The functions of society are aimed at ensuring the survival and progress of individuals. Some of the most important are meeting basic needs, preserving order or education.
In that sense, society is a form of organization in which people agree and order their way of life and the way in which they manage their resources.
To this end, institutions such as the set of rules or organizations that coordinate the behavior of people in relation to an area of their lives have emerged. He State , the church or the security corps, are examples of such institutions.
Society is the object of study of sociologists and has been the concern of many philosophers throughout history.
The 10 main functions of society
Among the main functions of society are:
1. Satisfaction of basic needs
It is the primary function of society; organize people and their actions in such a way that they are guaranteed food, shelter and vital protection.
Here also enters the public health that, although usually falls in the State, is a primary necessity of the organized people; ensure sanitation to prevent the spread of disease and medical care should it be required.
2. Preservation of order
It is the function that involves the different security bodies, formal and informal, created to protect the life and assets of individuals.
They become a social institution because their role is to meet a fundamental need of people.
The order also refers to the rules, norms or laws that guide the behavior of people in the different stages and situations of their life from birth to death.
Some philosophers have proposed that this is the main function of man's organization in society: to control his wild and irrational impulses.
3. Management of education
Within society, individuals acquire the knowledge necessary to interact with their peers, in the first instance. But then, they are also trained to make the most of their abilities, talents and interests.
Living in community, allows the human being to be social by nature, to discover and develop his own personality by putting it into action in front of another human being.
This community should provide the conditions necessary for each individual to have the opportunity to learn from the language, history and culture of that group, to how to use their own abilities for their growth and progress within the group.
4. Management of the economy
The distribution of goods and services is another concern within a social group.
The society, as a system, generates and distributes the material goods and services that will be dedicated to satisfy the basic and secondary needs of the human beings that comprise it.
This distribution is according to the social and political philosophy that society assumes as its own.
5. Power management
Just as the distribution of goods and services is a crucial concern within society, the shaping of figures and / or power groups also occupies much of society life.
The administration of power from the institutions is what has led the human being to face in wars and disputes throughout its history.
Depending on the socio-political doctrine that prevails in a particular social group, that power will be centralized in the State or distributed among the different institutions that make up that group.
In this function appears that human dimension according to which the roles of dominion or submission are adopted and the most primitive tensions of the desire to possess are resolved.
In fact, the delimitation of a territory of dominion, enters into this function since the territorial limits will end up being the jurisdictional limits.
This also means that power management must take place within the social group but also in relation to other groups.
6. Division of labor
The organization in society also allows defining the roles in the work that each individual will fulfill given the needs to be met.
Raising constructions, providing security and food, educating, establishing communication channels, developing technologies are all tasks that involve the conjunction of different roles and the application of different levels of strength and intelligence.
Living in society makes clear this reality and guides people towards a distribution of the workforce that allows all tasks are fulfilled to provide well-being to individuals.
7. Communication management
For the human being is inherent the need for expression and communication, so in society the conditions are created for this need to be fulfilled.
This includes from language to communication channels (streets, bridges, etc.) between different members of the social group, as well as between these and other social groups.
If oral or artistic expressions such as dance or paintings were the most used forms of communication in primitive societies, today are the technologies of communication and information (ICTs), which facilitate this task.
Members of society are concerned with using the communication tools that are available and developing increasingly sophisticated ones, in order to ensure the continuity of the culture of that group in the next generations.
8. Preservation and transmission of culture
Each society develops common forms of behavior that are transmitted between its members and the following generations.
This is a necessary function for the distinction of social groups and for the preservation of diversity.
Culture is influenced by the conditions or characteristics that surround the social group, whether geographic, historical or political.
The way of doing things to survive, is learned in the relationship with others that is propitiated in society.
9. Leisure
The fun of the members of a social group it is also something that must be considered, since the human being also requires moments of relaxation.
Living in society facilitates the necessary infrastructure and technology so that people can take advantage of their free time as they prefer.
Regardless of the diverse opinions that may be generated in the face of this or that form of experiencing leisure, social groups generate these spaces and with it contribute to satisfy another human need that, in the end, affects the health of people.
10. Religiosity
The human being throughout its history and regardless of its location, has manifested the imperative need to experience their religiosity. That expression of a relationship with transcendence.
Man seems to have the need to believe that there is something superior to him, an origin of All. Based on this need, different answers have been elaborated, which then materialize in different religious expressions.
To live in society allows to share with others the experience of a religion, of a communion with another entity that seems to give meaning to life.
Religiousness also functions as a social atomizer, as a form of organization in which very specific rules, codes and forms of communication of the believers are developed in the same dogma.
All these functions are interdependent and progressive in their complexity since the more mature a society, the more refined the ways in which those functions must be fulfilled.
References
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- Litle, Daniel (2008). Understanding Society. Retrieved from: understandingsociety.blogspot.com
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- Spencer, Herbert (2004). What is a society? A society is an organism. Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas (Reis), Sin mes, 231-243. Retrieved from: redalyc.org
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