Above, we got acquainted with the so-called "social statics" of society (the social composition of society and social ties that hold the complex structure of social elements, different types of community). But this is one side of the society, serves it in statics. There is another one that characterizes society as a system of changing processes, the so-called dynamic side of society, which includes all any changes, movements in society, processes, cycles. Since one of the main conditions for the existence of all nature is movement, then processuality is the main feature of a constantly moving, socially organized nature. Social processes form the basis of social dynamics.

Even a superficial look at society and its components makes it possible to understand that the social sphere is changing. The composition of groups, cultural complexes, relationships are changing. These moving elements that change belong to the categories of social dynamics. They indicate how a social object develops, what kind of evolution, the features of its change, its qualitative transformations. The most important categories of this part of social nature are: "social processes", "social changes", "social development).

The term "process" comes from lat. procesus - progress, passing. These are relatively homogeneous series of phenomena connected by mutual causes or functional dependencies. For example, the growth of an organism is a process, since its further state is indicated in a certain way by the previous state.

We call social processes a series of phenomena of interactions of people with each other or constituent elements society. A series of social phenomena can be accepted as a process if it retains an identity (sequence, relationship in time). Socialization, considering the formation of a social person, is also a social process because it is a long series of interactions between the child and the social environment. A series of phenomena retains its identity (graduality, sequence of impact, perception). A social process will be called successive changes in the state or movement of the elements of a social system. These can be acts of interaction between people aimed at maintaining their social status, living conditions, leisure, and the like.

Social changes in society do not occur by themselves (depersonalized), but as a result of the purposeful activity of people, which consists of individual social actions and interactions that are characterized by affinity and one-pointedness, and sometimes unconsciously.

The main task of sociology in the study of social processes is to assess their state, the manifestation of problems and contradictions in their development, the depth and richness of connections, and the like.

Each social process consists of several stages, which differ in content and mechanisms, which determine its nature, direction, pace. When characterizing social processes, it is necessary to take into account such signs as: staging, phasing, staging (for example, socialization processes cover such stages life path like childhood, youth, maturity, old age). The processes that reflect the various parameters of collectives, social institutions and other social formations have no less complex structure (each collective, organization, then the institution goes through the stage of formation, development, flourishing, decline, decay).

One of the main conditions for the typology of social processes is the establishment of basic classification criteria. One of such criteria for classifying social processes is the degree of their generality. Based on this, there are global (processes of economic, demographic, environmental changes, national liberation movements, etc.), general, special (processes of urbanization, adaptation, stabilization) and individual social processes.

Depending on the system where these processes take place, they can be divided as follows:

■ internal features (for example, the process of self-education)

■ processes that take place between two persons;

■ between an individual and a group;

■ processes that change the organization and internal structure community;

■ processes that change the relationship between two groups (communities)

■ changing the structure and organization on a global scale of society.

The classification of social processes is built on various criteria of variables. If any new constituent elements arise in any system or previously existing ones disappear, or new relations arise or old relations disappear, then we say that this system is subject to change. If the changes that take place in some system lead to differentiation with the enrichment of the constituent elements and the relations existing between them, then we say that this system is developing. And when changes lead to a decrease in the constituent elements and the links existing between them, the system regresses. If the development that takes place in any system brings it closer to a certain ideal, evaluated positively, then we say that this development is progress. This is a type, a direction of development, which is characterized by a transition from the lower to the higher, from the less perfect to the more perfect. In modern sociology, social progress is most often associated with the movement from traditional to industrial and post-industrial society. Social progress has more common manifestation(changes in the global society), and regional character (specific society, country), specific aspects (technical, technological) of individual spheres of public life. The concept of regress means the process of change from higher to lower, opposite to progress, degradation, but, as a rule, does not cover the whole society, but only its individual areas (economic, technical, cultural, moral).

The German sociologist Von Wiese made an attempt to give a complete classification of all processes that are possible in relations between people. Defining the essence of society as a plurality of relations between people, he came to the conclusion that all processes that change society can be reduced in nature to two large categories:

■ the process of mutual convergence of people or unifying processes;

■ the process of alienation, separation of people.

The process of alienation is defined in the following main types:

Each of these types is divided into a number of sub-processes. In one approach alone, he identified 18 sub-processes. The scheme of processes leading to rapprochement looks like this:

■ at the initial stage we are dealing with isolation, alienation, enmity;

■ transitional stage is contact;

■ The initial stage of unification is mutual tolerance - a compromise, the path from which can lead to rapprochement.

But this is a conditional and imperfect scheme. Making an attempt to classify other processes, we will again proceed from the assertion that the main source of social life is the need to satisfy needs. In an effort to obtain funds to meet needs, people are faced with similar aspirations of other people. These clashes of similar aspirations in certain historical situations, within certain groups and systems of relations, can give rise to a different series of phenomena - different processes. Aspiration can be adjusted to each other. Moreover, this device can take various forms. A series of phenomena of cooperation for joint activities may arise. There may be a process of rivalry, competition. If in the course of rivalry there is a desire to eliminate the rival, competitor or some of his system of objects of value, then the rivalry turns into a conflict, which also has different kinds, degrees. Adaptation processes always turn out to be where a person or group finds itself in a new environment and its system of actions, assessments, criteria does not lead to the satisfaction of its needs.

