Free Writing

       

This topic is gonna deal with the soccer.  I am a soccer player, and I think it is possible to connect the system at some extent.  I want to interpret the functionalism theory in here.  I will start from the top to see how everything works to make the team function.

      

The captain with his band on his left arm.

      The first one I believe would be at the top would be the coaches.  They are at the top because they are wiser, but they need people to do their labor work, which in this case is play the sport.  The coaches make the rules and everything that they expect out of the team, but they are also open to the player's opinions to make sure that everyone has a vote on how the team should work.  

The next one with power would be the captain of the team.  They wear a band in their arms to symbolize that they are the captain of the team.  To compare the captain with functionalism, we will see them as the large corporation owners.  These people are not necessarily at the top, but they do have some sort of authority.  The captain also needs his players to do the labor work, but, the captain will have to do some of the work sometimes.

On this picture the goalkeeper is also wearing the captain band.

      The next one in line is the goalkeeper, which is also the captain sometimes. Even though they do not have a lot of the power like the coaches and the captain, they see everything from their perspective of the field, and what he says goes.  The goalkeeper would be something like the less rich corporations, they do all the dirty work, but somehow they are still at the top with the players.

       The last one in line, of course, is all the players.  They are the minority, and they make the team function by doing all the work.  Even though the players make the team win, at the end the coaches get all the applause.  The players know they do all the labor work, but they will not retaliate since they need the coaches to keep the thing going.  Same in society, the minority knows they do all the labor work, but they need the large corporations, not keep society, but to survive.

The whole team together makes up their own society.

    

       A lot of things can relate to functionalism, and I think that soccer does.  The coaches are the leaders.  Then the captains and the goalkeepers control somewhat of the team. All the left over players are somewhat of the minority, and they keep the team going with the labor work.  The coaches need the players to play for them, and the players need the coaches to keep playing.

Free Writing

      I find amazing how a school can be an institution.  Not because of the education system, but students play different roles.  I believe that students play their roles in school to make a society within the school.  Some kind of a subculture if you will.
      In my school in Texas we really couldn't be religious because, some people took offense to it.  Religion did not make up the culture inside my school, but I believe that you had to be in a group to make it through the years.
      The most important group, of course were the staff.  To me they were the highest authority.  Kind of like the government.  They implemented the rules, and acted appropriately when someone would break the rules.
        The second group to me were the football players. They were the corporations owners if you will. Not all the sports would get the treatment they would get.  If one of the football players got in a fight, it was always the other person's fault.  They always had the highest grades because the teachers could not fail them.  They were up in the high strata.  Some sports were there too, but they weren't as popular.
   
The next group would be the nerds.  Now even though everyone said they were nobodies, I think that they played a vital role in the society.  Without them there wouldn't have been a lot of the stuff that made our school better.  They weren't really in the picture, but without them the school wouldn't go round.  They did the hard-work and the football players took all the action.  Kind of the same way the president looks like when he gets elected.  The nerds were like the managers of the corporations.
 

   The last one were the minority.  We did all the hard work if you will.  We would support the footballs players by going to the games.  As we supported them, they would get some sort of currency, and that is popularity.  A lot of the minority groups in the school worked really hard to get through high school, whereas the popular ones just had it really easy, and that is a perfect of example of capitalism within a society.  The minority groups were like the labor workers for the company.

Symbolic Interaction

      Symbolic interaction is one of the three main theories in sociology.  Symbolic interaction relies on the symbolic meaning that people develop to communicate with each other in a society.  Different societies have different symbols, or sometimes the same symbols that mean something completely different.  The theory also has a lot of ways of interpreting it.  We grow up in different societies, and that means that the way perceive life is not entirely the same.

      In society we interact a lot by the media.  For example, some of the clothes that is being sold today is astonishingly high, but we buy it.  We know its expensive, but we want to show society, or symbolize the brand of clothing we have.  This example my also symbolize the economy status that you see yourself in.

      Another way of seeing the symbolic theory is one that is more familiar to us.  We humans connect through a society by interaction.  We have to communicate somehow in any given circumstance.  In the world everyone uses gestures to communicate.  For example in the States, throwing something like a two finger symbol, will mean peace, or it might mean "whats up".  This is the amazing part of the theory!  We are born knowing nothing, and we somehow start to understand symbols more as we grow and connect with society.  We also move our hands a lot, especially when we tell a story.  If we wouldn't use hand movement as we spoke, the person on the other end of the conversation would be baffled.  They might perceive you as somebody who is socially awkward.

      Wherever it is that we travel in the world, we should always keep in mind that not a lot of the symbols are the same across seas.  We all recognize some symbols or ways of interacting, because we are human, and we are connected with each other one way or another.  It is also important to not be ethnocentric and allow people to utilize their symbols.  We might have to show them the right and wrongs ones, or they might have to show us.  Nevertheless, keep in mind how important symbols are in our everyday life.

