Element`s of the Development of Society - Essay Example

DEvelopment of community by The of the The of the School The and where it is located The Date Development of community It is quite obvious that the society has a positive impact on the development of a human being. Indeed, if it had not been for it, a considerable number of different abilities which are regarded as characteristic ones to the mankind would not have emerged. However, it must be noted that just like the human civilization evolved, the communities that comprise it evolve as well. Thus, the history is able to provide numerous evidence to this claim. Nevertheless, the process of development of the community always faced a force that opposed it. This paper will argue that what hampers the development of community is not a single factor that should be taken into account, but a set of different biases that are interconnected and should be regarded in their complexity. To begin with, one might point out that the aspect the significance of which can hardly be exaggerated is the culture that directly affects the affairs in the community. Indeed, it is virtually impossible to find an example of a community that would not be a representative of a particular culture. It is obvious that this does not mean that a culture should be considered to be an obstacle on the way of development of a community (Hall 2010). One should note that it is some elements of it that might hamper the development. For example, the Middle East is known for its rigorous adherence to the traditions. It is quite obvious that such communities are not like to experience dramatic changes due to the fact that all innovations will be looked at through the prism of traditions which, on the one hand, will distort their nature and, on the other hand, will increase the chance that the change as well as the process that it brings will not be integrated in the social life. Indeed, it will take sometime for these communities to adapt to the new conditions of life and react to them adequately. It is obvious that communities that are similar to the above mentioned ones should not reject their culture in favor of development, but they would benefit from enlarging their outlook and introducing some modern aspects of life. The next aspect that is of great important when it comes to identifying the biases that affect negatively the process of development of community is the structure of this community. Indeed, over the course of time people have agreed on certain rules and regulations that formed the community and once it was formed the inner structure of it is not likely to change unless it proves to be extremely ineffective. In this case, the structure of the community might be compared to skeleton which is formed in the beginning of life and has a considerable impact on it later on (Merton 1968). Nevertheless, just like it is rather difficult to enjoy life to its fullest with a broken bone or the one that limits movement; a community can hardly feature a productive social life if there are problem with its structure. One of the points that generally needs improvement as well as can have a profound impact on the process of development is social interaction. For example, if a particular social group is excluded from different areas of social life and is not able to make its valuable contribution to the community, so the latter can hardly experience development as not every element that comprises it is engaged. The notion of education should also be named among the factors spawn biases that might hamper the development of a community. Thus, one can hardly object to the fact that the desire for development is primarily felt by the part of the populato who, on the one hand, have a developed outlook on different things which is largely conditioned by academic achievements and, on the other hand, have something to compare to, the knowledge that can easily be extracted from books. As one can easily see, education is able to help to achieve the above mentioned goals simultaneously. That is why it would not be an exaggeration to point out that the number of educated people equals to the number of people who can potentially contribute to the development of the community (Hallinan 2000). What is more important is that just like culture, education should promote the spirit of exploration of the frontiers and the need to widen ones outlook. In other words, if the educational system heavily relies on the works of the scholars that lived in the past and does not incorporate the knowledge that was discovered by the new researches, it is likely to reject the idea of development as the one which undermines its foundations and will keep the outlook of the people limited. That is why it is particularly important to design an educational system that would not be stable, by rely on continuous research and verification of its information in order to keep the pace of time. One would make not mistake, pointing out that the role of formal institutions that have emerged in the society may also become an obstacle on the way of development of the community. Thus, the primary goal of different formal organizations is to coordinate the social life in the appropriate manner. Nevertheless, the development of technology and history might introduce numerous changes into this system, gradually leading to and inevitable conflict. Under such circumstances, formal institutions should become bodies that channel the constructive energy of the development into the right direction (Ferrante 2007). In case this does not happen, the community is likely to face many difficulties and ultimately a collapse. If one takes a look at the evidence that history brings, one will be able to see that all revolutions were conditioned by the inability of the formal organizations to facilitate the development of communities. What is more important is that the former may also support the framework within which all innovations will not be implemented. Similar to the situation with education, one should mention that formal organizations were created by the people and for the people which means that the latter have ultimate authority over them and are entitled the introduction of the necessary changes. The function of formal organizations within the community might be compared to the one of the sail: it is an irreplaceable element of a boat and contributes to its movement when the wind is right; nevertheless, when the wind is wrong, the sail not only with not help, but move the boat in the opposite direction. If one considers the relationship between the factors that influence a community and the development that it achieves, it becomes evident that the idea of social control should be mentioned as well. Thus, one of the most important points that are related to this idea is the notion of deviance. It is an essential category that marks certain actions as appropriate ones and inappropriate ones based on their compliance with the rules in regulations in different areas of the social life that were developed by the people. The biggest danger that this situation holds that a community might consider innovations to be a deviance and ban it from the social life (Ross 1969). The other notion that also should be noted with this regard is the concept of conformity. One of the most essential points to be mentioned here is the conscious desire to follow the mutually acceptable rules. In this case conformity is likely to have a positive impact on a community; however, if the desire to maintain compliance with the rule focuses more on the mere adherence to the tradition without contributing to reinforcing the essence of it, conformity might be regarded as an obstacle. Among the biases that are able to have a negative influence on the development of the community, one should pay a particular attention to the issue of social inequality. It is beyond any doubt that any environment that consists of different individuals that compete with each other ultimately will feature those who have succeeded in it and those