From the whole variety of social processes using such technology, the following can be distinguished:

■ cooperation (collaboration) - coordination of actions and achievement of common goals; cooperation requires the following elements of behavior, such as mutual understanding, the establishment of rules for cooperation, coordination of actions;

■ rivalry - the opposition of interests or on the basis of the desire to satisfy the same interests with the help of the means that guide other persons (rivals) this also includes competition - the struggle between individuals, groups or societies for the possession of values;

■ adaptations - the adoption by an individual or group of cultural norms, values, standards of action in a new environment, when the norms and values ​​learned in the previous environment do not lead to the satisfaction of needs;

By themselves, this kind of "typologized" processes are divided into many subspecies. So, rivalry can be attributed to: conflict - a social process in which an individual or group seeks to achieve its own goals (satisfaction of needs, realization of interests by eliminating, destroying, subjugating another individual from the group who strive for identical goals), they arise on the basis of antagonism, and can arise between groups or individuals who strive for different goals, but by the same means; antagonism - as a complex of negative attitudes and assessments that lead to actions aimed at the destruction, subjugation of the enemy; struggle - as a form of conflict (the purpose of the struggle is to force the enemy to surrender by recognizing his conditions, superiority, this includes various types of war). Sociology carefully studies this type of relationship between social objects as conflicts. There is a trend in sociology called conflictology.

It is possible to carry to adaptation: accommodation - as tolerance; assimilation - the recognition of completely new criteria, the process of mutual cultural penetration; amalgamation - biological mixing of several ethnic groups of peoples. The process of adaptation consists of several elements: the study of a new situation, the study of new methods, models of behavior, psychological reorientation. An example is the behavior of a person or group when economic, political and social conditions change (a group of emigrants graduate from school when they go to work or join the army; a peasant who ends up in the city).

Within any group, the processes of adaptation, cooperation, rivalry and conflict are constantly ongoing, maintaining a certain balance. If, within the framework of the existing organization and control system of a given community, these processes are maintained in balance, while human needs are fully realized, then we say that these processes take place in a socially organized manner. If a certain imbalance occurs, threatening the realization of people's needs, then a state of social disorganization arises. Disorganization is a set of social processes that lead to the threat of the established movement of the processes of collective life. It consists in the disorganization of institutions that do not fulfill tasks and functions, the weakening of the control mechanism.

The instability of evaluation criteria, self-control leads to the emergence of new ways of behavior that are contrary to generally accepted ones. This leads to the development of: alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, an increase in the level of crime, an increase in the number of nervous shocks, a state of anomie (ignoring and non-compliance with the norms and rules of behavior and activity), etc.

Next, we highlight the processes that change the place of individuals or groups in space and in social structures. We call them migration processes (population migrations played important role in human history) and mobility processes. (For mobility processes, see previous paragraph). Let's briefly examine the migration processes. (See Fig. 1. Varieties of social processes.)

Migration is the territorial movement of people from country to country, from district to district, from city to city, from city to village (and vice versa), from village to village. They can be: political (political and economic reasons for migration), seasonal (tourism, treatment, training, agricultural work) and pendulum (regular movement through this point and return to it). The first civilized (which became the causes of political and economic changes in society) migration processes began after the great geographical discoveries (colonization of the South and North America, Australia) and the development of new lands (Siberia, the Far East). Large migratory phenomena include the so-called migrations of peoples or ethnic migrations (invasion of barbarians, migration of heretics, Jews and the formation of a Jewish state).

Sociologists identify three groups of factors that encourage people to change their place of residence:

■ factors of dissatisfaction (with living conditions in their native places);

■ attraction (presence of attractive living conditions in other places);

■ accessibility of migration routes (the presence or absence of barriers to the implementation of intentions to change the place of residence.

The processes that change the social organization of society are the processes of reorganization and disorganization.

Here is a far from complete list of the main varieties of social processes. All the considered processes are closely interconnected and always proceed simultaneously, thus creating opportunities for the development of changes in society. Theoretical analysis and concrete study of social processes is one of the important areas of sociological activity.

The role of the study of social processes in scientific management.

1. The concept of social processes, their main types.

Social process - A process is any

kind of movement, modification, transformation, alternation or

"evolution", in short, any change in a given

object for a certain time, whether it is a change in its location

in space or modification of its quantitative and qualitative

characteristics

They are based on contradictions,

arising between different social groups that have

special corporate interests included in the discrepancy

with the interests of other groups. This position allows society to find the most

an effective way of development capable of consolidating interests

the majority of its members. The social process has a more pronounced temporal component, giving an objectified character to the researched

object, allowing us to consider all the properties of the latter depending on

from time. Mental support of social processes

recedes into the background.

