STUDY MATERIAL

SOCIOLOGY AND THE ORIGIN OF SOCIOLOGY AS

SCIENCE

According to Auguste Comte, he defines origin and sociology as:

Sociology aims to study the structure and function of society. As an
independent science it is the youngest of the social sciences.
Sociology establishes as a central postulate that the behavior of
human beings does not simply respond to their own individual
decisions, but rather under cultural and historical influences
according to the desires and expectations of the community in which
they live. Thus, the basic concept of sociology is social interaction as
the starting point for any relationship in a society.
The first definition of sociology was proposed by the French
philosopher Auguste Comte who, in 1838, coined the term
"sociology" to describe his concept of a new science that would
discover laws for society in the same way that so many others had
been discovered for nature. , applying the same research methods
as the physical sciences. The British philosopher Herbert Spencer
adopted the term and continued Comte's work.
Today, some 19th century social philosophers who never considered
themselves sociologists are also considered founders of this
discipline. Chief among them was Karl Marx, although we must not
forget the French aristocrat Comte de Saint-Simon, the writer and
statesman Alexis de Tocqueville and the English philosopher and
economist John Stuart Mill. In the 19th century, the empirical
statistical trend was developed and later incorporated into academic
sociology.
It was not until the end of the 19th century that sociology began to be
recognized as an academic discipline. In France, Émile Durkheim,
intellectual heir to Saint-Simon and Comte, began teaching sociology
at the universities of Bordeaux and Paris. Durkheim, founder of the
first school of sociological thought, highlighted the independent
reality of social facts (independent of the psychological attributes of
people) and attempted to discover the relationships between them.
Durkheim and his followers studied non-industrialized societies
extensively in much the same way that social anthropologists would
later do.
In Germany, sociology was formally recognized as an academic
discipline in the first decade of the 20th century, largely thanks to the
efforts of the German economist and historian Max Weber. In the
face of attempts by France and English-speaking countries to model
the discipline after the physical sciences, German sociology was
based on extensive historical scholarship modulated by the influence
of Marxism, very present in Weber's work. German philosopher
Georg Simmel's efforts to define sociology as an independent
discipline underscored the humane focus of German philosophical
idealism.
In Britain, sociology evolved slowly. Until the 1960s, the teaching of
this discipline was basically limited to one academic institution, the
London School of Economics at the University of London. British
sociology combined interest in large-scale evolutionary social change
with practical interest in administrative problems of the welfare state.
In the second half of the 20th century, interest in the evolutionary
theories of Comte and Spencer had waned; from then on, sociology
began to study certain social phenomena such as crime, marital
disagreements, and the acculturation of immigrants.
The most important center for the study of sociology before World
War II (1939-1945) was the University of Chicago (USA). There, the
American philosopher George Herbert Mead, trained in Germany,
highlighted in his works the influence of the mind, the self, and
society on human actions and interactions. (Symbolic interactionism).
For a long time, sociology was considered an integrative discipline of
other social sciences. But currently, there is a tendency to consider
them as a part of sociological theory, which in turn is only an area of
the science of sociology.

Origins and contributions to sociology

Comte does nothing more than summarize ideas already circulating
in his time and integrate them into a pompously "totalizing" speech.
Without Saint-Simon and his intuitions there would be very little left
of Comte, whose fundamental task was to purge Saint-Simonism of
its utopian tensions and emphasize its conservative contents. The
objective of his works -Course of positive philosophy (1830-1842)
and System of positive politics (1851-1854)- is to contribute to
bringing order to a social situation that he defined as anarchic and
chaotic, through the construction of a science that, in the hands of
the rulers, could reconstruct the unity of the social body. His debt to
de Bonald and de Maistre was explicit, but in the same way as Saint-
Simon, he differed with "the retrograde school" in that he did not
believe in the possibility of a punctual restoration of the "ancien
régime." (The old regime).

The main feature that distinguishes Comte de Saint-Simon is that he

focuses more on the new scientific society, rather than on the
industrial society. He distinguished himself from his teacher in that
for him the explanation of why society is so far from the ideal model
does not lie in structural problems. For Comte the problem is that
education and values cause tears and divisions. Therefore, his
proposal was the use of "social physics", later Sociology, applying a
scientific treatment to social problems. Perhaps at this beginning of
Sociology, Comte was somewhat naive in his approaches, but he
was undoubtedly one of the precursors of this social science. It
should be noted that Comte's theories have a strongly Euro-centrist
character.

Comte incorporated the idea of evolution and progress into his

speech, but, as a conservative, he assumed that changes had to be
contained in order. Society had to be considered as an organism and
studied in two dimensions, that of Social Statics (analysis of its
conditions of existence; its order) and that of Social Dynamics
(analysis of its movement; its progress). Order and Progress are
closely related. The first is possible on the basis of consensus, which
ensures the solidarity of the elements of the system. The second, in
turn, must be conducted in such a way as to ensure the maintenance
of solidarity, otherwise society would disintegrate.

Such knowledge would allow rulers to accelerate humanity's

progress within the order. The new positive policy could only be
applied by an authoritarian elite; Thus, Comte would send his book
to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, "chief of the conservatives of Europe",
pointing out that his theories were basically designed for autocracy.
Comte himself proclaimed himself, towards the end of his days, as
the pope of a new religion, the positive one.

In this line, Comte's philosophy has a clear intention of social reform

in the context of the consequences of the French Revolution. Comte
postulates that reform cannot be carried out successfully if it does
not precede a theoretical reform. Comte opposes 'order' to
'revolution' which brings him closer to the philosophers of the
Restoration, but he separates himself from them to seek order in
'progress', not in a return to the past.

It is possible that Auguste Comte is the one who best represents

positivism, so much so that he could be considered its founder.

In sociological theory, Positivism is discussed especially since

Comte, who, in accordance with the technical and economic needs
of the old liberal bourgeoisie and the beginnings of industrial society,
wanted to separate Sociology as a positive science from
philosophical and Metaphysics. of the mystical-religious tradition
(negative science)

Positivism, since then, renounces grand interpretations and attempts

to value social structures and evolutionary processes. Rather, it
attempts, under the principle of axiological neutrality and based on
the methods of natural sciences, to “objectively” understand the
social being in its different dimensions and variables.

The positive term refers to the real, that is, the phenomenal given to
the subject. The real opposes all types of essentialism, discarding
the search for hidden properties characteristic of the first states.

Overall, positive science can be described by proposing a new model

of scientific rationality; staying within the terrain of 'facts', the latter
understanding not so much the immediate data of the senses but the
relationships between said data, that is, scientific 'laws'. Laws stop
being 'facts' and become 'generalizations about the facts;
agnosticism, metaphysics is despised as it considers unknowable
everything that is beyond the facts; Science is the only guide for
humanity and taking the ideals of the Enlightenment, it trusts
indefinite progress; the value of science is subordinated to the
practical function of knowledge and is relativized in its historical
sense; and represents bourgeois ideology as it defends
utilitarianism.

It can thus be stated that the ideals of positivism partially coincide

with those of Bacon, who tried to collect the first results of the
industrial revolution. But positivism was also an attempt to remedy
the social conflicts of the 19th century.

There is, in positivism, a notable relationship with empiricism, as they

value the information that comes from experience. But there is a
clear difference, for positivism it is, without a doubt, a realism: the
senses make contact with reality and the laws of nature are
expressed with 'real' connections and not simply subjective habits.

One of his most significant contributions, and which to this day is

used by all sociologists, is what refers to sociological methodology.

Comte explicitly identified 3 basic sociological methods, 3

fundamental ways of doing social research in order to obtain
empirical knowledge of the real social world, these are: Observation,
which he says, must be done guided by a theory and, once done, it
must be connected with a law; Experimentation, which is considered
more suitable for other sciences than for Sociology, the only possible
exception is a natural experiment in which the consequences of
something that happens in one place are observed and compared
with the conditions in places where such an event did not happen;
finally, comparison, which Comte divides into 3 subtypes:
comparison of human societies with that of lower animals,
comparison of societies in different areas of the world, and
comparison of the different stages of societies over time. .

Although Comte wrote about research, he generally engaged in

speculation or theorizing aimed at discovering the invariant laws of
the social world.
In reality, the idea of evolution is that of the successive development of a
spiritual principle according to which humanity would go through three
stages, the theological, the metaphysical and the positive. The latter
would be capable of synthesizing the poles of immobile order and
anarchic progress that characterized the first two stages. The positive
stage would mark, according to Comte, the arrival of the definitive stage
of human intelligence and would place, in a new hierarchical
categorization of the sciences, sociology at the top of them. Sociology or
social physics, that is, "the science that has as its object the study of
social phenomena considered in the same spirit as astronomical,
physical, chemical or physiological phenomena, that is, subject to
invariable natural laws, whose discovery is the special object of
investigation."

Humanity as a whole and the individual as a constitutive part, is

determined to go through three different social stages that correspond to
different degrees of intellectual development: the theological or fictional
stage, the metaphysical or abstract stage and the scientific or positive
stage.

This transition from one stage to another constitutes a law of the progress
of society, necessary and universal because it emanates from the nature
of the human spirit. According to this law, in the theological stage man
seeks the ultimate and explanatory causes of nature in supernatural or
divine forces, first through fetishism and, later, polytheism and
monotheism. This type of knowledge corresponds to a military-type
society supported by the ideas of authority and hierarchy.

In the metaphysical stage, theological rationality is questioned and the

supernatural is replaced by abstract entities rooted in the things
themselves (forms, essences, etc.) that explain their why and determine
their nature. The society of legal scholars is typical of this stage, which is
considered by Comte as a time of transition between the infancy of the
spirit and its maturity, already corresponding to the positive stage. In this
stage, man does not seek to know what things are, but through
experience and observation he tries to explain how they behave,
describing them phenomenally and trying to deduce their general laws,
useful for predicting, controlling and dominating nature (and society). ) for
the benefit of humanity. This stage of knowledge

corresponds to the industrial society, led by scientists and wise experts

 who will ensure social order.

We can summarize these approaches to the stadiums in Comte in the

following table:

DEVELOPMENT
UNIT ORDER FEELINGS
STADIUM OF THE
SOCIAL TYPE PREDOMINANTS
MATERIALLIFE
Theological Military Family Domestic Dear
Metaphysic Legalist State Collective Veneration
al Species
Positive Industrial Universal Benevolence
(Humanity)
Nicolás Timasheff, Sociological Theory, 1961

Comte is considered one of the fathers of Sociology. When classifying the

Sciences, he places the most abstract and least complex ones first. Thus,
Mathematics appears first; then Mechanics, Astronomy, Physics,
Chemistry and Biology; and, finally, Sociology, which did not yet exist in
his time and whose creation he claimed was necessary. Since he
understands that there is only man in society, he has no place for
Psychology, whose content he understands is reduced to that of Biology
or Sociology. Comte wanted to return to the West the unity and harmony
that faith had given it in the Middle Ages. But as he understood that this
foundation was no longer viable, he thought of Science as a new pole of
attraction and factor of unity. However, over time he saw the need to turn
to Philosophy (he founded Positive Philosophy) and Religion (he founded
Positive Religion, of which he declared himself Pope). His Religion of
Humanity replaces the love of God with the love of Humanity, which
includes those already deceased, the living and those who will be born.

SOCIOLOGY IN HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

On the complex issue of the origin of the sociological discipline, as is

known, there is no consensus among the authors to designate an exact
date of the birth of the discipline or which would be the precise authors
who gave rise to it. What should be noted is that given the ambiguity of
the topic, there are certain shared conventions on which an ideology and
a historical chronology have been built. The authors Durand and Weil
propose that although there is a synthesis regarding this point, they are
partial. They cite the work of R. Aron (1905 1983) compiled in his work
"The stages of sociological thought" from 1967 and Nisbet with the
"Sociological Tradition" from 1966.
According to the authors, Aron addresses the great figures of the past in
order to understand the coherence of their works. For his part, Nisbet
invents another method, which does not start from men or systems, but
from ideas that constitute the elements of the system. For Nisbet, tradition
revolves around five antitheses:
• Community and Society

• Authority and Power

• Status and Class

• Sacred and Profane

• Alienation and progress

The Founding Fathers, this is an expression used by T. Parsons. Here

there would also be no agreement on pointing to one or another author.
For some it would be A. Comte for having invented the word sociology, for
others it would be M. Weber for having developed the bases of
comprehensive methodology. Others point to Durkheim for having given
sociology its own space, threatened by other human sciences. Sociology
was born in a period marked by profound political and military upheavals
(1815-1918). The society of the "ancient regime" was based on three
orders: the Nobility, the Clergy and the Third-Estate (and an inherited
royalty), while the bourgeoisie, as a new political class, attempted to
establish a more egalitarian social order. Who was the first sociologist?
There is no answer to this question, since it is an endless task. In the
search for precursors, names such as: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Hobbes,
Tönnies, Vico, Montaigne, etc. appear.

An author like Alexis de Tocqueville distinguished very well the two

systems that were in conflict: on the one hand, the old regime based on a
hierarchy of unequal orders and the new regime, based on equality of
conditions.
The cited authors distinguish three types of sociologists:

1. The Interventionists: Saint-Simon, A. Comte, they consider that

sociology should contribute to healing, or at least alleviating, the ills
that Society suffers.

2. The Neutralists: M. Weber, V. Pareto, they invoke the impossibility

of science to justify the values of action.

3. Those who occupy an intermediate position: Durkheim, science

must lead to practical action, but this must be the fruit of time.
Sociology's object of study is society, it investigates the causes that made
its formation possible until it reached the state it currently finds itself in,
the history of sociology is relatively short, sociology is considered a recent
science. It arose from Henri de Saint Simón with the idea of social
physiology, also called social physics.

Augustus Comte
Writer and philosopher, he coined the term sociology and made the
first systematic proposal of this new science. Comte conceives Sociology
as something opposed to Theology and philosophical speculation, which
are, for the logo, pretentious and fallacious machinations. His conception
of new science societies. This is a science that has a perfectly
differentiated subject of study: the social being as a whole. As for the
method that sociology has to use, it is based on observation and
induction. The practical stability of sociology will be to discover in the
social statics the conditions of the social order and in its dynamics, the
laws of the uninterrupted progress of humanity.
Fundamental contributions
• Positive conception of the science building.
• Law of the three stages.
• Claim that Sociology was a guide to action and a kind of new
religion.

Auguste Comte, creator of Positivism, was a member of a

French nobility family. Considered the father of General Sociology,
he wrote two important works "Positive Philosophy Course" and
"Positive Policy System", in which, starting from positivism, he
maintained that Sociology is its universal expression of all studies
corresponding to the social. ; society being the first object of study of
this new science. In Sociology, he saw in this science the answers to
the problems of man and society.
The exaltation of Sociology led him to consider it practically as a new
secular religion of humanity, thus forming positivism. Therefore, based on
his theory of Positivism, his contributions to sociology are basically
directed at “Society as a Whole”, focused on the following aspects:

His concept of Sociology, in which he considered it as a science that

has a perfectly differentiated subject of studies: the social being as a
whole and the method used in sociology based on observation and
induction.

His opinion on social and moral problems, analyzed from a positive

scientific perspective that is based on the empirical observation of
phenomena and that allows the behavior of things to be discovered and
explained in terms of laws.
universals capable of being used for the benefit of humanity

His observation on the Law is doubly sociological, namely: 1. The

legislative method (laws must always be based on experience and not on
a priori concepts).
2. On the basis of the doctrine (against the atomism of the Napoleonic
Code),
His thought of a general theory of philosophical evaluation known as “Law
of Three States”:
The Theological Stage: A divine thought prevails.
The Metaphysical Stage: Metaphysical entities are dominated by
dogmatism.
The Positivist Stage: It consists of exploring phenomena through causes
possessed in scientific observation.

His theory that the evolution of humanity is driven by progress, the

practical usefulness of sociology will be to discover social dynamics and
statics. The conditions of the social order and in its dynamics the laws of
uninterrupted progress of humanity. “Order and Progress” will be the
motto of positive politics.

Later, sociology received its scientific foundation, thanks to the

works of the German politician, sociologist and economist Karl Marx. The
scientific conception of sociology is based on the fact that social
phenomena are natural historical processes, since society is a higher
stage of the development of matter in motion. The laws of natural
sciences reflect objective and natural processes, and also validity for
social sciences, since social phenomena are natural and objective,
despite the fact that human beings with subjective attitudes participate in
them, but social processes have a specific form. to appear, different from
natural phenomena, for
This is why Sociology emerges as a specific science to study these social
processes.

The Polish economist, Oscar Lange of the following definition

of Sociology: “Sociology is the science of the laws that govern the
development of human societies.”
Human beings have acted on nature, transforming it and, at the same
time, transforming themselves with their work, they have created
countless material cases, as well as norms of social behavior.
For Durand and Weil it is essential to circumscribe the historical context in
which the authors lived, in order to understand their postulates and their
problems. Doing this means asking questions about the economic,
political and intellectual transformations of a time, specifically the 18th
and 19th centuries.
The 19th century is characterized by the need to think in a new way
about a new society that was in the process of being born; In this context,
the French Revolution and the various revolutionary attempts that shook
the 19th century and destabilized Europe notably influenced some
thinkers and marked the orientation of the first sociological thoughts. In
short, the rapid progress of industrial production, the development of
mechanization and large-scale manufacturing had the effect of drawing
attention to "the social question" and to the need to promote a social
science capable of analyzing the situation and developing a scientific
method in the image of the natural sciences. To understand the origin of
sociology it is necessary to know the economic, political and intellectual
transformations of a time, specifically the 18th and 19th centuries. The
development of natural sciences provided new models of thought.
Sociology was born in a period marked by profound political and military
upheavals (1815-1918). The society of the "old regime" was based on
three orders: the Nobility, the Clergy and the Third Estate (and an
inherited royalty), while the bourgeoisie, as a new political class,
attempted to establish a more egalitarian social order. Who was the first
sociologist? There is no answer to this question, since it is an endless
task. In the search for precursors, names such as: Montesquieu,
Rousseau, Hobbes, Tönnies, Vico, Montaigne, etc. appear.

Old age
Thinking about society and relationships between men was mainly
philosophical thinking, which was in perfect consequence encyclopedia
about things. The ancient age is a historical era that coincides with the
emergence and development of the first civilizations, the main ones being
Egypt, Greece, Rome, Mesopotamia, etc. Also known as Ancient
Civilizations. According to historiography, the beginning of this period is
marked by the emergence of writing around the year 4000 BC. which also
represents the end of Prehistory. According to this system of historical
periodization, the Ancient Age extends the emergence of writing, until the
Fall or collapse of the Western Roman Empire, due to the barbarian
invasions of the 5th century. This historical period would have lasted 5500
years.
The first social thinkers were the sophists: Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias,
Prodicus, etc. who taught in Athens at the end of the 5th century BC. c.
We know his theses from the stories his antagonists (especially Plato and
Aristophanes) made of them. The most sublime art that he prides himself
on teaching was that of "political virtue", that is, the art of living in the city
(polis). The backdrop of his preaching is a cultural humanism, which
refuses all transcendence: "I cannot know if the gods are or are not," said
Protagoras.
Plato always had in mind the reflection on the State and the most
desirable organization of individuals within it. Without elaborating too
much on the Platonic theory of the ideal State and the Ruling Philosopher,
where an important dose of determinism was appreciated, namely, the
idea that the social function and the stratum in which the individual will be
housed were predetermined and linked to a individual to a way of life and
a specific work within the group, we will say that it is rather a utopian or
ideal theory in accordance with the author's philosophy. All of this is
collected in “The Republic”, which turns out to capture, in short, “what
society should be like”.
In Aristotle we see a more empirical perspective regarding his
teacher. Most of his reflections within the scope of the analysis of society
and the State are found in his work “Politics”, from which numerous ideas
and conceptions would be extracted that would come to integrate future
sociological thought and political sciences. For Aristotle, a democracy in
the strict sense is neither conceivable nor desirable, since power must
reside in the hands of the upper classes, whose wealth, better quality
training and more free time, without worries such as maintaining a family
or surviving, would make Of the individuals located higher up in the social
pyramid, the people most suitable to be able to govern with full dedication
and without distractions. This is a fundamentally aristocratic approach. In
fact, in order from best to worst according to the criteria of government,
Aristotle classifies the “pure”, good forms of government as follows:
1. Monarchy
2. Aristocracy
3. Democracy.

For the thinker, man is fundamentally a “political animal”, who acquires

value and importance because other human beings give it to him, hence
politics, as an activity eminently by and for society, is the ultimate way of
realizing the man.
Main historical characteristics of the Ancient Age:
- Emergence and development of urban life
- Centralized political powers in the hands of kings - Societies marked by
social stratification - Development of organized religions (mostly
polytheistic)
- Militarism and occurrences of continuous wars between peoples.
- Development and strengthening of trade
- Development of the tax collection system and social obligations.
- Creation of legal systems (Laws) - Cultural and artistic development.

Middle Ages

It developed between the 5th and 15th centuries as a rather static

period. There was not much social mobility since society was organized
under classes or also called castes, where change was not possible
within the established hierarchy, that is, access to another social class to
which one did not belong from the beginning. If a person was born under
a roof of a low social class (the clergy at that time) this person will forever
belong to that class, as will his father and his children. It was essential
that someone could change that and this fact was simply accepted as
something normal. To this we can add that people had a role, as well as a
fixed status according to the class to which they belonged. Education was
a privilege that was reserved exclusively for a minority, which was
naturally the nobility. Logically it was the upper class, nobility and above
all the king who was in control of the population, of the fiefdom. And
people who were hierarchically subordinate to them lived under their
orders, and this was also considered natural. Something very important to
highlight at this time is the fundamental role that the Christian faith plays.
Absolutely everything is around God. “Faith in God is the central element
of ordering things” since this all-powerful being gives value and meaning
to the world, and to all the subjects who live in it. Nature was
contemplative, since it was about finding the divine presence in it. People
in general did not act in a curious way, because they simply did not think
beyond things, and they were not interested either, because they would
always and for everything find the answer in God. All events happened
because God wanted them that way. And this is how the Church acquires
so much importance, since through it the Divine Being was found.
At this time, the Church, in addition to its importance, enjoyed a lot of
power, which gave it the right to create certain “rules” in society, with
which it maintained order. This order was simply the separation of good
and bad. Some things were permitted and some things were not, and the
things that were not permitted were considered sin. One of these things
was commerce, whether linked to money or other material goods. The sin
consisted of the fact that something was practiced that was completely
earthly instead of divine, and that on top of that was a symbol of ambition,
greed and interest. The human being of the Middle Ages was a passive
subject who, rather than acting in the world, contemplated it and let
himself be carried away by the answers that found their essence in the
divine and simply lived his life around this reality.

Saint Augustine (354-430)

He wrote in a particularly turbulent time from a political point of view,
the time in which the “barbarians” broke into the Western Roman Empire
(occupation of Rome by the Visigoth Alaric, in 410). The collapse of this
city, which for so many centuries had subjugated the world, undeniably
caused a profound riot of consciences. Philosophers questioned
themselves and countless of them exhorted religious causes. Many
pagan essayists expressed the idea that Rome had died because it had
abandoned the cult of tutelary divinities and had opened its spirit to a new
faith (Christianity). To recognize this thesis, he wrote, between 412 and
426, “The City of God”: Which is an opposition between the pagan world,
described ideologically and sociologically, and the Christian world.
Furthermore, he opposes the city of men, governed by material appetites,
violence and selfishness, and the city of angels, which is “the love of God
carried to the point of self-contempt.”
The consideration of Saint Augustine is above all as a philosopher
and as a religious person, especially in the final crisis of the ancient world:
he is, as Ortega y Gasset says, the only mind of the time that knows
about the intimacy of the modern person. The fact that Saint Augustine is
often called the manager of modern man and the first European has its
roots in this unique vision that placed him on the border of two eras and at
the same time at the decisive beginning of one of them.

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

Saint Thomas is more concerned with demonstrating Christianity than
with establishing Sociology or Political Science. On the whole, his social
ideas are stripped of Aristotle's (Theory of a Natural Morality). In short,
the Thomistic State would be a kind of moderate theocratic State, which
would tolerate temporal power with the express condition that it was
subject to spiritual power. The problem of the opposition between the
spiritual and the temporal will be reflected in the great medieval struggle
between the Priesthood (the Papacy) and the Empire (of Germany).
For Saint Thomas, the law is a precept of reason in order to the Common
Good spread by the one who has the care of the community. According to
Saint Thomas, there are three types of laws: "eternal", "natural" and
"human". The "eternal or divine law" is the general reason for the
government and order of all things, existing in the divine mind. ""Natural
law" is the participation of eternal law in rational beings.
It is common to all peoples, indelible in the heart of man, immutable in its
first principles, but variable in the secondary precepts as required by the
particular and exceptional cases in which they are applied. Finally, human
law is a rational norm that applies the principles of natural law to specific
situations of social reality. Its dictation corresponds to the needs of
collective life. However, the eternal law appears as the foundation, the
ultimate support of all the rules. Since she is “the reason for the Supreme
Monarch's government, it is necessary that all the reasons for governing
found in his subordinates derive from the eternal law.” For Saint Thomas,
departing from Saint Augustine, society and the State derive from the
sociable nature of man.

The Arabs

The most illustrious representative of Muslim political and

sociological thought is Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406). He deployed the idea
that social life is a natural phenomenon, that laws and political regimes
depend above all on the geographical environment and climate and that
the evolution of social structures, of a cyclical nature, is due to
psychological differences between people. generations. Ibn Khaldun does
not orient himself towards any normative Sociology (unlike Plato).
In fact, his investigations and descriptions, which are relevant to us
despite a certain number of inaccuracies, already announce the
sociological investigations and comparative sociology of current times. Ibn
Khaldun investigates the "deep and general factors of historical evolution"
and reveals them above all in "the way in which each people provides for
its subsistence." He also states that "there are close relationships
between the organization of production, social structures, forms of
political life, legal regimes, psychology and ideologies, and in this way he
comes to "consider all the elements of political life." and intellectual
depending on economic evolution.”

The Renaissance

The word Renaissance means rebirth or recovery, mainly due to the

study of classical Greco-Latin antiquity in the countries of Europe. The
Renaissance was a European movement that meant changes in social,
human, artistic and cultural attitudes during the 14th to 16th centuries.
The changes and ideas of this era served to characterize the Modern
Age, which marks the end of the Middle Ages and the emergence of this
new age. Italy was the cradle of the Renaissance, the Popes and Italian
princes its most determined protectors. The cities of Florence and Rome
stand out at the birth of the Renaissance. Among the most notable
princes were the Doctors, who ruled in Florence and disputed with Rome
the honor of protecting artists and their works. The most prolific servant of
the arts was the Italian prince Lorenzo de

The Medici Popes who provided accommodation and disposition to the

artists were Nicholas V, Julius II and Leo X. These pontiffs brought
together and immortalized all the arts of the Renaissance in the
monumental St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the most colossal construction
in the Universe.

From Italy the Renaissance spread throughout Europe, mainly in

countries such as Spain, France, Germany and England. During the
hegemony of Spain, the Renaissance spread throughout Europe, thanks
to its victories over the French in two long periods of war, the first
between 1494 and 1515 and the second between 1519 and 1544. Let us
point out as a reminder the essential dynamic features of this phase, so
cardinal in Europe, of the history of the human spirit and which was born
in Italy at the beginning of the 15th century: Curiosity, certainty, meaning
of life and totality, discovery of new horizons , rediscovery of nature and
the pleasure provided by material goods (undervalued by Christian
theories), birth of a critical spirit, the reform, the great revelations. We will
state, briefly, the existence of two political tendencies: A normative and
idealizing attitude in the manner of Plato and a more realistic, more
empiricist point of view, such as the one outlined in Machiavelli.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1459-1527)

Its existence unfolded in a dramatic circle (Italy wars). He played a
substantial political role in Florence until his forced retirement to San
Casciano where, between 1512 and 1520, he underlined his main work:
“Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livy” (Theory of Constitutional,
Republican or Monarchical Government). Machiavelli outlined a theory of
enlightened despotism in The Prince (1513). His main idea is that there
can be no good government without a prior, explicit agreement between
rulers and governed; that is, in our modern language, without a
"constitutional pact." Machiavelli extracts this thesis from his observation
of the French monarchy. With his works, Machiavelli stationed political
philosophy on its terrain, emancipated from the dogmatism and a
prioriisms of the Christian Middle Ages. The observation of social facts
can be created objectively, without reference to any moral or religious
criteria, and there is no need to look for "value" where there are only
"facts."

Thomas More (1478-1555)

Humanist, friend of Erasmus, the author of “Praise of Folly,” was
beheaded in 1535 for not wanting to recognize the spiritual authority of
the King of England (Henry VIII). He was canonized by the Church. Of his
very numerous works, the most famous is undoubtedly "Utopia" (1516), in
which English society is compared with that of an imaginary country: The
Island of Utopia. Platonized, Thomas More described the social and
economic regime of this State as an idealist socialism with the systematic
application of Plato's doctrines: elimination of private property, all wealth
belongs to the State, moderation of the life of citizens living in common,
vilified by wealth, commerce and what we would modernly call, the market
economy. Politically, the island
Utopia is a democratic federation established by Utopos, founder and
legislator of the State. The laws are few and the objective pursued by
the legislator is the happiness of his subjects and peace (the State
should not be "a conspiracy of the rich against the poor"). The
Platonic ideology of Thomas More can be linked to that of certain
Italians, such as Campanella (1568-1639), who despite the late
period in which he lived is completely a Renaissance man. The
aforementioned author described in "The City of the Sun" a
theocratic Republic.

Characteristics of the Renaissance

Policies
The Modern State appeared and absolutist monarchies were
consolidated, where the king exercised all powers.

Economic
Mercantilism arises and develops, thus leaving behind the feudal system
in
Western Europe.

Religious
Important changes occurred until they culminated in the Protestant
Reformation in Germany and the Catholic Counter-Reformation in the
16th century. Artistic

The concept of beauty was based on the harmony of proportional and

ordered forms.

National languages appeared in literature. From the 13th century, writers

began to leave Latin and began to use their mother tongue.

Economic and Social Changes

In the Renaissance, the population, agricultural activity, livestock

and industry, and the development of commerce increased, which
determined mercantilism. Mercantilism spanned the 15th century to the
mid-18th century, where capitalism began to expand to the same extent
that feudal relations of production were extinguished. Nascent capitalism
was made up of a multiplicity of small factories, agricultural and
commercial enterprises, which They needed state protection and support
to expand and put an end to all accumulation processes necessary for full
capitalist expansion. This was supported by nationalist sentiment, which
registered great political and social transformations. The possession and
accumulation of precious metals by the State was the most notable
characteristic of mercantilism. In agriculture during the Renaissance,
feudal-type relationships disappeared, which were replaced by the
payment of rent in money or in kind.

Livestock farming specialized in the extensive raising of sheep,

which was intended to provide raw materials to the textile industry. The
artisanal industry introduced the system of factories or domestic
industries, to produce in commercial quantities.
The craft industry was concentrated in the cities and was organized in
guilds, who owned the raw materials and capital. Commerce lost its family
character to reach depersonified production; where the commercial
activity of consumer products, both food and raw materials, increased.
Banking and credit emerged, autonomous companies and public limited
companies appeared. Trade in the Atlantic increased, due to European
contact with America. The most significant social changes were: the
peasants became free, but did not receive any benefits from the increase
in production; On the contrary, they became poorer and were forced to
emigrate to the cities. The peasants became workers when they reached
the workshops of the big cities, where their work activity was rewarded
with wages. The nobility continued to own the land, they invested part of
their money in building palaces and temples, in making donations to the
church and in protecting great artists, which in some cases caused a
decrease in their income. The bourgeoisie were linked to industry and
commerce . The bourgeoisie, with their economic power, facilitated the
purchase of high positions and titles of nobility, as they were owners of
the capital, which reflects the importance that the nobility continued to
maintain.

Artistic Expressions of the Renaissance

Renaissance artistic expressions were based on a new conception

that is based on the expression of ideal reality, the search for perfection,
beauty, the rational and the profane. The naked human body formed the
basis for expressions of beauty, realism and perspective. Renaissance art
was characterized by the taste and application of Greek and Roman arts.

Paint
The plastic expression was characterized by highlighting the human
figure, which expresses the intentions of the soul, the passions of the
character and the nature of the environment.
The themes had a religious meaning and highlighted the characters of the
time. They applied the chiaroscuro technique: light and shadow. The
Italian Leonardo Da Vinci is considered the greatest representative of
Renaissance painting. The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa are works by
Da Vinci. The Baroque was the artistic movement that followed the
Renaissance, and in painting the following stood out: Paulus Rubens,
Harmenszoon Rembranit and Diego Velázquez. Domenico Greco is
considered the precursor of modern schools of painting.

Architecture and Sculpture

Michelangelo is the main representative of Renaissance
architecture and sculpture. In the sculpture, Moses, La Pieta and the
decoration of the Sistine Chapel stand out; in architecture he built the
Dome of St. Peter's Basilica; in painting I create
The Last Judgment and scenes from the Old Testament, on the wall and
in the vault of the Sistine Chapel
Literature
In Italy the Renaissance movement of letters begins. What was
notable about the Renaissance was that the works were written in the
mother tongue of the writers, and Latin was set aside. The most notable
Italian writers were Dante Alighieri who wrote The Divine Comedy,
Francesco Petrarch with his Cancionero and Giovanni Bocaccio with the
Decameron. In Spain, Renaissance literature reached its peak in the 16th
and 17th centuries, known as the Golden Age of Spanish Letters. Miguel
Ángel de Cervantes Saavedra was the most notable of Spanish letters,
his immortal work is the Adventures of the Ingenious Gentleman Don
Quixote of La Mancha, considered the Bible of Castilian letters. The
Spanish Fernando de Rojas wrote Celestina. Lope Félix de Vega, who
was called the Phoenix of Wits, and Cervantes called him the Monster of
Nature. In France, the novelist Rebelais stood out, who wrote the works
Fantagruel and Gargantua; and the philosopher and moralist Michel
Montaigne, who cultivated a new literary genre, the essay. In England,
Thomas More, author of Utopia, stood out; and William Shakespeare,
famous author of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth among others.
Policy
In political literature, Baltasar, Count of Castiglione, wrote the
courtier, which contains diplomatic and government norms. Niccolò
Machiavelli, who wrote The Prince, which is a treatise on the art of
government. The Mandrake is a dramatic work by Machiavelli.

Science
In the sciences, the Italian Leonardo Da Vinci stood out, who discovered
the inclined plane and invented hydraulic and aerial machines; the
Belgian Andreas Vasalio who contributed new medical knowledge in
Anatomy and physiology: the Englishman William Harvey who discovered
blood circulation. The Italian Galileo Galilei, inventor of the telescope,
stated that the telescope was the immobile center of the Universe and
that the earth moved. The Italian Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that the
Earth revolves around the Sun and that the course of the stars is an
optical illusion. The Italian and disciple of Galileo Galilei, Evangelista
Torricelli, who invented the barometer, to measure atmospheric pressure.
Humanists and Obscurantists
Humanism was an intellectual movement that developed between the
15th and 16th centuries to renew the study of language, literature and
classical civilization. The humanist man was recognized for his
specialized knowledge of law, the arts, and classical literature. Some
historical data indicate that humanism emerged at the end of the 14th
century, when Europe was plagued by drought, revolts, rebellions, famine
and disease, which created an obsession with death, salvation or
damnation, known as the Black Death, the Humanists were concerned
about the dignity of men and women, the position of man in nature,
breaking with the medieval mentality and began to resurrect Greco-Latin
values. There was a rejection of external ecclesiastical values. Humanism
forged a critical spirit in humanity, encouraged the expression of the
individual values of the time and questioned the power and ecclesiastical
system. The greatest representatives of humanism were Francisco
Petrarca and Erasmus of Rotterdam Francesco Petrarca, considered the
precursor of humanism. In his literary works he permeates intellectual and
moral models in a rhetorical sense. Erasmus of Rotterdam, who
advocated for greater education of the people, criticized ecclesiastical
structures with elegance and irony. Rotterdam was one of the church's
greatest critics. The work in praise of madness is Totterdam's main
literary contribution. Obscurantism during the Renaissance was a
movement that opposed the development of sciences, arts and literature.

MODERN AGE
The Modern Age begins with the taking of Constantinople, by tricks
in 1453 and the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. Although some
historians extend the beginning of the Modern Age with the historical
events included until Europe's incursion into America in 1492. The
Modern Age ends with the French Revolution of 1879. The perfection of
important inventions promoted new territorial discoveries, and the
dissemination of European culture in the new territories discovered and
conquered.
Gunpowder, which was initially used by the Chinese, and with the
commercial exchange between the West and the Far East, facilitates the
arrival of gunpowder to Europe. The Europeans used gunpowder in
artillery, creating rifles, muskets, caboose and harquebuses. The new
weapons were used for war and the conquest of new territories The
Compass and the astrolabe, used by maritime vessels, and especially the
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and English ones. The great navigators of
the time were the Portuguese, but it was the Spanish who ventured
through the Sea, discovering new territories.
Paper, which was the contribution of trees, formed the basis for the
creation of books and the cultural and scientific dissemination of the
Renaissance era, through the printing press, the main paper factory was
located in Valencia, Spain. The Printing Press was invented by Juan
Gutenberg, helped by Juan Fust and Pedro Scheffer. The first book to be
printed in the world was the Bible in 1455. The invention of the printing
press revolutionized the modern world and continues to this day, as it has
largely served to generalize the works of human ingenuity and spread
culture.

First era of the modern age, the hegemony of Spain

The establishment of the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Doña
Isabel and Don Fernando, constituted the unity and emergence of Spain.
The Catholic Monarchs expelled Arabs and Jews from Spain, recovered
the territory and the city of Granada. They established with the support of
the pontiffs the Courts of the Holy Inquisition, which were made up of
ecclesiastics and civilians, who punished heretics, and not the laws of the
Church. Later this court became popular and used throughout Europe.
During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Spain reached the maximum
splendor of its naval adventures. Passage through the Turkish Empire
was impossible, so new routes were determined.
Spain, for its part, decided to reach the East Indies taking the western
route under the command of Christopher Columbus, three caravels set
sail with the destination of the East Indies. But on October 12, 1492,
Columbus arrived in America, unknowingly. Then three other voyages
were made, which gave life to the conquest and colonization of the New
World. With this discovery, Spain became the leading power in the world
mainly in naval, trade and wealth.

