SOC103H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Robert Bales, Michel Foucault, Policy Press
Document Summary
While social structure is useful in that it provides an ordered framework for society and our interactions with others, it also constrains the ways people relate to one another in social situations. While we may think our actions are freely chosen, most of the time, our behaviour follows the instructions outlined in social scripts. Our identities and roles, fundamental elements of social structure, are a central part of the way social structure controls us. In order words, we are expected to conform to the behaviours associated with our identities and roles. Our group memberships also regulate our behaviour, and this is the case whether we are members of small groups or vast bureaucracies. A number of groups are examined in this chapter: teams, bands, and gangs (tbgs); cliques; networks; and bureaucracies. Although these groups vary in size and in their goals, they expect us to conform to rules beneficial to the group, if not ourselves.
