Social

For other uses, see Social (disambiguation).

3 Social theorists

The term social refers to a characteristic of living

organisms as applied to populations of humans and other
animals. It always refers to the interaction of organisms
with other organisms and to their collective co-existence,
irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and
irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or
involuntary.

In the view of Karl Marx[1]

human beings are intrinsically, necessarily and by denition 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
armed by socialization processes; and, according to
Marx, in producing and reproducing their material life,
people must necessarily enter into relations of production
which are independent of their will.

Etymology

The word Social derives from the Latin word socii (allies). It is particularly derived from the Italian Socii
states, historical allies of the Roman Republic (although
they rebelled against Rome in the Social War of 91-88
BC).

By contrast, the sociologist Max Weber[1] for example

denes 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.

4 In socialism

Denition

In the absence of agreement about its meaning, the term The term "socialism", used from the 1830s onwards in
social is used in many dierent senses and regarded as France and the United Kingdom, was directly related to
a fuzzy concept, referring among other things to:
what was called the social question. In essence, early
Attitudes, orientations, or behaviors which take the inter- socialists contended that the emergence of competitive
ests, intentions, or needs of other people into account (in market societies did not create liberty, equality and
contrast to anti-social behaviour) has played some role in fraternity for all citizens, requiring the intervention of
dening the idea or the principle. For instance terms like politics and social reform to tackle social problems, insocial realism, social justice, social constructivism, social justices and grievances (a topic on which Jean-Jacques
psychology, social anarchism and social capital imply that Rousseau discourses at length in his classic work The Sothere is some social process involved or considered, a pro- cial Contract). Originally the term socialist was often
cess that is not there in regular, non-social realism, jus- used interchangeably with "co-operative", "mutualist",
tice, constructivism, psychology, anarchism, or capital.
"associationist" and "collectivist" in reference to the orThe adjective social is also used often in politics, al- ganization of economic enterprise socialists advocated, in
though its meaning in a context depends heavily on who contrast to the private enterprise and corporate organizais using it. In left-wing politics left-wing circles it is of- tional structures inherent to capitalism.
ten used to imply a liberal characteristic, while in rightwing circles it is generally used to imply a conservative
characteristic. This adjective is used much more often
by those on the political left than by those on the political right. For these reasons, those seeking to avoid association with the left-right political debates often seek
to label their work with phrases that do not include the
word social. An example is quasi-empiricism in mathematics which is sometimes labelled social constructivism
by those who see it as an unwarranted intrusion of social
considerations in mathematical practice.

The modern concept of socialism evolved in response to

the development of industrial capitalism. The social in
modern socialism came to refer to the specic perspective and understanding socialists had of the development
of material, economic forces and determinants of human
behavior in society. Specically, it denoted the perspective that human behavior is largely determined by a persons immediate social environment, that modes of social
organization were not supernatural or metaphysical constructs but products of the social system and social environment, which were in turn products of the level of
1

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 Marxs materialist conception of history.

Modern uses

In contemporary society, social often refers to the

redistributive policies of the government which aim to
apply resources in the public interest, for example, social
security. Policy concerns then include the problems of
social exclusion and social cohesion. Here, social contrasts with "private" and to the distinction between the
public and the private (or privatised) spheres, where ownership relations dene access to resources and attention.
The social domain is often also contrasted with that of
physical nature, but in sociobiology analogies are drawn
between humans and other living species in order to explain social behavior in terms of biological factors. The
term social is also added in various other academic subdisciplines such as social geography, social psychology,
social anthropology, social philosophy, social ontology,
social statistics and social choice theory in mathematics.

See also
Social media
Sociology
Social network
Social neuroscience
Social psychology
Social skills
Social support
Social undermining

References

[1] Morrison, Ken. Marx, Durkheim, Weber. Formations of

modern social thought

EXTERNAL LINKS

8 External links
Dolwick, JS. 2009. The 'Social' and Beyond: Introducing Actor Network Theory, article examining
dierent meanings of the concept 'social'

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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