Other important discoveries were made by Vasco Núñez de Balboa,

who discovered the Pacific Ocean; Hernando de Magallanes and Juan
Sebastián de Elcano who made the first circumnavigation trip to the
Earth. Other Spanish expeditions that deserve mention are that of Vasco
Núñez de Balboa, discoverer of the South Sea or Pacific Ocean in 1513;
that of Alonso de Ojeda, Juan de La Cosa and Américo Vespucio, who
explored the coasts of Colombia and Venezuela; that of Vicente Yañez
Pinzón, who discovered the mouth of the Amazon River; and others that
reached the coasts of Mexico, Florida and other places.
At the end of the war with the French in 1544, Charles V established the
most extensive and colossal Empire ever seen in Europe, during the 16th
century. For its part, in the East, Turkish power was collapsing, and in
America, Asia and Oceania its conquests were immortalized, and within it,
geniuses of letters and arts emerged, spreading Renaissance ideas
throughout the known and discovered world. This century was called the
Golden Age of Spain

CONTEMPORARY AGE
The Contemporary Age emerged in 1789 with the French
Revolution and extends to the present. In that extension, important events
occurred such as the Industrial Revolution, the two World Wars, the
Russian Revolution, the Cold War, the disintegration of the Soviet Union,
the Persian Gulf War, Globalization and the Iraq War.

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
In the mid-18th century, the European population increased
considerably, surpassing the stagnation levels recorded in the first
half of the century. With population growth, there was a demand for
merchandise to meet the needs of consumers. These factors
stimulated agricultural production, the textile industry, the iron and
steel industry. The main raw material was cotton, as it was cheaper
than wool. The cotton textile industry employed 300,000 workers in
the textile industries in the English cities of Manchester and
Liverpool. Iron replaced wood in the construction of machines for
agricultural production. New sources of energy emerge such as coal,
electricity and oil. The industrial revolution emerged in England and
spread through France, Germany and Italy. It then spreads to the
rest of Europe and the world. It consisted of rapid and radical
transformations, technically, economically and socially. The Industrial
Revolution reached its peak during the 19th century. Together with
the proliferation of machinery, there is the rise of capitalism, where
the bourgeoisie and workers were the main social classes in this
mode of production.
The triumphant economic thought of the time was capitalism.
The social consequences of capitalism were
manifested in the struggle of workers to improve their standard of
living. In England the first unions or unions emerged, despite being
prohibited by law. The State intervened in Germany, achieving the
establishment of social insurance and the reduction of working
hours. The first approach to the political struggle of the workers was
socialism. Julio Romero Soto warns in relation to the Contemporary
Age: “This period is one of intense intellectual activity; In it most of
the promises of the Renaissance are realized. Granting, depending
on their position, primacy to reason, experience or feelings, political
thinkers will progressively address the main problems posed by life
in society and the development of economic relations.

Some are radically pessimistic and believe that man, evil by nature,
is a wolf to man (Hobbes); others have faith in the divine nature of man
and show signs, in the field of Sociology, of a certain skepticism regarding
what is true on one side of the Pyrenees and error on others (Pascal);
others are optimistic (Diderot) and elaborate the doctrine of natural law.
Three names dominate this period: That of the Italian Vico and those of
the French Montesquieu and Rousseau.

Precursors of Legal Sociology in the 17th and 18th centuries Thomas

Hobbes (1588-1629)
A rational construction takes place in the manner of the physics of
society. He is a supporter of absolutism (every revolution is illegitimate),
but an opponent of divine right. Man is not altruistic by nature (a wolf
among wolves); But the instinct of conservation teaches us to renounce
the state of natural war (law of the jungle) and to deprive ourselves,
through a "social pact" (implicit), of some of our rights. In fact, since man
is not naturally inclined to respect this pact, it is necessary that a will
forces him to obey the law, namely: an absolute sovereign (whether it is a
monarch or a council of wise men). He gives the name "Leviathan" to this
gigantic power of the State, which decides what is fair and what is not.
Giambattista Vico (1688-1744)

Its particularity lies in having proclaimed the need for laws (which
derive from the nature of things and not from the capricious will of
legislators). But it also lies in having considered an extraordinarily modern
method of analyzing the human imagination: it is most certain that Homer
did not exist, Vico thinks, but the Homeric poems express a certain state
of human consciousness (passage from the age of the gods to that of
heroes) and as such they constitute a first matter that must be analyzed to
understand what that stage was like.
On the other hand, based on philology and the analysis of myths, he
asserts that all nations, their history, follows the same rhythm: they all go
through an "Age of gods", an "Age of heroes" and an "Age of men" before
returning to their primitive barbarism. In the first of these ages, humanity
defines rites and beliefs and the stability of the social group is guaranteed
by the fear of the gods (Jupiter).

In the age of heroes, families are gathered in cities where power belongs
to the strongest and most courageous (aristocracy of heroes), and religion
tempers the excesses of force. Finally, in the age of men, relations of law,
determined by reason, become universal and guarantee themselves, both
due to their rationality and their effectiveness. Every nation has had its
"Corsi e Ricorsi", and this fundamental idea dominates the thinking
especially in economic matters in his work "Scienza Nuova". To conclude,
let us say that the theory of the "ricorsi" announces the dialectical method.
Montesquieu (1689-1775)
He was born in La Brede, near Bordeaux. In his travels through
Italy, the Netherlands and England, in the latter country he conceived his
political and historical-legal ideas, whose expression and systematization
culminated in his "Spirit of the Laws" (1784). Montesquieu attacks the
problem of law in its natural and historical aspects, demonstrating that the
natural and the positive are not necessarily contradictory in legislation but
rather correlative.
Each town has a set of laws that consider its historical nature
among the towns themselves. The ideal consists purely in achieving
maximum freedom within the possibilities dictated by natural and
historical circumstances. To do this, it requires, first of all, a separation of
the legislative, executive and judicial powers, such as the Baron de
Montesquieu found in the England of his time, in whose Constitution he
saw the desirable political ideal for France. Montesquieu was one of the
first to highlight the influence of physical circumstances and especially
climate, in relation to temperament, on the customs, laws and political life
of people; but it is far from believing that with respect to such influences
man can only remain purely passive. It all depends on your reaction to the
influence of the weather. "The more physical causes drag men to rest, the
more moral causes must drive them away from it." "When the climate
inclines men to flee from the work of the land, religion and laws must
compel them to work." In the confrontation of the same physical agents,
freedom and the normality of the historical order are determined,
according to Montesquieu. Years later, from the "Semanario del Nuevo
Reino de Granada", he also supported the medium's thesis about human
beings.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

Originally from Geneva. His life and character have been set forth
by himself in his "Confessions." In his "Discourse on the origins and
foundations of inequality among men" (1754), he presents the man of
culture as the product of successive impurities that have adhered to the
natural man. Only in the latter is the original goodness of the feeling and
the direct relationship with nature revealed in the clearest way. It is not
actually a perfect existence prior to the constitution of society and the
birth of civilization. Rousseau does not boast the return to the natural man
as the regression to a supposed primitive status, but this state constitutes,
so to speak, the point of reference towards which all social and moral
considerations turn. Hence the theory of the "Social Contract" which
points out the method to reach the purity of the natural man with the
suppression of all the evil accumulated by artificial culture and human
inequality.

Rousseau places as the foundation of the political body an original

agreement, freely stipulated between its members by which each one is
obligated without reservation towards all, from which arises the reciprocal
obligation towards each one. In this way, the individual, spontaneously
renouncing his mere natural independence, in which the inequality of the
forces with which each person is endowed predominates, becomes a
citizen, that is, he enjoys the absolute legal and moral equality that
characterizes to a true society.

Sociology and its relationships with other branches

Definition

Sociology is the science that treats, describes and explains how and
why people interact in groups. Also, it is a science that is based on the
understanding of social reality, through the perceptible and imperceptible
of things, which is why its goal is the knowledge of those social processes
that develop in a similar way in different areas. , and to achieve the latter,
it is necessary that this science be assisted by others, with the purpose of
being able to provide in its studies, the proper substantial conclusions that
grant a criterion of truthfulness to its investigations, and do not fall into
subjectivism or vague relativism.

Aim
The objective of Sociology is to study the transformations that human
beings undergo within society over time, and this is revealed through all
those social facts that directly or indirectly influence the lives of human
beings. So we can say that sociology, when relating to other branches,
does not aim to transform social reality, but rather to make it
understandable to man.

Importance
 The importance of these reciprocal relationships lies in two substantial
aspects: the first is that they are based on helping us understand and
even accept our relationship with those groups with whom we have rarely
or never had contact (helping to eliminate prejudices and stereotypes). ;
and the second helps us know the nature of the social forces that
influence our behavior and that of others. That is to say, the real
importance of sociology and its relationship with other branches lies in a
pre and post study of the social demands of order, cohesion and cultural
identity.

Function
The function of all these relationships is not only to discover the
causes and social facts, as the sociologist Comte points out, but it
actually consists of showing the function of such facts in social life, that is,
in a correspondence between what is done and what is done. studied.
Furthermore, the function that sociology fulfills when assisted by other
sciences is that we can study the evolution of social systems over time in
an inter and multidisciplinary way.

Action field

Sociology is an empirical science because it is based on the

observation of facts and, through the inductive method, it develops its
theoretical constructions. Furthermore, it is a factual science because it
works from facts in which particular aspects are focused. of a society.
That is why, within its field of action, sociology receives from other
sciences the specialized knowledge that is relevant to carry out its
purposes, but it is very important to clarify that all those sciences in which
sociology is assisted are differentiated. in turn (each of them) with
sociology. For example, anthropology when studying human evolution
(particularizing the cultural element); psychology when studying particular
cases such as The French Revolution; economics by studying the main
aspects of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and
services; and, Law when it studies those legal social phenomena. In
conclusion, there are many fields where sociology can be used, since,
being a discipline that encompasses everything inherent to society, we
cannot rule it out or exclude it in the study of any type of human
relationships.

Perspectives
The appropriate perspective on which Sociology focuses and its
relationship with other branches consists of the study of man in his social
environment, that is, within a culture (special Sociology). But, to achieve
this, Sociology does not study society as a "sum of individuals", but rather
this science specifically studies the multiple interactions of these
individuals, which are what ultimately confer life and existence to society
in all its manifestations. , and for this study, sociology applies systematic
research and evaluation methods that allow its measurement,
quantification and empirical verification (General Sociology). Therefore,
the perspective that Sociology offers us and its relationship with other
branches can be special and general at the same time, to achieve a
better analysis and interpretation of the phenomena that we wish to study.

Problems that can be solved

Within the substantial study of Sociology, there is a high degree of
tendency to introduce subjective criteria into its research, if only this
science is used without the help of others. Therefore, when Sociology
receives methodical contributions in its studies, it is easier to avoid any
incomplete contribution to the study carried out. That is, the problems that
can be solved with

Sociology and its respective assistance with other branches are all those
in which the observation of social reality lies, but precisely through the
lenses provided by the dogmatics of each science.

As we were able to analyze in the previous paragraphs, Sociology

is a social science with broad competence and is undoubtedly a
good reference point for any study on social matters that we wish to
carry out. And that is why, in the paragraphs that follow, some
sciences with which Sociology is related in practice and doctrine are
broadly described. In addition, it is worth highlighting that this
science can be used in many fields and not It should be limited to
those presented here, in the same way, these fields can interact with
each other to provide a better and broader social analysis in which
human relationships develop.

Sociology and its relationship with Politics

Definition
Politics is the study of power and the intersection of personality, social
and political structure, on the other hand, sociology in technical aspects is
responsible for the study of society in general. That is why the relationship
between Sociology and Politics constitutes an interdisciplinary
complement between both, proof of this is that when both sciences
intersect, each one from its own perspective analyzes the common fields
such as government systems and the economic organization of a society,
in order to understand the political climate of societies and thus be able to
determine the political trends and patterns that may emerge.
Object
The object of the relationship between Politics and Sociology is the
study of man, society and the State, since only by fully knowing these
three elements can we understand the cause and effect of the
complicated dynamic forces that develop at the social, cultural, and
politician of a country.

Importance
The importance that the relationships between Sociology and Politics
imply is that the applied study of both sciences allows us to know in a
profound way the way in which power is exercised, and of the men who
direct others in human societies. , and this is only achieved if each of
them achieves the goals that have been proposed in parallel. That is why
a good political study with a true sociological basis allows us to know the
real opinion that national and international society has about a
government and its healthy administration of resources.

Function
All civilizations have raised a series of reflections on social
phenomena, on the genesis and historical development of society, on the
various ways of organizing the res publica, and on the struggle for the
seizure of power in its attempt to find solutions to the most important
social and political conflicts of his time. That is why the reciprocal
relationship between Sociology and Politics has the essential function of
providing a broad perspective on how those social, political and cultural
phenomena that may arise in the near future inside and outside a society
should be faced. .

Action field
The field of action that occurs with the mutual relationship between
Sociology and Politics can be summarized in four main areas of research:
the first, the social-political formation of a State; second, the
governmental consequences of the administration of the previous rulers;
third, public personalities, movements and social trends outside the
formal institutions of political power, which affect politics; and fourth,
power relations within and between social groups (families, workplaces,
bureaucracy, media, etc.).

Perspectives
Some scholars define Politics as a set of practical rules useful to
correctly direct the development of a society, others define it as the
science that investigates the principles that we must follow based on
the direction of a society. But, whatever their exact acceptance, both
definitions indicate that politics refers to the direction or leadership of
people. Furthermore, sociologically speaking, this discipline
addresses that special human aspect in which men relate to each
other, with their roles as rulers and governed, since these
interhuman relationships constitute a social phenomenon in which it
is closely linked to politics and sociology. Consequently, as both
sciences deal with the study of power relations within the State, all
those political acts constitute a social phenomenon that must be fully
studied by both sciences in their respective general and special
fields.

Problems that can be solved

Political science develops parallel to sociology, and this makes it
possible for scholars in this subject to know the way in which power
should be exercised, and about the men who direct societies, so that
each of them they achieve the goals that have been proposed, and a
final verdict is reached on relations between the government and civil
society, military, etc. That is why one of the problems that can be
solved, taking into account the relationship between both sciences,
we can clearly say that they are the electoral processes that take
place in a country, since this memorable event presents its own
characteristics each time. characteristics, and within them, citizen
participation can never necessarily be established based on trends
or predictions, but in order to achieve it, all the social variables that
arise day to day must be taken into account, since they influence the
individual or collective participation of certain sectors of a society.

Sociology and its relationship with History

Definition
History studies the past of people in all its diversity, which is why
it is directed not only towards laws, but also towards what is general
and necessary in history, but also towards what is particular and
causal. The relationship between history and sociology needs to
always be delimited by the fundamental fact that the historical
perspective requires in any study the essential sociological element,
such as the relationships between individuals, human protagonism,
forms of association; etc., that is, a delimited structuring of social
relations. Furthermore, today the relationship between Sociology and
History goes beyond the study of man's need to understand himself
and his relationships with his peers through his past in an incessant
search for his collective history.

Object

History and sociology are two sciences that have emerged to try to
explain all the processes that modernity is linked to, such as urbanization,
industrialization as part of the development of capitalism, etc., which until
a few years ago were totally unknown in proportion. capital letter in which
they are evident, since the fundamental concern of this historical-social
relationship lay in explaining and understanding the processes that were
taking place as a consequence of the transition from traditional to modern
society.

Importance
The importance of the relationships between Sociology and History is
that both sciences, helping each other, try to explain the general laws that
describe human evolution and serve as a method for reliable historical
research in accordance with our social reality. And to fulfill this, it is
necessary for the historian and sociologist to search and find in each era,
all those specific relationships that can be supported by a specific
expression. Furthermore, history in turn provides material to reach
conclusions in sociology, and to develop sociological generalizations, in
other words: “sociological thinking is basically statistical in nature since it
assumes that the explanation of social reality depends on the distribution,
frequency and interrelation of events and cases, and the greater or lesser
information available in relation to the incidence of social traits or patterns
of group human behavior within given social contexts, and also assumes
that this information is significant to the extent that it establishes the mode
of occurrence of the events under study.” Hence, before explaining social
reality (or at least while trying to do so), the historian is obliged to
reconstruct it, using hypotheses whose validation methods differ quite a
bit from the methods used by the sociologist.

Function
The differences in approach between History and Sociology come
from the fact that History is especially concerned with singular events
without trying to go further, while Sociology seeks greater depth in all its
topics. Furthermore, Sociology handles contemporary events in the face
of History, aided by all those past events, that is, Sociology seeks the
interrelation of causes in order to know their effects. Therefore, even
when the historian uses the

Statistics, Demography, Geography, Economics, Anthropology and

Sociology itself as auxiliary sciences in the reconstruction of the past,
their work will always be different from that of the specialists of those
particular sciences, because the historian, at the same time, time that
reconstructs, explains social reality in terms of a causality specific to each
given fact, and that causality has spatial, temporal and cultural
connections that cannot be measured or expressed statistically. In
Conclusion, the historian has to analyze what the other social sciences,
including Sociology, can give to explain social reality.

Action field
The field of action occupied by the relations of Sociology and History
allows us to refer history exclusively to human events; theoretically,
nothing prevents us from conceiving a history not referring to the
existence of man. The historian is not interested in all the events that
occurred in the past, but only in those that have exerted considerable
influence on the general course of human life, and that is why History
should only relate, as Bacon said, “the exploits” of man, and therefore, we
can say that history is the knowledge of that past forged by man in his
social activity, to explain it, order its varied structures, discern the reasons
for its changes and judge it according to higher ideals and, as far as
possible. , permanent. It is worth highlighting that historical development
is a unitary process and that its different levels of evolution are not always
equivalent for all cultures or societies located in the same periods.

Perspectives
The perspective in which the relationships between sociology and
history are focused constitute only historical interpretations of social
analysis, leaving aside the evolutionary, transformative and multicausal
nature of social processes, hence the understanding of their genesis (of
the processes social) will stop increasingly successful elaborations of any
object of study. In this area, the role of history is irreplaceable, if we
maintain that as a science, its object of study is the nature of human
societies and their development over time. And for this reason, the
relationships between history and sociology need to always be delimited
by the fundamental fact that the historical perspective requires the
essential sociological element (the relationship between individuals,
human protagonism, forms of association) that is, the structuring of social
relationships. However, there remain those who in one way or another
have been skeptical about the theoretical and methodological advantages
that this relationship contains. So, the differences between History and
Sociology lie in more than just their research techniques. These
differences reside in the need to approach the same object differently due
to the different temporalities in which that object is presented.

Problems that can be solved

The problems that both the historian and the sociologist solve are
basically governed by the same reality: society, or, if we want to say more
precisely, societies in their continuous evolution, mutation, change,
development or evolution. Let's say, to begin with, that Sociology can be
defined as the intellectual activity that studies what we call "social reality"
in order to determine the regularities that operate within it in order to
make group behavior more intelligible and eventually reach the
establishment of laws and scientific postulates developed, in most cases,
inductively, and precisely those cases and laws serve to explain other
past or present group human behaviors and that also serve to predict
future group human behaviors.

Sociology and its relationship with Law

Definition
Law is a set of mandatory rules that govern the external behavior of
men who live in society, that is, it exerts pressure on the individual from
the outside. By assisting Law in Sociology, those social facts that act as a
social force can be studied more easily, molding them well and
intervening in them as an auxiliary or guide according to the interests and
values of each society.

Object
The purpose of the relationships between Sociology and Law is that
the latter constitutes a vital need to regulate and harmonize the
relationships established between the various members of a society, that
is, the purpose of Law is eminently social, and proof of this is that the
existence of law is not conceived outside of the community, since for an
isolated individual the existence of legal norms would be absurd.

Importance
The important thing about the relationship between both sciences is
that, in their studies, Law cannot be conceived as a normative discipline,
but rather, it must be considered (with the support of Sociology) as an
explanatory science. In short, both sciences are directly a product of the
social life of man, since it is in a certain way the framework within which
the behavior of men develops in their reciprocal relationships, it
constitutes a accumulation of norms that are organized and ordered
within the same society and establishes the instrument of a State to
subjugate its inhabitants.

Function
The function of these reciprocal relationships is to complement each
other, focusing both sciences on all those social phenomena, by jointly
seeking an explanation, function, relationships and reciprocal influences
between these social phenomena, as well as the transformations of law,
with a general scope. . Furthermore, a function of the sociology of law, as
Ehrlich indicates, is to offer an exposition of the common elements in
legal relationships, without reference to the positive law that governs
them, and to study the peculiar elements of each relationship with
reference to its cause and effects. .

Action field
We can define the sociology of law as a discipline that aims to explain
the legal phenomenon, considered as a social fact. From the previous
definition it can be easily inferred what differences exist between
sociology and the science of law. For the latter, law is simply a set of
rules; for the first, a social phenomenon that must be explained in the
same way as the other products of collective life. The law is also said to
have as its objective the resolution of conflicts that occur within society,
as a consequence of the class struggle, however the strong economic
imbalance that exists between both tilts the balance for the powerful side,
of So that the law does fulfill a control function, but as was already
pointed out in favor of the class that holds power - we can deduce that
law is a set of legal norms, imperatively attributive, imposed by the

State, which regulate the external conduct of man in society and that if its
mandates are not voluntarily complied with, compliance can be made
effective by force.

Perspectives
We can say that it takes charge of the basic social function of law,
which is to govern human coexistence and therefore the different social
groups, without ignoring that it carries values of justice, freedom, security,
order. , etc., which must be incarnated in the respective social group. It
also studies the transformations of law, in order to explain them causally,
but not with the individualizing scope, typical of history, but with a
generalizing breadth, in order to formulate laws.

Problems that can be solved

Analyzing the reciprocal relationships of law with other social
phenomena, that is, with morality, politics, art, economy, religion, culture,
language, etc., is about studying not only the influence of these factors on
the law, but also the effects that the law in turn exerts on these social
phenomena.

Sociology and its relationship with Economics

Definition
Economics is the science that studies the laws that govern production,
distribution, exchange and consumption, and the different bases of the
development of human society from a specific point of view, that is, not
occupying other sciences to meet its objectives. . However, when
Economics uses Sociology, its results are focused from a much broader
point of view than that of just one of these sciences, reaching the point of
becoming reliable indicators of all aspects of our society.

Object
The purpose of the relationship that exists between economics and
sociology is that both are social sciences, and therefore when used in
studies (from a methodical point of view), both favor the study of the
behavior and economic-social activities of beings. humans.

Importance
Within the system of social relations, economics exclusively
studies the economic-material relations that influence within a
predictable system, that is, only those relations of production and the
laws that govern them, forgetting the study of other important
aspects. And for this reason, Sociology allows Economics a very
accurate quantifiable study, taking into consideration all those social
manifestations that are related to the production, distribution,
exchange and consumption of goods and services, and also these
reciprocal relationships between both sciences. They provide
representation of all those patterns quantifiable in money, which
develop within the social consciousness of the entire population.

Function
Knowing that the economy seeks the means to satisfy man's needs,
having an individual and/or collective result through decision-making
when there is a shortage of means, and sociology studies the behavior of
people with respect to a social event. It can be concluded that the function
that sociology fulfills when assisting economics is to allow an evaluation
and study (quantifiable) of social changes.

Action field
While economics is responsible for studying the decisions made
about the limited amount of resources available to satisfy the needs
of society, sociology studies how important and what the needs of
this society are, and also studies the production system. and
consumption of a given society. Therefore, the field of action of the
relations between Economics and Sociology is based on the
following approaches: 1. How individuals make decisions: How much
they work, what they buy, how much they save and how they invest
their savings; 2. How individuals interact: Examine how the multitude
of buyers and sellers of a good jointly determine the price at which it
is sold and the quantity at which it is sold; 3. How the economy as a
whole works: They analyze trends that affect the economy as a
whole, including population growth, average income, and the rate at
which prices rise.
Perspectives

Both economics and sociology think in terms of system and

subsystem, since both sciences value the interrelationship between
human beings, the need for quantification of resources, exhaustive use
and creation of models. For this reason, the perspective that economic
science offers us (without forgetting its intimate relationship with
Sociology) occupies a predominant place, since the economic fact is the
gravitational center of the activity of every society, both internally and
external (world economy or economic globalization).

Problems that can be solved

Furthermore, sociologists together with economists evaluate and
study social changes and stratification. This could be explained more
clearly by thinking that each person or each society has different
needs, but we cannot give enough to everyone because the
Resources are scarce, and that is where the economy comes in to
decide how to distribute and what to do with these resources, which
in many cases do not completely satisfy the needs that a society
may have. Something that can clearly demonstrate this relationship
is social stratification, which is when a society is divided taking into
account the political, social and economic inequalities in which there
are 3 different layers that are: upper class, middle class, upper class.
low. Which currently are mainly linked to the economic status of a
person

ANALYSIS OF SOCIOLOGY

A perspective can be defined as a way of looking at and being seen at

something. Therefore, having a perspective means looking at something
in a particular way. Learning sociology means stepping back from our
personal interpretations of the world to look at the social influences that
shape our lives. Sociology does not deny or diminish the reality of
common experience about ourselves and others.

Sociology can be defined as the “rigorous, systematic and scientific

study of society.” It is a science because it meets the two necessary
requirements for it to be so:
 Object; body of knowledge organized and verified by methods.
Method; that organizes and verifies those scientific findings.

What does the sociological perspective mean? What is it to think in

sociological terms?

Berguer said that to think in sociological terms “a condition would be to

see the general in the particular.” It referred to the fact that individuals are
unique but respond to socially accepted patterns of behavior, in addition
to being influenced by their sociodemographic conditions.
We ask ourselves how we know if these patterns respond to social or
cultural facts, comparing societies at different moments, eras or from
different cultural traditions.

The second social perspective consisted of taking a step back –

taking distance – with social facts and observing them from another
angle or perspective. What is familiar to us is not always what it
seems. Many times we express ideas that are not valid in
sociological terms.

The third social perspective consisted of contextualizing the individual in a

specific social environment.

For sociologists, the thing that is observed is the social world, that is, the
different ways in which human beings behave socially. Thus, when we
talk about “society” or the social world, what we are really referring to is
the behavior of human beings, the true objective of study for sociologists.
Therefore, when we talk about the sociological perspective we are talking
about the particular way in which sociologists, as opposed to non-
sociologists, try to understand the social behavior of humans.
The sociological perspective is made up of a set of different sub-
perspectives. Still, it is possible to identify a few common ideas on which
most, if not all, sociologists agree.

These are:

> Human beings are social animals: we need to cooperate with others
in some way in order to produce the social world in which we live.

> Human social behavior is learned, not instinctive. In this sense, the
explanation is that we need to learn, from the moment of our birth,
how to be not only a human being, but also to be an identifiable
member of the society into which we were born. In order to
understand human social behavior we have focused our attention
on the groups to which people belong. These groups are many and
varied, as we will see, but the largest group to which people belong
is society.

> Sociology is a perspective that observes the totality of relationships.

In this sense, sociologists do not restrict their view (their study) to a
single dimension of social activity (Economy, Politics, History,
Geography, Psychology, etc.). Although each of these disciplines is
important and interesting, only by studying how these relationships
affect each other can we obtain a complete picture of human social
behavior.

What does the sociological perspective imply?

> It consists of “seeing the general in the particular” (P.Berger), or
what is the same, without giving up seeing the singularity of the
 individual and his actions, these are determined in the group or
category, in the society to which that belongs. These categories with
which society “classifies” us determine our life experiences. If this
premise is accepted, we begin to think in sociological terms.
> It involves seeing things in a different way than we are familiar with
or take for granted. At the same time, scientific curiosity about these
“differences” develops.
> It implies questioning that events and decisions occur or are taken
“just like that,” but that they are conditioned by the society in which
we live (Durkheim, Suicide ).

> The job of the sociologist is to demonstrate how social patterns and
processes end up affecting our actions and decisions.

Historical Analysis of Sociology

There have always been some approaches to knowledge of society, both

in the Eastern and Western world. TO. Compte was the first thinker of
sociology as a science, and established his own typology of what society
has been throughout history. He left us his “Law of the three stages”:

a) Theological stage: studies society according to divine norms and

laws, it is typical of the pre-modern stage, which ends with the
Renaissance.

b) Metaphysical stage: they begin with the Renaissance. Thinkers are

beginning to emerge who do not conceive reality as a set of divine
laws, but as scientific ones, in terms of abstract and metaphysical
 principles. As an example, Thomas Hobbes, in “The Heviathan”,
associates the state with a huge monster that devours its subjects;
society is a product of the selfishness of men, not of God.

c) Scientific stage: Social facts are studied in

Scientific terms. Social reality is not a product of man's actions. TO.
Compte wanted to make sociology a “social physics”: from social
facts, obtain empirically analyzable objects. He tried to obtain the
laws that explain social reality.

The historical context was a triggering event. Sociology is a young belief

(1938), which emerged later than the rest of the sciences. Anthony
Giddens said that sociology emerged from a series of linked historical
sequences:

- Technological advances make it possible...

- the industrial economy, which causes….
- changes in the social structure, and in mentalities, which in turn
produces…..
- urban growth
- Social marginalization
In this context Sociology emerged.

Sociology was the result of the immense social transformations that took
place in the last two centuries. The French Revolution of 1789 and the
Industrial Revolution that originated in England in the 18th century
managed to dissolve the forms of social organization under which men
lived for several millennia; The enormous social transformations that took
place in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries explain the birth of this
science.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIOLOGY

The study of sociology is quite broad, below are several characteristics

that identify the field of application of this science:

> High level of generality. Other social sciences study aspects of

society (economics, law); this aspect must interpret as a
need of
complementarity, interdisciplinarity because social reality demands
it. The work of the sociologist consists of determining which factors
– of the multiplicity that act in each reality studied – are the
dominant ones in each situation. This connects with the idea of
incorporating the global perspective.
> It is an empirical science: all its knowledge comes from the
observation of a concrete reality.
> It is a theoretical discipline, since it is not limited to the observation
of facts, nor to a quantitative presentation of data, but based on
these data it will establish generalizations. Sociological theory
universalizes and integrates partial conclusions provided by
empirical research. In this sense, a theory is a statement that
expresses how and why certain facts are related.
> It is an open discipline, that is, there is no room for dogmatism, the
propositions must be examined and verified.
> It is a science whose methodology is objective, which seeks the
truth through the rational investigation of the data that reality
provides us.
> It has to be social criticism. The system must claim its
independence above the vested interests that may compromise its
objectivity. This characteristic provides the sociologist with the
character of an “active member of society”, since his knowledge
 makes it more difficult to accept “things as they are”, allowing,
through his better and greater knowledge, their transformation.
> The sociologist must, at the same time, aspire to distance from the
object of study and, consequently, to ethnocentrism, that is,
evaluate other social realities from one's own perspective.
> Sociological knowledge ends up being part of society. It has,
therefore, an impact on society, on the object of study.

Approaches to Sociology

It is one that studies the sequences by which societies have evolved (they
have studied the characteristics of societies as they evolve). It was raised
at the beginning of sociology under the idea that society as a biological
organism develops and evolves. This idea implied;

> Society is conceived as a set of interrelated parts that has a

structure or scheme.
> It is becoming increasingly specialized and differentiated.
> New social forms are adopted that are more effective and help
society better achieve its objectives.

From this perspective, social development coincides with an improvement

in the effectiveness of communication and its means. The development of
mass communication has been both in its mechanical and scientific sense
and in its social uses.
Based on the works of Augustus Comte (1798–1857) and Herbert
Spencer (1820–1903), it seemed to offer a satisfactory explanation of the
origin and development of human societies and organizations.
Sociologists who use this perspective investigate in general sequences
the cycles of patterns of change and development of societies or
development of organizations. Because Evolutionism is based on very
limited empirical data, its theoretical development offers many variants,
almost all related to two fundamental problems: the chronological scale
and the engine of evolutionary change.

Evolutionary theory has a general law applicable to the entire universe, of

course including the study of society. This general law constitutes the
synthesis of seven laws originally conceived by Spencer. Of them, the
first three are basic and the remaining four are complementary.
> Law of persistence of force.
> Law of the indestructibility of matter.
> Law of continuity of motion.
> Law of persistence of the relationship between forces.
> Law of transformation and equivalence of forces.
> Law of motion from least resistance to greatest attraction, and
> Law of alternation or rhythm of movement.

The general law referred to is the unitary expression of the result of the
seven laws listed. The general law of evolution establishes that, starting
from an indeterminate and incoherent homogeneity, we move towards a
well-defined and coherent heterogeneity.

NEW APPROACHES TO THE EVOLUTIONIST PERSPECTIVE

Spencer thus explains the natural and social evolution, the latter in the
transition from the family to the tribe, later to the town to culminate with
the State. Conceives two types of society, starting from its fundamental
structures: military society and industrial society.
Spencer challenges socialism for its evident inclination to increase State
intervention, believing that this always leads to the establishment of
militarized communities. He achieved great popularity, especially after
1852, after his visit to the United States, where his ideas were received
with great enthusiasm.

At the end of his life, he himself noticed the decline in the validity of his
theory; it gave rise to other sociological schools that, alternatively,
focused their studies, not on the basis of a certain evolutionary phase of
society, as evolutionism does, but emphasizing its analyzes around the
structure and functioning of society, openly ignoring the study of the
stages of social development.

I explain some of these new approaches, derived from Spencerian theory,

succinctly in the following table.
THEORIES DESCRIPTION REPRESENTATIVES
Attributes to
the
mindset a LESTER F. WARD
predominant role
EVOLUTIONISM in evolution. (1841 - 1913)

PSYCHOLOGICAL Predilection by FRANKLIN H.

the neologisms GIDDINGS
structured with
Greek and Latin (1855 - 1931)
voices .

Evolution begins
with the genesis
(impulsive forces)
and
culminates with
the
telesis (knowledge

and
forecast).

The forces
social are
psychic forces.

Study of
the
social genetics .

The unit of
investigation is the
socius
It (the man
aims to
demonstrate that
the development ACHILLE LORIA
EVOLUTIONISM social
depends on a (1857 - 1943)
ECONOMIC primary factor: free
land , that is, land
that still No
has
owner. So,
 while No
existed

the
land ownership,No
HE
Nor did it manifest
any division of
social classes .

Makes a
curious
socioeconomic
classification,
based on Dante,
Petrarch and
Boccaccio, in
whose plays
certain social
classes would be
represented.

For this theory,

sociology is a
science that links
to the
economy andto
the
right.
The man is what
he does.
EVOLUTIONISM
The leisure class
TECHNOLOGICAL is the
cancer of
the THORSTEIN
social order. VEBLEN

Society is an (1857 - 1929)

industrial
mechanism whose
structures are
made up of
institutions
economic.
 The technology
It destroys the old
social structures,
as mechanical
forces take the
place of human
forces.
The evolution
social this
EVOLUTIONISM determined ADOLPHE COSTE
entirely by the
DEMOGRAPHIC increasing density (1842 - 1901)
of
the
population.

exist five
evolutionary
stages in the
groups
social: the village,
the city,
the
metropolis,

the
capital and
the
federation .

To stop to
EVOLUTIONISM the
It states that
the
RELIGIOUS religion is he BENJAMIN KIDD
engine of all social
(1858 - 1916)
changes.

The reason cannot

be he factor
fundamentalof the
progress, He
 and antisocial,
since it does not
move at the same
time as social
groups .

FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
It is one that considers that society is an interrelated system in which
each person has a defined role and if it is developed appropriately it
keeps the system in balance.

It is a theoretical paradigm according to which society is a complex

system whose parts fit together, producing balance and social stability.
Understands social structures in terms of the social functions they
fulfill. According to functionalism, every social structure (the family, for
example) contributes to the functioning of society. They seek to identify
the structures of which society is made up and the functions that each
of them fulfill.

Development of the functionalist paradigm: it is linked to the

development of American sociology, mainly after the Second World
War, and specifically the figure who really brought functionalism to its
maximum diffusion was Talcott Parsons (1902-1979).

Preponderant current from World War II to the 60s with authors such
as Parsons, Merton. It starts from some basic assumptions:
> The "functional unit" (the social system functions as a global unit.
> The "conservation of unity" (the elements do not change the
structure).
> "Indispensability" everything fulfills a mission in that unity even if
its reasons are not evident to the subject.
It conceives society as a complex system in which each of the parts fits
in balance and harmony. It is greatly influenced by classical
sociological thought.

Durkheim's thought has significantly influenced various fields of human

knowledge. His functionalist theory refers, in general terms, to the use
of function, considered as the external manifestation of an object, in a
certain system of relationships.

Although the term function refers us to the idea of the particular activity
carried out by each object, regardless of its condition and class, for this
theory, the function is a concept that, in addition to expressing the
relationships between the elements of a set, manifests the nature of
the dependence of said elements.
Functionalism has impacted physiology, psychology, education, among
other fields. As regards the latter, specifically called functional theory of
education, the adequate exercise of teaching, directive, administrative,
etc. functions is what guarantees the success and solidity of an
educational system.

STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

Its greatest and main exponent is the North American Robert K.

Merton, This theory, also called structural-functionalism, states that to
access knowledge of social reality, one must start from theoretical
principles that Parsons called reference systems.

Social subjects build systems of interactive relationships that Parsons

classifies into three types:

> The cultural system , made up of behavioral patterns, symbols,

beliefs, etc. It is the object of study of social anthropology.
> The personality system , which is integrated from individual
appropriation, or internalization that the subject carries out of the
social norms of the group in which he or she interacts.
> The social system , considered from two structures that
determine it: the social division of labor and social stratification
that, stated in this way, make up the object of study of sociology.
When a society has been able to establish behavioral patterns that
guarantee its balance and survival, it is said to be a functional society.

Merton assumes the existence of two alternatives: that the roles played
by the subject are voluntary and recognized (manifest) or unwanted
and unrecognized (latent).

In the latter case, sooner or later, what Merton calls "dysfunctions" may
occur, that is, social behaviors that break with current patterns and that
put the balance and security of the social group at risk.
In these circumstances, the system resorts to the use of control
mechanisms that can be of a diverse nature, ranging from legal
sanctions, pressure from public opinion (external controls), to the
induction of feelings of guilt, shame (internal controls). , etc.

The most frequent criticisms that have been made of structural

functionalism are:

> It is a conservative theory, since it considers that the factors that

preserve the existence of a certain system are functional.
> The consideration of social change as an abnormal situation
greatly limits this theory, since it prevents it from explaining said
change.
> Structural functionalism does not notice the existence of the
economic structure of society.

INTERACTIONIST PERSPECTIVE

It focuses on everyday relationships and studies within them the

behavior of people and groups. Highlights the role of language and
communication for social and individual development and
maintenance.

> Society understood as a system of meanings. The subject

participates in the shared meanings from which stable
expectations arise that guide their behavior.
> Both physical and social realities are constructions of meanings
established from the participation of the subject, they are socially
established and internalized.
> The ties that unite people, the ideas they have about reality, etc.
They arise from symbolic interaction with others.
> Behaviors in each situation are guided by labels and meanings
 that we associate with it (a product of one's subjective
construction, that of others, and social demands).

They have studied the influences of media communication, how the

media shapes our social reality, the rights of the press and citizenship.

The interactionist perspective maintains that: Social interaction gives

rise to new types of psychological properties that transform individual
minds into socially structured minds.

What interactionism defends is the appearance of emergent

psychological processes and products, which were not in individuals
before participating in the interaction. The interactionist worldview
treats temporal factors as distinct from psychological processes and
describes change as a result of variable interaction, not as an intrinsic
aspect of the phenomenon.