The social process takes place in three possible forms:

object, that is, in the form of a sequential change in the state of a social object;

subjective, or activity, that is, in the form of successive actions of the subject;

technological, that is, in the form of compliance, implementation of a certain technology.

The process presupposes the presence of a structure and dynamics that provide it with a stable and directed character, ordering the course of social changes penetrating it:

the structure of the process includes the totality of all its participants, contributing factors, conditions, etc.;

the dynamics of the process is based on indicators of the strength and scale of the ongoing changes, their duration and working rhythm.

Process parameters

The main elements of the social process are:

Participants in the process: they include all active and passive members of society, whose interests are affected by the changes taking place in society.

The subject (initiator) of the process: one of its participants, which has significant resources that allow for a long time to maintain the dynamics and direction of social change. The initiator of the process is able to seriously influence the course of such changes by reproducing favorable conditions aimed at achieving the expected result. The influence exerted by the initiator on the process may be unconscious, causing certain changes contrary to the will and interests of the initiator. This can (among other factors) stimulate widespread cases of loss of control by the initiator of the changes it causes.

reasons for the process. It is necessary to clearly distinguish between the subject (initiator) of the process and the causes of the process: natural, demographic, cultural, socio-political, and others. The subject may be unknown, his role may be unconscious to himself; cause - organically inherent in the process and constitutes its internal source.

An observer is a formal or informal member of the scientific community; is the source of the cognitive parameters of the process.

R. Park and E. Burges proposed the following classification of the main social processes:

Cooperation- can occur in dyads (groups of two individuals), small groups, as well as in large groups (in organizations, social stratum or society). Any cooperation is based on coordinated actions and the achievement of common goals. This requires such elements of behavior as mutual understanding, coordination of actions, and the establishment of rules for cooperation. Cooperation is primarily about the desire of people to cooperate, and many sociologists consider this phenomenon based on selflessness. However, studies and simple experience show that selfish goals serve the cooperation of people to a greater extent than their likes and dislikes, unwillingness or desire. Thus, the main meaning of cooperation is primarily in mutual benefit.

Competition (rivalry)- the struggle between individuals, groups or societies for the acquisition of values, the stocks of which are limited and unequally distributed among individuals or groups (this can be money, power, status, love, appreciation and other values). It can be defined as an attempt to achieve rewards by sidelining or outperforming rivals seeking identical goals. However, incentives through competition can be limited in at least three respects. First, people themselves can reduce competition if the conditions of struggle are associated with unnecessary anxiety, risk, and a loss of a sense of certainty and security. Secondly, competition appears to be an incentive only in certain areas of human activity. Third, competition tends to turn into conflict.

fixture- acceptance by an individual or group of cultural norms, values ​​and standards of action of a new environment, when the norms and values ​​learned in the old environment do not lead to the satisfaction of needs, do not create acceptable behavior. Adaptation is a complex process in which a number of possible models can be distinguished: 1) submission, 2) compromise, 3) tolerance.

Conflict- open struggle between individuals or groups in society or between nation-states. Conflict often arises from competition over limited resources or capabilities. The conflict may be institutionalized (governed by sets of rules to which all participants agree, such as an electoral process); or unregulated, like terrorist actions, the actions of revolutionary organizations, and the like. The first kind is often understood as evidence of a healthy democratic process. D. Katz proposed a widely used classification of conflicts:

conflict between indirectly competing subgroups;

conflict between directly competing subgroups;

conflict within the hierarchy over rewards.

Assimilation- the process of mutual cultural penetration, through which individuals and groups come to a shared by all participants in the process common culture. Assimilation can significantly weaken and extinguish group conflicts, mixing individual groups into one large group with a homogeneous culture.

Amalgamation- biological mixing of two or more ethnic groups or peoples, after which they become one group or people.

The listed types are joined by two other types of social processes, which manifest themselves only in groups:

Maintaining boundaries. The creation and modification of boundaries between groups is a process that occurs constantly with greater or lesser intensity in the course of interaction between groups (language, dialect, uniform, distinctive signs, etc.).

Systematic connections Linkage is defined as the process by which the elements of at least two social systems are articulated in such a way that in some respects and in some cases they appear to be a single system. It is obvious that each group is forced to solve a dilemma: to strive to maintain its independence, integrity, self-sufficiency, or to maintain and strengthen the system of ties with other groups.

The main structural units that determine the direction and intensity of ongoing processes, allowing them to be described and analyzed, are social systems.

Ticket 12. Social processes: criteria, forms, types

social process- this is a successive change of states, stages of development of social systems, social phenomena. (the educational process is a sequential change of certain types of training sessions: lecture - independent work - seminar - individual interview).

Structure social process:

subject social action (personality, social group, social organization);

an object(a social phenomenon to which social action is directed);

conditions(the social process is characterized by the influence of the subject on the object and the nature of the social environment);

self-purposeful social action;

result (changes in a social object as a result of the influence of the subject on it).

