Society in Action: A Study of Basic Social Processes (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Society in Action: A Study of Basic Social ProcessesThis Book is intended to serve as a foundation text for courses in General Sociology, Principles of Sociology, Modern Human Society, and the like. It may be used in classes where the students have already had a social-science survey course or an introductory one-semester course in sociology, or it may be used as a basic text in departments that introduce their students to sociology after the freshman year.This is not a simple, "pat" book of cut-and-dried principles. One reason is that human society is immensely complex, and to offer a simple presentation is to underestimate or overlook or understate a multiplicity of intricate problems. Another reason is that sociology as a science is still young and is feeling its way as it proceeds with the study of one of the most complicated and confusing of all areas of knowledge.Society in Action is intended to provide an overall analysis of human society as a dynamic entity, not only in terms of its structures, but, especially, in terms of its operational aspects - that is, its functions, processes, and relations - and the factors involved in typical and recurrent social situations. Mere descriptions of the more obvious or the more conventionally treated parts or aspects of human society do not provide the thorough understanding of its nature and operation that is theoretically possible or practically desirable today. Nor can this understanding be obtained from an examination of society as a static thing. A treatment which restricts itself to social change, social institutions, the community, or the ecological, cultural, or social-psychological approaches and overemphasizes certain features at the expense of others is also unlikely to provide such understanding. These approaches have their merits, but they are partial - and in some measure deceptive.This analysis is concerned mainly with modern Western society, although there are some references to other societies for purposes of comparison. The social sciences have, of course, a considerable body of postulates of universal application, but no single study can competently review them or make all the special and scientifically essential qualifications. We do, however, need to know as best we can what our present, fluid, dynamic Western society is like and how it "works."When the student is led to view human society as a vast "going concern, " he has, as it were, a blueprint on which he can perceive and relate the substance of his courses in psychology, social psychology, economics, political science, human geography, and history. And, more important, he is able to bring the more specialized courses in sociology - the community, urban and rural sociology, population, human ecology, poverty and dependency, industrial sociology, social disorganization, marriage and the family, primary and secondary groups, social institutions, and social control - into perspective with the whole of societal operation.In this book, attention is focused upon social processes. The dynamic conception of society - scientifically essential - has developed in sociologists a pronounced tendency to formulate social theory within the action frame of reference. It is here contended that such formulation involves an analysis of processes in relation to structures, functions, and factors. This text attempts to study all the common processes in operation in the societal context. It is not confined to the very general processes and does not overemphasize some simply because of the greater availability of descriptive material or because of great current interest.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com