Interactionism is a theoretical framework in which human beings live in

a world of meaningful objects. These “objects” can be material things,
actions, other people, relationships, and even symbols. Because
symbols are an especially important part of human communication for
interactionists, this theoretical framework is sometimes called the
symbolic interaction perspective .

Conflicts of Sociology
It studies the continuous tension and struggle between groups as a
normal element of social functioning (conflict is necessary otherwise
society would not evolve, wars, revolutions...). Postulates conflict as a
normal characteristic of social life. Conflict influences the distribution of
power and the direction and magnitude of social change.

The conflict perspective is one of the two main sociological theories.

Also known as the “conflict model.”

Conflict Theory is one of the great schools of modern sociological

theory. It is considered a development that occurred in reaction to the
statics of structural functionalism. Conflict theory provided an
alternative to structural functionalism during the 1950s and 1960s, but
has recently been superseded by neo-Marxian theories. Conflict theory
is closely linked to game theory and negotiation studies and schools.

It arises as a reaction to functionalism and considers social conflict as

a driver of change. It's based on:

> Every society integrates groups with disparate interests.

> Each group tries to impose its objectives and interests.
> Societies are not in balance but in change.
> This disparity continually causes conflict, attempts to achieve
interests or conservation in the face of change.
It focuses on the study of the media as a competitive struggle and
channels of social domination. Political and media power relations and
the rights of the press and citizens

According to conflictists, society is a set of competing interest groups.

What keeps society together is, therefore, not consensus, but
repression. Clearly some groups benefit more than others from existing
social arrangements, generating and maintaining a social order that is
convenient to their expectations.

In every society there is a potential for revolution derived from this

exploitation that some groups/classes exert on others. Members
belonging to different groups and categories (classes, ethnicities, men,
women, old, young, etc.) intertwine with each other, preventing the
division of society into hostile camps and maintaining that potential
state of revolution. For all these reasons, the conflict is positive, there
is nothing pathological about it, since it contributes to reinforcing
solidarity between the components of the less favored classes and
sponsoring the change towards a just and egalitarian society.

THE WAR AND THE PEACE

Although reflection on “war and peace” has been a classic concern of

human thought, and since ancient times, thinkers linked to the problem
of military conflict (war) and more recently to the problem of revolutions
and labor conflict (social movements), have studied in some depth the
manifestations of social conflict, starting in the 1950s a very specific
series of studies and theories began to appear focused on social
conflict, as a generic phenomenon, beyond its specific manifestations. .

In generic terms, a theory of social conflict will hardly be autonomous;

it is normal for it to be part of a global conception of social reality and
its functioning. Hence we can speak of two great conceptions of the
social order, which condition the interpretation of social conflicts:

> Consensual theories: The organization of any social system

tends to self-compensate between the actors and the forces that
articulate its structure and functioning. Social conflicts are
therefore anomalous situations, the result of an alteration in the
normal discourse of social life, so that they will tend to be
explained in spasmodic terms.
> Conflict theories: Society contains within itself a series of
contradictions and conflicting collective objectives that cause
confrontation of interests. For this reason, conflict is inherent to
any social dynamic, it is a structural imperative and a driver of
social change.
The conflict perspective assumes that social behavior is best
understood as tension between groups over power or the distribution of
resources, including housing, money, access to services, and political
representation.

MARXIST VISION

Karl Marx thought that the struggle between social classes was
inevitable, given the exploitation of workers that he perceived under
capitalism. Expanding on Marx's work, sociologists and other social
scientists have come to see conflict not only as a class phenomenon,
but as a part of daily life in all societies. To study any culture,
organization, or social group, sociologists want to know who benefits,
who suffers, and who dominates at the expense of others. They are
concerned with conflicts between women and men, parents and
children, cities and suburbs, whites and blacks, to name just a few.

Conflict theorists are interested in how societal institutions, such as

family, government, religion, education, and the media, can help
maintain the privileges of some groups and subject others to a position
of subordination. . Their emphasis on social change and resource
redistribution makes conflict theorists more radical and activist than
functionalists.

FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE
Sociologists became interested in the feminist perspective only in the
1970s, although it has a long tradition in many other disciplines. The
feminist perspective sees the lack of gender equality as the central
point of all behaviors and organizations.
Because it focuses clearly on one aspect of inequality, it is generally
compatible with the conflict perspective. Precursors of feminism tend to
focus on the macro level, as do conflict theorists. In light of the works
of Marx and Engels, contemporary feminist thinkers often view the
subordination of women as inherent to capitalist societies. However,
some radical feminist theorists see the oppression of women as an
inevitable fact in all male-dominated societies, whether capitalist,
socialist or communist.

Feminist thinkers have expanded our understanding of social behavior

by extending analysis beyond the male point of view. In the past,
studies on physical violence often made the mistake of not including
domestic violence, in which women are the main victims.

Not only was there a gap in the research; In practice, law enforcement
agencies were ill-prepared to deal with such violence. Likewise,
feminists have complained that studies of “children with children” focus
almost entirely on the characteristics and behavior of single teenage
mothers, without taking into account the role of the single father. They
have insisted on greater analysis of boys and their behavior, as have
their parents and role models. In summary, the feminist approach
moves women from their marginal position in scientific research to
being the center of study.

METHODS AND CONCEPTIONS

The main methods that were developed within each of the
philosophical currents that gave rise to the formation of Sociology as a
Science are presented and developed, as well as the most important
concepts that were formed within each of the schools of Sociology.
thoughts that are presented.
Positivism

These currents have as differentiating characteristics the defense

of methodological monism (theory that affirms that there is a single
method applicable in all sciences). Scientific explanation must have the
same form in any science if it aspires to be science, specifically the
method of studying the physical-natural sciences . In turn, the objective
of knowledge for positivism is to causally explain phenomena through
general and universal laws , which leads it to consider reason as a
means to other ends (instrumental reason). The way he knows is
inductive, disregarding the creation of theories based on principles that
have not been objectively perceived. In historical methodology ,
positivism fundamentally prioritizes documented evidence,
undervaluing general interpretations, which is why works of this nature
usually have excessive documentary accumulation and little
interpretive synthesis .

In the mid-19th century , Auguste Comte formulated the idea of

creating sociology as a science that has society as its object of study.
Sociology would be a knowledge free of all relations with philosophy
and based on empirical data to the same extent as the natural
sciences. One of its most notable proposals is that of empirical
research for the understanding of social phenomena, structure and
social change (which is why he is considered the father of sociology as
a scientific discipline). Comte presents human history in three phases:

1. Theological or magical phase: corresponds to the childhood of

humanity; In this era, people give magical explanations of natural
phenomena, use anthropological categories to understand the
world and magical techniques to dominate it. They also believe
that certain phenomena are caused by supernatural beings or
gods.
2. Metaphysical or philosophical phase: in this stage man stops
believing in supernatural beings and now begins to believe in
ideas. Therefore, the explanations are rational, the why of things
is sought, and the gods are replaced by abstract entities and
metaphysical terms.
3. Scientific or positive phase: it is the definitive one. At this stage,
according to Comte, the human mind renounces the search for
absolute ideas and instead, now dedicates itself to studying the
laws of phenomena. Knowledge is based on observation and
experimentation, and is expressed with the resource of
mathematics. Knowledge of the Laws of Nature is sought for its
 technical mastery.

Furthermore, he affirms that it is not possible to achieve knowledge of

realities that are beyond the given, the positive, and denies that
philosophy can provide information about the world: this task
corresponds exclusively to the sciences.

Within this, from the perspective of Leopold Von Ranke, it is said that
the historian is impartial, since he is capable of overcoming phobias,
predilections or emotions.

According to classical positivism: it is enough to gather a certain

amount of documented facts for the science of history to emerge.

Positivism assumes quantification so that historians can be sure of

their statements by measuring historians, although when this becomes
the only solution the problem of denying the veracity of everything that
is not quantified appears.

The term positivism was first used by the 19th-century French

philosopher and mathematician Auguste Comte (1798-1857), but some
of the positivist concepts can be traced back to the British philosopher

David Hume (1711-1775), to the French philosopher Saint-Simon

(1760 1825), and the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-
1804). In addition to Auguste Comte in France, the most significant
representatives of positivism are: John Stuart Mil (1806-1873) and
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) in England; Jakob Moleschott (1822-
1893) Errist Haeckei (18341919) in Germany; Roberto Ardigó (1828-
1920) in Italy. Positivism is a philosophical system that is based on the
experimental method and that rejects universal concepts and a priori
notions. For positivists, the only valid knowledge is the scientific
knowledge that arises from the positive affirmation of theories after the
application of the scientific method.

The development of positivism is linked to the consequences of the

French Revolution, which turned human beings and society into
objects of scientific study. This novelty required a new epistemology to
legitimize the knowledge obtained. It is, finally, the practical attitude,
the excessive fondness for material enjoyments and the tendency to
value the material aspects of reality above all things. Hermeneutics
was one of the currents that opposed positivism, seeking the
understanding of phenomena and not the explanation. Bertrand
Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein were among the thinkers who
attempted to separate science from metaphysics.
Positivism claims the primacy of science.

We only know what allows us to know the sciences, and the only
method of knowledge is that of the natural sciences. The method of
natural sciences (discovery of causal laws and the control they exert
over facts) is not only applied to the study of nature but also to the
study of society.
In positivism there is not only the affirmation of the unity of the scientific
method and the primacy of said method as a cognitive instrument, but
science is exalted as the only means capable of solving all human and
human problems over time. social problems that until then had
tormented humanity.
In historical methodology, positivism fundamentally prioritizes
documented evidence, undervaluing general interpretations, which is
why works of this nature usually have excessive documentary
accumulation and little interpretive synthesis.
Scientific explanation must have the same form in any science if it
aspires to be science, specifically the method of studying the physical-
natural sciences. In turn, the objective of knowledge for positivism is to
causally explain phenomena through general and universal laws, which
leads it to consider reason as a means to other ends.
It emerged in France in the second half of the 19th century. Its name
comes from the purpose of using the methods and results of positive
science for philosophical research. When it emerged in France, it
spread throughout Europe and became the preferred way of thinking
for philosophers. , historians, scientists, writers, etc.
From an early age he showed a strong rejection of traditional
Catholicism and monarchical doctrines. Positivism had Hume as its
founder, and its main representative was Augusto Comte.
Auguste Comte's positivist philosophy abandoned speculation about
the supernatural in favor of scientific research. According to him,
knowledge of all topics should come from the correlation of empirical
evidence.

Neopositivism
Neopositivism is the philosophical vision born of modern
empiricism in the experience of the Vienna Circle, whose most
representative members, during the anti-Semitic persecutions in
Europe, emigrated to the United States and England, where they
developed their ideas.
Characteristic of neopositivism is the reduction of philosophy to the
analysis of language, taken from both science and the common life of
man. The double reality of language produces the two currents of
neopositivism, as a philosophy of scientific language and common
language. Both depend on the dogmatic principle that Wittgenstein
codified in his Logical-Philosophical Treatise, namely, that statements
made about existing realities only make sense if their verifiability is
proven; The only exception to this principle refers to some of these
statements: logical-mathematical statements that cannot be verified,
but that enjoy verity as long as their basic terms are true.
This is a form of scientific tautology. Hence neopositivism's denial of
metaphysical truths: they have no meaning, since they cannot be
subjected to any empirical verification. The current of the philosophy of
scientific language, which follows R. Carnap and H. Reichenbach,
above all, develops the methodology of very quantitative, probabilistic
science, of physics and mathematics. Contemporary mathematical
logic also converges there, especially the current of formal logic, which
considers axioms as the background statements from which
mathematics can draw logical deductions. The other current, dedicated
to the analysis of common language, and which follows Popper, Ayer
and others, considers language as a game whose intrinsic rules must
be properly grasped (Wittgenstein).
The hermeneutics of language consists precisely in the use that is
made of it. From this statement it follows that, to understand what
common language affirms about a reality, there is no need to take into
account that this reality is really existing in a substantial sense.
Consequently, the world of experience is fully identified with the scale
of the meanings of common language.
CHARACTERISTICS:
•The reduction of philosophy to the analysis of language.
•The double reality of language.

It produces the two currents of neopositivism, as a philosophy of

scientific language and common language. They depend on
Wittgenstein's dogmatic principle, this is a form of scientific tautology,
hence the denial that neopositivism makes of metaphysical truths; It
follows that, to understand what common language affirms about a
reality, there is no need to take into account that this reality is really
existing in a substantial sense, from this affirmation.
Paradigm: set of knowledge and beliefs that form a vision of the world,
around a hegemonic theory in a certain historical period;
incommensurability: since none can be considered better or worse
than the other; functions: the positive, the negative.
Comprehensive sociology: Comprehensive Sociology Max Weber is
one of the pioneers of the so-called Comprehensive Sociology. It wants
to respect the peculiarity of social, cultural and historical facts, which
have meaning and therefore always appear significantly to the
researcher. For this reason, its concept of understanding that is of
capital importance to understand its effort towards the foundation of a
correct causal explanation from a scientific point of view.

Sense By sense we understand the mental and subjective sense of the

subjects of action: Existing in fact: in a historically given case As
average and in an approximate way in a certain mass of cases: as
constructed in an ideal type with actors of this character. In no way is it
an “objectively fair” sense or a “true” sense. Here lies the difference
between the empirical sciences of action, sociology and history,
compared to all dogmatic science, jurisprudence, logic, ethics,
aesthetics, which aim to study in their objects the “just” and “valid”
meaning

An action with meaning and understandable meaning does not occur in

many cases of psychophysical processes, and in others it only exists
for specialists, mystical processes that cannot be communicated
through words cannot be fully understood by those who are not
accessible. for these types of experiences. But the ability to produce
one's own action similar to that of another is not necessary for the
possibility of understanding it: "it is not necessary to be a Caesar to
understand Caesar." Being able to fully relive something foreign is
important for the evidence of understanding, but it is not an absolute
condition for the interpretation of meaning.

Rational Evidence and Endopathic Evidence Every interpretation, like

all science in general, has “evidence” as the evidence of understanding
can be of a rational nature or of an endopathic nature. In the domain of
action, it is rationally evident, above all, that of its “connection of
meaning” is intellectually understood in a clear and exhaustive way.
And there is endopathic evidence of the action when the “connection of
feelings” that was experienced in it is fully relived.

Any interpretation of an action, according to purposes rationally

oriented in this way, has the maximum degree of evidence for the
intelligence of the means used. With not identical evidence, but
sufficient for our demands for explanation, we also understand those
"errors" in which we are capable of incurring or whose birth we could
have our own experience. On the contrary, we often cannot understand
many of the “values” and “ends” of an ultimate nature that seem to
guide man, with full evidence, if not only, in certain circumstances,
grasp them intellectually; more encountering difficulties to be able to
“revive” them.

The scientific method consists of the construction of types, investigates

and exposes all the irrational, affectively irrational, affectively
conditioned meaning connections of behavior that influence the action,
as “deviations” from a development of the same “constructed” as purely
rational with arrangement for purposes.

In this way, but only by virtue of these foundations of methodological

coexistence, it can be said that the method of “comprehensive
sociology” is “rationalist.” This procedure should not be interpreted as a
rationalist prejudice of sociology, but only as a methodical resource;
and much less, therefore, as if it implied the belief in a predominance
of the rational in life. For nothing tells us in the slightest to what extent
in reality real actions are or are not determined by rational
considerations for purposes. In sociology there are countless methods
and typologies of methods, according to the different criteria of various
authors. Regarding research, we could distinguish methods that are
based on: the quantitative measurement of social phenomena;
observation, or comparison, in this case the following are mentioned.

The sociological method is the application of research concepts and

techniques to gather data and its treatment to draw conclusions about
social facts.

Historical Method
Comparative Method
Comparative statistical method
Case study method
Experimental method
Functionalist method
Structural method
Functional structural method
dialectical method

Functionalism

Functionalism is characterized by the utilitarianism given to the

actions that must sustain the established order in societies. It is a
theoretical current that emerged in England in the 1930s in the social
sciences, especially in sociology and also social anthropology. The
theory is associated with Émile Durkheim and, more recently, Talcott
Parsons. Functionalism is characterized by an empiricist approach that
advocates the advantages of field work. In this sense, functionalist
theorists identify communication with mass communication in their
texts, because that is the reality of modern society. Until the 19th
century, most work was carried out in a cabinet, through biased
accounts from travelers. Functionalism paved the way for scientific
anthropology, later developing with great success in the United States.
The functionalist current is the most widespread school; It has become
naturalized and studies the paradigm of communication sciences. This
circumstance has been understood as logical because it is the
perspective that best identifies with the dynamics and interests of the
audiovisual system.

The school proposes a series of concrete theories with continuity

based on different disciplines: the hypodermic theory, the theory of
limited effects, the mathematical theory of communication and other
more particular approaches. They are action schemes whose objective
is to build an integrative project that provides knowledge about how
social communication should work. Under this view, social institutions
would be collectively developed means for the satisfaction of biological
and cultural needs; It defines them, therefore, by the fulfillment of a
social function, and not—as was generally done—by the historical
circumstances of their development. It emphasizes, therefore, the
measures that institutions take to achieve socially valued ends. In the
American functionalist school, based primarily on the work of Talcott
Parsons, particular emphasis is placed on the maintenance of social
stability.

Functionalism
Durkheim's thought has significantly influenced various fields of
human knowledge. His functionalist theory refers, in general terms, to
the use of function, considered as the external manifestation of an
object, in a certain system of relationships.
Although the term function refers us to the idea of the particular activity
carried out by each object, regardless of its condition and class, for this
theory, the function is a concept that, in addition to expressing the
relationships between the elements of a set, manifests the nature of
the dependence of said elements.
But the question still remains: "What is functionalism? This is a
question that cannot be answered easily, because the words function
and functional (the annotation in italics is mine) in sociology and
cultural anthropology , receive different and unrelated meanings.
Sometimes, and particularly in Sorokin's work, the word function is
used in the mathematical sense, meaning a variable whose magnitude
is determined by the magnitude of another.
More frequently, the word function refers to the contribution that a part
makes to a whole, for example to a society or a culture ; This is the
meaning often attributed to "function" by such prominent
anthropologists as A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Ralph Linton and Bronislaw
Malinowski, and also, germinally, in the writings of Durkheim. (We use
the word function in this sense when we say that the function of
government is to ensure peace and order in society.) As a modality of
this second meaning, the term function is sometimes expanded to also
designate the contributions that the group makes. to their individuals
(verbi gratia, those of the family for the survival of babies), or those of
large groups to small groups. Furthermore, the functional point of view
frequently refers to the importance of the integration of the parts in
wholes, or what is almost the same, to the interdependence of the
parts.
This use is also found in the works of the authors just mentioned.
Finally, the expression "functional analysis" is used to designate the
study of social phenomena such as operations or effects of specific
social structures , such as kinship or class systems ; Therefore, it
usually appears in the structural-functional composite form," which I will
refer to in the next section.
Functionalism has impacted physiology , psychology , education,
among other fields. As regards the latter, specifically called functional
theory of education, the adequate exercise of teaching , directive,
administrative, etc. functions is what guarantees the success and
solidity of an educational system.
Although Durkheim, even today, continues to have great influence
among many theorists, it is also true that there are many who
challenge his work, especially with regard to functionalist theory, which
they criticize for its exaggerated appreciation of social integration and
the lack of conceptualization regarding differential socialization in
different social classes.
I consider it necessary to note that several scholars of Durkheim's
theoretical work consider that these problems were corrected by the
author in his work History of Education and Pedagogical Doctrines,
whose approach, as I said in another section, is radically opposed to
the functionalist position. which, for a long time, he maintained.
One of the authors who has received the most influence from
Durkheim is, without a doubt, the North American Talcott Parsons
(1902-1979), who, based on some theses of functionalism, formulated
the so-called sociology of action and, alongside the American Robert
K. Merton, as one of the main exponents of structural-functionalism or
structural functionalism, a theory that I briefly describe below.

Structural functionalism
This theory, also called structural-functionalism, states that to
access knowledge of social reality, one must start from theoretical
principles that Parsons called reference systems.
Social subjects build systems of interactive relationships that Parsons
classifies into three types:
The cultural system, made up of behavior patterns, symbols , beliefs,
etc. It is the object of study of social anthropology.
The personality system, which is integrated from individual
appropriation, or internalization that the subject carries out of the social
norms of the group in which he or she interacts.
The social system, considered from two structures that determine it:
the social division of labor and social stratification that, stated in this
way, make up the object of study of sociology.
I will resort to a somewhat crude example: structural functionalism
conceives society as an enormous box, with several levels (social
strata), and considers that individuals each necessarily occupy a
certain place ( social status ) within some box of that huge structure.
Their actions or roles played within that status are called subject roles.
When a society has been able to establish behavioral patterns that
guarantee its balance and survival, it is said to be a functional society.
Merton assumes the existence of two alternatives: that the roles played
by the subject are voluntary and recognized (manifest) or unwanted
and unrecognized (latent).
In the latter case, sooner or later, what Merton calls "dysfunctions" may
occur, that is, social behaviors that break with current patterns and that
put the balance and security of the social group at risk .
In these circumstances, the system resorts to the use of control
mechanisms that can be of a diverse nature, ranging from legal
sanctions, pressure from public opinion (external controls), to the
induction of feelings of guilt, shame (internal controls). , etc.
The most frequent criticisms that have been made of structural
functionalism are those that I mention below.
• It is a conservative theory, since it considers that the factors that
preserve the existence of a certain system are functional.
• The consideration of social change as an abnormal situation greatly
limits this theory, since it prevents it from explaining said change.
• Structural functionalism does not notice the existence of the
economic structure of society.

Methods and Techniques

History of sociological methods. AND. K. Scheuch distinguishes three

eras. The first extends until the end of World War I, being
characterized by independent research, only relatively connected to
global objectives, and by the absence of systematic research activity,
as well as specifically developed techniques. The second, the period
between the two world wars, in which systematic research and the
techniques that later typify the S. begin to develop, along with empirical
research. The third, since 1945, in which the techniques are refined
and developed and one becomes aware of the logic of the research.

2. Theory of sociological methods. Theoretically, every science

modifies its methods and technical procedures according to the
peculiarity of its object; in this case, as Sorokin thinks, in accordance
with the nature of sociocultural phenomena and especially with their
components of evaluative and normative sense. By operating with
categories such as causality, time, space, etc., it does so in a different
sense from that of the natural sciences. It uses logical-mathematical
and deductive-syllogistic methods, explains the intuitive vision in
moderation, controlling it with other knowledge and widely applies
empirical observation in all its forms: induction, statistical analysis,
cases or clinical observation and even the experiment, but adapting
them, naturally, to the specificity of social phenomena that are
supraorganic or cultural. The sociological methodology has as its
starting point the following postulates:Reality. There is an objective
reality (material object), to one of whose intelligible dimensions (formal
object) its constructive intention refers. It is assumed that there is an
external reality, independent of the human mind, that sociological
science attempts to study in its form of social reality (sociocultural
phenomena). The researcher abstracts that aspect of reality to
interpret it systematically, that is, within a connection of meaning.

Probability. What is subjective on the part of the social researcher is

recognized and what the sociological method implies is limited,
therefore - in the face of the absolutist tendencies of Hegelianism,
Marxism, etc. - absolute veracity is not granted to what is described
and explained. This implies a healthy skepticism about the possibilities
of sociological knowledge: a theory is true as long as, according to
Popper, it is "falsifiable", that is, when, despite the fact that another
theory contradicts it, it nevertheless shows its usefulness. as a means
to expand our knowledge.

System. As Aristotle said, science is always science of the general;

there is no science of the particular. Hence, knowledge of sociocultural
phenomena cannot consist of a mere accumulation of data as extreme
empiricism (v.) claims, but requires the purpose of generalizing
methodical results by ordering them harmoniously in a system.
Sociologists dispute this, as some do not believe that a general theory
is possible at the moment. R. K. Merton has proposed a middle way
notable for its prudent intention that, taken literally, is contrary to the
scientific spirit. However, at this time it achieves notable prestige
among sociologists. These are theories of middle range. Starting from
the assumption that it is currently as fruitless to construct grand
theories as to accumulate empirical data, he proposes the elaboration
of some theories that occupy a place "among the working hypotheses
of limited scope, but necessary, that arise abundantly during daily
research and the efforts systematic efforts to develop a unified theory
that explains all the observed uniformities of social behavior, social
organization, and social change. It may be objected that in fact it
belongs to the nature of science that for a hypothesis that succeeds
there are an endless number of those that turn out to be invalid and
ineffective, but, above all, that there are no theories of "middle range or
range": it is about mere hypotheses to which an excess of caution
confers the rank of provisional theories or, conversely, considers them
quite probable.

Causality. According to this postulate, to establish explanatory theories

of human behavior it is necessary to establish causal connections (v.
CAUSE). Causality constitutes an objective principle of obligatory
methodological reference. It is not that all social reality is causally
governed or that only cause-effect relationships exist, even more so in
social reality freedom operates. But in science the necessary
connections are sought, thanks to which the human sciences, whose
fundamental organic principle is that of the indetermination (freedom)
of individuals, can be established. Causality allows indeterminacy to be
placed within understandable modules and meaningful connections to
be established.

Coherence. This postulate allows us to verify the degree of acceptance

that a descriptive and explanatory generalization deserves. By
subjecting any hypothesis to testing, its logical consistency and causal
adequacy are determined. Consistency is governed by the rules of
logical validity to avoid contradictions between hypotheses belonging
to the same system. Adequacy involves empirical testing of
consequences after establishing consistency.

3. The hypothetical deductive method. It is the one used by the S.

based on those postulates; coincides with the inverse deductive
proposed by J. Stuart Mill and which, in part, was proposed by E.
Durkheim. This method consists of the set of procedures through which
the researcher establishes causal generalizations by coordinating
observation, inference and verification techniques. Logically, it is
broken down into the following levels or methodical phases: a)
Observation and classification of data referring to the topic being
investigated. S., as a science, is empirical, since it has to take into
account material (empirical) data. The facts observed through the
application of appropriate techniques are classified by virtue of
significant similarities, although it can always happen that the
researcher interprets these data too subjectively.

b) Formulation of the hypotheses. The individual facts are

presented in order, classified; An overall vision is thus possible by
outlining the parallels, connections, discrepancies, etc. It is given as a
kind of elementary, or, in reality, questionable, explanation of the
phenomenon, since, as long as it is not possible to attribute causal
relationships, it only has appearance value. With these in mind, the
hypothesis that explains -although not definitively yet- the observed
phenomena is established. According to some, it is also the mission of
sociological science to predict future events, relying on the fact that this
happens in the natural sciences and mistakenly taking them as a
model. Thus one falls into sociologism (v.), and the prediction is
confused with the conjecture that, under the same conditions, it is
foreseeable that a certain phenomenon will be repeated. It is forgotten
that this is a timeless statement supported by a reference to the past,
and that, therefore, its recurrence - whether or not it will be repeated in
the future - cannot be known, and the fact of freedom. Hence, MacIver
and Rose only speak of well-founded expectations, since there is no
doubt that once certain assumptions have been established, one can
expect that as long as they are not altered, things will move in the
desired direction. But waiting is not the same as predicting.

c) Hypothesis testing. A hypothesis is still an assumption. For it to

become a theory it is necessary to verify it, that is, prove its connection
with reality. Here the S., like all science of man, suffers from a difficulty:
since its object is constituted by human matter, only very restrictedly,
and in very limited cases, is it possible to resort to the decisive and
irrefutable testimony of experimentation. But simply knowing that one is
part of an experiment modifies the human attitude and, sometimes,
invalidates it. Hence - with the (relative) exceptions of sociodrama and
other experiences carried out with artificial groups - the researcher's
ability to understand is decisive. But only good training and a lot of
experience can guide you in this. The sociologist gains a lot at this
point by resorting to comparison and history.

K. R. Popper proposes another method of verification that he

considers not only complementary, but decisive: establishing one or
several hypotheses that contradict the first with the same correction, so
that they, in turn, constitute theories; If correct contrary theories can
indeed be established, they "false" the first and confirm its scientific
validity to the extent that it expands our knowledge of reality, warn. We
are told in passing that the discovery does not constitute an immutable
truth, but rather a simple scientific theory. The secondary hypotheses,
in turn, are "falsified" by the first and considered scientific in the same
case. However, for systematic purposes only those that harmonize with
the basic assumptions of the same system will be integrated. It may
happen that a hypothesis that does not fit into this is more useful: in
this case the assumptions of the system must be modified; It is an
error, which can have serious consequences, to give the new theory a
simply complementary character.

d) Generalization. It consists of conceptually integrating the

hypotheses raised into theories through verification. It is about
establishing laws to which they all conform transversally and in depth.
On the meaning of the word law in sociological studies, v. go; Let's just
say here that the S. uses both deduction and induction, combining
them. Using inductions, he abstracts the formal elements that he is
interested in examining, confirms that induction and, through inference,
generalizes the data obtained by establishing regularities of succession
and coexistence. To decide on possible sources of errors, the criteria
of validity and formality are used. This consists of the correct use of the
means. That can be logical or empirical. Logical validity means that the
operational definition can be considered a correct expression of the
concept that the theory wants to prove; The second refers to the fact
that the fact established through the review of the theory must be able
to be averaged and its possibility predicted. Which is not the same as
saying that the validity of a prediction can be greater than its formality.
 4. Techniques. The. He participates in all the techniques used by
the different particular social sciences, in addition to those he has
developed on his own. Those of the former, naturally, are reworked to
adapt them to the specific needs of Sociology. Kónig and Scheuch list
the following sociological research techniques; un,is, typical of this
science, and others adapted to it: interview; observation; experiment;
content analysis; scales; graphics; sociometry (v.); casuistry, or study
of isolated cases; sampling; group experiments (F. Pollock, Th. W.
Ornament); surveys (application of interviews to broad sectors of the
population) as the main instrument of opinion polls; investigation of
attitudes, through the panel technique and situation analysis (L. Carr).
In a more systematically comprehensive way, M. Duverger
distinguishes two large sectors: that of documentary observation
techniques and that of systematic analysis. In this way it connects
simple empiricism and the mere search and observation of facts that
dispenses at its own level with any systematization or comparison, with
the theorization of scientific knowledge.

Another classification distinguishes between indirect observation

techniques through the analysis of documents in which social events
have left their mark (writings, films, photographs, recordings, etc.) and
direct observation of social reality by the same researcher through
surveys. , interviews, questionnaires, etc. Within them, it is necessary
to distinguish between the study carried out in large communities that
are analyzed according to representative samples whose selection
constitutes a fundamental preliminary operation, and that carried out in
small communities and even individuals, which allows gaining depth to
the same extent in that is lost in extension. However, sometimes the
boundaries between both categories are blurred.

a. Documentary or indirect observation includes writings of all

kinds, files, public and private archives, the press, statistics,
iconographic and phonetic documentation, as well as the so-called
technical documentation, that is, the objects that man uses, from
furniture to real estate, all of which can constitute a reason for material
analysis (the object itself) or technological analysis (its practical use) or
symbolic analysis that investigates the meanings and values that men
attribute to them. . All these documents can be analyzed using classic
techniques, that is, internal analysis examining its rational basis and its
subjective nature, or external analysis, replacing the document in the
appropriate context in order to specify its degree of veracity and its
resonance or the effect it intended to cause. Furthermore, there is no
analysis of documents peculiar to the social sciences and, therefore, to
the S., using, consequently, procedures analogous to those of
historical analysis more or less adapted and completed with the
peculiarity that, in S., it is not necessary to raise the question of the
veracity of the document: it is enough that it is authentic. On the other
hand, it is essential to replace documents of this nature in the entire
social communication process of which they constitute an element.
Lazarsfeld summarizes the sociological method developed in the
United States to analyze documents of this type, saying that the
problems to be solved are of the type "who says what, to whom, with
what result?", but distinguishing the desired result from the achieved
one. It is necessary to mention here a series of particular
complementary techniques subordinated to the analysis of the material
nature: legal, psychological, statistical analysis. Next to the classical
models there are quantitative ones, which cannot pretend to replace
them, but rather complement them. Their drawback is that they
dismantle the texts, neglecting the internal construction, the
arrangement of ideas and the links between them, etc. To rational and
organic analysis they contrast a mechanical analysis that is usually
superficial, at least for the moment. Duverger lists semantic and
content analysis as quantitative methods, which is a simplified and
schematized form of quantitative semantics. While the latter sticks
more closely to the style of the text, the former focuses on the ideas it
expresses. It is actually a method of studying social communications
(v. SOCIAL COMUNICATION).

b. Extensive direct observation. The most used technique is

surveys: a previously chosen part of a community is studied and the
conclusions are generalized to the whole. The difficulty lies in making
the sample truly representative. It includes three phases: sampling or
selection of the samples (determination of the community to be
questioned), survey (v.) itself (the interrogation of that community
sample) and the interpretation of the results and their consequences.
The determination of the sample can be done following the quota
method: a reduced model is first created, determining the social
categories based on the survey to be carried out, the concept of which
must be previously defined very clearly and completely. The proportion
of people in each category is reduced as much as possible. These
categories refer to the person or family, profession, home, region,
locality, etc., and are later combined. The advantages of the quota
system are simplicity and speed, but it has very serious defects.

It is also possible to use probabilistic methods, such as drawing

lots, to determine the odds. In this case, the representativeness of the
sample is based on the law of large numbers and the calculation of
probabilities. In turn, the drawing can be carried out using censuses or
records of the community or, if this is not possible, through surface
surveys using maps or photographs to determine areas of
homogeneous units among which the sample areas are drawn. The
survey by "clusters" is also possible. In fact, these are different
procedures whose common characteristic is that, instead of sorting
each of the elements, groups of them are drawn. A fourth way of
selecting the sample is the drawing of several grades: after obtaining
the clusters, within each of them the units that must be interrogated are
drawn. Finally, multi-phase surveys, combining several surveys carried
out on variable fractions of the community. Different from quota polling
is stratified polling, which introduces a non-probabilistic factor in
random polls. The basic idea is that each category or stratum should
be as homogeneous as possible, frequently using statistical,
geographical, etc. criteria for the selection. Apart from this
determination of the sample when carrying out the survey, there are
already previously developed models.

c. Intensive direct observation. It uses three fundamental

techniques: interviews, tests and the measurement of attitudes and
participation.

The interview is a common procedure for intensive and extensive

observation. Due to its frequent journalistic use, sociologists have
surely not given it all the attention it deserves. Depending on the
purpose they pursue, interviews can be opinion or personality
interviews to learn about the points of view and attitudes of the person
questioned, and documentary. In these they are not questioned about
what they do, but about what they know. Likewise, a distinction is
made between interviews of leaders (opinion or documentary) and the
man on the street or common man. There are particular interview
techniques, such as those repeated at various time intervals (panels),
which are based on two ideas: the repetition of the same questions at
intervals and between the same people (homogeneous sample). In-
depth interviews point to the global personality of the individual
questioned. They can be loose or unique, from the convergent model
devised by Merton, or from the clinical model and multiplied, these can
be classified into interviews-memories, of detainees and prisoners and
psychoanalysis.

The test method is extremely guiding. It must meet a series of

qualities: fidelity, validity and sensitivity. They can be aptitudes and
knowledge or personality tests (objective or projection tests, such as
the Rohrschach; v. PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS). The test is widely
used, especially in social psychology; also in personnel selection (Y.
INDUSTRIAL AND WORK SOCIOLOGY).

Finally, the participation method consists of examining the group

itself, as a collectivity. In a way it is equivalent to a global or overall
observation. It implies that the observer intervenes in the life of the
group, sometimes adopting a passive activity, other times an active
one. Participation can be individual or by restricted teams. It is worth
distinguishing between reportage observation (study of meetings,
demonstrations and assemblies, or study of the structure and behavior
of communities) and anthropological observation. A collective
observation method is also possible.

d. The systematic analysis. It is not enough to describe reality

using any of the techniques presented; It must be explained in an
orderly manner. Hence three possible levels: that of description, that of
classification and that of explanation or establishment of laws. Once
the facts are known, hypotheses are established that bring together
known elements of the problem in a complete and systematic way,
comparing them with others. Hence, in the phase of testing the
hypothesis, it is necessary to resort to new techniques: first of all,
experimentation, although, given the difficulty of carrying out
experimentation in the human sciences, it must often be replaced by
comparison, a method of which mathematical and graphic techniques
constitute perfected forms. Experimentation, then, consists of a
provoked and directed observation. As the phenomenon develops, one
or several artificial factors are introduced, comparing its result with the
one that would be obtained in its absence. In S., the techniques closest
to laboratory experiences are the creation of artificial groups (on a
single group or several) and, especially, sociodrama (v.). Field
experiments have also been attempted, either passively (provoked or
after the fact), or actively: directly on specific groups or on ordinary
groups and indirectly (aberrant cases technique).

The comparative method distinguishes the close comparison,

established between types of analogous structure and from which it
attempts to formulate the forecast, and the remote one, which, in
reality, constitutes a violation of the rules of the comparative method.
Important applications are the so-called area studies, the S. electoral,
decision making and other series of techniques for studying
communities, organizations, specific cases, etc. This comparative
method has great application at the historical level and in
macrosociology to compare global societies especially. Furthermore,
this historical comparison allows for a deep understanding of the
meaning (the Verstehen method advocated by M. Weber) of current
institutions, structures, etc. However, this already exceeds the strict
scope of the S. and requires the appeal to History, so rather the study
of the comparative historical method and understanding corresponds to
the general sociological theory as one of the sciences of human
behavior.

Mathematical techniques can be used to quantify materially

innumerable facts (demographic, etc.) and, therefore, only
approximately measurable. In both cases it is about expressing the
phenomena mathematically. Another important aspect of the
application of these techniques is mathematical analysis, which covers
three main subclasses: the analysis of associations and correlations,
based on the notion of stochastic union, factor analysis and operational
research or "science of the decision".

Finally, graphic techniques consist of representing social

phenomena through figures in order to compare them comfortably.
They must be simple and precise. There are mathematical graphs such
as diagrams, which use a coordinate system, diagrams that use
surfaces, sectors or stripes, and figures that represent more than two
variables with numerous subdivisions. For the representation of
frequency series there are some somewhat different modalities and
non-mathematical graphics, such as maps and imaginary figures.

PERSPECTIVES OF SOCIOLOGY

Perspective in sociology is the way or approach in which a social

problem is analyzed; It is the systematic, rigorous and scientific study
of society, the way of defining and observing society.
It can also be defined as theoretical paradigms of sociology; Paradigm
according to the Royal Spanish Academy is a set of theories whose
central core is accepted without question, which provides the basis and
model to solve problems and advance knowledge. Then a sociological
paradigm can be defined to understand the reality or phenomenon
studied, which encompasses a type of theories related to said
approach.
Whether studied as a perspective or paradigm, the general theories
that seek to understand reality are:
Evolutionary perspective
Based on the works of Augustus Comte and Herbert Spencer, it
seemed to offer a satisfactory explanation of the origin and
development of human societies and how they were organized.
(Torres, Vega & Tabares. 2005)

This perspective states that society is a biological organism that

develops and evolves; This implies that: society must be conceived as
a set of parts that are interrelated and that has its own structure. (ibid)

Functionalist perspective
The theorists of functionalism are: the greatest representative
was Emile Durkheim with the argument that social institutions exist
solely to satisfy social needs (Moreno. 2010); Talcott Parsons with the
“natural order” and role adjustment, conceived society as a system,
which in turn was divided into subsystems, which tend to balance and
survival; and Robert K. Merton who reformulated the concept of social
function.
He indicated that the patterns of a social action could be different for
different individuals. (University of Murcia. 2010)

This perspective is prioritized at a macro level of analysis, considering

that society is stable and well integrated and as a complex system in
which the parts fit together, this produces balance and social stability.
Understands social structures in terms of the function they fulfill. It sees
society as an organism in which the different parts that make it up
constitute its correct functioning. Societies exist to maintain in the best
possible way the agreements that are created between people.

