Concepts of Community, Institution and Association | Sociology

Society is made up of numerous groups, relationships and organised patterns of behaviour. People live together, develop common ways of life, pursue particular interests and follow established rules and expectations. Sociology uses concepts such as community, association and institution to understand these different forms of social organisation.

Although these three concepts are closely related, they are not the same. A community is characterised by common social life and a sense of belonging; an association is an organised group formed to pursue a particular interest or objective; and a social institution is an established pattern of norms, roles and procedures through which important social needs and activities are organised.

Community

The term community generally refers to a group of people who share a common social life and, traditionally, a common geographical area. However, mere physical proximity is not sufficient to constitute a community. There must also be some degree of social interaction, common interests, shared ways of life and a feeling of belonging.

• According to Emory S. Bogardus, “Community is a social group with some degree of ‘we feeling’ living in a given area.”
• According to Kingsley Davis, “Community is the smallest territorial group that can embrace all aspects of social life.”
• Ogburn and Nimkoff define community as “a group or collection of groups that inhabits a locality.”

Thus, two elements have traditionally been regarded as particularly important in understanding community: locality and community sentiment.

Elements and Characteristics of Community

1. Locality – A community traditionally has a territorial or geographical basis. People living in a particular area develop regular social contacts and share certain facilities, experiences and conditions of life. Locality therefore provides the physical basis for community. A village, for example, is generally understood as a community because people live within a relatively defined geographical area and participate in a common social life. Even where the population is mobile, such as among nomadic groups, locality may still be relevant, although it may not be fixed permanently. At the same time, contemporary sociology has broadened the concept of community. Communities may also be based strongly on shared identity and belonging rather than on continuous residence in one physical location; the meaning of community has increasingly been extended beyond strictly geographical boundaries.
2. Community Sentiment – Locality alone cannot create a community. People may live in the same geographical area without developing meaningful social relationships or a sense of belonging. Community sentiment refers to the feeling of “we-ness” or belonging together. Members identify themselves as part of a common social unit and develop some awareness of shared interests, experiences and ways of life. This sense of belonging is an important psychological and social element of community.
3. Stability – A community is generally relatively stable and enduring. It is not a temporary gathering like a crowd or a mob. Its stability arises from continuing social relationships and a relatively persistent pattern of common life. However, stability does not mean that a community remains unchanged; communities can and do undergo social and cultural change.
4. Natural Development – Communities generally develop through a gradual process of social interaction rather than being deliberately created for a particular purpose. A person ordinarily becomes a member of a community through circumstances such as birth, residence, migration or social identification rather than by formally applying for membership. This distinguishes community from an association, which is generally formed deliberately around a particular objective.
5. Size – A community may be small or large. Communities can also exist within wider communities. For example, a village may form part of a district community, while the district may form part of a larger regional or national community. Thus, the term community is partly relative in its application.
6. Common Social Life – A community generally encompasses several dimensions of social life rather than being restricted to one particular interest. People may share social practices, customs, traditions, institutions and everyday interactions. This is why a community is broader than an association formed for a specific purpose.

However, in modern times, the nature of community sentiment is gradually changing. Today, the interests of men are diverse and complex. Their attachment towards their community is gradually fading. In modern highly industrialised urban communities, the spirit of community sentiment is very much lacking.

Importance of Community

Community is important because human beings do not live in isolation. It provides the social environment within which individuals develop relationships, learn cultural patterns and participate in collective life.

1. Sense of Belonging – Community provides individuals with a sense of identity and belonging. The feeling of being part of a larger social unit can strengthen social bonds and provide emotional as well as social support.
2. Social Support and Cooperation – Members of a community often cooperate with one another during everyday activities and in times of difficulty. Such networks of cooperation can provide security and assistance.
3. Socialisation – Community provides an important environment for learning social norms, values, customs and expected patterns of behaviour.
4. Cultural Continuity – Communities help preserve and transmit traditions, customs, language and other elements of culture from one generation to another.

Thus, community is not merely a collection of people living in the same place. It represents a shared form of social life.

Differences between Society and Community

The terms society and community are relative terms. The terms are clearly distinguished in sociology. The following table clarifies the difference between society and community.

Association

An association is an organised group of people who deliberately come together to pursue a common interest or specific objective.

• According to Morris Ginsberg, an association is a group of social beings related to one another by the fact that they possess or have instituted a common organisation with a view to securing specific ends.

Unlike a community, an association is generally formed consciously and deliberately. Its members join because they have a particular interest or objective that they wish to pursue collectively. Examples include political parties, trade unions, professional organisations, sports clubs, student organisations and charitable organisations.