who are losing. Nevertheless, it is one of the functions of the above mentioned formal institutions to maintain the equilibrium and make sure that the prosperity in the community is not concentrated in one particular area of part of the population (Price 1995). Speaking of the reasons why it is able to have a negative impact on the process of development, one might notice that they largely focus on one particular factor: inefficiency of social interaction that is caused by lack of social mobility. Indeed, the major point where social inequality is reflected is the impossibility of one group of people to participate actively in the social life due to lack of necessary funds. It is obvious that this does not mean that in order to adopt an active civil position one has to have a moderate income. Nevertheless, those who do not have a stable source of income are far more concerned with finding it and surviving rather then participating in the development. It is beyond any doubt that the issue of race is the one that can hardly be omitted when one analyzes the factors that have a considerable impact on the community and the way it develops. Thus, the development of means of transportation allowed people to move around the globe and chose different places to live. That is why it would not be a mistake to point out that the contemporary communities are rather heterogenic and feature people who come from different cultural backgrounds (McKee 1993). So, while examining the state of affairs of the modern communities one should always keep in mind that they may be comprised by the population that does not belong to the same ethnicity. This is particularly important as there is a tendency to exclude people who come from a different cultural background from some aspects of social life, even though communities all over the world promote the spirit of tolerance and mutual appreciation. Therefore, one might conclude that the presence of a considerable number of people of different ethnicities might become an obstacle on the way of development of a community. It is understandable that this does not mean that diversity may be a factor that impedes the development; it simply means that the less the environment in question is homogeneous, the higher is the chance that it will provoke conflicts between the members that comprise it. If one takes a close look at the structure of community, one would also have to notice that the idea of gender might play an important role in the development of it. Thus, the population is generally divided into two genders: male and females. What is more important is that there are some social roles that are attributed to the idea of masculinity and femininity. However, it must be noted that if the society is not able to introduce changes into the perception of the category of gender, it will inevitably lead to the emergence of negative consequences. In other words, the modern world features more freedom for women and they are more active in building their careers (Wharton 2005). For example, if a community fails to acknowledge that, it is doomed to hamper its development. In addition to that, one should point out that other sexual orientations and gender perceptions should be taken into account while considering the issue in question. Indeed, in the contemporary world, there are more and more people who explore the frontiers of sexuality and openly practice homosexuality. It is quite obvious that this might contribute to the development of a conflict within the community. All this leads to the necessity to prepare the social environment for correct perception of gender and sexualities in order to avoid conflicts that are based on this notion. It is quite understandable that the concepts of economic and political world should also be examined while finding biases that might hamper the development of a community. Speaking of the former, one should note that different economic biases are able to have a considerable negative effect on the development of a community. Thus, one can hardly argue that economic stability is the basis of the social stability. Indeed, when people have a secured and reliable source of income that are able to think about the possibility of introduction of new aspects into the life of their community (Swedberg 2003). This might be considered to be one of the driving forces of the development. Speaking of the latter area of social life, one might point out that the political world is the platform where the discussion about the necessity of development is articulated the most explicitly. Thus, the politicians are the leaders of this process and the positive outcome of it is largely based on their level of competency and desire to help people. That is why, if there are certain biases in the political world that continuously disrupt the life in the country, a steady development is not possible. That is why one might note that elimination of the political biases may be regarded as one of the prerequisites from the development of a community. Finally, if one considers the biases that are able to hamper evolution of a particular community, one may also note that the concept of social change is something that should be closely examined with this regard. To begin with, it is quite obvious that the above mentioned process of development inevitably involves change in the social environment. That is why one should always keep in mind that the process in question implies that the community will not be the same as it used to be. This might be one of the reasons why a part of it might object to the development. Nevertheless, if the number of people who favor the change is sufficient, the latter is likely to happen. What is more important is that the latter usually includes individuals that have a rather broad outlook and are not afraid to introduce new ideas into their lives. It is quite obvious that the situation when the entire or at least the majority of the social environment is comprised of them is unlikely; however, even a reasonable number of people who are passionate about making the change and, consequentially, the development happen may be enough to have a positive impact on the community (Earl & Kimport 2011). Moreover, the current level of development of technology is able to amplify the impact of those people make sure that they are able to overcome all the biases. Having examined all the evidence that was brought up in the discussion above, it is rather clear that there no single factor that hampers the development of a community, but there is a set of interconnected and related biases that may be found in different areas of the social life that do not allow a community to move forward. Nevertheless, if the tendency to change has gained a sufficient momentum than the chances that the chance which is a prerequisite for the process of development is inevitable. That is why one might conclude that the latter is a result of combination of forces that have a different vector. References Earl, J & Kimport, K 2011, Digitally enabled social change activism in the Internet age, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Ferrante, J 2007, Sociology: A global perspective, 7th edn. Cengage Learning, Boston, Mass. Hall, J 2010, Handbook of cultural sociology, Routledge, London. Hallinan, M 2000, Handbook of the sociology of education, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, New York. McKee, J 1993, Sociology and the race problem: The failure of a perspective, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Ill. Merton, R. 1968, Social theory and social structure, Free Press, New York. Price, T 1995, Foundations of social inequality, Plenum Press, New York. Ross, E 1969, Social control; a survey of the foundations of order, Press of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Swedberg, R 2003, Principles of economic sociology, Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. Wharton, A 2005, The sociology of gender: An introduction to theory and research, Blackwell Pub., Malden, Mass. Read More