It is a relatively stable system, the social order is maintained through

cooperation and consensus, a moral consensus, where people
socialize to fulfill social functions; each component contributes to social
maintenance and stability.
It aims to answer the questions of how society is integrated, what its
elements are, how they interrelate, what are the consequences of the
actions of each of the elements for the functioning of society (García.
2014).
Critics:

- Little consideration for the problems of change and conflict, by

focusing on balance and stability there is a danger of forgetting
inequality and social conflicts
- The disorder is seen as a pathology to be resolved.

Conflict perspective
Just as the functionalist perspective is prioritized at a macro
level of analysis, it was developed in the 1950s as a reaction to
functionalist theory's lack of consideration for the problems of change
and conflict.

Its main defender is Marx, who maintained that society fosters

inequality, which generates conflict, and in this way history is
generated, he came to see conflict not as an exclusive phenomenon of
class relations. These sociological theories analyze society from the
point of view of inequality, conflict and social change; society is seen to
be characterized by tension and struggle between groups.

For those who support this trend, what social structures do is

perpetuate the unequal distribution of economic and political resources
among the population, highlighting relations of domination. Conflicts
based on inequality cause social transformations.

For this perspective, people are shaped by power, coercion and

authority and social order is only maintained through force and
coercion. This perspective not only aims to describe and explain how
society works, but also to influence them in order to reduce
inequalities. Social change occurs constantly and can have positive
consequences.
 The questions raised are: What are the social groups that
fragment a society; what are the origins of inequalities and how they
manifest themselves; what strategies do dominant groups deploy to
preserve their privileges; how the dominated respond (University of
Murcia. 2010. p11)

Interactionist perspective
Also known as action paradigm or symbolic intuitionism, it is a
continuous process of social interaction, in specific scenarios in which
people, based on symbolic communications, give meaning to what
surrounds them, creating social reality (García. 2014).

This perspective is a set of theories that are prioritized at a micro level

of analysis, to understand broader problems, it is an analysis that is
based on the interactions of people in different social contexts.

The origin of this paradigm is based on Max Weber, according to him,

the actions of people and the meaning that they themselves give to
these actions shape society. On the other hand, George Herbert Mead
argues that society is the product of the daily interaction of people, who
define and give meaning to the world around them.

According to this perspective, it is about understanding the social

context from the perspective of the individuals who participate in it.
According to Schaefer (2012) the interactionist perspective sees a
society active in influencing daily social interaction, people manipulate
symbols and chant social worlds through interaction, social order is
maintained by shared understanding and by everyday behaviors within
of the society; Social change is reflected in people's social position and
how they communicate with others.
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN WHICH SOCIOLOGY
HAS INTERFERENCE

Definitions:
Sociology with religious institutions:

Sociology and religion are based on the study of behaviors, social

structures, evolution, and the roles of religions in human societies. It
attempts to explain the influence that religion has on the collective
behavior of man and vice versa, that is, the reciprocal interactions
between religion and society.
According to a generally accepted typology, religious groups are
classified into churches, confessions or denominations, and sects.
Interest in religion and its social interaction developed intensively
towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th
century , receiving the contribution of great theorists among whom it is
classic to mention Émile Durkheim , Max Weber and Karl Marx .
Among the most recent sociologists of religion, we can mention Émile
Poulat , Peter L. Berger , Michael Plekon , Rodney Stark , Robert
Wuthnow , François Houtart , René Rémond , Danièle Hervieu-Léger ,
James Davison Hunter , Niklas Luhmann and Christian Smith . In Latin
America, Cristian stands out Parker (Chilean) Fortunato
Mallimaci (Argentine), Otto Maduro (Venezuelan) and Imelda Vega-
Centeno (Peruvian), among others.

Sociology with political institutions:

Political sociology is the study of power and the intersection of
personality, social structure, and politics . Political sociology is
interdisciplinary, where political science and sociology intersect. The
discipline uses comparative history to analyze systems of government
and economic organization to understand the political climate of
societies. By comparing and analyzing history and sociological data,
political trends and patterns emerge. The founders of political sociology
were Max Weber ( Germany) and Moisey. This discipline also
addresses how major social trends can affect the political process, in
addition to exploring how various social forces work together to change
public policies. Political sociologists apply several theoretical schemes,
of these, there are three schemes of special relevance, such as;
pluralism , directive or elite theory and class analysis, the latter based
on Marxist analysis.
Sociology with economic institutions:

The concept of economic institution in its broad sense: the implicit or

explicit rules that regulate decision-making by individuals and that limit,
voluntarily or involuntarily, our ability to choose.
An institution is usually understood as any organism or social group
that, with certain means, pursues the achievement of certain ends or
purposes. However, within economic literature, the concept "institution"
is used as something more generic: the way in which human beings in
a given society or group relate, seeking the greatest benefit for the
group. They are the customs, habits, customs or norms by which the
social and economic relations between the members of the group are
governed. The benefit of the institution is greater the more efficiency it
generates in the economy and the more it minimizes transaction and
information costs. This will be more possible the more experience the
agents participating in said institution have, the simpler the rules are
and the smaller the number of individuals who have to execute them.

Sociology with educational institutions:

It is a set of people and goods promoted by public authorities or by

individuals, whose purpose will be to provide one year of preschool
education and at least nine grades of basic education and upper
secondary education. The mission of educational institutions is about
the school's convening task of teaching so that students learn.
Characteristics:
The institution is sustained as long as it is useful for the processes of
socialization and social control. This means that the tension that occurs
between the desires of individuals and the need to adapt them to the
social forms accepted through cultural productions whose objective is
to convince them of the need to sacrifice individual desires by virtue of
collective stability.

Goals:

1. Religious:
Religious institutions have an important role within society. They
should be able, when necessary, to make their voices heard about
government policies. For this to be possible, religious leaders must be
free. They should not be too close to the authorities of the moment,
otherwise they might feel muzzled.
Probably the most critical point of attack on a culture is its religious
experience. Where one can destroy or minimize religious institutions
then the entire fabric of society can be quickly subverted or brought to
ruin.
Religion is the first sense of community. Your sense of community
occurs because of mutual experience with others. Where the religious
sense of community can be destroyed, and with it, true trust and
integrity, then that society is like a sand castle, unable to defend itself
against the relentless sea.
For the last hundred years or so, religion has been beset with
merciless attacks. We have been told that it is the “opium of the
masses”, that it is not scientific, that it is primitive; In short, it is a
denunciation.
But behind these attacks on an organized religion there is a more
fundamental objective: the spirituality of Man, your basic spiritual
nature, self-respect and peace of mind. This black propaganda has
been so successful that perhaps you no longer believe that you have a
spiritual nature, but I assure you that you do.
When religion has no influence on society or has ceased to have it, the
state inherits the entire burden of public morality, crime and
intolerance. Then you have to resort to using punishment and the
police. However, this is not successful since the morality, integrity and
self-love that are no longer inherent in the individual cannot be
imposed very successfully. Only through spiritual awareness and
inculcation of the spiritual value of these attributes can these come to
be. There has to be more reason and more emotional motivation to be
moral, etc., than the threat of human discipline.
When cultures have completely deviated from the search for the
spiritual and have fallen into materialism, one must begin by
demonstrating that each one is a soul, not a material animal. By
realizing their own religious nature, individuals can become conscious
of God and become more human again.

2. Politicians
Political objectives are determined by the phase in which they are
proposed, since the goal of political activity is to reach power, to from
there realize their aspirations for a government plan with a view to the
common good. These objectives that power politics aims at are
freedom, social justice, the economic and cultural development of the
nation, public security, health, and integration in the globalized world.

If one is not in power, the political activity, from the minority parties, is
exercised through the opposition, controlling the performance of the
power in exercise, and preparing to occupy it in subsequent elections.
The political objectives in general are set out in the Preambles of the
Constitutions of the States, for example in Argentina, they are: to
ensure internal peace, national unity, the common good, freedom and
general well-being; and the party programs must be directed towards
them by the various paths they wish to propose, with the electorate,
through voting, choosing the action plan that seems most appropriate
to achieve these goals.

Although corruption has brought political activity into disrepute, it is

fundamental for democratic governments, and we must fight so that
ethics and politics are compatible concepts and not at odds in practice.
We must return to the Platonic conception where politics was closely
linked to ethics, and was not just praxis but was closely linked to
immutable and transcendent values.

The State arises, in the proper sense, when the political leadership of a
society understands that only it, and not other institutions (military
groups, aristocratic groups, religious institutions) can legitimately
exercise violence. To do this, it must achieve control over groups likely
to act violently (suspension of the private armies of feudal lords,
suppression of paramilitary gangs, formation of national armies subject
to the political command of society). And it must also carry out the
unification of normative criteria by suppressing or unifying in some way
the legal codes of the different groups and institutions and creating a
unitary system of norms (national and court codes, ultimately submitted
to political power in this way). , the definition of the rules and the
execution of the sanctions is subject to a single decision-making
center, which is what we call the State. This is how the scope of politics
is defined in modern societies: political activities are called those that
are executed or have to do with that institution called the State: a
personal revenge is not, in principle, a political activity but a summary
execution is. decreed by a court. In the same way all activities related
to the dispute of State power.
 3. Summary
Economic sociology today constitutes one of the most innovative fields
of contemporary Sociology. To characterize it, it is not enough to
invoke the sponsorship of Economics and sociology. Both social
economy, socio-economics and neo-institutionalism simultaneously
claim this double inheritance. The particularity of economic sociology
lies mainly in the fact that it was founded on the works of the founding
fathers of sociology at the beginning of the 20th century, while
benefiting from the recent results of structural analysis that show the
need to understand the economy as a fact. social. This idea of uniting
and complementing the knowledge between these two disciplines
comes from the end of the 19th century, when the founders of classical
sociology (Weber, Marx and Durkheim) and some of the most
renowned economists (Jevons, Pareto, Schumpeter and Weblen) They
were interested in studying and understanding the economic
phenomena of their time.

Importances:

1. Importance of Religious Sociology

It is the study of behaviors, social structures, evolution and the roles of
religions in human societies. It attempts to explain the influence that
religion has on the collective behavior of man and vice versa, that is,
the reciprocal interactions between religion and society.
The seminal thinkers of this discipline, Durkheim, Marx and Weber
developed complex theories about the nature and effects of religion.
For all three, religion constitutes a social variable of utmost importance.
The sociology of religion, like the other branches of sociology, has its
specific object and its particular method. In fact, on the one hand, it
studies the religious phenomenon in its attitudes, behaviors, structure
and dynamics, which are derived from the social nature of man; On the
other hand, it is applied to its contents with the method typical of the
observation sciences and fundamentally using an inductive approach.

2. Importance of Political Sociology

Political sociology is the study of power and the intersection of
personality, institution, social and political structure. Political sociology
is interdisciplinary, where political science and sociology intersect. The
discipline uses comparative history to analyze systems of government
and economic organization to understand the political climate of
societies. By comparing and analyzing history and sociological data,
political trends and patterns emerge. The founders of political sociology
were Max Weber ( Germany) and Moisey Ostrogorsky (Russia).
There are four main areas that are research focuses in contemporary
political sociology:

1. The socio-political formation of the modern state.

2. "Who rules?" How social inequality between groups (class, race,
gender, etc.) influences politics.
3. How public personalities, movements and social trends outside
the formal institutions of political power affect politics.
4. Power relations within and between social groups (families,
workplaces, bureaucracy, media, etc.).
This discipline also addresses how major social trends can affect the
political process, in addition to exploring how various social forces work
together to change public policies. Political sociologists apply several
theoretical schemes, of these, there are three schemes of special
relevance, such as; pluralism, directive or elite theory and class
analysis, the latter based on Marxist analysis.
Pluralism views politics primarily as a contest between groups with
competing interests. A prominent representative is Robert Dahl.
Directive or elite theory is often considered to have a state-centered
focus. Explains what the state does to establish structural and
organizational restrictions, of the state as a single organization that
concentrates power. A prominent representative of this theory is Theda
Skocpol.
Class analysis emphasizes the political power of the capitalist elite.
The theory emerged from Marxism during the 1850s based primarily on
the premise of the economic exploitation of one class by another. It
divides society into two parts: one is the power structure or
instrumentalist approach, another is the structuralist approach. The
power structure focuses on who governs and its best-known
representative of G. William Domhoff. The structuralist approach
emphasizes the way a capitalist economy operates. Its best-known
representative was Nicos Poulantzas. Important innovations in this field
come from French pragmatism and in particular from the political and
moral sociology developed by Luc Boltanski.

3. Institutional importance in economic sociology

Economic sociology is “the application of a general framework of

reference of variables and explanatory patterns of sociology to the
complex of activities related to the production, distribution, exchange
and consumption of scarce goods and services.”

It is clear then that economic sociology is not economics but sociology,

that is, a sociological analysis of the social processes of economic
activity, its structures and institutions and the systems that integrate
the economy with society. And because of this, it uses methodologies
and concepts taken from sociology – not economics – in order to
integrate its conclusions into a general sociological theory. The
important thing is then to understand that this discipline: questions
economics, not sociology; It assumes definitions of sociology and
economics to determine the general framework of reference, variables
and explanatory patterns – Smelser takes Samuel Son's -; and that
since it is a “discipline” it refers to a comprehensive explanation of
economics.

Economic Sociology has its antecedents in the classics of Sociology,

such as Marx, Weber, Durkheim and Simmel, who considered it
essential to develop a sociological analysis of economic phenomena.
Throughout the century, sociologists around the world have dealt with
various economic phenomena; However, in the United States in 1980 a
group of researchers began a movement to define economic sociology
as a specific branch of Sociology.

In their desire to address the economic life of society from the

theoretical and methodological point of view of Sociology, these
researchers reviewed the classics to formally found in 1990 what they
called the new Economic Sociology.
 4. Importance of Sociology in Education

The educational process does not develop in isolation, it is a social

phenomenon that involves educators and students, within a specific
historical and socio-cultural context.

Sociology, which deals with knowing society, can provide a valuable

instrument to understand certain facts that favor or hinder school
learning, and the task of teaching: behavioral problems, school
violence, apathy, disinterest in learning. , discrimination, school
dropouts, etc., applying a macro sociological analysis to the micro
sociological study of classroom reality.

We all know the influence of society on the individual, in that case on

educators and students, but Sociology studies this field in a systematic
way, explaining reality and predicting events.
The Sociology of Education studies the school institution in its structure
and as a dynamic in itself, and related to other institutions, such as the
family, the State, clubs, and other situations and facts.

The school is a reflection of what is experienced outside of it. Children

bring family conflicts to school, those they have with their neighbors,
who are often their classmates; the economic problems (if their parents
do not have a job, or pay them little), the violent messages that they
observe on the street, in their own home, or that are transmitted to
them by the mass media or video games.

Educating in the 21st century is not an easy task, and that is due to the
social change that has occurred in recent decades. A large number of
immigrants requires incorporating the topic of acceptance of foreign
colleagues and their integration into the curriculum; Social violence
deserves treatment of dialogue as a conflict resolution mechanism;
The messages that the media transmit demand a critical debate and a
democratic society needs education to encourage dialogue,
cooperation, active listening and informed opinion.

Features:

1. Functions of sociology in religion

It is an extensive topic to be able to talk about the functions that it has
in religion, it is necessary to develop the topic from its historical origin
and explain how religion cannot exist without sociology influencing it
and its function cannot be understood without It starts from elementary
points of the sociology of religion.
Concept. From the origins of its history, Sociology has been oriented
towards the study of religious phenomena. Starting from the fact that
the Sociology of Religion, in general, aims to detect, describe and
explain the constant elements existing in the religious experience
(doctrine, worship, ethics, etc.) and analyze and explain the
interdependencies between religion and social life, it can be defined
such as special Sociology that analyzes and describes the constant
elements of religions and the reciprocal relationship between religion
and society, their interaction and interdependence.
For the Louvain school, the object of the Sociology of religion. It is the
study of social relations and religious phenomena. According to De
Volder's scheme, its main aspects are:
a. the social forms or structures of religious life (various
organizations, forms of authority, masses and elites, classes, orders,
brotherhoods, etc.);
b. the relationships with these structures;
c. the relationships between religious structures and profane
activities (De Volder, Cobjet de la sociology religiese, "Lumen Vitae",
January-June 1951, 216-220). In this definition it appears clear that the
specific object of the S. of lar. It is not giving solutions to religious facts,
but only empirically knowing the religious fact in what is social and
external. It is a positive, non-normative science, which is distinguished
from other diverse sciences that converge in some way in the religious
phenomenon: Religious Psychology, Comparative History of Religions,
Ethnology, Missionology, Religious Sociography, Religious Geography,
etc. It is clear that given the peculiarity of the religious fact and of
religion (v.) in general, where spiritual and internal factors are
essential, the data, statistics, etc., accumulated by the S. of the r. They
always have an enormously relative value.
In the works of Catholic authors a distinction between Sociology
frequently appears. of Religion. and religious sociology. Thus, L. YO.
Lebret says: «There is a notable difference between the Sociology of
religions, focused as a discipline of observation of collective religious
facts, whatever they may be, considering them as rigorously social
facts, without taking into account their possibility of transcendence, and
religious Sociology. , which is dedicated, within Catholicism, to
perceiving the reasons of natural order that facilitate or hinder the
Kingdom of God. Currently, when talking about religious sociology, it is
usually identified with the religious sociology of Catholicism (Sociologie
religieuse el économie humaine, in Sociologie Religieuse. Social
Sciences. Actes duive Congres International, Paris 1965, 203-235).
Non-Catholic thinkers in the Sociology of religion. Following the
positivist line of Comte (v.), Durkheim (v.), creator of the French
sociological school, wanted to explain religion as a result and as a
function of social circumstances exclusively. For positivists, religion
would be "the reflection of a hypostatized society, the force that
maintains the collective spirit and the feeling of solidarity." Marxism,
with an even narrower criterion, seeks to explain religion with the a
priori schemes of historical materialism, for reasons of economic
struggle; Marx (v.) presents the "religious" as a by-product of positivist
Sociology. Within German Protestantism, a group of sociologists
headed by Mensching consider Sociology. of Religion. as the study of
sociological phenomena within religion and the sociological relations of
religion. The problem raised by E. Troeltsch (v.) - and developed in a
particular way by Max Weber (v.) - of the interdependence of religion
and Calvinist ethics and the origin of capitalism, has marked an
important stage in the S. of the r. In the second post-war period it is
difficult to distinguish the existing schools and directions within the field
of this science, since sociologists have come into contact with each
other and adopted less dogmatic attitudes. Within the Protestant
school, Troeltsch, Max Weber and Van de Leew studied the Sociology
of morals, economics, art, etc., attributing to religion a close connection
with the type of culture of the various peoples.
Various authors, Protestant and Catholic, opposed the theories of
Mensching and his followers, stating that, even in its visible structure,
the Church is essentially a divine institution that, in its essence, origin
and development, depends on divine intervention and that Not even
the most external forms have a full explanation with sociological
studies. As a reaction against the errors and deviations from the
positivism and rationalism of the sociologists mentioned above,
Catholic authors appear who mark new valid orientations for the
Sociology of religion.
Religious sociology in Catholicism: There are divergent trends in
relation to the nature of the Sociology of religion.
a) The theological or theologizing tendency. It does not admit any
other religious Sociology than that based on the data of 'Theology. In
America, this school is represented by the Synthefc School group,
headed by P. H. Furfey; This group is concerned about the
relationships between Sociology, Philosophy and Theology. In Europe,
especially in Germany, some theologians, such as prof. Monzel,
oppose religious Sociology as a phenomenal and empirical science, as
a reaction to the thesis of Max Weber, Troeltsch, 1. Wach and
Mensching.
b) The scientific trend. It is a general current of Catholic sociologists
who, starting from Catholic principles, advocate a religious Sociology
that admits an empirical sociological knowledge of religious
phenomena. The prof. Le Bras, in Paris, and Canon Leclerq, at the
Univ. from Leuven, are the genuine representatives of this new current,
which has abundant followers.
c) The pastoral trend. While for the United States and the Saxon
countries of Europe, Sociology. of Religion. It has been the subject of
academic research by scientists and university professors; in European
countries with a Catholic tradition it has been the main work of priests
concerned about immediate pastoral action. The work of Godin and
Daniel, F'rance, pays de mission, 1943, gave an impetus to this trend.
Since then, many authors can fit into this pastoral trend.

Analyzing what was previously written we can evaluate that there is an

internal struggle between the sociology of religion, philosophy and
theology; That is why we will briefly evaluate the functions of sociology
in multiple religions.
The attitude of the first sociologists towards religion was different from
that of the philosophers of the Enlightenment because they did not
consider this phenomenon as a passing moment full of superstitions in
the history of humanity, but as an almost essential aspect of social
organization. Thus, Feuerbach in his work The Essence of Christianity
treats the Christian religion from a sociological point of view and affirms
that it is an alienation of properly human capacities. It also deals with
some aspects of religion such as dogma, liturgy and symbology. For
his part, Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America, carries out an
analysis of Catholicism and Protestantism within democratic societies
and from a sociological point of view. Starting from these first steps in
sociology, other renowned authors such as Max Weber, Émile
Durkheim, Ferdinand Tönnies and Ernst Troeltsch dedicated careful
studies to the religious phenomenon within society.
In the individual, religion exists as a tendency that combines the
rational and the irrational. When it comes to articulating themselves,
religions develop doctrines that attempt to provide global answers to
the individual. For this reason, most of the great religious doctrines
have provided answers to questions related to the creation of the
universe, the purpose of life, human nature, the definition of good and
evil, morality, eschatology. And in the same way they develop different
ethical, ritual and symbolic codes. However, every religion tries to offer
a position to live and understand the existence of the human being in a
comprehensive way, including the spiritual dimension, so there are
common elements in all of them.

In societies, throughout history the so-called wars of religion and

theocracies have also been frequent; that is, societies provided with a
government whose legitimacy rests on a system of religious ideas. In
them, a divine value was attributed to the ruler of civilization,
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome, Tibet and the Inca empire are significant.
In these cases the law is both legal and religious authority. A surviving
contemporary example is the United Kingdom, where the queen is
"supreme governor" of the Anglican Church over the territories of
England and Wales, where she approves the appointment of bishops
within those territories.
In the 20th century, Talcott Parsons records the relationship between
religion and society, including "cybernetics": it generates values,
modifies norms, influences social roles, and provides guidance for the
systems of society, personality and behavior. His system is considered
a new application of evolutionary theories to religion. Hence one of his
students, Robert Bellah, published Religious Evolution.
Functions of sociology in religious institutions:
Given that religion continues to be one of the great mobilizers of civil
society, it is important to pay attention to the way it acts.
One of the main functions of sociology in religious institutions is the
contribution of research techniques that they use to attract followers
and recent discussions in social and political philosophy provide us
with more than enough material to observe the functions assigned to
religious institutions. religious associative contexts, without having to
resort to the traditional functions studied by the Sociology of Religion.
The relative absolute of the human being. All the great religions,
especially Christianity, put man at the center of their concerns. In one
way or another, religion answers the great fundamental questions of
human beings: questions about love and suffering, about guilt and
forgiveness, about life and death. The human being appears at the
center of religions. And in all of them this human being is exalted with
unparalleled dignity (including God, the Absolute.
Religions are, from this point of view, the traditions that have conveyed
the dignity and absolute respect for human beings. From there, as
HABERMAS recognizes, this recognition has expanded in Western
philosophy and culture, for example. Today, in our secularized culture,
human dignity is a "humanitarian superstition" that has become one of
those unconditional or absolute, "non-negotiable standards", that is,
one of the fundamental ethical norms and maxims that guide our
action. The translation into practical application has been collected by
the "Parliament of World Religions" as an update of the "golden rule"
that has governed ethical and religious traditions for millennia ("Do not
do to others what you do not want to do to others"). you"): "every
human being must be treated humanely! "
Five great commandments of humanity. The great religions of the world
also participate in five great ethical commandments of great
importance in their cultural, socio-economic and political application.
They are the following:
1) Do not kill (do not cause harm to another); 2) do not lie (do not
deceive, respect contracts); 3) do not steal (do not violate the rights of
others); 4) do not indulge in prostitution (do not commit adultery); 5)
respect parents (help the needy and weak).
Its application in the current global context would represent a very
important contribution of religions to the configuration of a global ethic
and the implementation of Human Rights. It would mean an active
commitment to:
- peace, a culture of non-violence and respect for all life and nature
(not killing).
- tolerance and a life lived truthfully (not lying)
- solidarity and a fair economic order (do not steal)
- equality of rights and for brotherhood between man and woman and
all human beings without distinction of race (you will not prostitute or
prostitute yourself).

From the ability of religions to mobilize and motivate, a great hope for
the world could be deduced, based on global cooperation of all
religions along these lines.
Likewise, religion can contribute effectively to the education of
fundamental democratic ethical attitudes. We remember some.
The education of the gaze. We take the expression from R. Ballah et
al.
For these scholars, democracy equals the ability to pay attention. Not
to spread out in a futile dispersion, but to concentrate on the needs and
interests of everyone, especially those most in need. This ability to pay
attention is a religious category that is present in both Zen-Buddhism
and Christianity. It involves openness to experience, concentration and
actively being where you are; a kind of enlightenment, which requires
self-control, discipline and self-decentering.

Without citizens with the gaze, with the educated attention, we will not
overcome the greatest form of collective distraction in our modern
society: the concentration on money and consumerism. [Note 16]From
this point of view, the contribution of religious tradition that educates us
to look at the dark corners of our society (B. Brecht), not focusing on
one's own interests, plays a fundamental role in the basic moral
attitude, the mood, that responsible democratic life requires.

The community sense. d. Bell has pointed out the need to share and
sacrifice as one of the conditions of common collective life. Democratic
vitality requires this capacity that was called by Ibn Khaldun
"asabíyah", group feeling and willingness to sacrifice for one another. It
is normally linked to a "telos" or moral purpose that provides the moral
justification of society.

Currently it is strange and unacceptable, except in the dangerous

conjunction of nationalism-religion, for religion to function as a donor of
a moral purpose for a (democratic) society. But it can motivate citizens
to show solidarity and the ability to sacrifice for others. In fact, the
precariousness of solidarity in the present moment, as well as in its
temporal dimension - respect for the needs of future generations - is
requesting a bond of connection and moral sensitivity that religion
traditionally fulfilled and that today can continue to motivate the
religion. Even in post-conventional situations of law and morality,
HABERMAS recognizes that a universalist morality "is oriented
according to the ways of life that it encounters. "It requires a certain
coincidence with socialization and education practices." Formal,
procedural universality is related to the believing convictions of
solidarity universalism. Religion has, of course, a salvific or
transcendent historical horizon of moral legitimation, which is why it
does not agree with the formal demands of a discursive or deliberative
ethics. But in the current situation of functional systemic predominance
and commercial relations, liberal pluralism is in need of the sensitivity
and motivation of religious conviction, among others, that of solidarity
universalism; Otherwise, procedural universalism will remain a pure
formal demand.

The catalyst function. Critical theorists have frequently pointed out the
function of aesthetics and religion to facilitate the emergence of
questions and issues that represent a step forward in approaches to
justice and solidarity. It is in the scope of groups, communities, where
communication barriers are overcome and a new interpretation of
needs and established conventions emerges, which can then be the
object of reflective, discursive formation of political opinion and will.

Religious communities can become communities of interpretation of

aspects of the good life or of justice, law, solidarity, in a society
dominated by the functional logic of systems. These religious
communities possess substantial normative potential in their traditions
that can be mobilized for ethical issues of social justice. It is known,
from Aristotle to H. Arendt, passing through Dewey, that the public
space where deliberation and "phronesis" flourish requires an "ethos"
and an emotional bond that religious communities possess - not
exclusively.

Also from the point of view of practical action, religious communities

function as catalysts for action: they provide the conviction, courage
and hope to risk themselves in defense of vulnerable others. There are
close examples of the civil rights movement, or currently the ethical
vehemence that arises from small youth groups promoting the
movement of social volunteering, the defense of human rights and the
so-called new social movements.

The symbolic function. In a moment of closing expectations and

utopian collapse, religion still offers the capacity to point towards forms
of life of solidarity and mutual recognition and equality that do not find
their formulation in social theoretical mediations. Here there is a
preeminence of religion over ethical theories: these, respectful of
pluralism and rationality, do not stage themselves in aesthetic theories
nor do they dare to impart consolation or instill hope. Hence J. There
may be more to conclude that "as long as the medium that
argumentative speech represents does not find better words to say
what religion can say, it will have to coexist abstinently with it, without
supporting it or fighting it."

On the other hand, prophetic signs belong to the symbolic function of

religion: small actions, examples, mobilizations (think of demand 0.7 for
undeveloped countries, or the presence of social volunteers in Bosnia
or Burkina Faso), but they have the potential to offer a different
perspective, a supportive behavior, an indication of something else.
They carry the prophetic provocation in their very character, apparently
ineffective, inane and even superfluous. A utopian suggestion for
critical theories of society.

Let us conclude this section by recognizing the potential that religious

traditions and the religious associative context (communities, groups )
contain when creating a deliberative public space conducive to the
emergence of proposals for justice and solidarity, as well as
symbolically and really mobilizing individuals for actions in favor of a
solidarity universalism. All of these basic conditions for the generation
of a civil society, of a participatory and responsible social
reconstruction and of an open and supportive civil ethic.

Classification of the functions of sociology in religious institutions:

1. Morals and Ethics (principles, customs) doctrinal methods that

we apply to develop them in daily life and that perspective is
handled in all religions, the conception of good and bad and how
it benefits or harms us.
2. Elementary theory that goes hand in hand with HISTORY,
PHILOSOPHY, and other sciences.
3. Contribution of a guide for society's systems.
4. Emergence of proposals for divine justice and solidarity among
members of religious groups.

Religious institutions in which sociology has influence:

1. Catholicism
2. The Evangelical Church (Protestants)
3. The Buddhist religion
4. Taoist philosophy
5. Anglicanism
6. Brahmanism
7. Confucianism
8. Christianity
9. Protestantism
10. Calvinism
11. Hinduism
12. Judaism
13. Shintoism
14. Islamism
15. Zoroastrianism

Catholicism:

The Church, One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman, has 500
million faithful, spread across the five continents and under the
authority of the Pope in Rome. According to these believers, God is
a necessary, eternal, infinitely omnipotent, wise, good, just and
merciful being. This Unique and superior Being created man in His
image and likeness, with intelligence and will capable of loving; with
eternal soul and sharer in his good. But when the first couple
disobeyed God, they left their descendants without the possibility of
enjoying Heaven after their death. To free himself from the weight of
original sin - as that disobedience was called - God allowed his Son
to become man, suffer and die on the cross. This redemption is
renewed in each human being through Baptism, which opens,
according to Catholics, the possibility of reaching Heaven and
enjoying eternity. To achieve this, compliance with the Decalogue or
Law that God gave to Moses is also required.
Word used to designate the religion professed by the faithful who
belong to the Catholic Church, founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Creation: As a basic principle of Catholicism, God is the center of
everything, the source from which all being comes, God is the
necessary being; The rest is contingent and has been created by
Him by true eduction from nothing. And in the middle of creation
God placed man, made of clay in his corporeal aspect, but endowed
at the same time with an intelligent, free and immortal soul; and he
also enriched the soul of Adam and Eve, our first parents, with the
sanctifying grace that elevated them to the supernatural condition of
children of God and heirs of Heaven, and that was to be transmitted
by generation to all men.
Original Sin: Adam and Eve, who, as parents of Humanity, had
received sanctifying grace, sinned in the earthly Paradise, and when
they fell into sin, it was Humanity who sinned, and that is why it was
deprived of grace. sanctifying and became worthy of eternal
punishments.
Redemption: But Christ Jesus, the God made man, assumes the
official representation of all men, offers to compensate the Divine
Majesty for them and dies, as a victim of propitiation, on Calvary.
Upon resurrection, with the offense repaired, he can once again
communicate sanctifying grace to those who, believing in him as
God made man, accept him as Redeemer and abide by him as
supreme Legislator of the human race.
The sacraments: Jesus could have granted sanctifying grace in a
thousand other ways. In fact, it confers it through the seven
sacraments - baptism, confirmation, confession, communion,
extreme unction, priestly order and marriage -, whose
administration, as well as the exposition and preaching of its
doctrines, it entrusts to the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church: When Jesus reintegrates into heaven, he
leaves on earth, as depositaries of his personality and invested with
full powers, as interpreters of his teachings and administrators of his
sacraments, Peter and the other apostles, the Pope and the
bishops. ; and grants to the bishops in union with the Pope, and to
the Pope, even without the bishops, the privilege of infallibility, in the
name of Christ and by the assistance of the Holy Spirit.

But having said all this, what role does the function of sociology play
in the institution of the Catholic Church, since it is very complex and
not difficult to explain and it is enough to ask: how could the Catholic
Church have strength if human beings did not socialize with each
other? How could baptism exist if there were no historical facts and,
above all, human knowledge passed from generation to generation
on how to be baptized? How to obtain followers if not through
broadly sociological methods? How could this research exist if there
was no goal of explaining to readers the functions of sociology in
 relation to religious institutions? Leaving me with unknown questions
that will only make my mind fly to philosophize aimlessly, the special
function of sociology in the institution of the Catholic Church is
almost the same in that of all religious and social institutions in the
world, understanding humanity from a social sense evaluating its
doctrine and moral and ethical principles that are generally
transmitted from generation to generation in family groups and/or
with an affinity of clergy, race, and religion. Based on this, sociology
exercises its function in which the sacraments of the church are full
of sociological techniques.
PROTESTANTISM, which today brings together some 200 million
believers, began as a movement of Christian groups that
advocated the supreme authority of the Bible freely interpreted by
individuals at a time when the Church of Rome demanded to
abide by the interpretation of its hierarchy (1524 ). These
Evangelical groups, as they called themselves, ended up
separating and forming Luther's Protestant Church. A century
later the Lutherans divided when a second Protestant leader
appeared: Calvin. It unites Luther and Calvin, and separates both
from Catholicism, the doctrine regarding the will of man in relation
to God. Catholics consider that the will determines itself in its
operations, that is, that predestination does not exist. For Luther,
the human will is bound to God or Satan, never free. Calvin
grants man only freedom of coercion, that is, God does not
violently move the will to act, but determines it previously, so that
it cannot resist doing good or evil. Therefore, they accept two
types of predestination. Protestants do not have a specific creed
or specific organization.
The function of sociology in this is precisely what I explain the
purpose of this institution and, like in the Catholic Church, its
most important elements are the morality and ethics of men and
from this perspective this religion can gain followers who are
knowledgeable about the word written in the Bible that pursue
the common good of this group.
And so I could digress more on the topic and continue explaining how
sociology has influence in each religious institution, but I would have to
debate too much in this work, so I focus on the only two institutions that
have the most followers in GUATEMALA.

2. Basic functions of sociology in political institutions

 2.1. Investigate and raise awareness if the Investment is being
made
in human capital (education, health and housing). Countries will
not be able to be competitive if they do not have an adequately
trained and trained workforce that can incorporate that
knowledge into their work. It is possible, then, to conceive of
competitiveness and equity as objectives that can be pursued
simultaneously and provide feedback. From this perspective,
social policy aimed at investing in human capital constitutes a
prerequisite for economic growth.
The function of sociology in this field is to collect statistical data and
promulgate information on how processes can be implemented in a
way that raises awareness among the masses from a critical sense.

3.2 Evaluate social compensation (protection networks

social). The fight to overcome poverty and destitution will
continue to be central. Social protection networks gain
importance, which must be stable and be part of permanent
institutional systems, with specialized personnel and have
eligibility mechanisms for those who will benefit from their
services, as well as project portfolios. that can
take out and
proven monitoring and evaluation methodologies. If not, they will
not have the ability to respond
appropriately to protection needs in times of crisis.

3.3 Social cohesion. An integrated society is one in which

which the population behaves according to socially accepted
patterns and generates an adjustment between cultural goals,
the structure of opportunities to achieve them and the formation
of individual capabilities to take advantage of such opportunities.

4. Functions of the Economic Institution:

They are composed of social patterns of behavior, aimed at satisfying

the essential social need for material goods and services. Its function is
the administration and ordering of the expenses and investments
carried out by the State in the most efficient and equitable way
possible, through the regulation of the global processes of production,
distribution, exchange and consumption of social goods and products.
For this purpose, the State implements an economic system in
accordance with its ideological principles.

5. Functions of the Educational Institution:

Education is a process that seeks the social inclusion of its members

as useful members of a community; It must fulfill the transcendent role
of transmitting the cultural elements of each culture. Since each society
determines its educational priorities according to its needs, the
educational function is exercised differently. In general, it should be
noted that through the educational institution, society perpetuates its
very existence and makes its continuity, its own future, viable or not.

Fields of action:

1. Religious field of action of Sociology:

In the sociology of religion there is an evolution parallel to that of
general sociology. The beginnings are lost in time, constituting what is
usually called the protohistoric phase. It is characterized by the
presence of approaches from other sciences, which we can call
matrices with respect to the sociology of religion, but with contributions
that are neither specific nor organic, but fragmentary and occasional.
The systematic study of religious phenomena began properly when
sociology was organized as a distinct and autonomous science. Since
then, attempts at a sociological approach to religion have multiplied,
but with evident conditions derived from the scientific and philosophical
climate of the last century.
Overall, the development of the sociology of religion can be subdivided
into three major periods, although with not very clear contours, and
therefore with various overlaps between the various stages.
Fundamentally we can distinguish: I) a first period of predominant
theoretical and global orientation; 2) a second period, in which the
empirical orientation prevails, limited especially to the study of religious
practice; 3) a third period, in which the orientation that balances the
empirical and theoretical aspects predominates.
Theoretical Orientation:
This is a very important period, ranging from the first systematic
attempts to the decisive and fundamental contributions of Durkheim
and Weber. As the same expression that defines this orientation
emphasizes, it addresses the global problems of the religious fact, and
especially its relationship with society. Among the most important
topics we can point out: the problem of the origin of religion, the
dynamics of the religious phenomenon in itself or in relation to other
social phenomena. Two currents can be distinguished in it, especially
regarding the way of considering the relationship with society. The first
current is designated in technical language as dependent variable
theory, while the second current, which rather reproduces the opposite
approach, is designated as independent variable theory.

