SOCIAL HIERARCHY
SOCIAL HIERARCHY (Greek hierarhia, hieros - saint, arche - power, board) - a system of successively subordinate elements arranged from the lowest to the highest and characterizing the multi-level social whole. In this sense, the concept of hierarchy can also be used to characterize particular multilevel systems. For example, after the works of M. Weber, the concept of a bureaucratic hierarchy became widespread. The term was first used by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in his work The Heavenly Hierarchy and the Spiritual Hierarchy (second half of the 5th century). The term was used to refer to a system of ecclesiastical and spiritual ranks. In the Roman Catholic Church, the concept of "hierarchy" includes: (1) the hierarchy of theological law, (2) the hierarchy of spiritual law, (3) the hierarchy of jurisdiction. In this capacity, the concept of hierarchy was used almost until the middle of the 19th century, and did not have a semantic connotation of "social". In modern social theories, the concept of "hierarchy" is used to refer to: 1) any system of social agents and / or their relations, ranked one in relation to the other (hierarchy reflects their differences in power, authority, financial situation, social status, etc.) ; 2) organization or classification of ascending or descending generalizations - levels of complexity. That is, it is a system of levels according to which social and other processes are organized. As an example, we can cite Comte's hierarchy of sciences, where the time and sequence of the emergence of sciences, the degree of their abstractness and concreteness, and the degree of complexity acted as the levels of organization of the classification. Each science depends on and relies on those that precede it, and is more complex. The concept of SI. widely used within the framework of the structural-functional direction. In particular, Parsons' concept postulates the presence of a hierarchy of necessary conditions (normative and environmental conditions) to explain the function of cybernetic control. Also, in the functional tradition, the concept of SI. used to denote relationships between systems and subsystems. For example, as a "hierarchy of subsystems of social action." It is interesting to use the concept of hierarchy in the concept of G. Becker (“Whose side are we on?”, 1967), where it is used to denote the classification of the probabilities of “being heard” for an individual in society, which is based on a hierarchy of levels of social organization and their corresponding status prescriptions. . In modern social philosophy, the concept of SI. It is also used to denote the hierarchy of needs, the hierarchy of values, the hierarchy of motives, etc.
The latest philosophical dictionary. - Minsk: Book House. A. A. Gritsanov. 1999
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SOCIAL HIERARCHY- (Greek hierarhia, hieros saint, arche power, board) a system of successively subordinate elements, arranged from lower to higher, and characterizing the multi-level social whole. In this sense, the concept of I. can be used and ... ... Sociology: Encyclopedia
- (from Latin stratum - layer and facio - I do) one of the basic concepts of sociology, denoting a system of signs and criteria of social stratification, position in society; the social structure of society; branch of sociology. The term ... ... Wikipedia
See SOCIAL HIERARCHY... The latest philosophical dictionary
This term has other meanings, see Gerarchia. Hierarchy (from other Greek ἱεραρχία, from ἱερός "sacred" and ἀρχή "rule") the order of subordination of the lower links to the higher ones, their organization into a tree-type structure; management principle in ... Wikipedia
SOCIAL STRUCTURE- a set of relatively stable links between the elements of a social system, reflecting its essential characteristics. The most important distinguishing feature of S.S. lies in the fact that it is identical to the system (emergent) properties ... ... Sociology: Encyclopedia
English hierarchy, social; German Hierarchy, sociale. A hierarchical structure characterized by inequality of status, power relations, income, prestige, etc. Antinazi. Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009 ... Encyclopedia of Sociology
AND; and. [from Greek. hieros sacred and archē power] 1. Sequential arrangement of service ranks, ranks from the lowest to the highest in the order of their subordination. Service, civil and. 2. Arrangement of parts or elements of the whole in order from highest to ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
HIERARCHY SOCIAL- English. hierarchy, social; German Hierarchy, sociale. A hierarchical structure characterized by inequality of status, power relations, income, prestige, etc. STATUS HIERARCHY eng. Hierarchy, status; German status hierarchies. Classification ... ... Explanatory Dictionary of Sociology
The totality of people constituting a unit of the social structure of society. In general, this year can be divided into two types of groups. The first includes aggregates of people distinguished by one or another essential feature or features, for example. socially... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia
Since power is exercised by one person in relation to others, it affects social relations and itself acts as one of the types of these relations - power relations.
