Social

For other uses, seeSocial (disambiguation).

Socialorganisms, includinghuman(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not.

Etymology

The word "social" derives from the Latin wordsocii( "allies" ). It is particularly derived from the ItalianSociistates, historical allies of theRoman Republic(although they rebelled against Rome in theSocial War of 91–87 BC).

Social theorists

In the view ofKarl Marx,human beings are intrinsically, necessarily and by definition social beings who, beyond being "gregarious creatures", cannot survive and meet their needs other than through social co-operation and association. Their social characteristics are therefore to a large extent an objectively given fact, stamped on them from birth and affirmed bysocializationprocesses; and, according to Marx, in producing and reproducing their material life, people must necessarily enter intorelations of productionwhich are "independent of their will".

By contrast, the sociologistMax Weberfor example defines human action as "social" if, by virtue of the subjective meanings attached to the action by individuals, it "takes account of the behavior of others, and is thereby oriented in its course".

In socialism

The term "socialism",used from the 1830s onwards inFranceand theUnited Kingdom,was directly related to what was called the social question. In essence,early socialistscontended that the emergence of competitivemarketsocieties did not create "liberty, equality and fraternity" for all citizens, requiring the intervention ofpoliticsandsocial reformto tackle social problems, injustices and grievances (a topic on whichJean-Jacques Rousseaudiscourses at length in his classic workThe Social Contract). Originally the term "socialist" was often used interchangeably with "co-operative","mutualist","associationist"and"collectivist"in reference to the organization of economic enterprise socialists advocated, in contrast to theprivate enterpriseandcorporateorganizational structures inherent tocapitalism.

The modern concept of socialism evolved in response to the development of industrial capitalism. The "social" in modern "socialism" came to refer to the specific perspective and understanding socialists had of the development of material, economic forces and determinants of human behavior in society. Specifically, it denoted the perspective thathuman behavioris largely determined by a person's immediatesocial environment,that modes of social organization were notsupernaturalormetaphysicalconstructs but products of the social system and social environment, which were in turn products of the level of technology/mode of production (the material world), and were therefore constantly changing. Social and economic systems were thus not the product of innate human nature, but of the underlying form of economic organization and level of technology in a given society, implying that human social relations and incentive-structures would also change as social relations and social organization changes in response to improvements in technology and evolving material forces (relations of production). This perspective formed the bulk of the foundation for Karl Marx'smaterialist conception of history.

Modern uses

In contemporary society, "social" often refers to theredistributivepolicies of the government which aim to apply resources in thepublic interest,for example,social security.Policy concerns then include the problems ofsocial exclusionandsocial cohesion.Here, "social" contrasts with "private"and to the distinction between the public and the private (or privatised) spheres, where ownership relations define access to resources and attention.

The social domain is often also contrasted with that of physical nature, but insociobiologyanalogies are drawn betweenhumansand otherlivingspecies in order to explainsocial behaviorin terms ofbiologicalfactors.

See also

• Social media
• Sociology
• Social issues
• Social networking service
• Social network
• Social neuroscience
• Social psychology
• Social skills
• Social support
• Social studies
• Social undermining
• Social work
• Social cue
• Social constructis a thought, idea or practice which is accepted and agreed upon by the people living in society.

External links

• Dolwick, JS. 2009. The 'Social' and Beyond: Introducing Actor Network Theory,article examining different meanings of the concept 'social'