What is a Group? SOCI 101.002.FA14 August 26, 2014 SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 1 / 15
What is a Group? 1 Groups: A Definition 2 Types of Groups 3 Individuals and Groups 4 Durkheim’s Great Insight 5 The Modern Individual 6 What is a Group? SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 2 / 15
Sociology The systematic study of human behavior in groups SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 3 / 15
Group /Group/ (gr[=oo]p) , n. [F groupe, It. gruppo, groppo, cluster, bunch, packet, group; of G. origin: cf. G. kropf craw, crop, tumor, bunch. See Crop, n.] 1. A cluster, crowd, or throng; an assemblage, either of persons or things, collected without any regular form or arrangement; as, a group of men or of trees; a group of isles. SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 4 / 15
Achieved and Ascribed Groups Ascribed: Assignment to a group based on judgment by others or by an external force. Generally can’t be changed. Achieved: Assignment to a group based on an individual’s experiences, talents, or wishes. Generally easier to change. SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 5 / 15
Types of Groups Organized Groups Political groups, associations, etc. Identity Groups Race, sex, nation, religion, etc. Solidary Groups Friends, family, etc. SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 6 / 15
Types of Groups Gardner Hall Section SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 7 / 15
Individuals and Groups “To exist at all, all communities must be imagined.” Fields, xxxiii People must believe in the reality and group-ness of the groups to which they belong. SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 8 / 15
SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 9 / 15
Durkheim’s Great Insight It is not, in fact, individuals who form groups. Rather, it is groups that form individuals. People do not know what individuals are until their social lives tell them. SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 10 / 15
Excursus: The Part and the Whole SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 11 / 15
The Modern Individual Structurally independent Economically rational Group membership by choice Interests and opinions SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 12 / 15
What is a Group? The fundamental unit of human behavior Often reducible by breaking down into individuals Source of ideas, feedback, problems, and solutions In modern society: cross-cutting allegiances that construct the individual–the “self”–by generating unique intersections of social webs. SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 13 / 15
Networks, Groups, and Separation SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 14 / 15
Networks, Groups, and Separation Epistemic closure SOCI 101.002.FA14 What is a Group? August 26, 2014 15 / 15
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