The nature of hierarchy and mobility consists in the superiority of one over the other. People with power are at the top of the social pyramid, others without it are at the bottom. This order is called hierarchical (hierarchy is the arrangement of parts or elements of the whole in order from lowest to highest. This term in sociology is used to refer to the social structure of society, bureaucracy; in organization theory - as a management principle).
Any hierarchy can be represented as pyramids, where three main levels are distinguished: upper, middle and lower. In the management hierarchy, these are the levels of management, in the social - classes.
The social hierarchy is arranged in such a way that at the bottom (at the base of the pyramid) there are most of the benefits and privileges that people strive for: power, wealth, influence, benefits, prestige, etc.
social benefits are scarce resources that are present or available in the smallest number to the largest number of people. If the top and bottom of the social pyramid are the poles of a magnet, then tension arises between them, which can be called social tension. Indeed, those at the bottom believe that the benefits are distributed unevenly, even more - unfairly: a minority of the population owns most of the national wealth. There is a natural desire to redistribute everything so that everyone gets equally, so history is full of revolutions, rebellions, upheavals. The instigators are those who were deprived, masses of the same people adjoin them. But as soon as the revolutionaries succeed and seize power, the minority again finds itself in an unprivileged position, and the majority do not have enough profit. A slower and more conservative way to redistribute wealth is to move up not as a group, not as a mass, but alone, i.e. nothing needs to be destroyed, just everyone who wants and who has the opportunity, makes a personal career. The move up is calledupward mobility.
People tend to strive from the bottom up, and not in the opposite direction, each of us wants to live better and no one wants to live worse. We live worse only when circumstances compel us. As much as possible, a person overtakes others, strives to where there is more power, privileges, benefits. Not everyone strives to get rich or dominate, but everyone wants to live better, one sees life in communion with spiritual, the other to the material. Thus, the phenomenon of upward mobility (movement from the bottom up) is formed only where the majority of goods and the majority of people are at different poles of the social scale: at the bottom - the majority of people, at the top - the majority of social goods. If both are combined, no one wants to move up. Ascending mobility corresponds to the phenomenon of achievement motivation.
achievement motivation - this is the desire inherent in most people to move up and do their job, their business better than they did it yesterday or than competitors do it.
As experience shows, achievement motivation increases rather than decreases over time. When we reach a higher standard of living or position, we get used to the fact that we can now afford to dress better, eat better, buy more books, and so on. Over time, the need for a higher quality of life becomes a matter of course, and we have higher demands, our needs are growing and expand. To satisfy them, you need more money, power, influence, so we are again rushing up. Consequently, achievement motivation is spurred on by an expanding range of needs. Achievement motivation is closely related to the law of rising needs. In itself, this law is not good, not harmful to a person, its negative side is that a person turns into a slave of growing privileges, i.e. moving up the career ladder, achieving titles and power, the individual essentially serves his ambitions, whims, and requests. But they also give a person benefits - he gets used to a higher standard of living and a new circle of acquaintances is formed in him. But soon friends also turn from an end into a means.
ELITE THEORYCLASS THEORY
While there is no text for a generalizing page, I offer quotes from the article and chapter 3 from the article The meaning of the hierarchical instinct.
It may seem to many that an article about should refer to the field of biology or psychiatry, but the fact is that without concepts of hierarchical instinct we will not understand anything in the section, and even in the rubric, since hierarchical instinct is a factor of social development everyone, and most importantly - hierarchical instinct is the main factor in the emergence and development of the economy in people. I made this discovery, so this one is just my attempt to develop and substantiate the ideas of the creator.
3.2. For millions of years, the hierarchy, as an evolutionary find to ensure the stability of units of the primate species, has become immanent in the pack of monkeys, which required fixing at the genetic level in the form hierarchical instinct.
Hierarchical structure of the units of humanity
3.1. I hope I made it clear external causes for the way of life of people as part of the units of humanity. If we return to Kautsky's definition, he emphasized COHESION OF GROUP MEMBERS as a tool in the struggle for existence, which gives us a reason to imagine each evolutionary natural unit of humanity as a cohesion of the members of which is ensured due to the presence of an internal hierarchical structure.
