relations which result
from that common life which constitutes it”.
According to Parsons, a community is that collectivity the members of which
share a common territorial area as their base of operation for daily activities”.
Community is an all-inclusive term. It includes in itself all our social
relationships. It includes a variety of associations and institutions. Within a
range of community, the members may carry on their economic, religious,
political, educational and other activities. Hence community is the total
organisation of social life within limited space. For example, Village, town,
tribe, city, district.

ELEMENTS OF COMMUNITY: The main bases of community are as

follows:

1. Locality: The residential tie to an area is one characteristic that

distinguishes a community from other groups. A community always occupies a
territorial area. Even a nomad community, a band of gypsies has a locality,
though changing habitation. Most communities are settled and derive from the
conditions of their locality a strong bond of solidarity. People tend to develop
attachment or sentimental identification with the area in which they live
permanently.

2. Community Sentiment: Locality, though a necessary condition, is not

enough to create a community. A community is an area of common living, so
there must be common living with its awareness of sharing a way of life as well
as the common earth. The land the members occupy together is for them much
more than a portion of the earth’s surface- it is their ‘home’, enriched by past
association and present experience. The sense of what they have in common
like memories and traditions, customs and institutions shape and define the
general need of them to live together. Members develop a sense of ‘we-feeling’.
The we-sentiment represents the common interests of the group. It is because
of this sentiment that people react sharply whenever their village, or town or
city is criticized or threatened.
Another feature in community sentiment is that every individual is
conscious of the fact that he has a role to play, his own function to fulfil in his
community. His role may be a farmer, a shop-keeper, a teacher or a student,
and this involves the subordination of an individual to the group. This feeling is
developed by training and habituation in the daily discipline of life.
Closely associated with role-feeling is the individual’s sense of
dependence upon the community as a necessary condition of his own life. This
involves both physical dependence and psychological dependence. The material
wants of an individual are satisfied within the community. Psychologically, the
community is the greater ‘home’ which saves him from the fear of loneliness
and the boredom of isolation.

Other aspects of community:

3. Stability: A community is relatively stable. It is a permanent group life
in a definite place.
 4. Naturalness: Communities are normally established in a natural way.
They are not created by planned efforts. They are spontaneous in their origin
and development.
5. Regulation of relations: Every community develops its own system of
traditions, customs, morals, norms, rules and regulations to regulate the
relations of its members.
6. Size: Community involves the idea of size. It may be big or small. A
small community may be included in a wider community. For instance, a district
as a big community may enclose small communities like villages, towns, cities.
Thus, the term community is used in a relative sense.

Differences between Society and Community

Society is a group of people with a network of relationship and interactions
and culture, interacting with one another while community is a group of people
living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. This is
the basic difference between society and community. Some of the differences
between Society and Community can be examined from the following points:

People: The members of a society are diverse since it consists of many

different communities while the members in a community necessarily share
common characteristics among each other.

Interactions: Interactions among members is a core element in society

since it determines the connection between vast networks of people whereas
interactions among members in a community happen involuntarily since these
people share many things in common.

Diversity: There is a high diversity among the society members; hence, it is

heterogeneous. Conversely, there is minimum diversity among those in a
community; hence, it is rather homogenous. This is another difference between
society and community.

Size: Size is a major difference between society and community. Comparatively,

a community is smaller than society, and society is larger than a community.

Locality: In a society, locality is not defined, and it is not an essential element

to shape a society. For a community, definite locality becomes an essential
factor, and it provides a definite shape to the community.

Conclusion
Society and community are two basic elements in sociology. They are,
therefore, inter-related concepts. Nevertheless, there is a difference between
society and community based primarily on its members, their interactions,
locality, etc. Hence, the main difference between society and community is that
society is built upon interactions with varied people whereas community is the
collection of people with similar interests essentially residing in one geographic
place.
Association
According to R.M. MacIver, “An association is an organisation deliberately
formed for the collective pursuit of some interest or a set of interests, which its
members share”.
No men can survive and live alone. Every man needs co-operative effort to
live and survive. Every human tries to fulfil their ends through co-operation and
mutual assistance. On the basis of this co-operative effort, human beings try to
form associations. Associations arose due to the pursuit of mutual assistance
and cooperative efforts.

Institution
In the broadest sense an institution is something that works according to
rules established or at least acknowledge by law or by custom. According to A.R.
Radcliffe Brown, “the established norms of conduct of a particular form of social
life it is usual to refer to as institutions”.