Social processes are diverse. There are many classifications social processes for various reasons:

on sphere of manifestation– economic, political, environmental, etc.;

on mechanism of occurrence- spontaneous, conscious, natural-historical;

on degree of controllability– managed, weakly managed, unmanaged;

on functions the object of social impact - functional and dysfunctional;

on focus the qualitative state of the social object - progressive, regressive, neutral;

on intensity qualitative changes in the object - evolutionary and revolutionary.

Piotr Sztompka proposes a classification of social processes according to six criteria:

Forms of social processes

Results of social processes

Public awareness of social processes

Driving forces of social processes

Levels of social processes

Temporal aspect of social processes

By form Distinguish directed and undirected social processes.

Directed- irreversible social processes, in which each subsequent stage differs from the previous one.

Omnidirectional- changes that are random, chaotic, subject to certain repetitive or similar patterns.

By results There are two types of social changes - morphogenetic and transmutational.

Morphogenetic- these are creative processes leading to fundamental innovations (the emergence of new states of society, social structures and conditions for the existence of society).

Transmutational Changes are divided into reproductive and transformational. reproductive changes- supporting, having the character of quantitative changes. transformational- processes leading to qualitative changes in the state of society.

By public awareness. Explicit- Changes, the meaning of which and their consequences are understood by the population. Hidden- changes, the meaning of which is not realized. "Boomerang Processes"- social processes, the meaning of which is understood by the population, but their consequences for the majority of the population are not clear.

By driving forces allocate:

Endogenous(driven by internal causes) reveal the possibilities, properties and trends contained within a changing society.

exogenous(driven by external causes) is reactive, responding to a challenge, stimulus or pressure from outside.

By level: the global level, the level of large social groups, the level of institutions and organizations, the level of interpersonal relations.

Depending on the time the course of social processes, distinguish between short-term, long-term and permanent processes (global).

By area of ​​distribution(economic, political, socio-cultural, spiritual, etc.).

The result of a social process can be

1. actual (what has already been achieved),

2. expected (what is expected to be achieved at the end of the process)

3. and probable (what is expected at the end of the process).

Typology of processes: 1. In terms of the scale of the social system - intrapersonal and between two individuals; changing relations between two groups (communities); changing the structure and organization of society; occurring at the level of the global social system (human society).

2. By the specifics of the processes - progressive, regressive, evolutionary, revolutionary.

3. By changing the organization of the social community - Differentiation, Integration, Disorganization, Reorganization.

4. By changing the place of individuals or groups in the social space - Individual and group mobility; Intergenerational, horizontal and vertical, voluntary and involuntary.

5. According to the form of interaction between individuals - cooperation, competition, conflict.

6. According to the degree of control - spontaneous, purposeful.

Social changes in society proceed as a result of the purposeful activity of people, which consists of individual social actions and interactions. As a rule, disparate actions can rarely lead to significant social and cultural changes. Even if one person has made a great discovery, many people must use it, introduce it into their practice. Thus, significant social changes occur in the process of joint actions of people who are not isolated, but, on the contrary, are unidirectional, mutually conjugated. Moreover, this pairing can often be unconscious due to the presence of motives and orientation in people.

A set of unidirectional and repetitive social actions that can be distinguished from many other social actions is called a social process. People move from place to place, learn together, produce products, distribute and consume them, participate in political struggle, cultural transformations and many other social processes.

From the whole variety of social processes, one can single out processes that have common features, the totality of which allowed the sociologists R. Park and E. Burgess to create a classification of the main social processes: cooperation, competition (rivalry), adaptation, conflict, assimilation, amalgamation. They are usually joined by two other social processes that only appear in groups: the maintenance of boundaries and systematic ties.

The word cooperation comes from two Latin words: co - together and operari - to work. Cooperation can take place in dyads (groups of two individuals), small groups, and also in large groups (in organizations, social stratum or society).

Cooperation in primitive societies usually takes traditional forms and proceeds without a conscious decision to work together. On the islands of Polynesia, the inhabitants fish together, not because they decided so, but because their fathers did so. In societies with a more developed culture, technique and technology, enterprises and organizations are created for the deliberate cooperation of human activities. Any cooperation is based on coordinated actions and the achievement of common goals. For this, such elements of behavior as mutual understanding, coordination of actions, and the establishment of rules for cooperation are necessary. Cooperation is primarily about the desire of people to cooperate, and many sociologists consider this phenomenon based on selflessness. However, studies and simple experience show that selfish goals serve the cooperation of people to a greater extent than their likes and dislikes, unwillingness or desire. Thus, the main meaning of cooperation is primarily in mutual benefit.

Cooperation among members of small groups is so commonplace that the life history of most individuals can be defined mainly as their attempt to become part of such groups and also to regulate cooperative group life. Even the most pronounced individualists are forced to admit that they find satisfaction in family life, in leisure groups and in groups at work. The need for such cooperation is so great that we sometimes forget that the successful stable existence of the group and the satisfaction of its members largely depend on the ability of each to be included in cooperative relationships. A person who cannot easily and freely cooperate with members of primary and small groups is likely to be isolated and may not adjust to living together. Cooperation in primary groups is important not only in itself, but also because it is invisibly connected with cooperation in secondary groups. Indeed, everything big organizations represent a network of small primary groups in which cooperation functions on the basis of the inclusion of individuals in a significant number of personal relationships.