3.2. Let's try to deal with the unit of humanity "from the inside". are a self-sufficient system that persists over time due to the fact that this form of existence guarantees each member maximum security and a minimum stable level of obtaining vital resources. The structural integrity of the species unit is ensured by a hierarchy that arranges all members in their places in the pyramid of privileges - from the leader to the very last member. At the same time, each member, except for the leader and the last, is in two hypostases - (1) is the lowest in relation to the members standing above him in the hierarchical ladder, and at the same time - (2) he himself heads the pyramid of the lower ones in the hierarchy. It is believed that there is appeasement module, thanks to which, with a certain amount of loyal manifestations from the bottom, repression from the top stops. At the same time, various sincere manifestations of fear, reverence and responsibility before a higher hierarch are key support maintaining all vertical consolidation. The most recent members, standing on the lower rungs of the hierarchy ladder, have nothing against the vertical, while the main danger to the existing hierarchy is the first few members in the list, which, thanks to self-assertion module, seek to increase their status in the group, or at least not to lower the achieved one, if someone else does the first. See human instincts. Attempt to describe and classify
3.3. In animals, the only criterion for ranking is physical strength. People already have several criteria according to which in any system of hierarchy there is a constant struggle for a higher position, but even the lowest member does not seek to leave the group, since his position in the community, even at the level of the lowest member, is better if he were behind outside of it.
3.4. The very phenomenon of hierarchy is a property of complex systems. In the general theory of systems in the section General system principles and laws, two laws can be found:
- 3.5. " law of hierarchical compensations”(E. A. Sedov) fixes that “the actual growth of diversity at the highest level is ensured by its effective limitation at previous levels” ...;
- 3.6. " principle of monocentrism”(A. A. Bogdanov), fixes that a stable system “is characterized by one center, and if it is complex, chain, then it has one higher, common center” ...;
3.7. Since human communities are complex systems, they must have a hierarchical structure. If the community is not a crowd, then it necessarily has a hierarchy with a single center. In contrast, "polycentric systems are characterized by dysfunction of coordination processes, disorganization, instability, etc." At the same time, "biological systems show increasing hierarchical organization as they rise along the evolutionary scale." (Peled A., Geva A. B., Brain organization and mental dynamics, Journal of Practical Psychology and Psychoanalysis, N 4, 2001.)
SOCIAL HIERARCHY
(Greek hierarhia, hieros - saint, arche - power, board) - a system of successively subordinate elements, arranged from the lowest to the highest and characterizing the multi-level social whole. In this sense, the concept of hierarchy can also be used to characterize particular multilevel systems. For example, after the works of M. Weber, the concept of a bureaucratic hierarchy became widespread. The term was first used by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in his work The Heavenly Hierarchy and the Spiritual Hierarchy (second half of the 5th century). The term was used to refer to a system of ecclesiastical and spiritual ranks. In the Roman Catholic Church, the concept of "hierarchy" includes: (1) the hierarchy of theological law, (2) the hierarchy of spiritual law, (3) the hierarchy of jurisdiction. In this capacity, the concept of hierarchy was used practically until the middle of the 19th century, and did not have a semantic connotation of "social". In modern social theories, the concept of "hierarchy" is used to refer to: 1) any system of social agents and / or their relations, ranked one in relation to the other (hierarchy reflects their differences in power, authority, financial position, social status, etc.) ; 2) organization or classification of ascending or descending generalizations - levels of complexity. That is, it is a system of levels according to which social and other processes are organized. As an example, we can cite Comte's hierarchy of sciences, where the time and sequence of the emergence of sciences, the degree of their abstractness and concreteness, and the degree of complexity acted as the levels of organization of the classification. Each science depends on and relies on those that precede it, and is more complex. The concept of SI. widely used within the framework of the structural-functional direction. In particular, Parsons' concept postulates the presence of a hierarchy of necessary conditions (normative and environmental conditions) to explain the function of cybernetic control. Also, in the functional tradition, the concept of SI. used to denote relationships between systems and subsystems. For example, as a "hierarchy of subsystems of social action." It is interesting to use the concept of hierarchy in the concept of G. Becker ("Which side are we on?", 1967), where it is used to refer to the classification of the probabilities of "being heard" for an individual in society, which is based on a hierarchy of levels of social organization and their corresponding status prescriptions. . In modern social philosophy, the concept of SI. It is also used to denote the hierarchy of needs, the hierarchy of values, the hierarchy of motives, etc. E.A. Ugrinovich
The latest philosophical dictionary. 2012
The concept of "social hierarchy"
Each person in his life sets a goal to strive for certain peaks, that is, he makes a movement “from bottom to top”, and not vice versa. Overtaking each other, we strive to master more resources and power in order to freely satisfy our needs: in a better life, in resources, in a family, in a career. The whole general sphere in which such a movement takes place is called "social hierarchy".