Religion as a Dependent Variable:

In this orientation it is maintained that religion is essentially a product of
social conditions. Religion exists and remains as a phenomenon
produced by society and suffers the influences of its evolution. It
includes the first authors who dealt with the religious phenomenon in
the positivist climate of the last century: from A. Comte up to K. Marx,
since H. Spencer to E. Durkheim.
Durkheim's work is of special importance. It remains substantially in the
channel of anthropological-cultural thought of the time, but highlights its
more specifically sociological character, attempting to arrive at a
general theory on the origin and permanence of religion. The main
points of Durkheim's conception, set out in his work The Elementary
Forms of Religious Life, can be summarized as follows: according to
Durkheim, religion is a social fact because it is born, affirmed and
develops depending on the group (or clan). , which, to guard against
the danger of disintegration, projects outside itself the "group
consciousness" (a kind of ideal hypostatization of itself), as something
superior, intangible, different, sacred, symbolized by the totem. Thus,
alongside the static symbolism (the totem), there are narrative
symbolism (myths), and operational symbolism (the cult), which make
group consciousness present to the individual psyche. All this needs to
be lived and developed further and then transmitted to other
generations. From this we deduce the requirement for a fixed system
of rules and structures, that is, for a
"set of beliefs and practices related to sacred things, which unite into a
single community, called the Church, all those who adhere to it."

Religion as an Independent Variable:

Equally significant and consistent is the contribution of those who
propose the religion-society relationship, reversing the background
scheme and attributing to religion the function of an independent
variable. According to this current, it is necessary to study the
dynamics of religions, their presence and the role they have had in
social life. This role can be better configured as an element capable of
imprinting cultural orientations on society of such a type that they
effectively condition its development. Several authors fall into this
orientation, such as Hobhouse, Twaney, Troeltsch and other more
recent ones.
Among them, the most important author is certainly M. Weber. It states
that religion has an important role in the process of rationalizing the
world, understood as a process of clarification, systematization of ideas
seen in their binding force (normativity), which is why they become
efficient motivations for social action. In this sense, religion represents
an innovative role and is a factor of social and economic change.
But this capacity for influence is differentiated and depends on the
metaphysics (immanentist or transcendentalist) on which a given
religion is based and the ethics (mundane or extramundane) that are
derived from it. The immanentist conception solves the problem of the
discrepancy between the real world and the ideal with passive and
acquiescent concepts, which lead to the contemplation of divinity and
an automatic and mechanical conception of the evolution of the world.
The transcendentalist conception is based on the concept of creation
and finalist projection of creation and commits to an active role in
transforming the world. Each of these two particular orientations is
distinguished in turn into mystical and ascetic, thus connoting a greater
accentuation in one sense or another, giving rise, finally, to four
fundamental types. According to Weber, the impact of religion on social
reality consists mainly of the greater effort and awareness of
commitment in the performance of one's own religious function in the
relationship with the world. This occurs mainly due to what he calls
worldly asceticism, which substantially consists of the strong
identification between the profession and the concept of vocation
(expressed in German by the same term, Beruf) in a religious sense.
Weber exposes this approach in several parts of his work, and
especially in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

Sociographic Orientation:
After several other attempts at synthesis, the sociographic orientation
prevailed. Its initiator was G. Le Bras who wants to reconstruct and
analyze religious behavior, especially in relation to the observance of
religious practice. In 1931 he published a questionnaire for a detailed
examination and historical explanation of the conditions of Catholicism
in the various regions of France. This approach was gradually followed
by other authors, to the point that it became the dominant orientation
until the 1960s. This approach really lends itself to an understanding of
the situation of behavior and aggregation of religion, especially in terms
of its pastoral use.
It is substantially a descriptive approach, focused on the quantitative
study of participation in Sunday Mass and other forms of devotion, and
the reception of the sacraments. Then, the various data are articulated
according to various demographic and territorial parameters, deriving
various forms of classification that show how and in which group or
category of people a certain type of practice is more or less
widespread. Subsequently, other parameters of confrontation were
considered, such as the relationship between religion and
industrialism, the incidence of urbanization, the influence due to the
social and ecclesiastical organizational structure, the development of
religious belonging, the repercussion of the phenomenon of
secularization... .
The development of research according to this approach has not
devoted due attention to content and method. The lack of linkage of the
research with general sociological theory has been noted, as well as
the insufficiency of application and method due to the fact that religious
practice has been especially privileged as an indicator, often exclusive,
of analysis. These limitations make inferences about an understanding
of religious behavior inappropriate and disproportionate.

Current Guidance:
In recent years there has been a shift in research applied to the
religious phenomenon. On the one hand, an attempt has been made to
avoid the defects of the approach of the first sociologists, as well as
those inherent to the sociographic orientation, carrying out a broader
and more comprehensive type of approach and at the same time of
greater scientific validity.
In this context, the expansion of the dimensions that must be studied
and analyzed takes on special importance, arriving at a multi-
dimensional approach, which simultaneously encompasses the various
fundamental aspects of the religious phenomenon. This approach
takes into account not only religious practice, but also the cognitive
element and its symbolic expressions. It also insists on the community
element, and therefore on the processes of belonging and identification
with one's own religion. Finally, it highlights the presence of an ethical
element, as derived from religion, which consists of a particular set of
norms that regulate the behavior of the faithful.
In this orientation, the methodological approach has had a notable
development. The application of the sociological method has become
more serious and rigorous, demanding a more attentive
operationalization of the concepts and a consequent refinement of the
techniques or instruments used. The growing use of computers has
offered a significant contribution to concrete research, making possible
greater complexity and "sophistication" of data processing and a logical
improvement in interpretation perspectives.

2. Political field of action of Sociology:

Political Sociology has faced a fundamental difficulty in recent
decades. This difficulty refers to one of the most important traditions of
the sociological field, the definition of society, which tends, in different
ways, to identify politics with the state. There are many ways to do it,
and one is to situate the state. to the center of society, another way is
to identify it with what is designated as "the spirit of the political." The
development of Political Sociology during the 20th century is incurably
influenced by intellectual, methodological and empirical movements in
particular, which belong to two easy-to-identify trends: The first that
influences Political Sociology is the behaviorism of the beginning of the
20th century, this underlines the need to explain the political behavior
that can be observed. Although behaviorism has been modified many
times, a central idea is maintained, which is that, "only that which is
observable is valid." The motives, the ultimate causes, are not of
interest, the only interest is the identification of a cause that can be an
impulse, and what results from that cause, which can be behavior,
which must be articulated as an action and also be observed.
Behaviorism is the result of a long process of growth in the human
sciences that at the beginning of the 20th century influenced not only
Political Sociology but all sociological thought . The main
representative of neobehaviorist sociology is Georges Homans and his
disciples. But in Political Sociology, particularly in empirical research ,
behaviorism plays a central role, particularly Laswell's research on
public opinions and elections and the research also of Herbert Simons,
Nobel Prize winner in Economics. Therefore, behaviorism, whether we
like it or not, both for Sociology and for Political Sociology in this
particular case, is a discipline of fundamental importance and I believe
that it continues to be so, although in a more implicit way, but that it
has an influence decisive. Politics has a direct relationship with the
use, execution and exercise in social situations, therefore, the study of
politics from Political Sociology is fundamentally concerned with the
understanding of everything that I have that goes with power in social
contexts. , of the forms that power assumes, of its relativity, of its
contextual character, of its stability and also its instability. In such a
way that if we limit ourselves in Political Sociology only to reflections
regarding the structure of the state, the observation and understanding
of this entire range of social relations where power is present would
automatically be excluded, in such a way that Political Sociology would
not be therefore in a position to be able to describe the processes of
displacement of segments, structures and instances of power from one
institution to another, and even less to be able to capture the
emergence of new decision centers, of new forms of conflicts between
institutions that fight for access. to the power. Political Sociology
always begins in society, therefore, it examines the way in which it
idealizes the state and how the state returns to society. Therefore, a
restrictive way of describing political science solely to the state would
amount to unnecessarily limiting the use of angles of reflection. If
power is not capable of being stabilized, define power however you
want, if it is not stabilized, it systematically tends to disappear, that is, it
becomes ephemeral or sporadic and undergoes a process of gradual
collapse or destructuring. On that point, that is, on the need to stabilize
power, without there being agreement in complete Political Sociology,
at least contemporary one, in this sense Weber was probably the first
to point out that to prevent the chaotic circulation of power it must
become domination, that is, it has to assume a palpable systemic and
organizational expression. This organization must also be durable over
time and self-organize in such a way that the contingencies derived
from changes in the correlation are political, and despite this, this
organization can survive. Therefore, power itself has no viability that
characterizes it; this viability is granted only by the possibility of its
stabilization. For this, Weber says, power has to become domination,
organizing power, stabilizing it and transforming it into domination
would be equivalent to the generation of queens, queens that
generate, in turn, integrative behaviors that have validity and legitimacy
in specific spaces and times. . Therefore, the foundations of
domination must necessarily be, first, Integration, second, Legitimacy.
These Integration rules are, in Weber's opinion, patterns of behavior
whose adaptation and change is one of the central elements of human
behavior. For this reason, behavioral patterns and norms of
permissiveness and prohibition are not homogeneous nor can they be
eternal, but are systematically subject to change and conflict. This
argument by Weber has been translated in many ways and also read
in many ways, each reading tends to privilege one of these two pillars:
Integration and Legitimacy. At Parsons, for example, the fundamental
thing is Integration. In Haber mas is rather Legitimacy, in contemporary
theories it is about considering both things, but without denying the fact
of the environment, but only an undifferentiated form of disturbance
from an environment towards the system that we call cognition, which
is the system. highly strung. Something similar happens with
perception; Perception is a domain belonging solely to psychic
systems. I perceive, but I do not need to communicate it; What I
perceive furthermore I do not need to tell others. I can do it but it
depends exclusively on me. If we start from the base, that there are
psychic and social systems, the question is what do social systems
do? Here, there are two lines in sociology that are quite different in
their argumentation that answer this question. The first line is that of
conventional sociology that answers this question in the following way:
social systems are systems of action. Here is Durkheim, Parsons,
Weber and even Marx. However, not everything is action, or action can
be an event of something. We cannot always be in action. How is it
then that actions can be communicated, can be interconnected, can be
linked to generate our actions? The answer is simple. That which
underlies any form of actions, something that here we are going to call
communication. If the genuinely social form of a social system is
communication, society is a particular type of social system. There are
other types of social system, for example interaction systems that are
coupled to society but in a different way. That which is not
communicated does not exist, that is, it may exist for our
consciousness but it is something that remains closed in the lock of our
consciousness; As long as it is not communicated, it does not exist. If
society is a communications system, then everything that is
communicated has to be included in that system. That is, everything
that is communicated occurs in society and exists in society, not
outside of it. There is nothing that is a social goal, that is, that is not
communicated in society. Society is a system that supports all possible
communications. The limits of the society system, then, are the limits of
its own communications; That means that society is changing in the
sense that communication increases. According to this theory, human
beings are found in the environment of society, that is, if society is a
communications system and we cannot include ourselves as an
individuality, that is, as psychic systems, the question is how do we
include ourselves? Do we include ourselves as a body? Yes, but only
when we are in front of each other, not when we are far away.
How consciousness? Never. As a modeling device? Neither. So where
are we? Are we in this communication system or not? Obviously not;
However, they will be forms of differentiation of society where society
effectively considers individuals to be included in it. Human beings are
then in the environment. So because society contains all possible
communications, that system that serves as the basis for social
evolution. That is to say, there is no social evolution independently of
society. Society is always internally differentiated, there is no society
that is not. We already know this since Marx. The problem is how it is
differentiated from society or how it has been differentiated from
society in the course of its evolution. By evolution we obviously do not
understand something linear, but rather that evolution obeys only a
distinction between variation and selection. That is to say, evolution
does not actually have any teleological meaning, but evolution is
designated as a deployment of certain forms that have the viability of
being and others that do not. What varies evolutionarily is how society
differentiates itself in a primary way, that is, what distinguishes or
differentiates it from society. What is the axis of this form of
differentiation? If we operate like Marx we would say that the way in
which differentiation operates obeys a logic that has to do with the
contradictory meaning that, on the one hand, the relations of
production with the productive phases. That is what marks the axis of
differentiation. However, there are many ways to approach that same
problem. Evolution designates only mutations in society. The structure
of society differs from the structure of the human being. Human beings
are structurally determined, that is, everything that means mutation in
the human being means destruction. For example, if a human being
sets fire to his body, he dies, however, he can perfectly set fire to half
of society and rebuild it as he can (the most specific case of the latter
is the French Revolution ). Therefore there is a clear distinction in what
are our psychic systems or our organic systems or what we call people
or individuals and society; we are totally determined. There is no way
to change our structure; If the environment disturbs us in such a way
that our structure changes, we are ultimately dead. What can change is
the fact of the evolution of our way of being, that is, we grow and
develop. In society that does not have to be doing, because society
does not have a body. That is why society can change its structure and
the psychic system cannot. That is to say, society is poly-contextual
and each of the systems within it as well and obviously among
themselves. That is why there is an infinite number of decoding
connections, valid and at the same time simultaneous, but which
cannot be confused. When they are confused it is problematic, the
systems cease to exist and are absorbed by others, they are colonized
which is a quite difficult task.

When one system colonizes another it means that the other system no
longer exists, it cannot be colonized, as would be Haber's hypothesis ,
but with the theme of the world of life. The relationships between
functions are not regulated graphically, that is the problem, if it were
like that, everything would be easier. No system can claim hegemonic
primacy over the others, that may be in societies like ours because we
have to pay for everything, the economic system would intervene in
other systems where it should not, that is why everything is going
wrong, because it produces more exclusion from society. necessary, it
also supports it and we live with it without a problem, that is the
problem too, that this society can tolerate accepting and legitimizing
enormous levels of exclusion without any problem of decomposition.
The problem with all this is that society has no center or root, that is,
there is no longer the possibility of representing it as an unequal
triangle, despite the existence of enormous social inequality and,
despite also accentuating and deepening, but at the same time time to
become more complex. The other issue is that society does not have
any goals, the self-description of societies increasingly avoids the issue
of goals, because they are increasingly poorer. This means, at least for
us, that it is impossible to describe society from a single point of view,
for example to look for the Archimedean point that tells us I am going
to touch that point and I am going to have everything clear, that does
not exist and neither does It is possible that it could exist in a society
with that structure, let us agree that our society in its structure carries
an ancient form of organization that is coupled in one way or another to
each system. This system is so perverse that it invents a system that
reconstructs identities broken down in exclusion and that is the social
work system. Segmentation is also reproduced depending on their
specialized functions; segmentation, for example, operates very clearly
in the educational system, at least in primary education (reading and
writing). The differentiation of society is heterogeneous and unequal,
that is, there is no way to control it. Because if differentiation had a
logic, we could be guided by that logic, but it doesn't.

3. Educational field of action of Sociology

The sociology of education is one of the sciences that supports

pedagogy and educational practice, allowing all those involved in the
educational process to understand and guide educational phenomena.

For this reason, it can be said that the sociology of education is a

discipline that uses the concepts, models and theories of Sociology to
understand education in its social dimension.

It is a field with a recent history in terms of time and complex in relation

to the problems it studies. It starts from mixed approaches until the
1980s and then took shape in local and everyday settings. It evolves
from ambiguities typical of the term "sociology of education" and
progressively acquires its own entity.

Some of the aspects that characterize the Sociology of Education are

described below:

It is a special sociology, because it deals with some of the specific

aspects of society.

It is a science of education, since its object of study is education.

It is an explanatory and descriptive discipline, because it aims and has

as its main objective to intervene in the educational process.

Perspectives:
Perspectives of social institutions: (religious, political, economic,
educational)

1. Religious perspective:
A review of the state of the art William Mauricio Beltrán Cely The old
gods grow old or die, and others have not yet been born. But this
situation of uncertainty and confusing turmoil cannot last forever. A day
will come when our societies will once again experience hours of
creative effervescence in the course of which new ideals will emerge,
new formulations will appear that will serve, for some time, as a guide
to humanity. There is no gospel that is immortal, and there is no reason
to believe that humanity is no longer incapable of conceiving a new
one. Émile Durkheim Perhaps one of the most difficult definitions in the
social sciences is the definition of religion and the religious as a social
phenomenon and as a field of study. This essay attempts to collect
some of the most important contributions that sociology has made to
understand and explain the religious phenomenon and its impact on
the other dimensions of social life, starting from the theoretical
consideration – which enjoys a broad consensus – that Understanding
the religious dimension is fundamental for the deep understanding of
any society. But before delving into this task I would like to present
some preliminary clarifications. First of all, it is essential to remember
that the development of the “sociology of religion” is directly associated
with the very origin of this discipline, especially due to the contributions
provided by three thinkers who are considered its founding fathers,
namely: Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, whose
contributions continue to influence the current bibliographic production
on the subject. A review of the contributions made by these authors to
the sociology of religion would in itself imply a theoretical effort of
enormous dimensions; However, given the conditions of this essay, its
contributions will be mentioned in a few short lines. On the other hand,
religious ideas, constituting the core of the system of values, ideas and
beliefs that guide and structure human action, constitute a fundamental
phenomenon of sociological analysis in general, which has been
addressed by the great thinkers of this discipline. Among other authors
who have dedicated a substantial part of their work to the sociological
analysis of religion, we find Ernst Troeltsch, Marcel Mauss, Talcott
Parsons and, more recently, Robert K. Chin, Peter Berger, Thomas
Luckmann, Pierre Bourdieu and Samuel Huntington (to mention only
the best known). In this way we see that even with a great effort to
delimit it, the production on the subject presents magnitudes such that
its cataloging becomes practically impossible. The sociology of religion
– like any other specialized sociology – has developed in dialogue with
various disciplines, especially with anthropology, history and theology.
In this essay we will try to confine the analysis to the most strictly
sociological field, a problematic delimitation if one takes into account
that many authors of great importance on the subject – including Max
Weber himself – assumed religious analysis from a transdisciplinary
perspective. Furthermore, it cannot be denied that works on the
phenomenology of religions currently constitute one of the most prolific
areas of production, which would mean, for the purpose of this essay,
mentioning the countless works that attempt to inventory and catalog
the wide spectrum of practices and religious beliefs, a diversity so wide
that religious dictionaries need to be updated annually. Given these
circumstances, the present essay proposes much more modest
objectives, since it attempts to mention works in the sociology of
religion with a significant theoretical dimension and, in particular, those
that have sparked extensive discussion by specialists on the subject. A
look at the classics Although Marx never studied religion in detail, his
ideas have strongly influenced the development of studies in the field.
Most of Marx's ideas on the matter arose in dialogue with Feuerbach,
who considered religion as a set of ideas that have emerged as The
Sociology of Religion: A Review of the State of the Art 77 William
Mauricio Beltrán Cely part of the development of culture, human ideas
that are falsely attributed to the activity of gods or supernatural forces,
a characteristic in which lies its great alienating power (Feuerbach,
1841). Alienation would be, from this perspective, the process by which
the individual forgets that the world of culture was and continues to be
created by human activity, that is, by his own action. This idea will be
taken up by Marx1, who considers that to the extent that social
consciousness is based on this fallacy, it is a “false consciousness” or
an “alienated consciousness.” This characteristic allows religion to
become a fundamental pillar for the maintenance of structures of social
domination, given that social hierarchies, to the extent that they are
legitimized through religious arguments, hide their character as a
product of struggles between classes. . It is for this reason that Marx
considers religious apparatuses as ideologies, that is, as systems of
ideas that hide and legitimize domination and social exclusion,
justifying the power of the dominant and domesticating the dominated,
an idea that is synthesized in the well-known phrase of “religion as the
opium of the people”, widely discussed and reinterpreted. We could
affirm that Durkheim is the first to address religious problems from a
clearly sociological perspective. Already in Suicide (1897), Durkheim
gives the religious identity variable a high explanatory power to
understand human action, especially to show how the mechanisms of
social integration operate. This, around the analysis of “egoistic
suicide”, which highlights the greater degree of social cohesion
experienced in Catholic communities compared to the greater degree
of individualism on the part of Protestants. However, Durkheim's great
contribution to the sociology of religion is found in The Elemental
Forms of Religious Life (1912), a work that in itself implies a distinction
between two forms of religious organization: “the elemental forms –
typical of societies where the community structure prevails, that is,
“mechanical solidarity” and “complex forms” – developed in societies
with a broad division of labor, where “organic solidarity” prevails. In this
work, Durkheim analyzes religion as a “social fact” or, in his own terms,
as a “sui generis reality,” showing that religion as a Hegel (1844), The
Jewish Question and The German Ideology (1847). 78 Belief and
power today the social movement is more powerful than its
practitioners, on whom it is imposed and determined. This
methodologically means that the religious phenomenon cannot be
understood by resorting only to the subjective experiences of its
practitioners. According to Durkheim, collective religious experiences,
such as rites, cults and beliefs, allow a group to unite around a set of
practices that transcend individuals, a definition that already implies a
distinction between religion and magic, since the latter would not have
the ability to generate a community of faithful. Durkheim also provides
the distinction between the profane and the sacred, a distinction
supremely useful for sociological analysis. For this author, the sacred is
situated outside everyday experience and inspires fear and reverence;
Furthermore, the sacred world hides a social dimension that represents
the moral force of the community. In other words, while the most
sacred thing within any social structure is the integration of society, and
its most terrifying risk is the possibility of society dissolving, religious
institutions ultimately exist to safeguard the structures. social, and,
therefore, worshiping sacred symbols is nothing other than – for
Durkheim – worshiping the sacred character of the community.
Although very few religious scholars have accepted this thesis without
reservation, the more moderate proposition based on the fact that
religious rites and beliefs reflect and at the same time support the
moral scaffolding that supports social organization, has given rise to
the functional approach – very popular among anthropologists – one of
whose most prominent representatives is Radcliffe Brown. An
important student of Durkheim, Marcel Mauss, continued his work
regarding the elementary forms of religion. His best-known work is the
“Essay on the gift, form and reason of exchanges in archaic societies”
(1993, [1923]); There he developed some concepts that explain the
logic of economic exchange within the ritual. The distinction between
the profane and the sacred will be taken up again by the great religious
thinker, Rudolf Otto, who in his work The Holy, the Rational and the
Irrational in the Idea of God (1917), exposes the essential qualities of
the sacred in function of the numinous, that is, of the mysterium
tremendum et fascinosum that lies at the heart of reverent religious
fear that transcends the dimensions of the merely human. The
sociology of religion: a review of the state of the art 79 William Mauricio
Beltrán Cely Weber dedicated much of his life to the comparative study
of religions, especially the great universal religions – Christianity,
Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and ancient Judaism, since He never
finished his studies on Islam. No scholar before or after him has
undertaken a task of such dimensions. His contributions continue to be
useful, not only for the clarity of his theoretical constructions – ideal
types – but also for his great historical erudition. His Essays on the
Sociology of Religion revolve around a fundamental problem:
investigating the historical circumstances by which what we know as
the “modern world” has developed only in the West. This question is
behind Weber's most discussed work, The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism (1992 [1905]), whose methodological proposal
around ideal types and elective affinities has constituted a widely used
model for sociological analysis in general. In this work, Weber shows
how Calvinist doctrines, especially the doctrine of predestination, had
unintended effects on those who proclaimed them, by promoting a form
of behavior that Weber called intramundane asceticism, which played a
fundamental role in the process of disenchantment. of the world and
favored the development of the spirit of industrial capitalism. In this
way, Weber manages to problematize the hypothesis previously
proposed by Marx, according to which religion is an ideological
apparatus that collaborates in the maintenance of traditional social
structures, showing that religious systems can also play a vital role in
processes of change. social, as occurs in the case of the Protestant
ethic and its influence on the development of capitalism. Both Ernst
Troelscht and Robert K. Merton continued Weber's work of establishing
the affinities between the Protestant ethic and the modern world.
Troelscht, in a classic work entitled Protestantism and the Modern
World (1951), and Merton, in his doctoral work, “Puritanism, Pietism
and Science” (1992), in which he investigated the influence of Calvinist
doctrines on the Origin of scientific thought in 17th century England.
Given that Weber's contributions to the sociology of religion are
innumerable, I would like to pause briefly to mention three of his most
fruitful contributions. The first of these contributions, based on the
subjectivist approach of the Weberian proposal, deals with the role of
religious ideas in action. Thus, understanding the psychological effects
of a religious doctrine such as predestination reveals the great
motivational power that religious experiences and beliefs instill on
action. This is captured very well in the definition of religion proposed
by Clifford Geertz: “A religion is a system of symbols that acts to
establish in men certain states of mind and certain forms of motivation,
very powerful, penetrating and lasting, through the formulation of
conceptions of a general order of existence, and clothing those
conceptions with such an aura of facticity that moods and motivations
are presented as singularly realistic” (Geertz, 2001: 89). Such a
theoretical dimension is very useful if we want to understand, for
example, the motivational force that drives the suicidal action of the
Islamic fundamentalist. This perspective that shows the great power of
religious ideas to guide and motivate human action will profoundly
influence the work of Talcott Parsons, especially his design of the
cybernetic system of action, in which he locates the system of values -
which It includes the subsystems of ideas and beliefs – and the
ultimate reality as factors that determine the orientation of human
action by constituting high information systems2. A second contribution
of Weber – which continues to be widely used in the sociology of
religion – is his conceptualization of charismatic leadership. Charisma
was characterized by Weber as one of the typical forms of domination,
being primarily a quality that places an individual above normal
expectations and endows him with the ability to establish, without
reference to current customs or traditions, the principles of a new social
order and way of life (Weber, 1977: 193-216). Charisma only comes
into existence when it is recognized by a group, among whose
members the charismatic leader manages to have a high influence.
Thus, most religious reforms occur under the influence of a charismatic
leader, in figures such as the reformer or the prophet. Charisma is,
therefore, the great revolutionary force of times linked to tradition. In
Latin American societies – which continue to be determined by the
conservative Catholic heritage in contrast to the highly secularized
Western European societies – 2 This proposition is initially developed
in The Structure of Social Action (1964), and is summarized in the
essay entitled “The role played by ideas in social action.” In: Essays in
sociological theory. Buenos Aires, Paidós, 1967, pp. 22-33. The
sociology of religion: a review of the state of the art 81 William Mauricio
Beltrán Cely various processes of social change are occurring from
religious communities organized around charismatic leaders, which has
allowed a prolific use of this Weberian category. Among the authors
who have been interested in the relationship between new religious
movements and charismatic leadership in Latin America, Christian
Lalive d'Epinay (1968), David Stoll (1990), Heinrich Schäfer (1992) and
Jean-Pierre Bastian (1997) stand out. ). The third theoretical
contribution proposed by Weber that I would like to mention was
developed in the company of his friend Ernst Troelscht; I am referring
to the distinction between sect and church. The sect is defined,
according to these authors, by maintaining a closed structure, and by
representing a form of active or passive resistance or social protest
that confronts institutionalized religion – church –; The sect is also
characterized by the free and voluntary participation of its members,
who join after an experience of conversion or rebirth and having been
considered suitable by the group in terms of their religious and moral
qualities. The sect does not aspire to universality (Weber, 1977: 932);
In contrast, the church is characterized by being a large, multitudinous
community with an open structure, which has fluid relations with society
in general. The church has reached a certain level of bureaucratization
and institutionalization and the solidity of tradition; As time progresses,
it tends to become universal and relax the demands it imposes on its
members, thus reaching all sectors of society more easily (Weber,
1977: 895). Now, given the great proliferation of religious sects in the
United States, the aforementioned definition has been expanded and
revised by countless empirical works.

2. Political perspective:
The problem of social integration Max Weber asserted that the axis of
modernity was the growing process of organization of social and
economic life, while the engine of the expansion of Western culture
was the mastery of the natural and social worlds through of science,
technology and bureaucracy. This growing process of ordering and
controlling human activity was called rationalization by Weber. The cost
that man has had to pay for the establishment of the modern world has
been the impersonal control over his lifestyles; on the part of the
economic system and the large bureaucracies, that is what the “iron
cage” that the famous German sociologist alluded to consists of, and
that is also what the concept “alienation” that the no less famous Karl
Marx talked about refers to. . However, it is appropriate to put in
parentheses the serious consequences that the expansion of means-
ends rationality has for the old project of enlightenment8 and ask: Why
has modernity been characterized by a growing organization of social
life? One of the most brilliant answers that have been given to this
question, always implicit in classical sociological theory, comes from
the work of Emile Durkheim when he explores the relationship between
society and individuals. In his book The Division of Social Labor,9
Durkheim gives us elements to suspect that the “adaptation of oneself
to a generalized other” is much more difficult than George Mead
supposed,10 because as modern society becomes more more
complex our identification with it becomes more and more problematic.
The development of the modern form of society is closely linked to the
expansion of individualism, a phenomenon associated with the growth
of the division of labor and the specialization of social groups in certain
tasks. This process is theorized by Durkheim as the step of
“mechanical solidarity” Social policy from a sociological perspective 8.
See: Horkheimer, Max and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of
Enlightement, New York, Continuum, 1972. 9. Durkheim, Emile, The
Division of Social Work, Buenos Aires, Shapire, 1976. 10. Mead,
George Herbert, Mind, Self and Society, Chicago, University of
Chicago Press. 32 to “organic solidarity.” The notion of solidarity refers
to the relationship between individuals and society as a whole. In the
case of mechanical solidarity, the link between society and individuals
is direct; One is only a member of society to the extent that one
acquires the habits, attitudes, beliefs and values that constitute the
common conscience of the group; Therefore, the vigor of this type of
society (clan groups) is situated in inverse relationship with the
development of individual personality. 11 In the case of organic
solidarity, the connection that we pointed out before is indirect, the
individual is united to society only to the extent that he relates within it
with specific institutions and with other individuals in a group; We
speak here of a differentiated, specialized and coordinated society
through functional interdependence. Therefore, what is essential in
modern societies is the expansion of the division of labor. In this type
of society, identity is not presupposed, but rather a difference between
the beliefs and actions of different individuals and even between
groups, because various ways of life coexist in it that carry out cultural
and economic exchanges with each other.12 In this argument of
Durkheim there are elements for a possible answer to the question I
asked a few lines ago: society is increasingly organized and
specialized in the solution of certain problems (it is systematized), to
guarantee the identification of individuals with itself. Institutions,
systems and social interactions are developed, at least in part, to
ensure “social integration”; This vision agrees with the position of
George Mead for whom individual interests, desires and feelings
should not be seen as essentially private, since the processes of
individuation are at the same time processes of socialization, that is,
adaptation of oneself to a " "another generalized one." The notion of
“generalized other” refers to the social groups that give the individual
their unity. The point of view of the generalized other speaks of
behaviors aimed at keeping the social group faithful to its goals and
rules. The generalized other therefore refers to the demands that the
group actually or supposedly poses to the individual. See: Capitalism
and modern social theory, Barcelona, Labor, 1977, pp. 135- 147. 13.
The notion of “social integration” accounts for the processes of
constitution and organization of collective identities, that is:
identification of individuals with society or with segments of it.
Renunciation and specialization of these three orders is the result of
this process. When face-to-face relationships are not enough,
organizations emerge; When organizations translate into a highly
heterogeneous and entropic set, systems emerge. The process of
unification of individuals and societies occurs in two ways: social
interaction and systematic intervention. In the first case, the notion of
“social integration” accounts precisely for the processes of constitution
and organization of collective identities based on interaction and social
organizations, and occurs in areas of action specialized in cultural
tradition that unconditionally need the understanding as a mechanism
for coordinating actions. This process is called socialization.14 In the
second case, given the process of increasing differentiation and
specialization of modern society, the integration of individuals into
society, through particular groups and institutions, has been mediated
by and subject to norms. of action that are transformed into an external
power. The forms of social integration are displaced by systemic,
abstract, anonymous and standardized mechanisms (for example, the
media, the market, technologies for organizing work in factories, etc.),
which Jürgen Habermas calls this displacement “ systemic integration.
It is, in the words of that same author, a process of “colonization of the
world of life” that includes the Weberian thesis of the penetration of
forms of economic and administrative rationality in all areas of modern
life; in this case, in that of socialization.15 Forms of control such as
money and power, which create their own social structures free of
normative content, are anchored to the social fabric through
institutions, policies, programs, etc., which They attack collective
identitiesSocial policy from a sociological perspective 14.
“Socialization” can be defined as the broad and coherent induction of
an individual into the objective world of a society or a sector of it.
Primary socialization is the first that an individual goes through in
childhood; through it he becomes a member of society. Secondary
socialization is any subsequent process that induces the already
socialized individual to new sectors of the objective world of society.
See: Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckman, The social construction of
reality, Buenos Aires, Amorrortu editors, 1968, p. 166. 15.
Habermas,
Jürgen, Theory of Communicative Action II, Buenos Aires, Taurus,
1990, p. 469. 34 tives replacing the intersubjective references of social
action with anonymous forms of socialization.16 However, this growing
rationalization of social life, skillfully described by Habermas, following
Weber, is not fully explained. Why happens? In this case, the key
notion to solve this enigma of classical and contemporary sociology is
that of systemic intervention, conceived as a way to resolve the crisis
of social integration. The tendency towards the crisis of social
integration In our time, Weber's thesis that the nature of the modern
world lies in the growing process of organization of social and
economic life, has become obvious. In modern societies, groups17 and
organizations18 dominate a good part of our lives. Anthony Giddens
confirms this when he states that we depend on others, whom we will
never meet, who may live at a great distance from us, and that without
the coordination of activities and resources provided by organizations
this would not be possible. We are born in large hospitals, we attend
school, we work in factories, we stock up on groceries in self-service
stores, we use companies to communicate with others by telephone,
we read newspapers and magazines to stay informed, we watch
television to have fun, etc. .19 It could be accepted, without major
controversy, that the complexity of the modern world requires these
levels of functional specialization to solve its problems, but, according
to Rene Lourau, social groupings paradoxically produce the denial, to
varying degrees, of the idea itself. of community. Social group: a
number of people who interact with each other on a regular basis. 18.
An organization is a large association of people governed along
impersonal lines, established to achieve specific objectives. All modern
organizations are highly bureaucratized, hierarchical, regimented, etc.
19. Giddens, Anthony, Sociology, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 1991, pp.
305-309. 35 the unity of an organization is often undermined by
individualism or nihilism; On the other hand, the different membership
systems and the references to numerous groups produce a multitude
of fragmentary groups that segment the institutions.20 This means,
simply, that the organization produces anomie (egoism that threatens
social unity), and that social institutions , one of the key elements in the
process of constitution and structuring of collective identities, cause
effects opposite to that of socialization, namely: individualization or
social resistance on various scales that translate into integration crises.
In this context, intervention becomes unavoidable to prevent social
disputes from separating institutionalized ties, which would jeopardize
the fulfillment of the instrumental functions performed by the
institutions. This discovery allows us to formulate a plausible
hypothesis to explain the origin of another fact confirmed by
institutional analysis or socioanalysis, from Michel Foucault to Michel
Crozier, namely: the arbitrary dimension of the instituted order.21
Crozier's point of view assumes that there is no social action detached
from power and that said power constitutes a mechanism that
structures, even partially, a field of possibilities for action.22 The
system is not seen here as an a priori, almost natural scheme, but as a
game that allows coordination opposing strategies of the participating
actors, making possible conflicts, negotiations, and alliances in an
institutional set.23 What has been said before can be summarized as
follows: a) the rationalization of social life is necessary to face
problems of a very diverse nature generated by the complexity of
society (the growing organization and specialization of social life
respond to this fact); b) this process greatly complicates the integration
processes. Social policy from a sociological perspective 20. Lourau,
op. cit., pp. 264-265. 21. Crozier, op. cit., p. 190. 22. Ibid., pp. 197-201.
23. Ibid., p. 201. 36 social tion, generating anomie and social
resistance; c) under these conditions it is necessary to intervene in this
process to prevent social conflict from dissolving institutionalized links,
which would jeopardize the continuity of the instrumental functions
fulfilled by the institutions; d) therefore, power and control become
constitutive elements of social organizations; e) thus systems appear
to face the problems of social integration that functional specialization
generates. This dynamic integration, social resistance, systemic
intervention, explains the opacity of organizations and social systems
highlighted, among others, by Lourau and Crozier, who indicate that
institutions are ambiguous and that the relationships that individuals
maintain with them are characterized by a kind of blindness. At this
point there is complete coincidence with the diagnosis of contemporary
sociology about the existence of a gap between system and actors.
Therefore, it is not enough to describe an organization referring to the
services it provides; we must take into account that the factory, the
hospital or the school, for example, are forms of social classification,
they produce models of behavior, maintain social norms and integrate
to the user within the total system.24 The already noted dual nature of
institutions and social systems reveals the existence of anonymous,
abstract and relatively standardized mechanisms to confront crises of
social integration through systemic interventions aimed at modifying
social identities, to defuse conflict and generate forms of collective
participation that reinforce social order. CARLOS B ARBA S OLANO
24. Michel Foucault, when studying a network of disciplinary
institutions that appeared in the 19th century (pedagogical, medical,
penal and industrial), realized that they no longer proposed, as in the
18th century, to separate “abnormal” individuals from their families,
social groups or communities, but rather fixing them to the production
apparatus and adjusting them to a new social normativity, at the center
of which was the purchase and sale of labor power. Foucault showed
how, even though the factory-prison scheme did not prosper (because
it was unaffordable), some of the basic disciplinary functions of that
institutional network were maintained, moving upward towards the
State or “softening.” See: Foucault, Michel, 1983, pp. 91-140. 37
Systemic intervention After the Second World War, the fundamental
characteristic of modern societies has been state intervention in the
market and in the sociocultural system. If the 19th century was
characterized by the deployment of capitalism, the 20th century is
characterized by the expansion of the State. Behind this process is
precisely the deepening of the rationalization of the modern world. In
this century we are witnessing the consolidation of the administrative
political system that in the capitalist world is better known as the
Welfare State.25 The origin of state intervention in the two subsystems
that flank it lies in the tendencies towards crisis that are systematically
generated in those two spheres. After 1929, the propensity for the
crisis of the self-regulatory capacity of the market and the emergence
of the Keynesian State have been widely documented, so I will not
elaborate on this topic here.26 The aspect that I am most interested in
highlighting, however, is the tendency towards sociocultural crisis that
causes state intervention in the spheres of socialization and cultural
reproduction.27 The intervention of the State in cultural traditions and
regulatory structures seeks precisely to address this crisis. In a context
of politicization of the market, such as the one experienced especially
after the Second War and which has entered a critical phase, the
needs for state legitimation intensify.