Collaboration in secondary groups is in the form of many people working together in large-scale organizations. The desire of people to cooperate towards common goals is expressed through government agencies, private firms and religious organizations, as well as through groups with highly specialized interests. Such cooperation not only includes many people in a given society, but also determines the creation of a network of organizations cooperating activities at the level of state, regional, national and interethnic relations. The main difficulties in organizing such large-scale cooperation are caused by the geographical extent of cooperative ties, the achievement of an agreement between individual organizations, the prevention of conflicts between groups, individuals and subgroups that they make up.

Competition is a struggle between individuals, groups or societies for the acquisition of values, the stocks of which are limited and unequally distributed among individuals or groups (this can be money, power, status, love, appreciation and other values). It can be defined as an attempt to achieve rewards by sidelining or outperforming rivals seeking identical goals. Competition is based on the fact that people can never satisfy all their desires. Therefore, competitive relations flourish in conditions of abundance, just as competition for higher, higher-paying jobs exists in conditions of full employment. If we consider the relationship of the sexes, then in almost all societies there is intense competition for attention from certain partners of the opposite sex.

Competition can be personal (for example, when two leaders compete for influence in an organization) or be impersonal (an entrepreneur competes for markets without knowing his competitors personally. In this case, competitors may not identify their partners as rivals). Both personal and impersonal competition are usually carried out according to certain rules that focus on reaching and outperforming rivals, rather than eliminating them.

Although competition and rivalry are inherent in all societies, the severity and forms of their manifestation are very different. In societies where there are mostly prescribed statuses, competition tends to be less visible; it moves into small groups, into organizations where people strive to be "first among equals." At the same time, in societies with achieved statuses, competition and rivalry permeate all spheres of social life. For a person living in such a society, competitive relations begin from childhood (for example, in England or Japan, a further career largely depends on the school in which the child begins his education). In addition, in each group or society, the ratio of the processes of cooperation and competition develops differently. In some groups, there are pronounced processes of competition that take place at the personal level (for example, the desire to advance, win more material rewards), in others, personal rivalry may fade into the background, personal relationships are mainly in the nature of cooperation, and competition is transferred to relationships with other groups.

Competition is one method of distributing insufficient rewards (i.e., one that is not enough for everyone). Of course, other methods are also possible. Values ​​can be distributed according to several bases, such as priority, age, or social status. You can distribute insufficient values ​​through a lottery or divide them in equal shares among all members of the group. But the application of each of these methods generates significant problems. Priority needs are most often contested by individuals or groups, because when the system of priorities is introduced, many consider themselves to be the most deserving of attention. The equal distribution of insufficient remuneration among people with different needs, abilities, and among those who have made different efforts is also highly controversial. However, competition, although it may not be a sufficiently rational mechanism for distributing remuneration, it “works” and, in addition, removes many social problems.

Another consequence of competition can be considered the creation of certain systems of installations from competitors. When individuals or groups compete with each other, they develop attitudes associated with an unfriendly and hostile attitude towards each other. Experiments conducted in groups show that if the situation develops in such a way that individuals or groups cooperate to pursue common goals, then friendly relations and attitudes are maintained. But as soon as conditions are created under which unshared values ​​arise that give rise to competition, unfriendly attitudes and unflattering stereotypes immediately arise. It is known, for example, that if national or religious groups enter into competitive relations with each other, national and religious prejudices arise, which, as competition increases, are constantly intensified.

The advantage of competition can be considered that it is widely practiced as a means of stimulating each individual to the greatest achievements. It used to be believed that competition always increases motivation and thus increases productivity. In recent years, competition studies have shown that this is not always true. So, there are many cases when different subgroups arise within the organization, which, competing with each other, cannot positively influence the efficiency of the organization. In addition, competition that does not give any individual a chance to advance often leads to a refusal to fight and a decrease in his contribution to the achievement of common goals. But despite these reservations, it is obvious that at the present time no more powerful incentive has been invented than competition. It is on the stimulating value of free competition that all the achievements of modern capitalism are based, the productive forces have developed extraordinary, and opportunities have opened up for a significant increase in the standard of living of people. Moreover, competition has led to progress in science, art, to significant changes in social relations. However, incentives through competition can be limited in at least three respects.

First, people themselves can weaken competition. If the conditions of the struggle are associated with unnecessary anxiety, risk and loss of a sense of certainty and security, they begin to protect themselves from competition. Businessmen develop a monopoly price system, go to secret deals and collusion to avoid competition; some industries require the protection of their prices by the state; scientific workers, regardless of their abilities, demand general employment, and so on. Almost every social group seeks to protect itself from harsh competitive conditions. Thus, people may move away from competition simply because they are afraid of losing everything they have. The most striking example is the rejection of competitions and competitions of representatives of the arts, since singers or musicians, occupying low places in them, may lose popularity.

