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Society and Social Interaction
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Institution
Society and Social Interaction
All interactions in society involve exchange and an underlying social contract for these exchanges. There is not a single social contract just as there isn’t a single type of exchange. The combinations are too many to categorize in such a way that everyone would agree with the taxonomy. This essay will discuss alienation, bourgeoisie, proletariat, class consciousness, collective conscience, social integration, achieved status, ascribed status, looking glass self, role set, role conflict, role strain, and Thomas Theorem within the context of social interaction and society. Each interaction in society depends on where the interests, class, culture, etc. of two people – who interact – converge CITATION Bil16 \l 1033 (O'Driscoll, 2016).
Social alienation is defined as the low degree of integration coupled with high degree of isolation between individuals or groups in a particular community. Social alienation can be caused by a particular group or a particular culture, and if the social alienation is caused by the culture, then it may have serious implications for the person being alienated. Social alienation because of culture can cause peer rejection which is a difficult thing to deal with. To combat alienation of any type, be it cultural, social, peer-related, I would encourage you to move beyond yourself.
Class characteristics and social relations are objects defined under the capitalist social system. In the capitalist system, the bourgeoisie (i.e. capitalists) is the hegemonic class, the exploiter (the exploited class being the proletariat). On the other hand, the proletariat is the labor class and proletariat work in factories, mills, railroads, grid stations, etc. The proletariat cannot earn a profit because they have no control over the means of productions. All they can do is to accept wage for the work they do.
Class consciousness is meta-consciousness. It is one’s ability to understand his/her role in the system’s economy and politics. It is the ability to determine how anyone, as an individual, has power in the system (as a part of a greater, more organized whole, formed with others). It is the realization that any person can impact the systems that govern his/her life. On the contrary, there are operating principles that a sufficient number of individuals within a defined society can be characterized or measured with, according to those operating principles (or dominant narrative). Society is both collective and individualistic, and it is helpful to see things from either side to solve certain problems CITATION Bil16 \l 1033 (O'Driscoll, 2016). There are invaluable insights from both views, and people are the cells in society so, people will sympathize with each other more strongly.
Another important factor in social interaction is social integration which means people of all cultures should be more open-minded when looking towards other cultures and people. There is a common observation that societies work fine till people mind their own businesses and stop trying to preach others about how great their own culture, language or religious beliefs might be.
Social status is part of society’s social stratification that classifies people according to their credential, prestige, education, and marketability of their skills. The ascribed status is acquired by the person by birth. If one’s parents are of high social stature because of their popularity and expertise, the children can inherit their social status. People too would respect them as their parents because of the status they inherited CITATION Bil16 \l 1033 (O'Driscoll, 2016). Respect means power over people. Primitive societies gave more importance to ascribed social status. If the father was a chieftain, for instance, the eldest son was expected to assume his position and social status, just as monarchy’s succession is based on royal blood and social status of the successors.
Thomas’s theorem seems self-evident to many people when they interact with each other because perception is a reality in the sense that people have to react to things based on something. So, they assess situations using their current understandings and then react accordingly. The problem is that they can cause harm to themselves or to others if their perceptions do not, in fact, conform to reality. People's perceptions of reality obviously are subjective, and the idea that just because a person believes something is real, or it is real for him, has limited use or consequence.
Works Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY O'Driscoll, B. (Director). (2016). Trailer Trash A Mystery Film Journal [Motion Picture].
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