What is the social structure?

Social structure is a term widely used in sociology, but it is rarely defined clearly. Its earliest use should be in the early 20th century, when the social sciences in China were formed.

In the current social sciences in China, this vague concept is still widely used. In a broad sense, it can refer to the structural situation in various fields such as economy, politics and society. In a narrow sense, it mainly refers to the social stratum structure in sociology.

In the context of social theory in Europe and America, social structure is often used in a more abstract level, which refers to the external overall environment that is independent of the active individual and restricts the individual, and is often used as the opposite of "initiative". This kind of opposition is similar to the opposition of "society VS individual" in a sense.

Extended data:

Main indicators of social structure:

1, population structure

Population structure is the basic structure of social structure. From 1978 to 2007, the birth rate and natural population growth rate of China were from 18.25% respectively. Down to 12. 10%. From 12.00%. Down to 5. 17%. The population mortality rate remained at 6.5%.

2. Family structure

Family is the cell of society. Great changes have taken place in China's family structure, structural model and social integration function: First, the family size is miniaturized; Second, family types are diversified; The third is the change of family structure model.

3. Organizational structure

Organizational structure refers to the distribution structure of social organizations in society. Reasonable organizational structure is beneficial to social development, and unreasonable organizational structure may even endanger the existence of the whole society. For example, if there are no worker bees or worker ants in a hive or ant nest, it will be difficult or even impossible for other members of the nest (queen or queen bee, drone or male ant, pupa, larva, egg and soldier ant) to survive.

4. Income structure

For humans, it refers to the income that individuals get from money, and for other animals, it refers to the income that individuals get from means of subsistence and means of production. If the income distribution is reasonable, society will function normally. If it is unreasonable, for example, the queen bee gets less food in the bee colony, the quantity and quality of the queen bee's eggs will decrease, which directly threatens the reproduction of the population. If the worker bees get less food, they will have no strength to work, and even run away from the bee colony because of excessive pressure, which directly threatens the existence of the whole bee colony.

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