3. Educational perspectives:
One of the subsystems or social structures that drew the attention of
sociologists since the beginning of sociology was education , education
as a social phenomenon and the relationships between education and
society.Durkheim was the first to propose that every society
implements a transmission mechanism to adapt new generations to
customs, values, beliefs, behavioral patterns, etc. socially valued and
permitted. For this author, education, and specifically school , fulfills
the function of integrating social life, based on homogenization and the
transmission of universal values valid for all members of society. This
initial function expanded as societies became more complex and the
division of labor more specialized. Education stopped being just a
transmitter or socializer and became years later, according to the
structural-functionalist approach. in charge of assigning social positions
and locating and selecting individuals in different social positions.
Later, for some sociologists, influenced by Marxism and Weber,
education fulfills a function of reproduction of the relations of
production present in society; it simply becomes, in Althusser's words,
the ideological apparatus of the state. Education as a reproducer or
transformer of social relations will be a constant in studies on
education and society. Now, what makes education be considered a
social phenomenon? Education only occurs within the society, It
is a product of social processes further
broad, structures and gives content to social relationships, forms
individual and collective cultural identities, conditions social life,
attitudes and the way in which members of society live and relate.
Therefore, education is a social phenomenon and as such it will be
addressed by the sociology of education, which is the branch of
sociology that studies the social dimension of the educational
phenomenon, in order to generate scientific knowledge that
systematically and orderly explains that reality, starting from a rigorous
method that guarantees the reliability of its findings, and allows it to
intervene in it. Like any science, the sociology of education seeks to
analyze, explain, understand and intervene in that reality. But what do
we mean by the social dimension of the educational phenomenon?
Sociology will study at a macrosocial level the relationships between
the social and the educational, the contents that are transmitted (ideas,
collective feelings, traditions, habits and techniques), the forms that it
takes under the pressure of social structures (school institutions and
the team or own instrument that serves to transmit it) and at a micro-
social level, the relationships within the classroom, the meanings of the
action for the actors, the curriculum that is transmitted, etc. But as we
pointed out previously, sociology does not start from a single paradigm,
the multiplicity of approaches of this discipline means that although the
object of study is the same, the conclusions reached are different and
sometimes even contradictory. The two major approaches that have
prevailed in sociology and therefore in the sociology of education are
the following: On the one hand, structural functionalism is a direct heir
of positive sociology and was very popular until the 1970s, whose main
representative is Talcott Parsons, for This model, education is also a
transmitter of social culture , which selects the placement of individuals
in different social positions, part of a meritocratic society, based on
equal opportunities and the search for consensus and social balance .
Education is a neutral institution, where the individual, as a result of his
determination and intellectual disposition, succeeds or fails. Education
can also be studied as a system where relationships and role structure
exist. For this current, all social change , including educational change,
responds to external agents since it is the product of a disturbance or
force that forces the educational system to be modified. The other
current is Marxist, although Marx does not develop the educational
aspect in depth and only places it as a social superstructure in charge
of the ideology of the ruling class . In the 70s, the Marxist structuralists
or neo-Marxists studied education as a cultural or economic reproducer
of the dominant relations of production , Bowles and Gintis, Bordieu
and Passeron and Althusser among others, starting from a society
divided into irreconcilable social classes and in eternal conflict . They
unmask the main function of education as a mechanism of social
control that imparts the dominant ideology, reproduces the relations of
production and alienates the individual by considering it an exclusive
element of their failure. Social change is a product of the internal
conflict between the mode of production and the relations of
production.
From these macrosocial studies, a series of criticisms of the sociology
of education began on the grounds that until now only causal
relationships had been studied and sought, emphasis had been placed
on school entry and exit behaviors, and forgotten to study what was
happening inside it, the school was a black box where the relationships
that occurred internally I never know they had
considered, actors
fundamental were entitiesPassives to which the society
He manipulated as he pleased.
New approaches:
The new approaches to sociology and sociology of education in
particular are not interested in creating grand social theory , but rather
in studying everyday life, the meanings that individuals assign to their
actions and the interrelationships that are generated. The analysis falls
on the educational process itself, emphasizing the analysis of
management and transmission of knowledge and the underlying power
relations. Education participates in the way societies determine,
assign, select, evaluate and transmit knowledge, knowledge is subject
to the power of hegemonic social classes and the social control of
mechanisms established by society.Knowledge and its dissemination is
a social production. Legitimizer of social practices, and the
institutionalization of certain ways of knowing, learning, and analyzing
through the curriculum. The sociology of alternative education grants
the actor a degree of participation and a certain autonomy in relation to
society.
If we observe carefully the different sociological approaches we can
see that sociology as a social science has been influenced by other
scientific disciplines, this is logical if we think that all the elements of
society as indicated at the beginning are interconnected, thus we have
that Since its beginnings, the way in which it is structured as a science,
the way of approaching the problem or approaching reality are imbued
with the guidelines present in the natural sciences , especially physics
and biology, let us not forget that Saint Simón called it physics. social,
in traditional approaches we find in Structural Functionalism great
influence of systems theory, psychology, especially behaviorism,
capitalism as an economic model. In Marxism the influence of
economics, demography and politics is evident, so much so that
Marxism is studied interchangeably as an economic model and as a
political model for change. In alternative sociology, we find great
influence from pedagogy, anthropology, social psychology,
evolutionary psychology, phenomenology and psycholinguistics. Each
explanation and understanding of different human or social
phenomena has provided a contribution to the enrichment of both
general sociology and the sociology of education.

Sociology of Education:
The sociology of education has not only been enriched by other
sciences through its contribution, but also by its methods to address
reality. Sociology is an empirical science, therefore research is a
fundamental part of its daily life, the sociology HE
build in
research continuously, sociology uses different methods to address
reality, but these methods must guarantee the reliability of the results,
the most used methods are the following: the historical, study of social
phenomena over time, the present reality through the changes in the
past that produced it, the comparative comparison of similar
phenomena in different societies or in different situations. the rational
critical critical questioning of values and social culture. All of these
methods can emphasize the quantitative that numerically measures
social facts, or the qualitative that interprets and understands the
meanings that actors give to their actions and social reality.
The quantitative or qualitative emphasis in the study of social reality
implies different and important conceptions that are worth mentioning:
Emphasis on quantitative
• Reality as a system, external to the researcher
• Objectivity as a condition for the development of science
• Application of a rigorous and systematic method.
• Search for regularities and frequencies of social facts
• Collected by instruments that allow quantification and tabulation
of the possible reg.
• Reasoning and conclusions with
mathematical or statistical basis. Qualitative emphasis

• Reality as a social construction , conditioned by values, power

relations
• Reality as a multiple version, understood from the significance of
the actors, therefore always subjective.
• Application of a flexible method, which emerges from the context,
people's experience, and the researcher's interaction with reality.
• Search for the meaning of the individual's actions
• Using interviews, personal stories, discussion groups ,
ethnography, as instruments. the free flow of the subject's
constructions.
 • Understanding of reality based on the reflection of the researcher
and the actors involved.

Once the different approaches and methods in Sociology of Education

have been summarized, it is considered pertinent to delve deeper into
the relationships between education and society:
Society functions as a whole and as such all its elements or
subsystems are interrelated; education as part of this system is
influenced by multiple variables that affect and structure it in a
particular way. Each society has organized its education depending on
its social philosophy , its culture, its political system, the characteristics
of its population and its modes of production.
• All education responds to the conception of human nature ,
society and knowledge that is considered valid (social
philosophy)
• All education will transmit the values, patterns of conduct or
behavior, customs and traditions and types of knowledge
consistent with the predominant or hegemonic culture.
• All education will train individuals to function within the consistent
and legitimizing values of the prevailing political philosophy.
• All education will train and select for work based on the relations
of production , the characteristics of its population and the
economic model that predominates.

Thus we have that all education is subject to the influence of the

different social subsystems.
The influence of education on the economic aspect has been the
subject of study of the sociology of education. This has focused on two
basic effects. Macroeconomic effects: global relationships between
education, employment and economic growth and microsocial effects:
consequences that their passage through the educational system has
for different social groups. The first highlights all the studies carried out
until 1970 and framed within the structural-functionalist theory and the
second highlights the studies carried out from the 70s onwards and
framed within the Marxist, critical Marxist or neo-Marxist approach.
The predominant approach until 1970 and clearly influenced by
structural functionalism emphasizes the importance of education in
training and selection for work and makes education the engine of
economic and social development .
Starting with the Second World War and the consolidation and
development of capitalism as an economic system in the West,
education expanded its scope to increasingly broader sectors of
society, the forms of production demanded people trained and
specialized in the increasingly complex division of labour.
Education thus becomes an engine of development and economic
progress. This conception reached its peak after the Second World
War, with the theory of human capital, proposed by Schultz (1960). Its
basic postulates are:
Education should be considered like any other form of physical
capital . As an investment with
a certain profitability .

There is a relationship between economic growth and schooling

rates at educational levels Deninson (1965) and there is also a
relationship between income level and educational level Minzer
(1974). Education + worker qualification + productivity at work +
salary.

Knowledge and skills have economic and exchangeable value in the

market, the border between work and capital is blurred.

Investment in education generates a better redistribution of national

income and public spending.

4. Economic outlook:
The theory of human capital becomes the economic and social
foundations that guide public and private behavior of educational
supply and demand . It is the discourse that legitimizes education as
an investment, part of a meritocratic society, with equal opportunities
where the motivated and trained individual is solely responsible for
their location and social mobility. The theory of human capital becomes
a symbol of modernization and legitimation of meritocracy.
The Coleman report (1966) marks the beginning of the fall of
functionalism as a sociological theory and contributes to resizing the
educational fact by considering that the individual belongs to a social
group and that this membership contributes to their educational
performance . (handicap cultural education
compensatory). Later studies Jencks (1972) and Boudon (1986)
conclude that although education does not ensure social mobility, nor
eliminate social inequality, there is no opportunity without education.
Education is a necessary but not sufficient condition.
In the 1970s, Collins, with his credentialist theory, identified a new
function for education, the school as a space of struggle between
different social groups that provides status, power and social
differentiation. Bourdieu and Passeron and Bernstein deepened this
when discussing the relationship between education and cultural
reproduction. The first introduce the category of cultural capital and
how mastery and experience in this capital guarantee success or
failure in school. The educational system guarantees the imposition
and reproduction of a dominant culture, as the only legitimate culture
and a social selection based on the approximation or distance of
individuals from the dominant culture. The second proposes two
fundamental theses : first, that class factors regulate the
communication structure of the family and therefore guide the
psycholinguistic code in childhood and second, how these same
factors regulate the institutionalization of the codes developed in
education. as well as the forms of transmission and manifestation It is
based on the fact that it is through language that the social order is
internalized and that the social structure is incorporated into the
experience of the individual. Analyzes the different communication
structures of the family within each social class, distinguishing two
types of codes, one restricted or public and another elaborate or
formal, the first is characterized by the use of short and grammatically
simple sentences, which express related meanings and linked to the
context, and of a particularistic order, the other is characterized by
complex grammatical constructions, use of impersonal pronouns and
expression of meanings independent of the context and in a universal
order. Both codes are in relation to the social structure that supports it,
the first responds to social relationships with closed roles and language
expresses the demands of the role, the second responds to social
relationships with open roles that allow innovation and the expression
of individuality . . This leads him to distinguish two types of family, the
first based on the position occupied in the family and the second based
on people and individual qualities. The school uses elaborate language
and the working class children present a situation of estrangement.
Thus we have that access to a type of psycholinguistic code depends
on the position in the social structure and this in turn depends on the
division of labor, therefore the mode of production regulates the
location, distribution, legitimation and reproduction of the orientations
and their meanings.
Educational knowledge, its content, the way it is transmitted and the
way it is evaluated are the key to understanding the mechanisms of
cultural reproduction. The school fulfills the functions of
instrumentalizing content and skills and expressing attitudes and
values. The preponderance of one of the orders depends on the type
of school and the changes in the division of labor.
The theory of economic reproduction, represented by structuralist
Marxism, is based on the idea that the school is the mediator and
reproducer between the social positions of origin and the social
structure, and tries to explain how class origin determines access and
progress in the inside the educational system. Education is part of the
superstructure and fulfills an ideological function, understanding
ideology as false consciousness , that is, the inculcation of functional
and necessary meanings for economic reproduction, economic
relations and the division of labor. Education is an ideological
apparatus of the state and this is its fundamental contribution.The state
as a mediator between the power of the economically dominant
classes and the educational structure and content. This allows the
study of the reproduction and at the same time of the contradictions of
the educational system.
Althussser (1970) gives great importance to the legal-political and
ideological superstructure of the capitalist state. Capitalism needs not
only workforce but ideologically dominated individuals. He
distinguishes between repressive apparatuses of the state and
ideological apparatuses of the state, among the latter the most
important is the school, since it guarantees the conditions of production
through the production of ideological positions of the individual, it also
reproduces the productive forces through the reproduction of skills. and
knowledge that reproduces the social division of labor. It fulfills a dual
function of producing work positions and producing the internalization
of production relations: subordination and rules of behavior.
Baudelot and Establet (1987) explain how the school produces a type
of social division that reproduces the division of labor and how it fulfills
a selective and reproductive function. They point out the existence of
two different and closed networks : the vocational primary and the
upper secondary. Upon entering school, the students who will go
through one or the other network are selected and each network is
mostly intended for the different social classes, producing a social and
economic reproduction. The ideological function of the school is for
students to assimilate their failure or success as a result of their
individual capacity, hiding the division of students according to their
social origin.
School interaction is differentiated, the lexicon and content have more
to do with the values and experiences of the bourgeoisie than with the
workers. This is reinforced with networks, professional primary requires
mechanical, concrete and discontinuous training and upper secondary
training for a purpose, for abstract, continuous and original learning .
They establish a correspondence between the organization of school
practices and the needs of reproduction of the division of labor. They
also suggest that this does not work harmoniously and that within the
school system itself produce
contradictions resistance of the students, conflicts
teachers and existence of progressive pedagogies. The fundamental
thing of his work is the establishment of school segmentation and the
introduction of contradictions within the system.
For Bowles and Gintis, the school is organized to produce
consciousness and the appropriate social relations to train the future
worker, the school reproduces the social relations of production, a
hierarchical system of authority, disciplined, that separates the student
from what he produces or of what you should learn, as an incentive a
reward system. It also develops a sense of class identity and forms of
behavior that adapt to different job profiles. The principle of
correspondence between school and company is the material basis.
The school produces docile and submissive individuals who accept
integration into an organization that remunerates their work and
subjects them to an inflexible hierarchy.
Carnoy and Levin (1985), based on the synthesis of reproduction
theories , emphasize the plurality of social forces and demands that act
on educational institutions. They basically point out two: the need to
reproduce the adequate workforce for training and education. of
citizens living together in a liberal democratic state. Both forces are
contradictory and generate conflicts within the same institution. The
school is a space for social conflict, but change in the school is limited
if significant changes take place at a social-structural level.
Theories of reproduction laid the foundations for the development of all
subsequent theories in the 1980s. The new sociology will focus its
object of study on life within the classroom, on the interactions that are
established there, on the contents that are transmitted and how they
affect the meaning of the actions of the individuals who participate in
this interaction. both students and teachers. Under the name of new
sociology, a series of different approaches are grouped, such as
interpretive sociology, the sociology of resistance and the introduction
of two fundamental variables that until now had not been introduced in
sociology: ethnicity and gender. The common elements that unite this
new sociology are the conception of the social actor as a participatory
entity, which constructs and gives meaning to its actions, the daily life
of the school as an element of analysis, the use of the qualitative
method, especially ethnomethodology, for the collection of information
and the belief that the school institution can be transformative of both
social conditions and individuals.

Interpretive Sociology:
Interpretive sociology focuses its study on classroom relationships, the
social construction of the curriculum and the power relations that
underlie both the transmission of knowledge and teacher -student
interactions. The sociology of resistance focuses on the analysis of the
school as a space of conflict and ideological and political social
struggle, and how this space can generate both educational and social
changes. The introduction of ethnicity and gender variables has made
it possible to detect and unravel the silent discrimination that has
historically remained hidden and overshadowed by class discrimination
.
Thus we have that the new sociology will focus its analysis,
understanding and explanation on the three fundamental systems that
we find within the school institution.
The curricular system. Organization and transmission of knowledge
The system of pedagogical styles. Social relationships
The evaluation system. Assessment
The curricular system. Knowledge was conceived as a neutral sphere
of objective facts external to the subjects. With forms of methodological
inquiry far from beliefs and values, human meaning and intersubjective
relationships. That can be mastered and managed. For the new
sociology, knowledge is a social construction, extracted from a broader
culture, related to the ideological, beliefs, values and economic
relations that support the prevailing order. An interpretive relationship
is produced between subject and object that gives meaning to
knowledge. And there is a self-formative process that creates
meanings specific to each subject.
Thus we have that knowledge and the curriculum contain a type of
control that does not cultivate, but rather imposes a meaning, since
definitions commonly accepted as valid carry the weight of interests
and specific norms , which prevent the configuration of a reality
different from the socially prescribed as valid. The curriculum forms a
perception and creates meanings that respond to a social-historical
nature. The curricular system formed by the knowledge that is taught
and that the student must acquire, is only a unilateral and theoretically
distorted vision, it is a legitimizing truth of a specific vision of the world.
Apple (1979-1982-1986), the main representative of this current, points
out the existence of three types of curriculum that occur
simultaneously. The explicit or official curriculum, as the creation and
maintenance of the ideological monopoly of the dominant classes,
apparently depoliticized and neutral, the hidden curriculum that
naturalizes the necessary values and ideology, relationships and
neutralizes the conflict, and the curriculum in use, which contributes
and It values the administrative technical knowledge that is needed to
expand markets, control production, work, people, and research.
Every curricular conception always contains evaluative patterns of
knowledge, classroom social relations and distribution of power.
Therefore, it always generates particular pedagogical styles.
In the traditional conception of knowledge and therefore of the
curriculum. Relationships within the classroom are totally vertical,
structured from top to bottom. The teacher is the only one with
authority and power to transmit information, the student is only a
repository. Students are passive recipients, who accept social
conformity and do not give meaning to themselves. Conflicts are
expressed as failures in socialization or maladjustment of the individual
due to causes beyond the school or classroom. Relationships are
conditioned in time, diverse and lacking affectivity, they socialize
to function in adult world,
developing independence, competitiveness, universalism,
specificity and performance, basically, values of capitalism.
The new conception of the curriculum as a social creation generates a
new pedagogical style where relationships within the classroom are
horizontal, teachers and students relate on terms of equality,
information is shared and the experiences and information that each
one possesses are respected. . Students are dynamic role models ,
participating in defining and re-defining their worlds. Differences and
different forms of perception and knowledge provided by each culture,
minority group, ethnicity or gender are accepted. The relationships and
situations in the classroom contribute to the student's construction of
knowledge and meaning. The classroom relationships that are
generated from this conception highlight solidarity, tolerance, respect
for differences, learning to learn, to live together, to make and to know.
The traditional role of the teacher and the student, the former as a
knowledge expert, neutral in his dissertations, passive in the face of
school and social reality, reproducer of knowledge and social
structures, and the latter as a simple and passive repository of
knowledge, gives way to a new role where teachers and students
construct knowledge, assume positions regarding it, commit to their
school and social reality and become transformers and producers of
knowledge and a different school and social reality.
In relation to the evaluation systems we find that in the first conception
the mastery and acquisition of knowledge given as valid are the only
element valued, the degree of knowledge that the student has acquired
is evaluated through standardized tests that are the same for all.
Neutral and objective tests, which measure only results. In the new
curricular conception, both the student and the teacher are co-
participants in the evaluation, the process, the skills and competencies
that have been developed are measured and not the final product, co-
evaluation and self-evaluation. are assumed as valid, HE
They use different strategies than standardized tests, among which the
portfolio, different alternatives in problem solving, qualitative
evaluation, etc. stand out.
The new sociology of education has unmasked the predominant
curricular systems, pedagogical styles and evaluation within the
school, has questioned the objectivity and neutrality of school agency
and has opened the possibility for transformation and change, it is
considered important to highlight some of the most important
contributions of this discipline and that have been possible thanks to
the introduction of ethnomethodology, developed by Garfinkel (1976),
as a method of approaching school reality.
Until the appearance of Young's book Knowledge and Power in 1971,
studies in the sociology of education had focused on education-society
relationships: the relationship between education and employment,
education and economic growth, education as an economic and
cultural reproducer, quantitative studies on school performance,
dropouts, repetition, groups of origin and school performance, etc.
Young initiates interpretive sociology by introducing the notion that the
curriculum is a social construction and by proposing that the sociology
of education center his study in
the principles that underlie the hierarchical organization of knowledge
and in their shapes of transmission. TO from
this
moment and thanks to the contributions of the ethnomethodology
proposed by Garfinkel (1976), a fruitful sociological investigation began
that tries to explain and understand the interactions within the
classroom, an investigation that has been called micro social, for
Garfinkel the true and only social relationship is gives in the interaction.
Therefore, the important thing is to unravel the methods or procedures
that the individual uses to carry out the different operations in their
daily life. It is the analysis of habitual actions in also habitual actions, it
is how actors produce their world, which rules work and govern their
judgments. From this new way of approaching reality, a series of
fundamental contributions are made to understand and explain the
educational phenomenon. Some of the most important are outlined
below: Keddie (1971) in his studies on school failure places
responsibility on the school itself and on the subjective evaluation
criteria applied by the teacher; the students respond to the teacher's
expectations. The labeling theory developed by Rist (1970 – 1990).

Problems that such research may face:

The main social institutions are:

1. The family institution: It is the primary and fundamental grouping of

a society, the oldest, with universally recognized norms that clearly
prescribe the roles played by its members. It makes up the home,
whose primary objective is the procreation and education of children.
The family institution can be defined as the group of people linked by
blood relations. Behaviors acquired within the family will later
determine social behaviors.
2. The educational institution: Education is a process that aims at the
social inclusion of its members as useful members of a community; It
must fulfill the transcendent role of transmitting the cultural elements of
each culture. Since each society determines its educational priorities
according to its needs, the educational function is exercised differently.
In general, it should be noted that through the educational institution,
society perpetuates its very existence and makes its continuity, its own
future, viable or not.
3. The political institution: It is a product of the need to administer and
govern society, since organization, direction and order are necessary
to achieve social objectives. The political institution guarantees,
through a form of government, the rights of the members of society.
Likewise, the fulfillment of duties. The political institution materializes in
the State; This, in turn, fulfills the functions of regulating political power,
the administration of authority and power; on the other hand, the
organization of society.
4. The economic institution: Its function is the administration and
organization of the expenses and investments carried out by the State
in the most efficient and equitable way possible, through the regulation
of the global processes of production, distribution, exchange and
consumption of goods and products. social. For this purpose, the State
implements an economic system in accordance with its ideological
principles.
5. The religious institution: Religion is considered to be a universal
human phenomenon that generates moral codes that regulate life in
society. Through religion, norms are established for personal, family
and social life. As a social institution, it is not presented as a single
entity, but in the different ways in which the members of the community
position themselves towards the phenomenon.
The institution is defined as a relatively permanent and organized
system of social guidelines that formulates certain sanctioned and
unified behaviors with the purpose of satisfying and responding to the
basic needs of a society.
That is, they are behaviors of a society
regulated, structured processes by which people carry out their
activities.
The general characteristics of the institutions are the following:
They have a social origin.
They satisfy specific social needs.
The cultural guidelines that inform an institution are imposed and its
ideals are accepted by the vast majority of members of society.
The institutions differ more or less.
In addition to these characteristics, sociology has isolated and
classified into three different categories common characteristics of
institutions:
Cultural symbols : they are identification signs , which serve to warn of
the presence of an institution: these symbols can be materialized or
immaterial: the flag, the national anthem, etc.
Codes of behavior: they are formal rules of conduct and informal
traditions, specific to certain roles. Although codes of behavior
common to all people are generally recognized, there is no guarantee
that there are individuals who deviate from such guidelines.
Ideology: is a system of interdependent ideas, shared by a group. An
ideology justifies a particular social, moral, economic or political
interest of the group and explains the universe in acceptable terms.
Social institutions are the great preservers and transmitters of cultural
heritage , a function they exercise as a consequence of their character,
that is, they do not depend on any individual or group. Institutional
patterns live through the personalities
individual.
The process through which institutions retain and transmit cultural
heritage is, in essence, the same one that forms personality. Culture is
transmitted through the interaction of an institutional environment .
The family:
The family is a historical phenomenon and must be considered as a
total social phenomenon. The result is that one cannot theoretically
speak of the family in general but only of types of family as numerous
as religions, social classes and subgroups existing within global
society, given the fact that in many societies a man He may have
several wives and many children, all of whom are considered members
of a family. In other societies, a couple lives with the wife's relatives.
The couple and children are considered, not as a different family, but
as part of a larger group. Among humans there is family because there
is marriage. Marriage is a stable relationship of sexual and domiciliary
cohabitation, between a man and a woman, which is recognized by
society as a domiciliary and educational institution for the offspring that
may arise.
The rite through which most cultures sanction the formation of this
relationship is also called marriage. stable
relative.
Marriage has all or some of the following functions: Establishment of a
sexual relationship; the satisfaction of eroticism. Domiciliary
Division of labor of labor.
Transmission of patrimonial inheritance, legal status and power.
Transfer of rights between spouses.
Creation of new interfamily ties.
Public recognition of the relationship.
Marriage takes different forms. Two are fundamental: monogamy in
which the spouse has only one spouse at a given time and polygamy in
which the plurality of husbands or wives is left over allowed
the community.
The family is considered the basic social unit, the fundamental
institution. As a fundamental social group, participation in family life
generates an intensity of emotions, sexual satisfactions, and demands
with respect to our efforts and loyalty and to our roles in education and
to the careful of the child.
Offering a definition of the family is a complex task due to the
enormous varieties we find and the wide spectrum of cultures that exist
in the world. Family is a social kinship group, in which sexual access is
allowed between adult members, in which reproduction occurs
legitimately, the group is responsible to society for the care and
education of children and is, in addition, a economic unit, at least of
consumption.
From this definition the main functions of the family are derived:
The regulation of sexual behavior.
Reproduction in order to create offspring.
The socialization of children.
Such functions are generalized and explain the character of the
universality of the family. The studies carried out lead to distinguishing
the following types of families:
The nuclear family: is the basic family unit that consists of husband
(father), wife (mother) and children. The latter may be the biological
offspring of the couple or adopted members of the family.
The extended family: consists of more than one nuclear unit, extends
beyond two generations and is based on the blood ties of a large
number of people, including parents, children, grandparents, uncles,
aunts, nephews, nephews, cousins and so on.
The composite family: rests on plural marriage. In polygamy, one man
and several wives, the most common and generally the most popular
form of blended family, the man plays the role of husband and father in
several nuclear families, thereby uniting them into a larger family
group.
The educational institution
Like the family institution, education is the social institution
oriented to the training, transmission
and communication of knowledge, skills and values of society have
seen the important role that the family plays. The primary and
secondary groups in the process of socialization and education of
children, youth and adults, indicating that education is not limited to
school. Throughout history, knowledge has transformed society and
the economy. Knowledge is the only meaningful resource. The
additional factors of production: Land, labor, and capital have not
disappeared, but have become secondary. Today knowledge is being
applied to knowledge. This is the third and perhaps the last step in the
transformation of knowledge. Knowledge fundamentally changes the
structure of society; creates a new economic dynamic. Create a new
policy through education, people have obtained innumerable social
achievements related to mobility, promotion, social progress, better
income, which contributes to the development and to the
personal fulfillment.
But in addition, formal education integrates individuals politically and
socially within the main culture of society, emphasizing and
reproducing the cultural values dominant.
In this sense, schooling is considered a way to achieve opportunities.
Schools separate children and young people from the private world
and family regulations to socialize them in a public world in which
impersonal rules and social statuses replace personal relationships. In
schools, children learn to adapt to a hierarchical institution where
power and privileges are distributed impersonally and unequal.
The new educational demands of the market demand a radical
transformation of the education system, from which the school will
have to provide a high-level universal education, instilling in students at
all levels and of all ages, the motivation to learn and the discipline to
continue learning, has to be open to people who for whatever reason
did not have access to higher education in their years early.
On the other hand, schooling cannot be the exclusive monopoly of
schools. Education has to saturate the entire society and the
organizations that provide employment: companies, government
offices, non-profit institutions. Within the framework of the dynamics of
today's society and the rapid changes in technology and theoretical
paradigms , doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. are required. Return to
school from time to time to stay up to date and keep your knowledge
No fall in the obsolescence.
The new society demands that the educational system produce
educated people as a universal requirement of the knowledge society
and also because it is global in its money, in its economy, in its
careers, in its technology and above all in its information.
This new society, dominated by knowledge, requires a new type of
leadership that can focus local, particular, separate traditions, in a
common concept of excellence and mutual respect , to be able to live
in an increasingly global world.
In this process of transformation of society, the biggest change that will
occur will be knowledge; in its form and in its content; in its meaning; in
their responsibility and in what it means to be an educated person .

CULTURE

Culture (from Latin cultūra ) is a term that has many interrelated

meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde
Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A
Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions . In everyday use, the
word "culture" is used for two different concepts:

Excellence in the taste for the fine arts and humanities, also known
as high culture.
2.The sets of knowledge, beliefs and behavioral patterns of a social
group, including the material means that its members use to
communicate with each other and resolve needs of all kinds.
Some ethologists have spoken of "culture" to refer to customs,
activities or behaviors transmitted from one generation to another in
groups of animals by conscious imitation of said behaviors.

Definition
According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, Culture
is defined as: f. Set of ways of life and customs, knowledge and
degree of artistic, scientific, industrial development, in an era, social
group, etc.
It also defines popular culture as: popular culture "f. Set of
manifestations in which the traditional life of a town is expressed.
Characteristics

Defining characteristics of culture has been extremely difficult, but

many of us agree that culture is learned, it is shared, it is dynamic, it
seeks adaptability, it presents a common symbolic code, culture is
an arbitration system, it is an entire integrated system, Generally
there will be incoherence between what is experienced and what is
desired.
Items
All cultures consist of six main elements:

1. Beliefs: It is the set of ideas that prescribe ways for correct or

incorrect behaviors, and give meaning and purpose to life.
They may be summaries and interpretations of the past,
explanations of the present, or predictions of the future, and may be
based on common sense, popular wisdom, religion, or science, or
some combination of these. (for example, if the human spirit
continues to live after death)

2. Values: They are shared, abstract norms of what is correct,

desirable and worthy of respect. Although values are widely shared,
members of a culture rarely adhere to them; rather, values set the
general tone for cultural and social life.

3. Norms and sanctions: These are rules about what people should
or should not do, say or think in a given situation.
Sanctions are socially imposed rewards and punishments, with
which people are encouraged to adhere to norms.
4. Symbols: It is something that can express or evoke meaning: a
crucifix or a statue of Buddha, a toy bear, a constitution; A flag,
although it is nothing more than a piece of colored cloth, is treated
with a solemn rite and inspires a feeling of pride and patriotism.

Certain cars denote wealth, others express youth, audacity, lifestyle,

power. In other cultures a cow or a pig of a particular color can
evoke similar sensations. (cultural and personal meanings are
intertwined)

5. Language or language: It is a set of spoken (and often written)

symbols and rules for combining these symbols in a meaningful
way. Language has been called “the storehouse of culture.”
It is the primary means to capture, communicate, discuss, change
and transmit shared knowledge to new generations.

6. Technology: It is a body of practical knowledge and equipment to

improve the effectiveness of human labor and alter the environment
for human use; Technology creates a particular physical, social and
psychological environment.
Sub culture
In sociology , anthropology and cultural studies we use this term to
define a group of people with a distinctive set of behaviors and
beliefs that differentiates them within the dominant culture of which
they are part.
The subculture can be formed from the age , ethnic group or gender
of its members. The qualities that determine whether a subculture
appears can be aesthetic, political, sexual or a combination of them.

Subcultures are often defined by their opposition to the values of the

dominant culture to which they belong, although this definition is not
universally accepted, since an opposition between the subculture
and the culture does not always occur in a radical way.
CULTURAL RELATIVISM
Cultural relativism is the attitude or point of view by which the world
is analyzed according to the parameters of each culture.[1] His
philosophy defends the validity and richness of any cultural system
and denies any absolutist moral or ethical assessment of them. It
opposes ethnocentrism and cultural universalism —of a positivist
nature—which affirms the existence of values, moral judgments and
behaviors with absolute value and, furthermore, applicable to all
humanity. Ethnocentrism usually involves the belief that one's own
ethnic group is the most important, or that some or all aspects of
one's culture are superior to those of other cultures. This fact is
reflected, for example, in the pejorative exonyms that are given to
other groups and in the positive autonyms that the group applies to
itself. Within this ideology, individuals judge other groups in relation
to their own culture or particular group, especially with regard to
language, customs, behaviors, religion and beliefs. These
differences are usually what establish cultural identity.
There is no single definition. For some (for example, some of the
most important critics against this current, such as the Catholic
Church, Ayn Rand or Emmanuel Kant) cultural relativism is absolute
relativism or nihilism with respect to cultural values; For others
(Michel de Montaigne) everything is relative except the morality and
ethics of the respective culture, and for still others cultural relativism
is, simply, while taking sides with some universal vision of ethics or
culture, but also not sectarianizing the respect [ citation needed ] .
With its nuances, it can range from a defense of ostracism (for
example, some activists of anti-globalization movements) or the lack
of a code of values (Marquis de Sade, and to a lesser extent,
Jonathan Swift) , to just being a denial of the uniformization [ citation needed ]
.
This means that cultural relativism leads to considering any aspect
of another society or group in relation to the cultural standards of
that group, instead of doing so from a point of view considered
universal, or in relation to the assessment from other cultures. For
example, it considers the different forms of marriage, such as
polygamy or polyandry, relative to each cultural system.
In summary, according to this current of thought, all cultures would
have equal value, and none would be superior to another since all
values are considered relative (adapted to a situation, José Ortega y
Gasset would say).
The main assertion that supports cultural relativism is that in
dissimilar societies there are unequal ethical regulations. These
laws establish what is appropriate within that culture, so relativists
consider that there would be no judgment that could be called
"sensible" that qualifies the moral code of one civilization as better
than that of another, from their point of view.
Cultural relativism therefore considers totally erroneous the idea of
believing that some cultures are superior, as in fact the Greco-
Roman culture, the Mesoamerican-Aztec, the Mayan culture, the
Judeo-Christian culture, the Chinese culture, etc., have been
considered and are considered in different circles, since the point of
view of the values they promote. Furthermore, cultural relativism
alerts us that our tendencies and inclinations are conditioned by
what we have learned in the social environment in which we grew
up, and thereby seeks to encourage us to maintain an accessible
posture, leaving aside the presumption that what we We think and
do what is right.
According to the American philosopher, James Rachels, "the only
reasoning that could prudently be used to censure the actions of
any society, including our own, is to question whether the practice
promotes or limits the well-being of the people whose lives are
disturbed by it" [ quote required ] .
Regardless of the criticism to which this philosophical theory is
subjected, it must also be highlighted as an interesting aspect that
there are coincident values between cultures, such as sincerity
when communicating, the proscription of homicide, etc.; Otherwise,
the existence of society would be threatened. All of the above allows
relativists to argue that the contradiction lies in our more or less
dogmatic systems , not in our values.
We can also say that cultural relativism challenges the idea that
there are true beliefs, common to various societies. That is, it states
that all beliefs are different and can be true depending on society.
In fact, relativists argue that there is no law that encompasses the
universal: there are just different ways of thinking within cultures,
further stating that our own morality would not have a special
category, considering that it turns out to be only one among many.
Cultural relativism is really a mixture of several thoughts. It is
important to separate the different elements of the theory, because
when analyzed, some parts turn out to be correct, while others
seem wrong.
It is worth highlighting among these points several ideas about why
relativists consider that different cultures should be respected:

Societies are different in terms of their moral education; since each

people, group or society has different forms of education that are
correct for them.

Each society proposes as correct what is good for them according

to their moral beliefs; As you mention, each culture is different.
Cultural relativism therefore considers it impossible to say which
criterion is best within various societies, because they are totally
different morally; This continues with the same, this current
considers that something should not be approved just because
within one society it is seen as well done, considering another
society where the opposite is considered.

Cultural relativism considers that there is no single truth that

encompasses the absolute truth within all truths. Starting from this
last point, relativists try to explain why all societies are different, with
their authorizations and limitations, according to their moral beliefs.
According to this philosophy, none of the cultures could properly
allow us to say which one should be superior and why, since what is
correct for some will contrast with another human group for which it
is not. For example, quoting Alain de Botton, " no one should judge
the actions of other societies, for the sole fact of being different from
ours, we have to be tolerant and accept that we are simply all
different ."
Cultural relativism does not propose a legitimation of cultural
manifestations that are apparently in contrast or extreme (case of
the confrontation of the relationship between all cultures), but rather
predisposes us to explain these manifestations in accordance with
the logic of the group in which that manifestation has place. While
the defenders of relativism maintain that it is an attitude of knowing
all the implications and contradictions that a custom raises within
the same cultural system, its critics argue that it is actually a
legitimation of certain specific practices (such as the discrimination
of women , clitoral excision , the death penalty as a form of
punishment, rape, human sacrifice, pedophilia, slavery, etc.), which
occur in a particular culture. Cultural relativism would be, according
to these criteria, incompatible with the existence of universal Human
Rights .
However, relativists clarify that the argument from cultural
differences is not convincing because it implies a certain
contradiction between the premise and the conclusion, that is,
between what is believed and what really is. To understand this, let
us think that it is very simple to explain the succession of days and
nights and the variation of the seasons of the year, by the rotation
and translation movements of the Earth around the Sun. On the
other hand, there are some cultures that associate this fact with the
divinity of their gods. Despite this contradiction, cultural relativism
considers that we have no reason to believe that if there are moral
realities, everyone should know about them.

ETHNOCENTRISM

Ethnocentrism is the attitude or point of view by which the world is

analyzed according to the parameters of one's own culture . 1
Ethnocentrism usually involves the belief that one's ethnic group is
the most important, or that some or all aspects of one's culture are
superior to those of other cultures. This fact is reflected, for
example, in the pejorative exonyms given to other groups and in the
positive autonyms that the group applies to itself.
Within this ideology , individuals judge other groups in relation to
their own culture or particular group, especially with regard to
language , customs , behaviors , religion or beliefs . These
differences are usually what establish cultural identity .
Ethnocentrism occurs in many cultures, and is a cognitive bias well
described in social psychology .
The concept of ethnocentrism in cultural sciences such as
discrimination, William Graham Sumner in the book “Folkways”
published in 1906, combines the belief that one's own culture is
superior to others, along with the practice of judging other cultures
by the standards of one culture. specific culture. “Ethnocentrism”
can be understood as a human universal to the extent that it can be
exercised by members of
any race , society or group. In this sense, people in different cultures
tend to describe the beliefs, customs and behaviors of their own
culture in stereotypically positive terms, while the customs and
beliefs of others are described negatively.
In situations where conflicts between cultures occur, ethnocentric
beliefs of superiority are usually linked to feelings of mistrust and
fear, as well as related to actions that are designed to limit contact
with members of the other group and to exercise discrimination. In
the midst of violent cultural conflicts, ethnocentrism is accompanied
by xenophobia , discrimination, prejudices, physical separation of
groups and a recurrent presence of negative stereotypes towards
others. This concept is thus related to Michel Foucault 's work on
the dynamics of discourse and power in the representation of social
reality, to the extent that ethnocentrism , as an order of discourse
typical of a specific group, “produces certain modes permissible to
be and think while disqualifying and even making others
impossible.”
SHAPES
It has been proposed that there are various forms of ethnocentrism,
among them are:
• INVERTED ETHNOCENTRISM OR XENOCENTRISM:
thinking that one's own culture is inferior to others and is an
obstacle to prosperity or personal development.
• RACIAL ETHNOCENTRISM: thinking that members of one's
own culture or ethnic group have a genetic endowment that
makes them superior or better for the development of
civilization.
 • LINGUISTIC ETHNOCENTRISM: thinking that one's own
language is more complex, subtle and suitable for thought
than the languages of other peoples, which may be barbaric,
rude or lack expression or flexibility for certain purposes.
• RELIGIOUS ETHNOCENTRISM: thinking that one's own
religious belief is superior to others in the sense that it is the
only true one, with the rest of the practices and beliefs being
sectarianism.