An association need not necessarily be temporary. Some associations may exist for a short period, while others may continue for decades or even centuries. What distinguishes an association is therefore not its duration but its organised character and specific purpose.

The associations may be found in different fields. No single association can satisfy all the interests of the individual(s). Since man has a bundle of interests, he organises various associations for the purpose of fulfilling his varied interests. It follows then that a man may belong to more than one association. He may be a member of a political association, religious association, a professional association, a sports club, a rotary club, and so on.

Characteristics of Association

The main characteristics of association are as follows: -

1. Human Group – An association is formed by people. It is therefore a social group. However, not every group is an association. A crowd or mob, for example, may consist of many people but lacks the organised structure and specific purpose characteristic of an association.
2. Common Interest or Interests – Members of an association share one or more common interests or objectives. For example, members of a teachers’ association may come together to pursue common professional interests.
3. Cooperative Spirit – An association requires some degree of cooperation among its members. They work collectively to achieve the purpose for which the association has been formed. A political party, for example, requires cooperation among its members to pursue its political objectives.
4. Organisation – Organisation is a central characteristic of an association. An association generally has some arrangement of statuses, roles, leadership and responsibilities, along with rules and procedures that regulate its functioning.
5. Specific Purpose – An association is generally created for a defined purpose or set of purposes. Its activities are therefore more limited than the overall social life encompassed by a community.
6. Membership – Associations generally have identifiable membership. Depending upon the nature of the association, membership may be voluntary, restricted or governed by specific conditions.

Thus, an association is not merely a group, it is something more than that. It is a group expressly organised around a particular interest. The qualification “expressly organised”, helps us to distinguish between associations and other social groups. Social groups like class, crowd, mob, public, etc., in this way, are not associations.

Importance of Association

Associations are important because they enable individuals to pursue interests that may be difficult to achieve individually.

They:

1. help individuals pursue common objectives through collective action;
2. encourage cooperation and solidarity among members;
3. provide opportunities for participation and leadership;
4. enable individuals to express their interests and abilities; and
5. connect individuals with wider social networks beyond their immediate family or community.

Modern societies contain a large number of associations because social life has become increasingly differentiated and specialised.

Difference between Association and Community

Institution

The concept of social institution is slightly different from both community and association.

In everyday language, the word “institution” is often used to refer to an organisation or establishment, such as a school, college, bank or hospital. In sociology, however, an institution is primarily an established pattern of norms, roles, values and procedures through which important social activities and needs are organised.

• According to MacIver and Page, an institution is “the established forms or conditions of procedure characteristic of group activity.”
• Kingsley Davis defines an institution as a “set of interwoven folkways, mores and laws built around one or more functions.”

Institutions are therefore not necessarily physical structures. Marriage, family, education, religion, property, economy and law can all be studied as social institutions because they involve established patterns of behaviour, norms, roles and expectations.

For example, a particular school is an organisation, but education is a social institution. Similarly, an individual family is a social group, whereas family as an established pattern of roles and relationships is a social institution.

Characteristics of Institution

The main characteristics of social institutions are as follows: -

1. Social in Nature – Institutions come into being due to the collective activities of the people. They are essentially social in nature.
2. Universality – Social institutions are ubiquitous. They exist in all the societies and existed at all stages of social development. The basic institutions like family, religion, property, are observed even in the tribal or primitive societies.
3. Institutions are standardised norms – An institution must be understood as standardises procedures and norms. They prescribe the ways of doing things, rules and regulation that are to be followed. For instance, marriage as an institution, governs the relations between the husband and wife.
4. Institutions as means of satisfying needs – Institutions are established by men themselves. They cater to the satisfaction of some basic and vital needs of man. These basic needs are: (i) the need for self-preservation, (ii) the need for self-perpetuation, (iii) the need for self-expression.
5. Institutions are the controlling mechanisms – Institutions like religion, morality, state, government, law, legislation, etc., control the behaviour of men. These mechanisms preserve the social order and give stability to it.
6. Relatively permanent – Institutions normally do not undergo sudden or rapid changes; changes take place slowly and gradually in them. Many institutions are rigid and enduring. They, in course of time, become the conservative elements in society. For e.g.: caste, religion, etc. But under the pressure of circumstances, they also undergo changes.
7. Abstract in nature – Institutions are not external, visible, or tangible things. They are abstract. For instance, religion cannot be rated or quantified; war cannot be weighed.
8. Oral and written traditions – Institutions may persist in the form of oral and/or written traditions. For the primitive societies they may be largely oral. But in modern complex societies, they may be observed in written as well as unwritten forms. For example, constitutions, sacred text books, syllabus, relating to various institutions.
9. Synthesising symbols – Institutions may have their own symbols, material or non-material. For example, the State has national flag, national emblem, national anthem as its symbols; religion may have its own symbols like swastika, crescent, star; marriage may have its own wedding ring or mangala-sutra, and so on.
10. Institutions are interrelated – Institutions, though diverse, are interrelated. Understanding of one institution requires the understanding of the other related institutions. The religious, moral, educational, political, economic and other types of institutions are essentially interlinked.

