Main spheres of public life. Social sphere of society

The social sphere of people’s life also acts as one of the general spheres of society when analyzing it from a systemic perspective. However, the understanding of its essential aspects remains today quite confusing and contradictory, causing great controversy.

It is generally accepted that the social sphere is formed by stable existing large groups of people (social communities) and the relationships between them, since each of these groups pursues its own goals and protects its interests. Among such groups, along with classes and work collectives, the people, the nation, and even humanity as a social community stand out. This interpretation of the social sphere seems generally correct, but not accurate enough.

The social sphere is the sphere of human production and reproduction. Here a person reproduces himself as a biological, social and spiritual being. In this sense, the social sphere is opposed to the spheres of material and spiritual production - scientific and value knowledge, since what is produced in them must be consumed and mastered by people of other categories and professions. The social sphere is healthcare and education, from kindergarten to high school, this is communication with culture, from visiting the theater to scientific clubs, this is the continuation of the human race, from the birth of children to the passing of the older generation.

If people were completely identical in their living conditions and level of development, then replacing those who dropped out of the social system would be a very simple matter. It is not for nothing that today they have begun to write a lot about the “modular man” as a mass product of modern Western society. Modular Man has a set of ready-made properties and can be easily integrated into any mass distribution organization.

But, as you know, people who actually live occupy the most important positions in society. different position in relation to each other. Therefore, it is necessary to find out what the real mechanism of reproduction in human society is in its general characteristics. Three aspects seem particularly important here: class, gender, age and family.

On the class aspect of the analysis of the modern sphere in Russian literature recent years They almost stopped writing. However, to the extent that property, income derived from it will determine social status owner in society, the analysis of the class stratification of society and all the ensuing consequences will remain in force.

We can say with complete confidence that the property relations that develop between people in society regarding the means of production and the material goods they produce determine the methods of distribution of social wealth between people and the characteristics of individual consumption.

In ancient and medieval states, the basis of the social stratification of society was the presence of classes and estates. There were officially established privileges in one form or another for some large groups of people (the nobility) and restrictions for other groups (the peasantry). A peasant could not become a nobleman, and a person from the “untouchable” caste could not become a full-fledged community member in an Indian village.

In the society of classical capitalism, the economic basis for dividing society into classes was clearly revealed - the bourgeoisie, that is, the owners, and the proletarians, who have no property other than their own working hands. The striking contrast in the social situation between them gave rise to numerous revolutionary actions of the working class, right up to the idea of ​​the dictatorship of the proletariat. Subsequently, the state in developed capitalist countries began to take effective measures to redistribute the wealth accumulated by society. IN modern society Along with property, knowledge begins to play a huge role.

In all countries and at all stages of social development, the main problem has always been the existence of social inequality between people. There are two alternative approaches to solving this problem:

– providing each person with equal opportunities to organize his life (success or failure is his personal matter, and not the matter of government organizations);

- the state provides each person with a certain set of benefits to create a more or less decent life in society, and the rest depends on personal efforts, often not encouraged by the state.

Practice has shown that both of these approaches in their extreme manifestations do not bring benefit to society, causing, on the one hand, excessive stratification of society into rich and poor, and on the other, strong egalitarian tendencies. The conflict - personal freedom or social equality - does not have a single solution. In today's conditions, we should talk about “fair” social inequality, when all social strata, having different attitudes to property, to the wealth accumulated by society, basically agree on how this wealth is distributed among people, how access to it is provided by various social layers and groups of society.

But it is not only property relations that determine the characteristics of human reproduction in society. The second significant aspect of the analysis of the social sphere of people’s life is the gender and age division of society. Children, youth, mature people, elderly people and very old people are included in public life in different ways. Some are still dependent, others are no longer independent. The needs and interests of these age groups different, as are the ways to satisfy them. In this regard, various problems of relationships between generations arise, and one of the facets of these problems is social. The selfish aspirations of some young people to possess such material wealth, which have little connection with their real contribution to the growth of social wealth, cause a negative reaction from adult generations.