Secondly, competition appears to be an incentive only in certain areas of human activity. Where the task facing people is simple and requires the performance of elementary actions, the role of competition is very large and there is a gain due to additional incentives. But as the task becomes more difficult, the quality of the work becomes more important, the competition is less useful. When solving intellectual problems, not only the productivity of groups working on the principle of cooperation (rather than competition) increases, but the work is done more efficiently than in cases where members of the group compete with each other. Competition between separate groups in solving complex technical and intellectual problems really stimulates activity, but within each group the most stimulating is not it, but cooperation.

Third, competition tends to turn into conflict (conflict will be discussed in more detail in the next chapter). Indeed, consent to a peaceful struggle for certain values, rewards through rivalry is often violated. A competitor who is inferior in skill, intellect, or ability may be tempted to seize value through violence, intrigue, or by violating the existing laws of competition. His actions can generate a backlash, and competition turns into conflict with unpredictable results.

Adaptation - the adoption by an individual or group of cultural norms, values ​​and standards of action in a new environment, when the norms and values ​​learned in the old environment do not lead to the satisfaction of needs, do not create acceptable behavior. For example, emigrants in a foreign country are trying to adapt to a new culture; schoolchildren enter the institute and must adapt to new requirements, to a new environment. In other words, adaptation is the formation of a type of behavior suitable for life in changing environmental conditions. To one degree or another, adaptation processes proceed continuously, since environmental conditions are constantly changing. Depending on the assessment by the individual of changes in the external environment and the significance of these changes, adaptation processes can be short-term or long-term.

Adaptation is a complex process in which a number of features can be distinguished. It is submission, compromise, tolerance.

Any change in the situation in the environment surrounding an individual or group forces them either to submit to it or to come into conflict with it. Submission is a prerequisite for the process of adaptation, since any resistance makes it much more difficult for an individual to enter a new structure, and conflict makes this entry or adaptation impossible. Submission to new norms, customs or rules may be conscious or unconscious, but in the life of any individual it occurs more often than disobedience and rejection of new norms.

Compromise is a form of accommodation, which means that an individual or group agrees to changing conditions and culture by partially or completely accepting new goals and ways to achieve them. Each individual usually tries to reach an agreement, taking into account his own strengths and what forces the changing environment has in a particular situation.

Compromise is a balance, a temporary agreement; as soon as the situation changes, you have to look for new compromise. In cases where the goals and methods of achieving them in an individual or group cannot satisfy the individual, a compromise cannot be reached and the individual does not adapt to new environmental conditions.

A necessary condition for the successful flow of the adjustment process is tolerance towards the new situation, new cultural patterns and new values. For example, as we age, our perception of culture, change, and innovation changes. We can no longer fully accept youth culture, but we can and must tolerate it and, through this adaptation, coexist peacefully with our children and grandchildren. The same can be said about an emigrant leaving for another country, who is simply obliged to be tolerant of samples of a culture alien to him, to put himself in the place of the people around him and try to understand them. Otherwise, the adaptation process will not be successful.

Assimilation is a process of mutual cultural penetration through which individuals and groups come to a common culture shared by all participants in the process. It is always a two-way process in which each group has the opportunity to infiltrate its culture into other groups in proportion to its size, prestige and other factors. The process of assimilation is best illustrated by the Americanization of immigrants coming from Europe and Asia. The immigrants who arrived in large numbers between 1850 and 1913 mainly formed immigrant colonies in cities in the northern United States. Within these ethnic colonies (little Italy, little Poland, etc.) they lived largely in accordance with the patterns of European culture, perceiving some complexes of American culture. However, their children begin to reject the culture of their parents very sharply and absorb the culture of their new homeland. They often clash with their parents about following old cultural patterns. As for the third generation, their Americanization is almost completed and the newly minted Americans feel the most comfortable and familiar American cultural patterns. Thus, the culture of the small group was assimilated into the culture of the large group.

Assimilation can significantly weaken and extinguish group conflicts, mixing individual groups into one large group with a homogeneous culture. This is because social conflict involves the separation of groups, but when the cultures of the groups are assimilated, the very cause of the conflict is eliminated.

Amalgamation is the biological mixing of two or more ethnic groups or peoples, after which they become one group or people. Thus, the Russian nation was formed by biological mixing of many tribes and peoples (Pomors, Varangians, Western Slavs, Merya, Mordovians, Tatars, etc.). Racial and national prejudice, caste isolation or deep conflict between groups can form a barrier to amalgamation. If it is incomplete, status systems may appear in society, in which status will be measured by “purity of blood”. For example, in Central America or some parts South America to have high statuses, Spanish origin is necessary. But once the process of amalgamation is complete, the boundaries between groups are blurred and the social structure no longer depends on "purity of blood".

Maintaining boundaries. The significance of the processes of assimilation and amalgamation lies mainly in the erasure of boundaries between groups, the destruction of formal separation, the emergence of a common identification of group members.