Researchers represent the social hierarchy in the form of a pyramid, the construction of which is based on a number of laws. One of the key laws is that the number of places and vacancies that are located at the bottom of the pyramid always exceed the number of vacancies that are located at the top of the hierarchy. Thus, it is possible to maintain some social balance, because only people elected according to certain criteria should be in the upper part: physically and intellectually more savvy, able to make important and responsible decisions that will affect all levels of the social hierarchy.
Definition 1
Thus, scientists under the social hierarchy understand such a set of positions and jobs, as well as positions that line up in ascending order: starting from the less prestigious and least remunerated and ending with the more prestigious and desirable. The presence of a hierarchy means that there is an inequality of positions and levels of management in the social system.
From the point of view of sociological science, inequality cannot be assessed in ethical terms, since it is aimed at performing both negative and positive functions.
The social hierarchy is directly related to the processes of social mobility. The nature of both phenomena suggests the superiority of some layers and levels of hierarchy over others: that is, there are always those who rule and those who obey. Such an order is accordingly called "hierarchical". Any hierarchy can be represented as a pyramid, which consists of the three most common levels in various social systems: upper, middle and lower. Note that in the management hierarchy, these levels are called "management levels", and in the social - social classes.
The structure of the social hierarchy was established in such a way that at the base of the pyramid, that is, at the lowest level, the majority of the population is located, and at the top level - the most privileged class of society. It is to them that people aspire, motivating themselves with the opportunity to possess such elements of life as:
Social benefits are the main motivating condition that makes a person work hard, strive to the highest level of the hierarchy. But at the same time, social benefits are a scarce resource, which are present only at the highest level of the hierarchy and are available to a small number of people.
Remark 1
The redistribution of resources and wealth is possible only in the case of moving up not by a group of people, but by oneself. Each person builds his own way to the top, makes a career, improves his professional skills, becomes an individual. This upward movement in scientific circles is called “upward mobility”.
The social hierarchy cannot be built chaotically, as this will lead to inconsistencies in the system. That is why its construction is based on a number of laws.
The first law is “The number of vacancies located at the bottom is always greater than the number of vacancies located at the top.” By vacancies, researchers understand not only jobs and positions, but in general positions that are located at all levels of the hierarchy and in the formal structure of the organization. Due to this distribution, competition arises: people at the lower level strive to take over the vacancy at the higher level, and participants at higher levels feel the need to defend their place. The principle of the pyramid involves selection among applicants for a high level of the most prepared morally, intellectually and physically. The higher the level of the hierarchy, the higher the level of remuneration and prestige.
The second law of the social hierarchy is “The amount of social benefits that those at the top receive is always greater than the amount of benefits received by those at the bottom.” Thus, we can see the pyramid upside down. If we usually interpret it as narrower at the top, but wider at the bottom, then when it comes to the amount of resources and goods, the opposite is true. This manifests the law of some injustice: the smallest number of participants in the pyramid is content with everything, and the participants of the lower level are in constant need. But that's the point of competition. Feeling a lack of resources, goods and freedoms, a person is motivated to improve his position. Therefore, he begins to work on himself in order to overcome poverty and poverty and achieve maximum heights.
From the second law of goods follows the third - "The law of social inequality." If some people are motivated by the lack of benefits, then there are those who enter into conflict, trying to achieve a better life through illegal means. This leads to an increase in the criminogenic situation, which indicates a negative motivation of the individual. Only bodies that regulate the crime situation can cope with this: the police, the state. This behavior is noted not only in those who are at the lower levels, but also in those who are at the top. Often we are faced with the phenomena of negative motivation of people who do not want to voluntarily part with their position and social opportunities. Therefore, they also use various manipulations and illegal ways to keep the benefits to themselves.