A special place is occupied by the problem of social equality of men and women in society. The massive involvement of women in labor activity on an equal basis with men results in huge losses for society, primarily a weakening of the family way of life. A woman’s double workload – at work and at home – leads to a reduction in the birth rate, a lack of proper control on the part of parents over the behavior of children, a loss of mutual understanding between them, etc.

The third most important aspect of the analysis of the social sphere of society is the family as a small social group. It occupies a special place in the social structure of society. Here the relationship between husband and wife develops, associated with the continuation of the human race. Family size and intrafamily relationships significantly depend on material living conditions. The peasant family was actually a labor unit in the rural community. A modern urban family, as a rule, is deprived of labor functions. Family life, everyday life is a place where a person restores his strength, prepares himself for work, for creativity. However, latest trends in the development of production, especially scientific, information activities, cause the appearance various forms employment of family members at home. Today you can work for a company without leaving your home. To do this, it is enough to have a computer. This is a new phenomenon in family life, and it receives mixed reviews.

Analysis of the social sphere reveals the mechanism of conditioning of a person’s social position in society, the nature of his inclusion in the wealth accumulated by society and, accordingly, the features of a person’s reproduction of his vital abilities to work, the reproduction of new generations.

Social strata and groups of people, as they become aware of their position in society, strive to change it, especially if they consider themselves left out and the current situation as unfair. The mechanisms for its change are located in the sphere of managing social processes.

Not only are they distinguished as parts social actors, but also other formations are spheres of social life. Society is a complex system of specially organized human life activity. Like any other complex system, society consists of subsystems, the most important of which are called spheres public life.

Sphere of social life- a certain set of stable relations between social actors.

Spheres of public life are large, stable, relatively independent subsystems of human activity.

Each area includes:

• certain types of human activities (for example, educational, political, religious);
• social institutions (such as family, school, parties, church);
• established relationships between people (i.e., connections that arose in the process of human activity, for example, relations of exchange and distribution in the economic sphere).

Traditionally, there are four main spheres of public life:

• social (peoples, nations, classes, gender and age groups, etc.)
• economic (productive forces, production relations)
• political (state, parties, socio-political movements)
• spiritual (religion, morality, science, art, education).

Of course, a person is able to live without satisfying these needs, but then his life will differ little from the life of animals. Spiritual needs are met in the process spiritual activity - cognitive, value, prognostic, etc. Such activities are aimed primarily at changing individual and social consciousness. It manifests itself in scientific creativity, self-education, etc. At the same time, spiritual activity can be both producing and consuming.

Spiritual production is the process of formation and development of consciousness, worldview, and spiritual qualities. The product of this production are ideas, theories, artistic images, values, spiritual world individual and spiritual relationships between individuals. The main mechanisms of spiritual production are science, art and religion.

Spiritual consumption is called the satisfaction of spiritual needs, the consumption of products of science, religion, art, for example, visiting a theater or museum, acquiring new knowledge. The spiritual sphere of society's life ensures the production, storage and dissemination of moral, aesthetic, scientific, legal and other values. It covers various consciousnesses - moral, scientific, aesthetic, etc.

Social institutions in spheres of society

In each sphere of society, corresponding social institutions are formed.

In the social sphere The most important social institution within which the reproduction of new generations of people is carried out is. The social production of man as a social being, in addition to the family, is carried out by such institutions as preschool and medical institutions, schools and others educational institutions, sports and other organizations.

For many people, the production and presence of spiritual conditions of existence are no less important, and for some people even more important, than material conditions. Spiritual production distinguishes humans from other beings in this world. The state and nature of development determine the civilization of mankind. Main in the spiritual sphere institutions are performing. This also includes cultural and educational institutions, creative unions (writers, artists, etc.), funds mass media and other organizations.

At the heart of the political sphere there are relationships between people that allow them to participate in the management of social processes and occupy a relatively safe position in the structure of social connections. Political relations are forms of collective life that are prescribed by laws and other legal acts country, charters and instructions regarding independent communities, both outside the country and within it, written and unwritten rules of various. These relations are carried out through the resources of the corresponding political institution.

On a national scale, the main political institution is . It consists of many of the following institutions: the president and his administration, government, parliament, court, prosecutor’s office and other organizations that ensure general order in the country. In addition to the state, there are many organizations in which people exercise their political rights, that is, the right to manage social processes. Social movements also act as political institutions that seek to participate in the governance of the entire country. In addition to them, there may be organizations at the regional and local level.