Boundary lines between social groups are a major aspect of social life, and we devote much time and energy to establishing, maintaining, and modifying them. Nation-states define their territorial boundaries and set up signs, fences, which prove their rights to a limited territory. Social groups without territorial restrictions establish social boundaries that separate their members from the rest of society. For many groups, language, dialect, or special jargon can serve as such boundaries: "If he does not speak our language, then he cannot be one of us." The uniform also helps to separate group members from other groups: doctors are separated from soldiers or police by their white coats. Sometimes distinguishing marks can be a separating symbol (with their help, for example, members of Indian castes differ). More often than not, however, group members have no explicit symbolic identification, only a subtle and hard-to-fix sense of "belonging" associated with group standards that separate the in-group from everyone else.

Groups not only need to establish certain boundaries, but also must convince their members that they recognize these boundaries as important and necessary. Ethnocentrism usually develops in the individual a belief in the superiority of his group and in the shortcomings of others. A significant role in the education of such a conviction is played by patriotism, which tells us that the weakening of national sovereignty by international agreement can be fatal.

The desire to preserve the boundaries of the group is supported by sanctions applied to those who do not respect such boundaries, and by rewarding individuals who strive to consolidate and maintain them. The reward may consist of access to certain positions through membership in associations, closeness in spirit in a friendly company, etc. Punishments, or negative sanctions, most often consist in the abolition or deprivation of rewards. For example, someone cannot get good place work without the support of a particular group or association; someone may be undesirable in a prestigious group, in a political party; someone may lose friendly support.

People who wish to overcome social barriers in groups often seek to reduce social boundaries, while those who have already overcome them wish to create and strengthen such boundaries. For example, during the election campaign, many candidates for people's deputies advocated for the expansion of the parliamentary corps and for frequent re-elections, but as soon as they were elected deputies, their aspirations became completely opposite.

Sometimes the boundaries between groups can be drawn formally, for example in cases of direct indication or the introduction of special restrictive rules. In all other cases, the creation of borders is an informal process, not fixed by the relevant official documents and unwritten rules. Very often, the existence of boundaries between groups or their absence does not correspond to their official prohibition or, conversely, their introduction.

The creation and modification of boundaries between groups is a process that occurs constantly with greater or lesser intensity in the course of interaction between groups.

Creation of a system of communications. Every nation that has territorial boundaries needs interethnic trade. In the same way, all social groups that are within certain boundaries also need to create some types of links with other groups in a given society. If the absence of significant boundaries leads to the fact that this group completely merges with society or any other group, then its lack of relationships with other groups leads to its isolation, loss of opportunities for growth, and the performance of functions that are not characteristic of it. Even the hateful and extremely insular clans in primitive societies sometimes resorted to a system of "silent barter" with their enemies. Without entering into personal contact with them, they left goods for exchange in a certain place, which representatives of other clans exchanged for their goods.

Link building is defined as the process by which the elements of at least two social systems are brought together in such a way that, in some respects and in some cases, they appear to be a single system. Groups in modern society have a system external relations, usually consisting of many elements. The modern village is connected to the city through the exchange of crop and livestock products for energy, agricultural machinery, etc. The village and the city exchange human resources, information, and participate in public life. Any organization should be associated with other divisions of society - trade unions, political parties organizations that create information.

It is obvious that each group is forced to solve a dilemma: to strive to maintain its independence, integrity, self-sufficiency, or to maintain and strengthen the system of ties with other groups.

In conclusion, it should be said that all the processes considered are closely interconnected and almost always occur simultaneously, thus creating opportunities for the development of groups and constant changes in society.

The concept of "social process"

Remark 1

Any society is characterized by the interaction of internal and external forces, if this does not happen, then the society is doomed to death.

Some changes happen in people's lives, development is underway, some processes that have exhausted their potential are being replaced by others. All social processes bring to life both subjective and objective circumstances, and social changes occur in the process of joint actions of people.

One way or another, people necessarily participate in social processes, when, for example, they correct their behavior, look for a way out of difficult situations, change their position in the economic and political spheres, so social processes play a very important role in the life of society.

The results of social processes can be both positive and negative.

Being participants in social processes, people cannot always influence them, for the reason that control is lost as a result of the inability to understand the internal mechanism of the ongoing changes.

The social process is characterized by a fairly pronounced time component - the time factor in the study of socio-economic processes is one of the criteria for formalizing processes.

Economic, political, cultural processes are constantly layered on top of each other, and people are constantly at their center. Some processes provide a background for people to solve everyday problems, while others may well be the subject of study.

This distinction divides the process into practical and cognitive. A person, in the course of practical actualization of the social process, which involves a low degree of reflection, tends to experience its consequences for himself either by complete disregard, adaptation, open opposition or purposeful withdrawal.

Depending on his attitude to the process, a person chooses one or another strategy, moreover, consciously underestimating the importance of some and increasing the importance of other processes. Of course, in this case, he will be based on his own ideas about the process and simple life experience.

To subordinate the processes to his own line of behavior and his own version of possible actions will be his priority task.

