What is society - Essay Example

What is society? Society can be understood as people whose interactions share a common culture. As such they have certainshared beliefs, activities and values. This activities, beliefs as well as values constitute their culture. Order on the other end can be understood to referrer particular set of systems that relate to the social structures, values and practices, activities which serve to maintain or enforce a pattern or behavior of relation. Therefore order is constructs what activities, values and practices a people engage in which becomes their culture.

The two words society and order therefore can be used interchangeably. Firstly, society and order can be used interchangeably because, both of them constitute the values, practices, beliefs and activities that a people share and thus their culture. People who interact in a particular manner is a society are considered to share a common culture. Order is that practice, values, activities that a given group of people believe in and practice making them has a common culture. This therefore implies that both have can be used interchangeably because they refer to a particular set of people (Halewood, 51).

According to Marx however, society refers to that moving balance of forces that are antithetical and are responsible for generating social change due to the tension and struggle they cause. He therefore perceives society bas a set of structurally interconnected whole. Marx additionally asserts that a society constitutes how man engages in production, feeds and their habitation. Order is defined by Marx using forces of production. By so doing, he believes that the need for producing economic goods is the basis for social order.

This he explains is marked by the forces of production’s continuous change in which case is technology (Halewood, 37). Weber defines society as a form of human interactions. Thus he relates the interaction which includes their practices and activities to construct a society. Order on the other end is explained by Weber to constitute two fundamental components. These include authority and norms. The two represent principles or rules of a social organization in which case is a society. So what is a society according to Weber?

Society is thus the social organization that is regulated by norms and authority (Halewood, 31). Comte’s theory explains society to be that interrelated whole which controls or limits human behavior. He therefore theorizes that a society is held together by spiritual ties which include language, common belief .i.e. religion. Therefore in his theory he asserts that a society can be understood parallel biological organisms as a unit held by muscles and bones Halewood, 23). In relation to order, he explains that centralization of power and common morality development will maintain the social order (Halewood, 25).

This is much a kin to controlling or limiting human behavior which is his explanation of a society. Durkheim too compares a society to an organism. Through this he explains that there are different parts that work together. A society according to Durkheim has structures that influences, coerces and constraints the individuals that belong to it. A society is therefore considered by Durkheim as an entity of its own (Halewood, 31). Work citedHalewood, Michael. Rethinking the Social through Durkheim, Marx, Weber and Whitehead.

Anthem Press, 2014.Works Cited