Interrelation of spheres of public life

Spheres of public life are closely interconnected. In the history of the sciences there have been attempts to single out any sphere of life as determining in relation to others. Thus, in the Middle Ages, the prevailing idea was the special significance of religiosity as part of the spiritual sphere of social life. In modern times and the era of Enlightenment, the role of morality and scientific knowledge. A number of concepts assign the leading role to the state and law. Marxism affirms the determining role of economic relations.

Within the framework of real social phenomena, elements from all spheres are combined. For example, the nature of economic relations can influence the structure of the social structure. Place in the social hierarchy shapes certain Political Views, opens appropriate access to education and other spiritual values. Economic relations themselves are determined by the legal system of the country, which is very often formed on the basis of the people, their traditions in the field of religion and morality. Thus, at various stages historical development the influence of any sphere may increase.

Complex character social systems combined with their dynamism, i.e. mobile character.

Tuisheva Maryam Ravilievna, postgraduate student, Kazan National Research Technical University named after. A.N.Tupoleva, Russia

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Acquisition territorial communities of a sustainable nature are directly related to the social life of people in a certain space. For example, this means the connection of forms of ownership with villages, towns and cities, the organization of government and the activities of various infrastructures.

Demographic

IN demographic the social sphere factor includes birth rate, mortality, sex ratio, study of sex and age composition, taking into account the degree of population increase, as well as the activities of management institutions in this area.

Ethnic

Ethnic forms, starting with the clan, as the first organizational form of Society, cover the tribe, nationality, nation, and in modern conditions the emerging community of people.

As part of the social sphere ethnic forms themselves form a relatively large sphere. Of these, the clan was the first social community and had a long history throughout the period of the primitive system. As a result of the evolution of clans, a tribal community appears, and subsequently a union of tribes. These, in turn, create the preconditions for the emergence of the following communities - nationalities and nations. In modern conditions, when there is an accelerated process of rapprochement in interethnic and interstate relations, a people has begun to emerge as a special community.

Class

Class stratification of society(typically manifested organizationally in Europe) occupies an important place in the social sphere.

Classes are characteristics of large groups of people according to a number of basic indicators. The existence of classes is primarily associated with forms of ownership and division of labor. In modern developed countries, class distinction is increasingly losing its previous indicators. The place of classes is taken by social groups that have a different attitude towards existing social states, a high level of education, a general way of life, etc.

Vocational and educational

Distinguishing people by degree of education(e.g. primary, secondary or high school) and the nature of social and professional characteristics(a specific profession, people of mental or physical labor), also refers to the social sphere, because here the qualitative state of a certain part of the population is expressed.

Economic

Economic structure society is based on the degree of income of people (within the subsistence level, medium or high income). She is also integral part social sphere.

Family and marriage

Speaking about the composition of the social sphere in the life of society, one cannot fail to mention marriage And family. Because marriage, being a legal contract, regulates the relations between husband and wife, children and relatives. And the family, as a small group and as a family, is based on marriage, kinship, commonality of everyday life, morality and responsibility, and mutual assistance. Material from the site

If we consider social groups according to socially significant criteria of human community, we can distinguish social status- position, place of a person in society. This can be seen in the following example: the same person can be considered by profession- teacher, employee receiving a salary is an economic sign, man 50 years old— demographic indicator, political party member- social position, etc.

Based on social status one can, for example, distinguish labor collectives - people working in certain branches of production, such as farmers, brokers, various kinds tenants etc.

Social sphere is the relationships that arise in the production of direct human life and man as a social being.

The concept of “social sphere” has different meanings, although related to each other. In social philosophy and sociology, this is the sphere of social life, which includes various social communities and connections between them. In economics and political science, the social sphere is often understood as a set of industries, enterprises, and organizations whose task is to improve the standard of living of the population; at the same time, the social sphere includes healthcare, social security, public services, etc. The social sphere in the second meaning is not an independent sphere of social life, but an area at the intersection of the economic and political spheres, associated with the redistribution of state income in favor of those in need.