EUROCENTRISM

A particular form of ethnocentrism is called Eurocentrism. This

concept refers to the view of the world from the Western European
experience, where advantages or benefits for Europeans and their
descendants are sought at the expense of other cultures, justifying
this action with paradigms or ethical norms that proclaim universal
benefits for all. We then speak of a “specific rationality or
perspective of knowledge that becomes hegemonic by colonizing
and superimposing all others, previous or different, and their
respective concrete knowledge, both in Europe and in the rest of the
world.” In this way, it is concluded that ethnocentrism as an
intellectual tradition, as a method of analysis of dominant and
dominated cultures or as a hegemonic idea of superiority (as seen
in the case of Eurocentrism) must be a constant object of criticism in
the academy by various disciplines. such as Law, anthropology and
sociology, to the extent that the impositions given by cultural
hegemonies considered of superior rank, distort the world cultural
and social reality, ignoring or suppressing among their assumptions,
the existence of a plurality of cultures that They want to “stop being
what they are not” because of the transformations they are forced to
undergo in order to be an exact or similar copy of the dominant
culture they face.

AFROCENTRISM

Afrocentrism is a view of world history that emphasizes the

importance of Africans, taking them as a single group and often
becoming synonymous with black people, in culture, philosophy and
history. It can be traced back to the work of black intellectuals in the

19th and 20th centuries, but flourished in its current form due to the
 activism of black intellectuals in the United States civil rights
movement and in the development of African American studies
programs in universities. One of the most prominent critics of
Afrocentrism, Mary Lefkowitz, defending the mainstream academic
position, has characterized Afrocentrism as "an excuse to teach
myths as if they were history." Likewise, African American history
professor Clarence E. Walker has characterized it as "a mythology
that is racist, reactionary and essentially therapeutic."

SYNOCENTRISM

Sinocentrism (a term constructed in a similar way to Eurocentrism)

is the ethnocentric perspective that considers China as the center,
and relates any other area to that center, which will be considered
the periphery. Before the Modern Age it was the preferred way in
which most of China's intelligentsia saw itself: as the only civilization
in the world; foreign nations or other ethnic groups being considered
barbarians. In contemporary times, after China has been subjected
to European and Japanese imperialism, this consideration is
reduced to the search for Chinese supremacy over other nations.

PRIMITIVE MODE OF PRODUCTION

Life emerged on Earth about 900 million years ago, and the first men
appeared less than a million years ago.
It is understood, in Marxist theory, as a stage in the development of
economic-social formations , characterized by the low level of
development of the productive forces , the collective ownership of the
means of production (land and rudimentary tools) and the equal
distribution of products.
It is the first mode of production in the history of humanity. The basis of
their production relations was the collective ownership of each
community over the means of production, a type of property that
corresponded to the primitive, undeveloped productive forces. The first
economic-social formation lasted many hundreds of thousands of
years. With him the development of society begins. At first, men were
semi-savage and defenseless against the forces of nature. They fed
mainly on the vegetables they found in nature: roots, wild fruits, nuts,
etc.
The weakness of isolated man and the impossibility of producing and
fighting with nature individually required that ownership of the means of
production and work be collective. The simple cooperation of primitive
men appeared as a new productive force. Man's work did not create
surpluses above the necessary vital minimum, the distribution of
products was equal. Consequently, neither inequality of goods, nor
classes nor the exploitation of man by man existed, there was no
State. In the development of the mode of production of the primitive
community, which represents the longest period in the history of
humanity, the era of the primitive horde is distinguished, during which
man learned to make very simple stone instruments and obtain fire. ,
the first instruments of man were the stone, roughly hewn by blow, and
the stick. Later, as they gradually gained experience, men learned to
build simple instruments, useful for hitting, cutting and digging.
In the fight against nature, the discovery of fire was very important,
which allowed primitive man to vary his diet. The invention of the bow
and arrow constituted a new era in the development of the productive
forces of primitive man. Thanks to this, men were able to dedicate
themselves more to hunting animals. The meat of hunted wild animals
was increasingly added to the diet. The development of hunting gave
rise to the emergence of primitive livestock farming. Hunters began to
domesticate animals.
. As productive forces increased, the natural division of labor by sex
and age arose. The primitive horde becomes the gentile organization
of society. The gens constituted a group of men that consisted, at first,
of a few dozen individuals linked by ties of blood kinship on the
mother's line. In a certain phase, it was the woman who occupied a
dominant position in the gentile community (matriarchy); However, in
the course of the subsequent development of the economy and the
family, the dominant situation passed to the man (patriarchy).
Agriculture remained at a very low level for a long time. The use of
beasts as draft power made the farmer's work more productive, and
agriculture had a firm foundation for its progress. Primitive man began
to transition to a sedentary life.
The relations of production in primitive society were determined by the
state of the productive forces. The basis of production relations was
the collective ownership of the different communities over the primitive
instruments of work and means of production. Collective property
corresponded to the level of development of the productive forces of
that period. The work instruments of the primitive community were so
crude that they did not allow primitive man to fight alone against the
forces of nature and wild animals. For this reason, men lived in groups
or communities and collectively managed their property (hunting,
fishing, food preparation).
Along with the communal ownership of the means of production, there
was the personal ownership of the members of the community over
some work instruments that were, at the same time, weapons to
defend themselves against wild beasts.
In primitive society, work was very unproductive and did not create any
surplus, but rather the most essential things for life. Work activity was
based on simple cooperation, that is, many people carried out the
same job. There was no exploitation of man by man and the equal
distribution of scarce food among the members of the community was
practiced.
While the process of separating man from the animal world was taking
place, men lived in herds. Later, when the hacienda was formed, the
gentile organization of society was gradually established, that is, only
men united by kinship ties were grouped together for joint work. At first,
the gens consisted of a few dozen people, but later it grew to several
hundred. As work instruments were perfected, the natural division of
labor arose in the gens. Between men and women, between adults,
children and the elderly. The specialization of men in the sphere of
hunting and of women in the collection of plant foods led to a certain
increase in labor productivity.
When moving to livestock or grazing and the cultivation of the land, the
social division of labor occurred, that is, one part of society began to
dedicate itself to agriculture, and the other, to livestock. This division
into pastoral and agricultural tribes constituted the first great social
division of labor in history.
It is characterized by being the group that shares a territory and its
objectives and different types of social organization are distinguished,
which are:
• The Horde: it is the simplest form of society, no relationship of
paternity, filiation or descent is distinguished, there is a dominant
male with one or more females with their offspring, they are
characterized by being nomadic with small numbers of 30 to 40
 individuals and They are dedicated to collecting.
• The Clan or Gens: has offspring, chooses its partner outside the
group and is characterized by being united as a large family.
• The Tribe: is formed with the union of several subgroups, they
have a specific territory, they have cultural homogeneity and
there is a defined language, they have a political organization.
Several tribes were united in a tribe. The progress of livestock,
crafts and agriculture led to the birth of the social division of
labor, and, in relation to this, to the appearance of change. The
gradual improvement of work instruments, the division of labor
and change increased productivity, which made it possible to
obtain means of subsistence with individual work on family farms.
This led to the breakdown of the gens and the appearance of the
community of neighbors. The birth and development of private
property engendered inequality of goods and, ultimately, gave
rise to exploitation, that is, some men appropriating the products
of other men's work. Prisoners stopped being killed and were
turned into slaves. The birth of slavery caused the total
decomposition of the primitive community. The first division of
society into classes and the State appear. The mode of
production of the primitive community in different towns and
depending on the specific historical conditions, gave way to the
slave mode of production or the feudal mode of production.
When tribes begin to unite, they form towns and these become the
cultural background of current states and nations.
The first social division of labor increased its productivity. A certain
surplus of some products and demand for others appeared in the
communities. This created the basis for exchange between farming
and ranching tribes. Later - when men learned to smelt metallic ores,
copper and tin (they learned to smelt iron somewhat later), and to
make instruments, weapons and bronze vessels, and the invention of
the hand loom significantly alleviated the production of fabrics and
clothing - little by little, some members who dedicated themselves to
these professions began to stand out in the communities, and
handicraft products became an object of exchange.

The progress of the productive forces considerably raised the

productivity of man's labor and his power over nature and provided him
with more articles of consumption. But these new productive forces
already overflowed the framework of existing production relations. The
narrow framework of communal property and the egalitarian distribution
of the products of labor hindered the development of productive forces.
The need for joint work disappeared and the need for individual work
appeared, since it became more productive. Collective labor required
collective ownership of the means of production, while individual labor
engendered private property. Private ownership of the means of
production arises, and with it, property inequality between men, both
the different gens and within each of them. Men begin to divide into
rich and poor.

As the productive forces progressed, man began to obtain more means

of subsistence than was necessary for his life. Under such conditions,
the use of other people's labor on one's own farm became possible,
since this foreign labor yielded a certain surplus of products, which
could be accumulated to exchange for products that were not obtained
on the farm. These workers were supplied by the war: the prisoners
became slaves. At first, slavery had a patriarchal (domestic) character,
but later it became the main mode of existence of the new regime. The
work of slaves increasingly accentuated inequality, the estates that
used slave labor became rich very quickly. Later, as wealth inequality
increased, the rich began to turn not only prisoners into slaves, but
also impoverished or pawned members of their own tribes. Thus arose
the first class division of society into slaveholders and slaves. The
exploitation of man by man appeared. From that period the entire
history of humanity until the construction of socialism is the history of
the class struggle, of the struggle between the exploited and the
exploiters.
The growing inequality between men gave rise to the formation of the
State as an organ of oppression of the exploited class by the exploiter.
Thus slavery was born on the ruins of the mode of production of the
primitive community.

SLAVERY MODE OF PRODUCTION OR ANCIENT STAGE

To delve into the topic we will define what a slave is and we know the
history of this mode of production, as well as the stage in which it
developed.
Slavery
 As a legal institution it is a situation by which one person (slave) is
the property of another (the master); It is a form of production
relationship, it is characteristic of a high level of development in the
history of the economy. Slavery has its beginnings in the Ancient
Stage, although not at the same time in all civilizations.

It comes from the practice of using captives as labor in wars, as an

alternative to another social possibility of sacrificing them, it was also
for conquered peoples, another very common way of reaching slavery
was due to personal debts or individual pressure. The flourishing of
Periclean Athens or Classical Rome was based on slave labor. The
thinker and philosopher Aristotle maintained that slavery is a natural
phenomenon. With the transition from slavery to feudalism, most of the
workforce was no longer slaves.
The history of slavery is strongly linked to war, The sources
documentaries of the world
ancient Mesopotamia , Egypt , the towns originating
from Israel , Greece , Rome , Persia , China , the
Mayan and Aztec civilizations and India , are full of references to
slavery linked to war events. Often war prisoners were reduced to
slaves by their captors and were forced to work in military or civil tasks,
they were also used as servants for domestic service. Many homes in
ancient times needed the domestic service of a slave and it was a
common custom.

Pro-slavery
Henchman owner of the subject, he not only had the work but also
the lives of other human beings.

Slave
It is the person who is under the legal domain of another and lacks
freedom. They were put to forced labor in exchange for subsistence.

History Slavery Mode of Production

The slave mode of production was the essential component of the
social economic formation of the Greco-Roman civilization and what
provided the basis for both its success and its crisis. Materialist
historiography insists on the originality of that fact and its significance.
Slavery had already existed in different civilizations and was a legally
impure condition. Which normally took the condition of debt and forced
labor. The river empires (Mesopotamia, Egypt), based on intensive,
irrigated agriculture that contrasts with the dry farming of the Greco-
Roman Mediterranean civilization, were not slave economies, and their
legal systems lacked a strictly defined conception of property
ownership. furniture.
The great classical eras: Greece in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. C.
and Rome from II BC. C. until II AD. c. They were those in which
slavery was massive and general among other work systems. The
decline of slavery, in Hellenism or in Rome during the crisis of the third
century, meant the decline of both urban cultures. The predominance
of the city over the countryside is reversed when the slave mode of
production is replaced by the feudal mode of production.
Slave Production Mode
The slave mode of production is one of the modes of production
that Marx defined as states of the evolution of economic history defined
by a certain level of development of productive forces and a particular
form of production relations. It is typical of a level of development of
clearly pre-industrial forces. Capital is scarce, there are no incentives
for investment although fortunes are amassed immensely. The
techniques are very rudimentary and traditional. There being no
incentives for improvement although there may be spectacular pre-
scientific intellectual development. Land and work are the fundamental
productive forces.
In the slave mode of production, the workforce is subject to slavery,
that is, it is not the property of the workers, who therefore do not have
to be paid. The reproduction of the labor force thus remains the
responsibility of the slave owner; in the slave mode of production,
social relations are based on property and law, which make some
people free and others slaves.
The interest in the production corresponds solely to the owner, the
slave does not benefit or be harmed by an improvement or failure in
the harvest. The slave mode reached its maximum development in
Ancient Greece and, especially in Classical Rome. In the slave regime,
production relations were based on the ownership of the slave owners
over the means of production and over the slaves considered as
“instruments” without any decision-making rights and subject to
exploitation.
Characteristics
• The first social class division appeared (Slaveholder and slave)
• With the increase in commercial activity, money represented in
currency appears as a means of exchange. Gold at its finest.
• With the appearance of money, one of the branches of the
economy, “commerce,” developed.
• With the exchange, cities were created, where agricultural activity
became less important.
• With the rise and transformation of the instruments of production,
livestock and slavery gave rise to private ownership of land and
became a commodity.
• The result of the division of society into classes brought with it
Politics and with it the Slave State.
• With the increase in production and trade, monetary circulation
progressed.
• The development of slave production allowed the emergence of a
new and important phenomenon in economic life. "The colonies"
• The slave method went into decline, when the division of the
Roman Empire was imminent, and passed from the slave mode
to the feudal mode.

The improvement of tools, the discovery of metals, the development

of livestock and agriculture gave way to the family economy to a more
sedentary life and gradually displaced the communal economy, “they
became instruments of looting and hunting. slaves and became almost
parasitic” (Gómez Padilla1976, p. 209).
Family work required private family ownership of the means of
production, especially land. The social division of labor was
accentuated and together with the improvement of the means of work,
they generated the economic surplus. War captives were no longer
annihilated or sacrificed in religious rites and were turned into slaves.
In this way, slavery was less cruel than extermination.
Slave production relations were established, based on the absolute
ownership of the slaveholder over the means of production, over the
person and over the slave labor force. The material wealth of this time
was the result of the work of slaves. It developed within a patriarchal
regime. During this mode of production, productive forces developed,
knowledge advanced in the field of mathematics, astronomy,
architecture, and crafts multiplied. Slavery spanned approximately the
4th millennium BC to the 5th century AD

Slave mode of production in Greece.

The Greek polis were the first to make slavery something absolute
and, above all, dominant, turning it into a systematic mode of
production. Although there were also free peasants who interacted with
slaves. But the dominant mode of production, which governed the
articulation of each local economy and defined Greek civilization, was
the slave mode. Numerical estimates are variable and in Periclean
Athens the ratio of slaves to free citizens is believed to be 3 to 2. And
in the polis probably more. Aristotle thought that there must have been
plenty of slaves while Xenophon proposed 3 to 1.
The most important event was when slaves were used in the art of
crafts, industry, livestock, and agriculture on a scale greater than
domestic use. As slavery became general, its nature became absolute;
it consisted of a complete loss of freedom.

Slavery Production Mode in Rome

The internal and external wars of the 3rd century BC put large
territories under the control of the oligarchy, at the same time they
dramatically accentuated the decline of the Roman peasantry that
constituted the base of small landowners of the social pyramid of the
city. In turn, victorious wars provided more captives – slaves to send to
the cities and estates of Italy. The final result was the appearance of
agrarian properties, latifundios cultivated by slaves, of unknown sizes
at that time. At the end of the Republic, perhaps 90% of Rome's
artisans were of slave origin. It is estimated that in the year 225 BC
There were 4,400,000 free people in Italy compared to 600,000 slaves.
In 43 BC, the free population had not grown, while slaves numbered
3,000,000 (five times more than the previous date.
 Crisis and End of the Slavery Mode of Production

The pax Romana of Augustus and the empire could not mean the
end of military expansionism, the entire system would fall. The crisis of
the second century, with its correlation of invasions, military anarchy
and ideological crisis that entails the expansion and subsequent
triumph of Christianity, is economically the crisis of the slave mode of
production.
The large estates began to be cultivated by semi-free settlers, and
slaves became scarce, they were not acquired by conquest and they
were even freed, sometimes for pious reasons, which does not hide
the interest that the owners have in becoming something similar to
what They will be the feudal lords. The city declines, just as Roman
citizenship spreads and ceases to be attractive (it had been granted by
Antonio de Caracalla), citizenship and freedom are concepts that have
been definitively devalued. When being free no longer meant anything,
being a slave will mean nothing.
There is an immense debate among historians regarding the
chronology, causes and ways in which the transition between the slave
mode of production and the feudal mode of production, or transition
between slavery and feudalism, occurred.

Elements of the economy

To talk about the different types or modes of production, we must

know that they are elements of the economy, and through which our
economy and the world economy have been advancing and evolving
over time. Below we will briefly describe the different elements of the
economy.
a) the job
It is a human activity, which aims to produce material goods to
satisfy needs. “It is a rational activity aimed at the production of useful
objects, the assimilation of natural materials at the service of human
needs” (Marx, Trad 1978, pp. 130-137). Work is divided into two
branches: productive work and non-productive work.
In productive work we refer to the production of a new product,
while non-productive work is an activity that complements or is part of
the new product.
b) Productive Forces
These are the engine that drives social development and are made
up of the workforce and the means of production. When the productive
forces do not develop correctly or very slowly, that is when there
begins to be a deficit in society since they are the driving force of it.
c) The Work Force
This is made up of the abilities, skills, actions, knowledge, physical
and mental energies that the human being performs when developing
or carrying out an action in which they produce something. This is the
first member of the productive forces, and in an easier and more
understandable way we can say that it is work itself.
d) The means of production
These are constituted by the means of work and the object of work.
The object of work is a made or transformed product. AND
 The means of work are the materials used to be modified.

The Social Relations of Production

In our research one of the most important since we talk about social
relations and production "They are the result of the social nature of
work" (Reyes 1991, pp. 94-95). Men are directly related to group
action, as one writer mentions, men develop according to their abilities.
Production has always been social, since various sectors of society
participate in it. For the production of goods necessary for life in
society, men establish relationships among themselves, which have
nothing to do with their will but with the position they occupy within
production. For example, when the owner of a company wants to start
production, he must hire personnel and they must be under his
responsibility, therefore the workers must do everything that the
employer tells them to do.
The essence of production relations is based on ownership of the
means of production, including land.
When ownership of the means of production is social, it means that
the land, the factories, all the means of production are in the hands of
society, everyone is the owner and relations of collectivity,
collaboration and mutual aid are established among them. Examples of
these are the primitive community and socialism.

Social Property Relations of

About the Media Community,
Collaboration
of production and Mutual Aid

When ownership of the means of production is private, men

establish a different relationship with the means of production.
 production and among themselves. Relationships of domination,
exploitation and subordination are established here.

Relations of - Property
Private
Domination, Exploitation and About the Media
Subordination. Of production.

Division of Society into Classes

Since humanity and thinking man have existed, there has been
great development, since its evolution is constant and with this we can
mention that in prehistoric times, primitive man used instruments made
of stone, animal bones and wood. An important event was the
discovery and use of fire, since with this he managed to protect himself
from the cold, cook his food, perfect his hunting instruments just as he
did to perfect and mold metal. It is worth mentioning that he also
discovered the wheel and with it the transportation of his objects was
less difficult.
With these instruments it was easier for him to obtain food as well
as transport it for his survival and that of his tribe as well as the
different tribes, this allowed him to establish his tribe in some fields and
practice agriculture, he also perfected his hunting instruments which
allowed him It allows you to get more prey, some of them alive, and
this allows you to dedicate yourself to livestock farming.
There is also a great division of labor, since some dedicated
themselves to agricultural work, others to livestock, and others became
artisans and blacksmiths. The chiefs and priests began to accumulate
wealth, they no longer had to work their land since they hired people
for the work and thus they would have more time to educate
themselves, read and be more intellectual. With wealth accumulated in
a few hands, the division of social classes begins to emerge. In this
division of social classes were the poor who had to work to survive and
the rich who did not need to work and paid third parties to do the work.
The Production Mode

To reach our point of interest in this case, the slave mode of

production, we will define important topics such as mode of production
and its development.
The social relations of production are based on the development of
productive forces. Just as ownership of the means of production is of
utmost importance in the economy. The social relations of production
established in the productive forces with a certain level of development
constitute what we know as the mode of production. Each type of
social relationship results in a certain mode of production. That is to
say, each mode of production corresponds to a type of social
relationship.
Each historical society is based on a certain dominant mode of
production. The following historical periods, stages or modes of
production are divided chronologically: The primitive community or
prehistoric stage, the slave mode of production or ancient stage; the
feudal mode of production or medieval stage, capitalism, the modern
stage or mercantilism, the contemporary stage that encompasses:
capitalism and socialism. .
Traditionally, five historical modes of production were proposed:
The primitive community, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and socialism.
 Productive Forces + mode
Production Relations Production

The mode of production has great influence on other social

processes, such as the State or Nation, Science or Morals, Language
or Art, the way of administering justice or by the laws themselves, that
is, the entire social structure or Socioeconomic formation is directed by
the mode of production. The structure of society also depends on the
predominant mode of production. In the productive forces we find the
objective and subjective conditions of production, the former include
the means of production, objects and means of work. Subjective
conditions are made up of man himself, his experience, his capacities,
aptitudes and abilities, his knowledge. The productive forces are
therefore the technical methods of production.
Society has managed over time to find solutions to its economic
problems, thus modes of production emerge. Modes of Production are:
the way in which people organize themselves to produce, distribute
and consume the goods and services that satisfy their needs.

Its importance
{ Forms of production of material goods to ensure the existence of
man.
^ It has evolved alongside humanity.
{ Basic element that allows explaining and understanding the nature
of society.
{ It has given rise to the different social classes that have existed in
the history of humanity due to production relations.
{ It has given rise to private property and collective property.
• It has allowed commercial exchange worldwide

FEUDAL PRODUCTION

Following the fall of the Roman Empire, the slaves acquired their
freedom and began to work the land, thus giving rise to peasants or
serfs who grouped themselves around a feudal lord, since he provided
protection in exchange for their work. Each feudal lord owned large
amounts of land.
The economy had a fundamental and basic natural character, that is,
the products of labor were mainly destined for personal consumption
and not for exchange. However, a part of the production was destined
for the feudal lord.
There is the development of three social classes: the peasants or
serfs, the artisans, the feudal lords or landowners and the monarchy or
kings.
The church emerged as a dominant factor, becoming the protector of
the social structure. Its doctrine was based on indulgence (heaven was
assured for those who gave juicy alms). The church gave the
landowners a certain document that said that their sinners were
forgiven. In exchange for a certain amount of land, in this way the
church became increasingly richer and was on the same social level as
the landowners.
Foreign trade becomes broader following the discovery of America.
The opening of the maritime route to this new world and India,
commercial production is increasing and the productive apparatus is
increasingly modernized. In addition, some inventions should be
mentioned such as the water wheel, the compass, gunpowder, paper,
the printing press, the sailing ship and the knowledge provided by
Copernicus and Galileo that subjugated feudalism.

feudal society
The main classes of feudal society are those made up of feudal lords
and peasants. The dominant and exploiting class of lords included the
nobility and the high clergy. Within the ruling class, there was a
hierarchical division into estates, a subordination of the small feudal
lords to those of greater power.
The Church was a great feudal power. The exploited peasants lacked
political and legal rights. In the cities, the main mass of the population
was made up of teachers, journeymen, apprentices and unskilled
workers.

Feudal Pyramid
Production relations
The basis of the dominant production relations under Feudalism was
the ownership of the feudal lord over the means of production, first of
all, over the land, and incomplete ownership over the worker, which
was expressed in various types of personal dependence on the
peasant with respect to his lord.
Under feudalism, productive forces could only develop on the basis of
the work of dependent peasants, who owned their estate, insignificant
instruments of work, and felt somewhat materially interested in work.
The original duality of the work of dependent peasants conditioned the
duality of the additional product in feudal society. The additional
product, as well as the necessary product, was use value, that is, it had
the capacity to satisfy the needs of those who appropriated it, that is, of
the feudal lords due to their status as owners of the land. At the same
time, having been created by the forced labor of serf peasants, the
additional product took the specific form of feudal land rent. The
additional product created as a result of the forced labor of the
peasants dependent on the feudal lords was appropriated by them in
the form of feudal ground rent for their parasitic consumption. This is
the essence of the fundamental economic law of feudalism.

Research objectives

General objectives
 - Investigation of Feudal Modes of Production
- Verify the duality of peasant work
- The study of the necessary and additional work of feudal
production
- In this framework of activities that feudalism develops is the seed
of capitalism and even when it can find important advances in the
cultural field, the same social organization is appreciated, which
prevents the development that the industry requires.

Specific objectives
- Determination of the development of the productive forces of the
feudal lords
- The Study of the main classes of feudal society
- Development of Tax Economy
- The study of the main economic characteristics that allowed the
advent of the feudal mode of production to replace the slave
mode of production.

Importance of the Feudal Mode of Production

The feudal mode has had an impact on the way peasants, serfs, etc.
are treated. Since the mode of production of material goods was based
on feudal ownership of land and partial ownership of workers - serf
peasants - as well as the exploitation of the latter by feudal lords.
Feudalism arose as a result of the decomposition of the slave regime
and, in some countries, of the primitive community regime. Lenin,
characterizing the feudal mode of production, highlights the following
fundamental features:

1) domain of natural economy,

2) concession of means of production and land to the direct producer,
and in particular attachment of the peasant to the land,
3) personal dependence of the peasant on the landowner (extra-
economic coercion),
4) extraordinarily low and routine state of the art. In the conditions of
the feudal mode of production, the ruling class was and remains the
landowners in the person of the nobility and the clergy. Ownership of
land was the basis for obtaining unpaid work or products.

The additional unpaid labor of the direct producer (serf peasant) or the
product obtained through such labor and which is appropriated by the
owners of the land through coercion or extra-economic imposition is
called feudal ground rent.
Craft production and trade were concentrated in the cities and were
organized in the form of artisan guilds and merchant corporations.
In the feudal regime there were two main classes:
The feudal lords and the peasants. A great role corresponded to the
Church, which was a large feudal landowner and exercised a sensitive
influence on the entire social regime of feudalism.

The feudal era and its ways gave rise to other ways that were modified
years later for the good of all, although it can also be said that some
continued to use it as a coercive way.

Tax economics
In the tributary economy all the land was given to the peasant in no
way. All agricultural production was achieved on peasant tributary
estates. A part of the product created was delivered by the peasant to
the landowner in the form of tribute. And the other part remained in the
hands of the peasant to reproduce his labor force and maintain his
family.

Necessary and additional work

In the tax economy, both additional work and necessary work were
invested in the peasant's estate. In the landed economy, necessary
labor and additional labor were divorced in space and time: necessary
labor was invested in the peasant's nobody and additional labor was
invested in the lands of the feudal lord (landowners).
In the tax economy, necessary and additional work were not
separated, since the entire field of action was the peasant's farm. But
the necessary and additional product were separated from each other
Feudal Mode Function:
Feudalism is the characteristic regime of the Middle Ages, which gave
rise to capitalism. Its importance lay in the fact that it constituted the
form from which the predominant system today in most of the world,
the capitalist system, would be born. Many free peasants gathered
around a great lord to give them protection. Thus, two fundamental
institutions of feudal development emerged: The fief and The servitude.

VESTIGES OF FEUDALISM TODAY

Many centuries have passed since the disappearance of feudalism, but

its vestiges remain in the developed world today. Despite the fact that
the facts show us that feudalism as such never existed and that on the
contrary it has been evolving and changing its name in the economic
aspect from a fiefdom to a company that dominates the destinies of its
employees as in the past the lord feudal did it with his vassals. In the
social aspect there are countries where there is still a hierarchical
society, with the privileged being at the top; the king, businessmen;
and at the base the unprivileged; the people or the workers.
There are remains of feudalism in developed countries of Europe; and
they are very clear in the economy of certain countries in Latin
America, Asia and Africa. In Brazil, for example, 177 million hectares
belong to large estates, the predominant form of land rental is semi-
feudal in appearance.
One of the most significant problems in the development of many
towns is to definitively eliminate feudal vestiges. These can only be
eliminated in colonial and underdeveloped countries with the increase
of their liberation struggle.
 Society
History of the society
The development of society is a succession of formations subject to
laws, the replacement of an economic-social formation with another
more advanced one. The progressive movement in the history of
humanity has gone from the rudimentary formation of the primitive
community to the slave formation, then passing to the feudal, to the
capitalist and, finally, to a more advanced one, to the communist. The
development process is a movement that goes from the lower to the
higher, from the simple to the complex, like a revolutionary process in
the form of leaps. So much so that when we delve into the recent past
we find that everything was different, the technique that dominates our
daily lives today did not exist. We did not know genes, hormones, the
ozone layer, brain connections, atomic weapons, space-time, or
photons. Atoms were considered indivisible and continents immovable;
Two hundred and fifty million years ago, in the Triassic period, the six
current continents formed a single enormous land mass around the
Equator, known as Pangea.

Nature, society and knowledge are in permanent movement,

development, evolution and change. Hence, since the most remote
times, man has been interested, among other issues, in the
appearance and evolution of man and in the development of human
society. The natural interest in understanding and explaining the
evolution of human society has allowed us to establish that modern
man is the result of long stages of evolution, and to determine that
contemporary society is the product of extensive periods of social
development. According to the evidence available up to now, man
appears very late in the geological records. Man: around two million
years ago, he developed his brain increasingly larger, which led this
species to be able to use tools and develop language, and about one
hundred thousand years ago he set to work on the task of developing a
diverse culture, which would help him reach, since homo sapiens
appeared on the scene, his social development has reached
extraordinary cultural and intellectual achievements. With this leap,
homo sapiens becomes a cultural being that survives as the only
species of the genus Homo: scientific thought appears, invents writing,
and has recently been able to decipher its own genome.

In short, homo sapiens, the name by which our species is scientifically

known, is the result of a long evolutionary process that began in Africa
at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. It should be noted that its
evolution no longer occurs through genetics but through culture.

Now, of all the animals, only man cannot survive by adapting to the
environment, but must strive to dominate that environment to his own
demands. Despite the specialized organs, the free thumb hand and the
developed nervous system, man cannot directly obtain his food, the
specialized organs, the free thumb hand and the developed nervous
system, have allowed him to use work instruments and, thanks to the
development of language, the outline of a social organization that has
ensured the survival of the human race in an indeterminate number of
environments. Up to this point we must infer two aspects, first, men
cannot exist without food, clothing, housing and other material goods;
and nature does not provide these things ready-made. And to obtain
them man must work. Work, an activity that is both conscious and
social, born from communication and spontaneous help between
members of the human species, constitutes the instrument through
which man acts on the environment. Work is the basis of social life,
without work activity, human life itself would be impossible. Therefore,
the main and determining cause of social development is the
production of material goods. In summary, the history of society begins
with the emergence of man, whose particularity, which distinguishes
him from animals, is his ability to manufacture and use work
instruments. In this sense, work occupies a very important place in the
training and development of man. That is, in the process of work, man
himself was formed and the forms of his social organization emerged
and developed.

In the Paleolithic period, for example, the social organization

predominant economic system was the primitive society or primitive
community. The Paleolithic is the most remote, extensive and least
known period in the history of humanity, it began with the appearance
of the first hominids (Australopithecus) at the end of the Tertiary and
ended more or less twelve thousand years ago, the Quaternary period,
at disappear the last ice age. This era is divided into three subperiods:
the Lower Paleolithic, the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic.
The first subperiod is the time of the primitive hordes of hunters and
gatherers. On the other hand, during the Upper Paleolithic, great
advances were recorded, both in the biological perfection of man and
in the development of production and social organization. In the Upper
Paleolithic the primitive clan appears.

Previously we stated that the first form of economic-social organization

in the history of humanity was the regime of the primitive community.
This regime existed for several tens of millennia. During this immense
period, man knew how to move from the use of natural objects - sticks
and stones - to the preparation of the first rudimentary instruments of
production. From then on these utensils were meticulously perfected
and elaborated. Thus new means of work emerged: the bow and
arrows, boats, sleighs, etc. Man learned to obtain fire seven hundred
thousand years ago, a circumstance that had particular importance in
the development of humanity.

Along with the perfection of work utensils, the productive activity of

men was developed and perfected. From the collection of products that
Nature provided, man went on to cultivate plants, to agriculture; and
from hunting wild animals he went on to tame and domesticate them,
to livestock farming. In primitive society, men lived in specific
collectivities: gentile communities, in which they were grouped by
kinship. They worked the communal land together with common
utensils and had a common home. The products obtained were
distributed equally. The transition from stone utensils to metal tools
constituted a gigantic leap in the development of production. It was
possible to engage in agriculture and livestock on a larger scale. The
first great social division of labor occurred: livestock farming was
separated from agriculture. Somewhat later the crafts (manufacturing
of tools, weapons, clothing, footwear, etc.) were separated, forming an
independent branch of production. With the increase in work
productivity, the gentile community began to break up into families.
Private property appeared. The family became owners of the means of
production, concentrating these preferably on the families of the old
gentile nobility. Finally, primitive equality gave way to social inequality,
with the first hostile classes appearing: slaves and slaveholders.

Evolution of societies

Sociologist Gerhard Lenski differentiates the organization of societies

based on their level of technology, communication and economy:

1. hunting and gathering

 2. simple farming
3. advanced agriculture
4. industrial
5. special (for example, fishing or maritime companies) . 3

This system is similar to an earlier one developed by anthropologists

Morton H. Fried, a conflict theorist, and Elman Service, an integration
theorist, who have established a classification system for societies in
all human cultures, based on the evolution of social inequality and the
role of the State. This classification system includes four categories:

• Hunter-gatherer bands (small groups of less than 100 individuals,

categorization of duties and responsibilities).

• Tribal societies (a few hundred, with some cases of social rank and
prestige, includes several communities bound by blood ties).
• Stratified structures or chiefdoms (approximately between 5,000 and
20,000 individuals, greater difference in rank, led by tribal chiefs,
chieftains or clan chiefs).
• Civilizations (hierarchies social complex and
organized, institutional governments) .

Additionally:

• Humanity, on which all elements of society rest, including its beliefs.

• The virtual society, based on your online identity, that is evolving in
the information age.

Over time, some cultures have evolved toward more complex forms of
organization and control. This cultural evolution has a profound effect
on community patterns. The hunter-gatherer tribes settled around the
food reserves of each season came to establish agrarian villages.
Later, the villages grew into towns and cities. Cities became city-states
and nation-states.
Society concept.

Society, in a broad sense, is a set of individuals, peoples, nations, etc.

In a strict sense, when we talk about society, we refer to a group of
people who have the same culture and traditions, and are located in a
certain space and time, every man is immersed in the society that
surrounds him, which influences your formation as a person. This
concept is not only applicable to the human race, since there are
animal societies, such as ants.
Legally, the company is an agreement, between two or more people,
with rules, rights and obligations, proportional to all its members; It,
organized by its members, arises for economic purposes.
Human society emerged as a solution to satisfy the needs of man,
through mutual help; That is why, through society, man can educate
himself, get a job, and start a family, among thousands of other
possibilities. But this is not the only purpose of society, since it also
serves as a structure for the organization and benefits the relationship
between individuals.
Formerly, in prehistory, society was organized hierarchically, and social
mobility was inconceivable, that is, if a person was born in a very low
rank in society, they would never move from that rank; progress was
denied. Later, the Greeks, in Athens, began to get rid of that
absolutism, giving rise to democracy, a democracy in which only those
considered Athenian citizens had participation.
It was with the French Revolution that social mobility became a fact,
and currently, people can ascend socially, this being seen as
something everyday. This revolution brought about new forms of
organization, such as communism, where the state has great
intervention, or anarchism, in which the state does not exist, and
people are completely free.
Currently, most societies in the world are capitalist, and social ascent
or descent is affected by the amount of money available; Thus, within
these societies the marginalized wander, those who do not have
money, and lack the resources to obtain it.
Analysis and criteria of society

Human societies are population entities, considering the inhabitants

and their environment interrelated in a common project , which gives
them an identity of belonging. Likewise, the term means a group with
economic, ideological and political ties.
Society has become a complex and multidimensional reality.
Understanding the events and processes we experience is not an easy
task. And yet, it is something urgent for those who have to live in a
world that changes constantly and at an increasingly rapid pace.
Our society is becoming a problem that is difficult to understand. The
growing complexity of social relations gives rise to paradoxical
situations that, at the very least, cause perplexity in the average
citizen. The tensions between declared values and everyday practices
are evident; The cultural identity of the various nationalities is
attempted to be reaffirmed while it is inexorably transformed; The
claims of social equality give rise to new inequalities; The right to
difference threatens to plunge us into lack of communication in the era
of information globalization .
Ethics, being independent of life, becomes an important part of it,
because it provides a set of norms and values for the right conduct of a
society. Each particular society takes these norms and gives certain
relevance to the different values depending on what is important for
each one according to their social development .
It is the right of each individual in a society to comply with the rules and
laws established by the nation and the state has the duty to contribute
by supplying the resources that the population needs in order to
maintain or preserve a social balance between both.