Reference:

http://sociology.about.com/od/Sociological-Theory/a/Symbolic-Interaction-Theory.htm

Economy as a Social Institution

      Economy is the social institution that provides the U.S, and any other country with distribution of goods.  We need these goods in order to function.  In this system we provide an exchange to people in the same country or in different countries, in order to get what we need in return.  There are two major forms of economy in the world, and those are capitalism and socialism.

      "Capitalism is a system under which resources and means of production are privately owned..." (Sparknotes).  In this system you either fail or you succeed.  You seek production for yourself in order to try to reach the top, but its hard considering all the competition that people give off in modernized societies.  The capitalist class in capitalism owns the technology, land, and etc.  The other class of capitalism is the working class.  The working class sells their ability to work for a salary in return.

      The other type of economic institution is socialism.  In socialism the means and production is owned by the society.  "Rights to private property are limited..." (Sparknotes).  China is an example of socialism.  The good of the society is more important than individual profit.  The government does it's part by controlling the money that flows in the economy.  In socialism everybody would have the opportunity to to get a hold of goods and services to help them survive, however, there are limitations.  I like to think as socialism as "take what you need, and be happy you do not have anything".


Reference:

http://www.sparknotes.com/sociology/social-institutions/section1.rhtml

http://www.worldsocialism.org/english/what-capitalism

Religion as Social Institution

      Religion is a social institution simply because you follow a guideline for the way you live.  Your religion influences your values, norms, and beliefs.  If you are Catholic and you live in America it is not a bad thing to believe in the Virgin Mary.  Whereas other religions, in America, belief in multiple gods.

     Religion helps you better understand the meaning or purpose of life.  Most religions have a book, like the bible, which tells stories on how to behave,  Different religions have different stories to tell in their books, and that is where each religion is divided into institutions.  All religions in general are not social institution, but one religion with the same beliefs, values, and norms is in fact a social institution.

Religion is a big form of lifestyle and that is why we should respect it.  If you choose to believe in the science rather then the super natural, then so be it.  We don't have the right to judge a social institution that gave a pathway to the way of living of someone.  Emile Durkheim, The Father of Sociology, once stated that, "Every society has beliefs about things that are more practical and down to earth" (Lardbucket. org).  In the case that formal beliefs are scared beliefs and the next form of beliefs are profane beliefs.  The religious beliefs, of course, involve the sacred, things that we can feel, rather than see.  Sacred beliefs are things that inspire us and make us feel fear.

      Religion in essence reminds us of the importance in older societies.  The way they lived their life, and how they went about right or wrong was most likely influenced by religion.  Studying religion gives the human race the opportunity to discover more about a specific religion.  With more findings we better our opportunity for people to have faith.

Refernce:
   http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/sociology-comprehensive-edition/s20-01-religion-as-a-social-instituti.html

Functionalism

      Emile Durkheim may be known as the Father of Sociology.  Durkheim focused a lot on the topic of social order.  Without his findings society would be a mess, but luckily for us Durkheim came up with his own theory dealing with functionalism.  Functionalism is most commonly known as an orientation that views society as interdependent parts whose functions contribute to the stability and survivor of the system.  In short functionalism is the different parts of society working together to acquire one certain goal.  The goal? A successful society.  There are a couple of concepts to functionalism, but the most important concepts to me are, social order, social structure, and family.

      Social order is how we maintain the order in our society.  Too little rules can allow people to do more things, and among those things there might be some bad out'comes.  Too many rules and society will feel suppressed, which be good, but after a while rebellion will be too much for the government.  Humans are also naturally selfish, so we tend to do whatever we need to in order to further benefit ourselves.  The rules that the government implement on us are to evidently protect ourselves from ourselves.

      Social structure is the norms and values that we grow up with.  The values and norms depend on what society we live in.  We are born into these norms.  The way we behave is what make us a society.  Different societies behave in different ways. "Durkheim believed that people's behavior was shaped by the system of norms and values that they were born into".

      The last one is family.  Family provides sexual, economic, reproductive, and educational functions to the theory functionalism.  Sexual to me in this case means how the kids grow up to be.  If the dad teaches his son not be tough then he will most likely be a weak adult.  Economic is the gross income.  If the family does not have money then that child will probably have a tough time paying for college.  Reproductive is how the family keeps growing and keeps adding income into the nation.  The last one is educational.  If the parents did not go very far in school then the kids will do the same.
     
 Refrences:

 Dictionary.com

http://realsociology.edublogs.org/2010/12/13/class-notes-functionalism-key-ideas-and-durkheims-     functionalism/

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/sociology/theories-in-sociology/concepts-of-functionalism/