Sphere social life society - can be characterized as a systemically organized part of society, where historical and social groups of people interact regarding social status, place and role in the life of society. It covers: the interests of classes and social strata, groups, nations and nationalities, relations between society and the individual, working and living conditions, health and leisure. The core of social relations is the relationship of equality and inequality of people according to their position in society.

It is known that any society consists of specific individuals (subjects). But this is not a simple collection individuals. People in society interact, become isolated, forming stable social groups. The latter have varying degrees of generality, differ from each other in size, specific needs and interests, and are in connections and relationships of different nature, content and complexity. To a first approximation, we can say that the life activity of social communities, their functioning, development constitute the social sphere. But they simultaneously function in the material-productive, political, and spiritual spheres; they do not belong only to social life. What then allows us to single out the social sphere as one of the main subsystems of society? The statement of V.S. seems important from a methodological point of view. Barulin that in deciding the question of the existence of a particular social sphere, it is necessary to proceed not from what the components of this sphere are, but from the extent to which certain social laws have developed, been established, and acquired their qualitative specificity. If laws have been formed and separated from other laws, then we can assert the existence of a corresponding sphere.

Consequently, one of the first and most important grounds and criterion for identifying the social sphere is the presence in it of its own specific laws, which, as life practice shows, are closely related to the laws of the material, production, political and spiritual spheres. At the same time, it should be remembered that they have their own specificity, their place in the system of social laws. The presence of such laws allows us to draw a conclusion about the existence of the social sphere of society. The second criterion for isolation and definition is the presence in it of special social relations inherent only to it. What is their specificity? The concept of “social” and “social relations” are polysemantic.

Philosophers considered social relations to be those that arise during interaction. social groups, groups, individuals, etc., regarding their position in the system of social life and which must be limited from other social relations. Social relations are a type of social relations. They develop between people in connection with the need to reproduce their own immediate life. Their content includes the satisfaction of individual and collective needs for maintaining life, the reproduction of individuals, primarily as the main productive force of society, transmission from generation to generation production experience etc. Thus, social relations are one of the leading foundations for the formation of the social sphere, the formation of its qualitative certainty, relatively independent functioning and development.

The third reason for distinguishing the social sphere is that it is characterized own view activities. In its essence, social activity is manifested in the actions of individuals or social groups as representatives of certain communities of people (nations, classes, etc.), aimed at satisfying their needs and interests. Satisfaction of needs in the process of social activity ultimately, in one way or another, contributes to the reproduction and development of man as a concrete historical subject, representative of a certain class, nation, group, collective. Specific laws of development, social relations and social activity form in their unity an integrity that is qualitatively defined social education, which is usually called the sphere of social life of society.

Selected essential characteristics spheres of social life of society allow us to give a more complete definition of the social sphere of society. The sphere of social life of society is a relatively independent, integral subsystem of society, characterized by the activities of people as members of certain social communities, and the relationships that arise between them regarding the equality and inequality of their position in society.

The important role of the sphere of social life among other spheres of society is determined by the fact that in social activities and relationships a measure of equality or inequality in the life status of various social communities is realized. This is directly reflected in the degree of implementation of the principle of social justice. That is why the further development of the sphere of social life is one of the main tasks of improving our society, which has embarked on the path of profound transformations.

The social sphere includes various social communities and relationships between them. A person, occupying a certain position in society, is included in various communities: he can be a man, a worker, a father of a family, a city resident, etc. The position of an individual in society can be clearly shown in the form of a questionnaire (Fig. 2.1).

Rice. 2.1.

Using the example of this conditional questionnaire, we can briefly describe social structure society. Gender, age, marital status determine the demographic structure (with groups such as men, women, youth, pensioners, single, married, etc.). Nationality determines the ethnic structure. Place of residence determines the settlement structure (here there is a division into urban and rural residents, residents of Siberia or Italy, etc.). Profession and education constitute the actual professional and educational structure(doctors and economists, people with higher and secondary education, students and schoolchildren). Social origin (from workers, from employees, etc.) and social status (employee, peasant, nobleman, etc.) determine the class structure; This also includes castes, estates, classes, etc.

The social sphere is closely connected with the economic sphere.