Major Social Institutions

Different sociologists classify institutions differently, but some of the major social institutions are:

1. Family and Kinship – The family and kinship system organise relationships relating to reproduction, care, socialisation and descent.
2. Marriage – Marriage provides a socially recognised framework governing certain relationships and responsibilities.
3. Education – Education transmits knowledge, skills, values and cultural patterns and plays an important role in socialisation.
4. Religion – Religion consists of systems of beliefs, rituals, values and practices that provide meaning and regulate aspects of social life.
5. Economic Institution – Economic institutions organise activities relating to production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.
6. Political Institution – Political institutions organise authority, governance and the exercise of power in society.
7. Legal Institution – Law provides formally recognised rules and procedures for regulating social relationships, resolving disputes and maintaining social order.

Primary and Secondary Institutions

Institutions are often classified into (i) primary institutions, and (ii) secondary institutions. The most basic institutions which are found even in primitive societies like religion, family, marriage, property, some kind of political system, are primary in character. As societies grew in size and complexity, institutions became progressive and more differentiated. Accordingly, a large number of institutions are evolved to cater to the secondary needs of people. They may be called secondary institutions. For e.g.: education, examination, law, legislation, constitution, parliamentary procedure, business, etc.

Sumner makes a distinction between the crescive and the enacted institutions. Institutions that evolved or developed naturally, unconsciously and even spontaneously, are called by him crescive. Those institutions that are consciously and purposefully and in a planned way established are referred to by him as enacted. The crescive ones are more akin to primary institutions, whereas the enacted ones resemble secondary institutions.

Functions of Social Institutions

Institutions have great functional importance. Their main functions are as follows: -

1. Institutions cater to the satisfaction of needs – Institutions contribute to the fulfilment of the fundamental human needs such as (i) self-perpetuation, (ii) self-preservation, (iii) self-expression. They provide and prescribe the ways and means of fulfilling them.
2. Institutions control human behaviour – Institutions organise and regulate the system of social behaviour. Through the institutions, the unexpected, spontaneous, and irregular behaviour of people is replaced by expected, patterned, systematic, regular and predictable behaviour.
3. Institutions simplify actions for the individual – Since the institutions prescribe a particular way of behaviour for the fulfilment of our basic needs, they save much of our energy and time.
4. Institutions assign roles and statuses to the individual – Institutionalisation of the social behaviour consists of the establishment of definite norms. These norm assign status positions and role-functions in connection with such behaviour.
5. Institutions contribute to unity and uniformity – Institutions which regulate the relations between individuals have largely been responsible for unity and uniformity that are found in society.
6. Manifest functions of institutions – Every institution has two types of manifest functions: (i) the pursuit of its objectives and interests, and (ii) the preservation of its own internal cohesion so that it may survive. For example, the state must serve its citizens and protect its boundaries. At the same time, the State must escape the danger of internal revolution and external conquests.
7. The negative functions of institutions – Institutions may cause harmful effects too. They do not undergo changes easily and quickly even if the circumstances demand change. When they become too conservative, they retard progress. They even hamper the growth of personalities of the people. Religion and caste can be mentioned here as examples to show how they often discourage people to do achievements or adventures.

Difference between Association and Institution

Comparison between Community, Association, and Institution

Although these concepts overlap, their basic differences can be understood as follows:

Conclusion

Community, association and institution are fundamental concepts for understanding the organisation of social life.

• A community is characterised by common social life, locality and a sense of belonging.
• An association is an organised group formed to pursue particular interests or objectives.
• A social institution is an established pattern of norms, roles, values and procedures through which important social needs and activities are organised.

These concepts demonstrate that society is not merely a collection of individuals. Human beings live within communities, participate in associations and conduct their lives through established institutions. Understanding these relationships is therefore essential to understanding the structure and functioning of society.