The reflection factor in terms of cognitive actualization comes out on top, the essence of which is to determine all the properties of the process and possible consequences.

Description, explanation, understanding and forecast are the main functions of the cognitive actualization of the social process, and the identification of causes and factors of influence is the goal.

Remark 2

Thus, the social process is a socially significant change in society, which is caused by the desire of various groups to influence the conditions prevailing in society in order to satisfy certain interests.

When the interests of different social groups collide, one dominates over the other. The position of social subjects seeking to achieve balance in relationships is not uniform, which determines the vector of the social process.

The social process is impossible without a structure that includes all its participants, factors and conditions, as well as dynamics, which is based on indicators of the strength and scale of changes, their duration and working rhythm.

The characteristic of the process is the scale, direction, intensity, composition, nature of stimulation.

Scale refers to the measurement of the degree of involvement of subjects in it. The vector expressing the orientation of the process towards a particular outcome characterizes the direction of the process.

The perceived value of the results of the process for the involvement of participants speaks of its intensity. Participants in the process, their social stratification, political orientation, place in the social division of labor, are components of the composition of the process.

The nature of stimulation is manifested in the policy of the subject that directs and controls this process. From here, the process can be uniform or forced, rapid or sluggish.

Types of social processes

The purposeful activity of people is the cause of social changes in society.

Despite the huge variety of social processes, sociologists were able to classify them and identify the main social processes that have common features:

• cooperation;
• competition;
• fixture;
• conflict;
• assimilation;
• amalgamation.

Quite often, two more processes can be added to them, which have a group manifestation - the maintenance of boundaries and systematic connections.

Cooperation is an association of a large group of people working in one large organization. It is based on coordinated actions and common goals, the achievement of which requires mutual understanding and the establishment of rules for cooperation.

Sociologists believe that unselfishness lies at the heart of people's desire to cooperate, but studies have shown that selfish goals are more conducive to people's cooperation. This means that mutual benefit is the main meaning of cooperation.

The second type of social processes is competition, which is a struggle between groups, communities or individuals for the mastery of any values. These may include money, status, love, power, etc. Since the stocks of values ​​are limited and unevenly distributed, competition is a kind of struggle for reward, and for this it is necessary to get ahead or remove an opponent who has the same goals.

Life in society presupposes the adoption by the individual of the established norms of values ​​and standards of this environment. If these norms and values ​​do not satisfy the needs of the individual, then it is necessary to accept the norms and values ​​of the new environment, i.e. adapt.

Since the conditions of the external environment are constantly changing, the processes of adaptation or adaptation proceed continuously. Adaptation can be short-term or long-term.

Submission, compromise, tolerance stand out in this complex process. Tolerance, or as they say today, tolerance for a new situation, new values, new models of culture is a necessary and important condition for successful adaptation.

The changes taking place in the external environment require submission or open opposition in order to defend one's interests, i.e. entry into conflict.

The process of adaptation has an important condition - submission, because any resistance will make it difficult for the individual to enter the new structure. Submission in conflict is impossible.

The adaptation takes the form of a compromise. Acceptance of a compromise means that a group or an individual agrees with the changed conditions and can accept new goals and ways to achieve them in part or in full.

Thus, a compromise is a temporary agreement, and when the situation changes, it will be necessary to look for a new compromise.

Such a social process as assimilation is a process of mutual cultural penetration, as a result of which groups or individuals come to a common culture shared by all participants in the process.

This process is two-way, and the culture of each group, in proportion to its size and prestige, can infiltrate other groups. Having the ability to mix groups into one large group with a homogeneous culture, assimilation thus extinguishes conflicts and eliminates their cause.

With the biological mixing of ethnic groups or peoples, one group or people arises - in this case we are talking about amalgamation or consanguineous mixing, for example, as a result of the biological mixing of many tribes and peoples, the Russian nation was formed.

Remark 3

Racial and national prejudices or deep conflict between them can become an obstacle to amalgamation. Incomplete amalgamation can manifest itself in the fact that a person's position in society will be measured by "purity of blood", for example, in parts of South America, Spanish descent is necessary to have a high status.

All social processes occur simultaneously and are closely interconnected. They create opportunities for the development of groups or permanent changes in society.

Sociological studies of social processes

The main goal of the study of social processes is to explain and predict the behavior of subjects in certain conditions, to diagnose the nature of relationships within a social community, to determine the adequacy of social conditions within these communities.

There are three main types of sociological research:

1. Intelligence research, the basis of which is a simplified program and tools, compressed in volume. This is a sounding of public opinion and is often resorted to in order to evaluate the course and results of various socio-economic and political activities;
2. The descriptive nature of the study makes it possible to obtain a relatively holistic view of the phenomenon under study. The program for this study is deeply developed, and the basis is methodically developed tools. The object of research can be districts, regions, cities, large enterprises;
3. The purpose of the analytical study is not only an in-depth study of the phenomenon, but also a comprehensive analysis of its structure and characteristics. The nature of analytical research is complex with various forms of information collection and analysis. Its kind is a social experiment.