The definitions of society and culture

The society is to refer to members of specific groups. For example,  Teacher's Society, and Students society and the like. 
What is Society
false consciousness
x

A society is intangible; it is a process rather than a thing, motion rather than structure". Society is a web of social relationships, the pattern of norms of interaction by which the members of the society maintain themselves.


“Society not only continues to exist by transmission, by communication, but it may fairly be said to exist in transmission, in communication.” — John Dewey in Democracy and Education, 1916

Definition of society:

Some definitions of the term "society" are given below:

Sociologists define society as the people who interact in such a way as to share a common culture. The term  refer to people who share a common culture in a particular location. For example, people living in Tirunelveli developed different cultures from those living in Chennai cultures. In time, a large variety of human cultures arose around the world.

Culture and society are intricately related. A culture consists of the “objects” of a society, whereas a society consists of the people who share a common culture. 

A society is a very large group of people organized into institutions held together over time through formalized relationships. Nations, for example, are made up of formal institutions organized by law. Governments of different size, economic institutions, educational institutions and others all come together to form a society.

Individual is the basic component of society. The interaction of individuals with each other gives birth to group. The social groups interact with each other and develop relationships with each other, leads to a society. 

Meaning of Society

This term has been derived from a Latin word ‘socious’ that means association or companionship. Thus society means ‘A larger group of individuals, who are associative with each other’.

Prof Wright: It is a system of relationships that exists among the individuals of the groups.

Linton: Any group of people who have lived and worked together long enough to get themselves organized and to think of themselves as a social unit with well defined limits”.

“Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other—Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (Marx and Engels 1848

Maclver and Page:

"Society is a system of usages and procedures, authority and mutual aid, of many groupings and divisions, of human behavior and of liberties"

Cooley:

“Society is a complex of forms or processes each of which is living and growing by interaction with the other, the whole being so unified that what takes place in one part affects all the rest".

Marx:

Marx described modern society in terms of alienation. Alienation refers to the condition in which the individual is isolated and divorced from his or her society, work, or the sense of self. Marx defined four specific types of alienation.

Alienation from the product of one’s labor. An industrial worker does not have the opportunity to relate to the product he labors on. 

Alienation from the process of one’s labor. A worker does not control the conditions of her job because she does not own the means of production.  Everything is decided by the bourgeoisie who then dictate orders to the laborers.

Alienation from others. Workers compete, rather than cooperate: Employees vie for time slots, bonuses, and job security. 

Alienation from one’s self. A final outcome of industrialization is a loss of connectivity between a worker and her occupation. Because there is nothing that ties a worker to her labor, there is no longer a sense of self. Instead of being able to take pride in an identity such as being a watchmaker, automobile builder, or chef, a person is simply a cog in the machine.

Another idea that Marx developed is the concept of false consciousness. False consciousness is a condition in which the beliefs, ideals, or ideology of a person are not in the person’s own best interest. In fact, it is the ideology of the dominant class (here, the bourgeoisie capitalists) that is imposed upon the proletariat. Ideas such as the emphasis of competition over cooperation, or of hard work being its own reward, clearly benefit the owners of industry. Therefore, workers are less likely to question their place in society and assume individual responsibility for existing conditions