Characteristics:
1. "The people of a society constitute a demographic unit, that is,
they can be considered as a
total population".
2. "society exists within a common geographical area."
3. "Society is made up of large groups that differ from each other by
their social function ."
4. "Society is made up of groups of people who have a similar
culture."
5. "society must be recognizable as a unit that functions
everywhere."
6. "finally, society must be able to recognize itself as a separate
social unit."
Structure and functions
By social structure we understand the order or organization by which
the members of a society occupy a special and proper place in it in
which they act with a view to a common goal. Therefore, as Fichter
would say, when we say "society" we refer directly to a "structure
formed by the main groups interconnected with each other, considered
as a unit and all participating in a common culture."
Society exists for people and people also carry out certain activities in
it with a view to the common good. From this reciprocal influence
arises the satisfaction of people's social needs. The functions that
society is called to perform for the good of people, some are generic
and others specific.
Classification of companies

There are many ways to classify societies and each of them may be
acceptable depending on the point of view from which the society is
examined. For example, depending on its rate of growth or decline, a
population that multiplies rapidly responds to a very different type of
society from one that decreases rapidly.
"Sociologists agree that the most important abstract differences by
which societies are distinguished is the culture of each one. Societies
are distinguished from each other more by their different cultures than
by their different structures or functions. Society and culture are closely
linked and through a process of abstraction we can talk about them as
separate things. A simple example of the cultural differences that
distinguish two types of society is that of societies with writing and
societies without writing.

CLASSIFICATION ACCORDING TO DOMINANT GROUPS

A more useful and meaningful classification of societies is one based

on the predominance of one important group or institution over the
others in society. Historically this typology has focused on four main
categories:

A) "The society dominated by the economy: is a society in which

the businessman and the manufacturer enjoy a high social status;
commercial and material values have a great influence on people's
behavior ..."
B) "The society dominated by the family: is one in which there are
close ties of kinship and great honor is given to the elderly, elderly or
deceased, and in which social status is measured more by the criterion
of ancestry than by any other status norm..."
C) "The society dominated by religion: is one in which the central
point lies in the supernatural, in the relationships between god or gods
and man, in which all other major groups are subordinated to the
religious..."
D) "The system dominated by politics: it is what is usually called
"totalitarian", in which power is monophasic and the state intervenes
directly in the regulation of all other groups or institutions."
We must make it very clear that we cannot speak of an exclusively
economic, family, religious or political society, but rather of a
predominance of one over the others. We can also talk about societies
that give great importance to education and also to leisure or
recreational activity.

COMMUNITY AND ASSOCIATION SOCIETIES

Another different classification, and also of great sociological

importance, is the one that distinguishes the simple, community type,
and the complex, associative type.

COMMUNITY COMPANIES:
• Characteristics:
• a) It is dominated by primary groups.
• b) There is little specialization and division of labor.
• c) kinship ties are frequent in this type of society.
• d) has relatively little social stratification.
• e) Being minimal in the simple society, the degree of social
mobility is called a closed society.
• f) There is a relatively marked social partnership between the
members of the simple society, especially in relation to other
societies.
 • g) Tends to cling to traditional values and forms of behavior
inherited from the past.
• h) In this type of society, people tend to be governed by non-
formal customs rather than by formal laws of the past.
• i) It is relatively small in number.

•
ASSOCIATIVE COMPANIES:
• Characteristics:
• a) It is dominated by associations or secondary groups.
• b) Tends towards mechanization and industrialization.
• c) Wide variety of job functions.
• d) People have vertical and horizontal mobility.
• e) Great variations in social position.
• f) Family ties are not stable.
• g) Solidarity is less automatic and effective than in simple
society.
• h) A certain elasticity of variations is accompanied by greater
rigidity in the system of maintaining public order
• i) It is relatively larger in number.

•
Human society

As a species, the human race is gregarious, spending its life in the

company of other beings of the same species. It is organized into
various kinds of social groupings, such as nomadic hordes, villages,
cities and nations, within which it works, trades, plays, reproduces and
interacts in different ways. Unlike other species, it combines
socialization with deliberate changes in social behavior and
organization over time. Consequently, patterns of human society differ
from place to place, from era to era, and from culture to culture, making
the social world a very complex and dynamic environment.
The knowledge of The conduct human comes of
many sources. The views presented here are based primarily on
scientific research but it must also be recognized that literature, drama,
history, philosophy and other non-scientific disciplines contribute
significantly to the understanding of such behaviour. Social scientists
study human behavior from a variety of cultural, political, economic,
and psychological perspectives, using qualitative and quantitative
approaches. They look for consistent patterns of individual and social
behavior, and propose scientific explanations for them. In some cases,
such patterns may seem obvious once they are pointed out, although
they may not have been part of the way most people consciously
conceptualize the world. In other cases, patterns as revealed by
scientific research may show that long-held beliefs about certain
aspects of human behavior are incorrect.
This chapter covers recommendations about human society in terms of
individual and group behavior, social organizations , and processes of
social change. It is based on a particular approach to the subject: the
sketching of a comprehensible picture of the world that is compatible
with the findings of the different disciplines within the social sciences
such as anthropology, economics, political science , sociology and
psychology but without attempting to describe the discoveries
themselves or the methodologies that support them.

Seven key aspects of human society:

• to. Cultural effects on human behavior.
• b. Organization and behavior of groups.
• c. Processes of social change.
 • d. Social barter.
• and. Forms of economic and political organization.
• F. Mechanisms to resolve conflicts between individuals and
groups.
• g.Social, national and international systems . Although many of
the ideas are applicable to all human societies, this chapter
focuses primarily on the social characteristics of life today in the
United States of America.

Cultural effects on behavior

Human behavior is affected by genetic inheritance and experience.

The ways in which people develop are shaped by experience and
social circumstances within the context of their inherited genetic
potential. The scientific question is precisely how experience and
hereditary potential interact to produce human behavior.
Each person is born into a social and cultural environment - family,
community, social class , language, religion - and in the long run
develops many social relationships. The characteristics of a child's
social environment affect the way he learns to think and behave,
through teaching, rewards and punishments, for example. This
environment includes the home, school, neighborhood, and perhaps
also local churches and law enforcement agencies. Likewise, there are
the child's more informal interactions with friends, other peers,
relatives, and media and entertainment. It is not usually predictable
how individuals will respond to all of these influences, or which of them
will be strongest. However, there is some substantial similarity in the
way in which individuals respond to the same pattern of influences, that
is, having grown up in the same culture. Furthermore, culturally
induced behavioral patterns, such as speech patterns , body
language , and forms of humor, become so deeply ingrained in the
human mind that they often operate without the individuals themselves
being very aware of them.

Each culture has a somewhat different network of patterns and

meanings: ways of making a living, systems of commerce and
government, social functions, religions, traditions in dress, food and
arts, expectations of behavior, attitudes toward other cultures, and
beliefs and values about all these activities. Within a large society there
may be many groups with very different subcultures that are
associated with region, ethnicity or social class. If a single culture
dominates a vast region, its values can be considered correct and
promoted, not only by families and religious groups, but also by
schools and governments. Some subcultures may emerge from among
special social categories (such as businessmen and criminals), some
of which may cross national boundaries (such as musicians and
scientists).
Fair or unfair, desirable or undesirable, social distinctions are an
outstanding part of almost every culture. The form of these varies with
place and time, sometimes including rigid castes, tribal or clan
hierarchies and sometimes a more flexible social class. Class
distinctions are made primarily on the basis of wealth, education , and
occupation; but they are also likely to be associated with other
subcultural differences, such as dress, dialect, and attitudes toward
school and work. These economic, political and cultural distinctions are
recognized by almost all members of a society and some of them
resent them.
The class into which people are born affects the language, diet, tastes
and interests they will have as children and, consequently, influences
the way they will perceive the social world. Furthermore, class
determines what pressures and opportunities people will experience
and will therefore affect the direction their lives are likely to take,
including schooling, occupation, marriage , and lifestyle . However,
many people live lives very different from the norms of their class.
The ease with which someone can change social class varies
enormously with time and place. For most of human history, individuals
have been almost certain to live and die in the class into which they
were born. Moments of great upward mobility have occurred when a
society has taken on new ventures (for example, in territory or
technology) , so it has needed more people in higher-class
occupations. In some parts of the world today, increasing numbers of
human beings are being lifted out of poverty through educational or
economic opportunity, while in others, large numbers are becoming
poorer.
What is considered acceptable human behavior varies from culture to
culture and time to time. Each social group has generally accepted
ranges of behavior for its members, perhaps with some specific rules
for subgroups such as adults and children, men and women, artists
and athletes. Unusual behavior can be considered fun, unpleasant, or
a punishable offense . Some behavior that is normal in one culture may
be judged unacceptable in another. For example, aggressively
competitive behavior is considered rude in highly cooperative cultures.
On the contrary, in some subcultures of a very competitive society,
such as that of the United States, a lack of interest in competition can
be seen as something discordant. Although the world has a wide
diversity of cultural traditions, there are some types of behavior (such
as incest, violence against the family, theft and rape) that are
considered unacceptable in almost all of them.
The social consequences that are considered appropriate for
unacceptable behavior also vary widely between and even within
societies. Punishment for criminals ranges from fines or humiliation to
imprisonment or exile, from beatings or mutilation to execution. The
form of punishment appropriate depends on theories about its purpose,
whether to prevent the individual from repeating the crime or to deter
others from committing it, or simply to cause suffering for his own fault.
The success of punishment in stopping crime is difficult to analyze,
partly because of the ethical limitations of experiments that assign
different punishments to similar criminals, and partly because of the
difficulty of holding other factors constant.
Technology has long played an important role in human behavior. The
great value placed on new technological invention in many parts of the
world has led to increasingly faster and cheaper communication and
travel , which in turn has led to the rapid spread of fashions and ideas
in clothing, food, music and forms of recreation. Books, magazines,
radio , and television describe ways to dress, raise children, earn
money, find happiness, get married, cook, and make love. They also
implicitly promote values, aspirations and priorities by describing the
behavior of people, such as children, parents, teachers, politicians and
athletes, and the attitudes they show towards violence, sex, minorities,
men's roles and women, and legality.

Group behavior

In addition to belonging to the social and cultural environments into

which they are born, people voluntarily join groups that are based on
shared activities, beliefs or interests (such as unions, political parties or
clubs). Membership in these groups influences the way individuals
think about themselves and how others think about them. These
groupings impose expectations and rules that make member behavior
more predictable and allow each group to function smoothly and retain
its identity. Rules can be informal and transmitted, for example, the
way to behave at a social gathering, or they can be written rules that
are forcibly imposed. Formal groups often indicate the type of behavior
they encourage through rewards (such as praise, prizes, and
privileges) and punishments (such as threats, fines, and rejection).
Membership in any social group, whether voluntarily or because you
are born into it, offers much greater advantages: the potential for
pooling resources (such as money and labor), concerted efforts (such
as strikes, boycotts, or voting), and identity. and recognition (such as
organizations, emblems, or media attention ). Within each group, the
attitudes of the members, which often imply a superior image of their
association, help ensure group cohesion, but can also lead to serious
conflicts with other groupings. Attitudes toward other groups are likely
to involve stereotypes, treating all members of a group as equal and
perceiving in the actual behavior of those people only those qualities
that conform to the observer's preconceptions. Such social prejudice
may include blind respect for some categories of individuals, such as
doctors or clergy, as well as relentless disrespect for other categories
of people, such as foreigners or women.
Group behavior cannot be understood only as global behavior. For
example, it is not possible to understand modern war if we add the
aggressive tendencies of individuals. A person may behave very
differently in a crowd such as at a football game , a religious ceremony,
or on a strike vigilante line than when alone or with family members.
Several children together could destroy someone else's building, but
none of them would do it to their own. For the same reason, an adult
will often be more generous and sensitive to the needs of others as a
member of, for example, a club or religious group than if he were
alone. The group situation provides rewards of camaraderie and
acceptance for continuing the shared group activity and makes it
difficult to blame or give credit to one person.
Social organizations can serve many purposes beyond their original
ones. Private clubs that exist for recreation are often important places
to transact business; universities that exist formally to promote learning
and knowledge can help promote or reduce class distinctions; Just as
religious and business organizations often have social and political
agendas that go beyond making profit or ministering to the people. In
many cases, an unmentioned purpose of the groups is to exclude
people from specific categories from their activities, which is another
form of discrimination.
Social change

Societies, like species, evolve in directions that are opened up or

limited in part by internal forces, such as technological development or
political traditions. The conditions of one generation limit and determine
the range of possibilities that are open to the next. On the one hand,
each new generation learns the cultural forms of society and, in this
way, does not have to reinvent strategies for producing food, managing
conflicts, educating young people, governing, etc. You also learn
aspirations to know how society can be maintained and improved. On
the other hand, each new generation must deal with unresolved
problems of the previous generation: tensions that can lead to war,
large-scale drug abuse , poverty and deprivation, racism , and
countless personal and group injustices. Slavery at the dawn of the
history of the American union, for example, still has serious
consequences for African Americans and for the American economy,
education, health care , and justice system in general. Injustices can
be mitigated enough to make people tolerate them, or they can boil
over into a revolution that attacks the fabric of society itself. Many
societies continue to perpetuate centuries-old disputes with others over
borders, religion, and deeply held beliefs about past grievances.
Governments often try to direct social change through policies, laws,
incentives , or coercion. Sometimes these efforts work effectively and
make it possible for there to be, in fact, no social conflict . At other
times, such efforts can precipitate conflict. For example, the
establishment of agricultural communes in the Soviet Union, against
the will of farmers to till their own land, was carried out only with armed
force and the loss of millions of lives. The freeing of slaves in the
United States came only as a consequence of a bloody civil war; 100
years later, the elimination of explicit racial segregation was achieved
in some places only through legislative action , court injunctions, and
armed military guards and remains a major social problem.
External factors including war, migration, colonial domination, foreign
ideas, technology, pestilence and natural disasters also determine the
way each society develops. The outlook of the Soviet Union, for
example, is largely influenced by the devastating losses it suffered in
both world wars . Indo-American societies were destroyed and
displaced by diseases and wars brought by colonizers from Europe. In
the United States, the forced importation of Africans and successive
waves of immigrants from Europe, Latin America and Asia have greatly
affected the political, economic and social systems (such as work,
electoral blocs and educational programs ), as well as the to the
cultural variety of the nation. Natural disasters, such as storms or
droughts, can cause crop failure, hardship and hunger, and sometimes
migration or revolution.
Convenient communication and transportation also stimulate social
change. Previously geographically and politically isolated groups
become even more aware of different ways of thinking, living and
behaving, and sometimes of the existence of vastly different ways of
life. Migrations and mass media lead not only to cultural mixing, but
also to the extinction of some cultures and the rapid evolution of
others.Communication and easy global transportation bring
confrontations of values and expectations, sometimes deliberately,
such as propaganda, and sometimes incidentally, such as the pursuit
of commercial interests.
The size of the human population, its concentration in specific places,
and its pattern of growth are influenced by the physical environment
and many aspects of culture: economics, politics, technology, history,
and religion. In response to economic concerns, national governments
establish different policies, some to reduce population growth, others to
increase it. Some religious groups also take a strong position on
population issues. The hierarchs of the Roman Catholic church , for
example, have long campaigned against contraception, while in recent
years religious leaders of other major faiths have supported the use of
contraceptives to reduce family size.
Aside from government policies or religious doctrines, many people
decide to have a child based on practical issues, such as the health
risk to the mother, the value or cost of a child in social and economic
terms, the amount of living space or a personal feeling of adaptability
as parents. In some parts of the world and within poorly educated
groups, couples have little knowledge of, or little or no access to,
modern birth control technology. In the United States, the trend toward
casual sexual relations in adolescence has led to an increase in the
number of unexpected or unwanted pregnancies.
In turn, social systems are influenced by population size, coefficient of
change, and the proportion of people with different characteristics
(such as age, sex, or language). The large increase in the size of the
population requires greater specialization of work, new
responsibilities
governments, new types of institutions and the need to put in order a
more complex distribution of resources. Population patterns,
particularly when they are changing, also influence changing social
priorities. The greater the variety of subcultures, the more diverse the
measures that must be taken regarding them will be. As the size of a
social group increases, its influence in society will increase. Such
influence can be exerted through markets (such as young people, who
as a group buy more sports equipment), electoral power (for example,
older people are less likely to vote for school legislation), or recognition
of needs. by social planners (for example, many mothers who work
outside the home will require daycare programs).

Social barter

The choice between alternative benefits and costs is inevitable for

individuals and groups. To get something you want or need, it is
usually necessary to give something you already have or at least give
yourself an opportunity to gain something in return. For example, the
more the public as a whole spends on government-funded projects
such as roads and schools, the less it will spend on defense (if it has
already decided not to increase income or debt). Social barter is not
always economic or material. Sometimes they arise from choices
between private rights and the public good: for example, laws about
smoking cigarettes in public places, cleaning up after pets, and speed
limits in public places. the roadsrestrict
the individual freedom of some people for the benefit of others. Or the
choices must arise between aesthetics and utility. For example, a
large-scale apartment complex may be accepted by future occupants,
but people who already live in the neighborhood may not agree.
Different people have different ideas about how to conduct barter,
which would result in compromise or continued discord. How different
interests are satisfied often depends on the relative amounts of
resources or power that individuals or groups possess. Peaceful efforts
at social change are most successful when affected people are
included in planning, when experts are willing to provide information ,
and when values and power struggles are clearly understood and
incorporated into the decision-making process. decisions.
The question often arises whether a current arrangement should be
improved or a new one invented. On the one hand, repeatedly
compounding a problematic situation can make it sufficiently tolerable
that large-scale change to the underlying problem is never carried out.
On the other hand, rushing to replace every problem system can
create more difficulties than it solves.
It is difficult to compare the potential benefits of social alternatives. One
reason is that there is no common measure for different forms of good;
for example, there is no measure by which wealth and social justice
can be directly compared. Another reason is that different groups of
people assign very different values even to the same type of social
good, for example, public education or the minimum wage . In a very
large population, comparisons of values are further complicated by the
fact that a very small percentage of the population may be a large
number of people. For example, if it is stated that in a total population
of 100 million there is an increase in the unemployment rate of only
one hundredth of 1% (which would seem insignificant), it implies a loss
of 10,000 jobs (which would be considered very serious). ).
The appreciation of the consequences of social barter tends to involve
other issues as well. One is a distance effect: the further away in
distance or time the consequences of a decision are, the less
importance they are likely to give. For example, city residents are less
likely to support national legislation supporting agriculture than farmers,
and farmers may not want to pay a federal tax to benefit city housing
projects. As individuals, it seems difficult to resist immediate pleasure
even when long-term consequences may be negative, or tolerate
immediate discomfort for future benefit. Similarly, society places more
importance on immediate benefits (such as rapid consumption of oil
and mineral deposits) than on long-term consequences (current or
future generations may suffer shortages later).
The distance effect in judging social trade-offs is often magnified by the
uncertainty of whether the potential costs and benefits will ultimately
occur. Sometimes one can estimate the probabilities of several
possible outcomes of a social decision, for example, that intercourse
without contraception will result in pregnancy in one of four cases. If
relative value measures can also be assigned to all possible outcomes,
probabilities and value measures can be combined to estimate which
alternative would be the best bet. But even if both probabilities and
measures of value are available, there may be debate about how to
gather the information. For example, people may fear some particular
risk so much that they insist on the feasibility of reducing the risk as
close to zero, regardless of what other risks or benefits are involved.
Finally, decisions about social alternatives are often complicated by the
fact that people are reactive. When a social program is implemented to
achieve some future effect, the ingenuity of people in promoting or
resisting that effect will always add to the uncertainty of the outcome.

Social conflict

In all human societies there is conflict, and all of them have systems to
regulate it. Typically, conflict between people or groups arises from
competition for resources, power, and social position. Family members
compete for attention. Individuals do it for work and wealth. Nations by
territory and prestige. Different interest groups compete for influence
and power to create rules. Often, competition is not for resources but
for ideas; a person or group wants to have another group's ideas or
behavior suppressed, punished, or declared illegal.
Social change may be capable of causing conflict. There is little or no
chance that a political, economic or social change will be proposed that
equitably benefits each component of the social system and, therefore,
the groups that are seen as possible losers resist. Mutual hostilities
and misgivings are aggravated by the inability of supporters and
opponents of any change to predict convincingly which of all the effects
will come from making the change or not making it. The conflict is
particularly acute when there are only a few alternatives without
possible compromise, for example, between surrender and war or
between candidate a and candidate b. Even though the issues may be
complex and people do not initially differ much in their assessments,
the need to decide one way or another can lead people to extreme
positions that support their decision as the preferable alternative.

In family groups and small societies, laws are declared by recognized

authorities, such as parents or elders. But almost all groups from
university faculties to troops local of boy
scouts they have
formalized procedures for establishing rules and arbitrating disputes.
On a large scale, the government provides mechanisms to resolve
conflicts through the creation of laws and their administration. In a
democracy, the political system resolves social conflict through
elections. Candidates for office make known their proposals for
creating and changing rules, and people vote for those who they
believe have the best combination of purposes and the best chance of
carrying them out effectively. But the need to carry out complex social
exchanges usually prevents politicians from fulfilling all their proposals
once in power.
The desire to have complete freedom to come and go as one pleases,
carry weapons , and organize demonstrations may conflict with the
desire for public safety . The desire to make effective and firm
decisions in the extreme, a dictatorship can conflict with the desire for
public participation in the extreme, a democracy in which everyone
votes for everything. The creation of laws and policies generally
involves the development of commitments that are negotiated between
various interest groups. Small groups of people with special interests
that they consider very important may be able to convince their
members to vote based on that single issue and, therefore, demand
concessions from a more diffuse majority.
Even when the majority of people in a society agree with a social
decision, the minority who do not may have some protection. In the
American political system , for example, federal and state governments
have constitutions that establish rights for citizens that cannot be
changed by elected officials, no matter how large the majority supports
them. Changes to those constitutions usually require very large
majorities, two-thirds or three-quarters of all voters, rather than just half
plus one. One strategy for political minorities is to join forces, at least
temporarily, with other small groups that have partly similar interests. A
coalition of minorities may be able to exert considerable influence. This
coalition can even become a majority, as long as their common
interests outweigh their differences.
The bicameral system in the federal legislature and in most state
legislatures provides similar protection of political rights. In Congress,
for example, the lower house is represented in proportion to the
population, so that each citizen of the country is represented equally.
However, the upper house has exactly two members for each state
regardless of its population, ensuring that the citizens of any state, no
matter how small, have the same representation as those of another
state, even if it is large.
In addition, societies have developed many informal ways of airing
conflicts, including debates, strikes, demonstrations, polls, propaganda
, and even games, songs, and cartoons.The media provide an optimal
venue for small groups of people with grievances to make powerful
public propositions to the audience (and may even encourage them).
Any of these ways and means can release tensions and promote
compromise or further exalt and polarize differences. Failure to resolve
or moderate conflict leads to tremendous stress on the social system.
The inability or unwillingness to change can result in a high level of
conflict: litigation, sabotage, violence , or outright revolutions and
wars . Intergroup conflict, legal or otherwise, does not necessarily end
when a certain portion of society finally achieves a decision in its favor.
Opposing groups could then deploy efforts to reverse, modify or avoid
the change, and therefore the conflict continues. However, the dispute
also solidifies group action ; Both nations and families tend to come
together in times of crisis. Leaders of these groups sometimes
deliberately use this knowledge to provoke conflict with an outside
group , thereby reducing tensions and building support within their own
group.

Global interdependence

Nations and cultures are increasingly dependent on each other through

international economic systems and shared environmental problems ,
such as the global effects of nuclear war , deforestation and acid rain.
They also learn more about each other through international travel and
the use of media. Increasingly, the world system is becoming a very
tight network , in which a change in any part of it will have
consequences in the rest. For example, local conflicts extend beyond
their boundaries to involve other nations; Fluctuating oil supplies affect
economic productivity , trade balances, interest rates and employment
around the world. The wealth, security and general well-being of
almost all nations are related. There is a growing consensus among
leaders of most countries that isolationist policies are no longer
sustainable and that global issues, such as controlling the proliferation
of nuclear weapons and protecting the world monetary system from
violent fluctuations, are can only be achieved through the concerted
action of all nations.
Nations interact through a wide variety of formal and informal
arrangements. The first include diplomatic relations, alliances
military and economic,
and global organizations such as the united nations or the world bank .
However, unlike national governments, organizations world with
frequency have
only limited authority over its members. Other arrangements include
cultural exchanges, tourist flows, student exchanges, international
trade , and the activities of non-governmental organizations with
membership around the world (such as Amnesty International, anti-
hunger campaigns, the Red Cross, and sports organizations).
The wealth of a nation depends on the effort and skills of its workers,
their resources natural, and the capital
and
the technology available for the development of most of those
resources and skills. However, national wealth depends not only on
how much a country can produce on its own, but also on the balance
between imports of products from other countries and exports to them.
International trade is not only due to countries lacking certain
resources or products, such as oil, various food grains or efficient
automobiles. Even if a country can produce everything it needs, it
benefits it to trade with other nations. If a country makes its products
more efficiently (in terms of quality or cost, or both) and sells them to
other nations, such a system theoretically allows all participating
nations to get ahead.
However, there are many practical influences that distort the economic
reality of international trade. For example, he or she may be frustrated
by fear of exploitation by more economically or politically powerful
nations, by the desire to protect special groups of workers who would
lose out in the face of foreign economic competition , and by not
wanting to become dependent on other countries for certain products
that could not be accessed in the event of future conflicts.
Due to increasing international links, the distinctions between
international and domestic politics can be unclear in many cases. For
example, policies that determine what kinds of cars or clothes to buy
and at what prices are based on foreign trade and the international
balance of payments. The country's agricultural production depends on
foreign markets as well as national policies. Although international
markets can be an advantage for all countries, they can be a great
disadvantage for particular groups of people within nations. Cheap
automobile production in Asian countries, for example, can benefit car
buyers around the world; but it can also bankrupt manufacturers in
other countries. National policies may therefore be needed to prevent
hardship for such groups; Those policies will in turn affect international
trade. Nations with a strong internal consensus about their own political
or religious ideologies may pursue foreign policies that actively
promote the spread of such ideologies in other countries and
undermine groups with competing ideas.
The increasing interdependence of the world's social, economic and
ecological systems makes it difficult to predict the consequences of
social decisions. Changes in any part of the world have been able to
amplify the effects elsewhere, with high benefits for certain people and
large costs for others. There is also the possibility that some changes
will lead to instability and uncertainty, which is to the disadvantage of
everyone. Global stability depends on nations establishing systems
further reliable for do business and
exchange information, develop surveillance mechanisms to warn of
global catastrophes (such as famine and nuclear war) and reduce the
great gap in living standards between the richest and poorest nations.
Nations, like all participants in social systems, sometimes find it in their
favor to suffer some short-term losses to achieve

social groups

Groups can be made up of two, three or more members. Groups that

have two are called dyads, this is the most fragile of the groups, since
if one of the members leaves this group dissolves, the members have
a very intimate and personal relationship. In the group of three they are
called triads, these groups are more complex, they can suffer a loss
and as they wish, a group would remain. Their relationship is also
intimate and personal. As another member is added to the group, they
become more complex and so on.
This also speaks of social groups, these are the grouping of people
who interact with each other, governed by values and norms, to
achieve a shared goal. Social groups differ from other groups; they
differ in four aspects.
First, those belonging to a social group have something in common
and this differentiates them from others. Second, those belonging to a
social group interact regularly, this means that they must coexist and
relate to each other. Third, the social groups organize a base in which
they will be structured, a leader is chosen, then some lieutenants and
followers appear. Fourth, the members of social groups must agree
with the values, norms and objectives of the group that it establishes.
TYPES OF GROUPS:
Primary groups:
The members of this group have an intimate, personal, affectionate
relationship; These are fundamental to form the nature and social
ideas of individuals.
Secondary groups:
In these groups the relationship of their members is close, without
affection and intimacy, occasionally relational, they do not need to
know much about each other; These come together to achieve a
specific goal.
Reference groups:
This group is used to compare us to a group. These perform two
functions. One is normative where the person chooses a group as a
reference to adopt their behavior and beliefs. The other function that
reference groups perform is comparative is when we choose a group to
measure our person. Example when one compares oneself with the
members of a rock group.
Membership groups:
These groups are the groups to which one wants to belong, whether it
is a baseball team or a literary circle.
Non-membership groups:
These are the opposite of belonging groups, these groups are the ones
you don't want to belong to, you are in competition with them.
Peer groups:
The members who belong to this group share the same social level
and the same age.
Formal organizations:
These groups planned and created to follow a specific goal and are
held together by specific rules and regulations. These differ from
informal groups in their structure, size, and their emphasis on
achieving their objective.

Types of companies

Companies in the legal and economic field

In the legal and economic field, a partnership is one by which two or

more people are obligated by common agreement to make
contributions (in kind, money or industry), with the aim of proportionally
sharing the profits or bearing the losses in the same proportion. In this
case, a group of people to carry out private activities, generally
commercial, is called a company. Their members are called partners.

The broad concept of partnership, as opposed to the traditional

concept, understands that this pooling of assets, this structure created
between two or more people, may not be essentially intended to obtain
a profit, and this spirit is not an essential element of the
aforementioned contract. , since there are "Company" in economic
concepts, it is a synonym for a company or corporation, and especially
in legal-economic contexts, for a legal figure or person:

• Commercial society
• Anonymous society

• Society limited
• Society cooperative
• Society in command
• Society systematized

Civil society (Law)

Association (Law) (not to be confused with right of association, one of

the political rights)
Scientific societies

Main article: Scientific societies

A scientific society is an association of scholars from a branch of

knowledge or science in general, which allows them to meet, present
the results of their research, compare them with those of their
colleagues, specialists in the same domains of knowledge, usually with
the in order to disseminate their work through a specialized scientific
publication.

The fundamental purposes of society

Men live collectively because of the impossibility of satisfying all
their needs individually. Human nature itself encourages all men to
seek the formation of a family, to fight to preserve it, to protect their
children. Human nature itself also makes man strive to improve his
level of satisfaction, to seek improvement in his well-being.

Man lives in society to improve his intellectual, spiritual, moral,

economic well-being, etc. Of all those areas that are of particular
importance for human development, economic well-being is the one of
greatest interest to economic sciences.

Economic well-being involves the ability of people to consume more

and better goods and services. Wellbeing is not
It involves only the possibility of consuming more goods, more food,
more televisions, better vehicles, etc., but also the possibility of
consuming better food, with higher nutritional content, which better
preserves health; better, bigger TVs, with more features; better
vehicles, more economical, more beautiful, that pollute less.

In general, the main objective of society is to solve the fundamental

economic problems: What to produce, How much to produce and For
whom to produce, which will be developed in the following pages.

The satisfaction of needs and the response to what to produce

In the search for his economic well-being, man will demand those
goods and services that contribute to satisfying his needs. Therefore,
society must produce those goods that people require, which will
contribute to raising its level of well-being.

Why does man want those goods and services? All people and society
in general feel needs, afflictions that make them feel bad physically or
psychologically and for which they need goods or services that
contribute to making that affliction disappear. The goods and services
used by people to satisfy a need are called satisfiers.

These afflictions are people's needs, which can be physiological,

psychological, emotional, intellectual, economic, etc... The needs of
interest for Sciences
Economic are those of an economic type.

The needs of the individual and society

Individual economic needs will have a different degree of intensity

depending on the importance that it has for the affected person.
Among the main individual needs are:

• feeding

• The House
 • Dress

• The education

• Recreation, etc.

Obviously the one with the greatest intensity will be food, because it is
at the same time a physiological need that must be satisfied for the
individual to continue subsisting.

The other needs raised are very important, however, in most cases,
their satisfaction is strongly influenced by social factors.

For example: the dress can help protect the individual from inclement
weather, however, the characteristics of the dress are most of the time
imposed by society, for example: the use of a bathing suit on the
beach; the use of ties in the workplace, etc.

Another example of the influence of society on the formation of

individual needs is education. Most people must educate themselves,
in the social scheme we live in, to be competitive in the labor market;
Education is a need demanded by society, which is internalized by the
individual in their social context.

There are some states of social imbalance, which must be addressed

so that the community functions properly, always in search of the well-
being of individuals. These states of imbalance are called social needs,
among which we can mention:

1. The education

2. Security and justice

3. Health

Education is essential for society because the only way to efficiently

contribute to economic well-being is by systematically raising the
productive capacity of its individuals. Furthermore, education becomes
essential when the transmission of knowledge from one generation to
another is necessary, in order to preserve the experiences learned by
previous generations.

The need for security and justice is easily perceptible in the world we
live in, because the individual needs to feel secure for his life and that
of his family, to enjoy the goods and services he requires to satisfy his
needs.

The importance of this section lies in identifying the specific link that
exists between the satisfaction of individual and social needs, in such a
way that they should not be considered separate from each other.

Guatemalan society

It is a term that refers to the situation and evolution of the society that
resided in the current Guatemalan territory during the Colonial Era ,
from the Conquest of Guatemala in 1524 to the Independence of
Guatemala in 1821 (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The great social divisions during the Colonial Era basically depended
on the racial origin of the people. At first there were only two ethnic
groups: Spanish and Indians. The first were, in 1524, about 450. In a
quantity less than half of that figure, the Spaniards settled in the city of
Santiago. Others returned to Mexico or Spain, or moved to various
places in the Indies - as they called America -. In Guatemala they could
not find gold, so they preferred to move to regions where they had
better opportunities to get rich quickly (Historical Biographical
Dictionary, 2004).

Throughout the colonial era, the Spanish occupied the highest social
position. Their number increased in the following centuries, with the
arrival of immigrants, men and women, and by the birth of their
children, who were given the name criollos or Creole Spaniards. They
never became very numerous, but they constituted the privileged class
that governed the country. To this sector belonged the rulers and high
officials, the members of the City Council, the clergy, the rich
merchants and farmers, the enlightened class, the descendants of the
conquerors and the first colonizers. There were also Spaniards who
were not part of the local nobility. They were small farmers, lower-level
employees and artisans, among others (Historical Biographical
Dictionary, 2004).

The Creoles, among whom there were families who became rich in the
Indies, had frequent clashes with the new Spaniards, that is, those who
came from Spain to occupy high positions in the government. Such
friction still occurred between friars and priests, so the religious orders
reached an agreement of alterability to occupy important positions
(Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The wars of conquest were painful for the indigenous population,

although they did not last long. The contact of the natives with the
Spanish caused an accelerated decrease in their population, mainly
due to diseases that were new to them and for which they lacked
biological defenses. Epidemics of measles, smallpox, typhus, influenza
and other similar diseases caused great mortality among the natives.
To this we must add the deaths from wars, the slavery they suffered in
the first decades, and the famines they suffered when plagues of
locusts or grasshoppers destroyed their crops. It is estimated that the
indigenous population had decreased by 50 percent by 1550. It still
continued to decrease in the following centuries, which seriously
worried the Spanish. Only from the 18th century onwards did it begin to
recover. It is estimated that in 1820 the population of Guatemala was
about 500,000 or 600,000 inhabitants, of which 66 percent were
indigenous (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The discovery of America and its inhabitants surprised Europeans.

Columbus believed he had reached the East Indies, and that is why he
gave the name Indians to the inhabitants of the New World. During the
first years there were academic and religious discussions about the
Indians in Spain. On certain occasions they reached the point of
denying their condition as humans. Some considered them savages
who could be conquered by force and enslaved. Others, including
Bartolomé de Las Casas and Francisco de Vitoria, defended the
Indians and accepted that they should be Christianized, but respecting
their natural rights (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

Beyond the academic approaches were the economic interests of the

conquerors, who needed cheap labor for their agricultural and mining
companies. For this reason, in the early years of the colonial era,
Indians were enslaved as prisoners of war, or by purchase or ransom ,
when they were Indians who were already slaves of other Indians,
since slavery existed. also pre-Hispanic society (Historical Biographical
Dictionary, 2004).

The Spanish crown maintained that the Indians were free subjects of
the King, but this provision only began to be fulfilled after 1542, when
the New Laws or Ordinances of Barcelona were issued (Historical
Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

Although the Indians were no longer officially slaves after the

application of the New Laws, the landowners, owners of sugar mills or
agricultural companies, always found the means to use the forced
labor of the natives. One such procedure was the Encomienda. This is
a royal mercy, granted to a Spaniard, sometimes a conqueror who had
become economically disadvantaged, to whom a certain number of
Indians tributaries of the King were given or entrusted, who would have
to pay tribute to the encomendero, to whom, in addition, they provided
other services. . Other forms of work that were imposed on the Indians
were the commandments and repartimientos (Historical Biographical
Dictionary, 2004).

At the same time that the encomienda arose, an event occurred that
greatly influenced the life and customs of the indigenous population.
This was the reduction to towns, that is, the concentration in towns of
indigenous groups that lived in dispersed settlements, since pre-
Hispanic times. This dispersion made difficult the work of the doctrinal
priests who had the obligation to Christianize the Indians, and also the
work of the officials in charge of collecting the tribute that the Indians
paid to the Crown (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The towns were founded on suitable land, surrounded by land intended

for crops, with enough water and where various needs could be
satisfied. They were built according to the Castilian pattern: grid layout,
with streets that formed blocks. In the central part was the market, the
church and the buildings for the council and the indigenous governor,
who was a principal Indian. Then neighborhoods were settled for
families or groups, which had concentrated on the reduction (Historical
Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

Around the town were communal lands or ejidos, of variable size,

depending on the number of inhabitants. Each town had its own
indigenous authorities and its doctrinal priests. The new towns served
for the Spanish to control the indigenous people, but they also took
advantage of them to preserve many of their customs and languages.
Some of the modifications derived from its relations with Spanish and
mestizo culture are preserved to this day (Historical Biographical
Dictionary, 2004).

During the colonial era, the indigenous communities manifested a

series of protests and mutinies against their Indian governors, the
doctrinal priests and the Spanish authorities. It was a reaction to the
abuses committed by indigenous mayors, corregidors, mayors and
other officials. Some of such protests were in the nature of large
rebellions, such as that of the Zendale Indians of Chiapas, in 1712
(Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

In Totonicapán, in 1820, shortly before Independence, a rebellion

against the colonial authorities occurred, when the Quiche Indians of
the region opposed continuing to pay tribute. The main leader of this
revolt was Atanasio Tzul, a principal of San Miguel Totonicapán, who,
according to indigenous tradition, was crowned king of the towns of
San Miguel and San Cristóbal Totonicapán, San Andrés Xecul, San
Francisco El Alto, Momostenango and Santa Maria Chiquimula. The
rebels were

finally subjected by militias that they

arrived
of Quetzaltenango (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The first black slaves arrived with the Spanish and lived in a situation
of slavery, except in those cases in which they achieved freedom. The
precursors arrived since 1524, with the conquerors. They were few, but
their number increased in the following years.Pedro de Alvarado, upon
conquering Guatemala, brought a good number of black artisans,
carpenters, blacksmiths and caulkers to the country to build ships in
the Pacific (Historical Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

In 1543, Alonso de Maldonado brought about 150 black slaves,

destined for jobs related to trade. Shortly after, López de Cerrato
ordered the release of the Indian slaves and authorized the arrival of
another good number of black slaves. Thus this segment increased,
becoming the third ethnic element of the colony's population (Historical
Biographical Dictionary, 2004).

The largest groups of blacks were in the Las Mesas Valley, the city of
Santiago, the sugar mills of Amatitlán and Verapaz, La Gomera,
Gualán and other places. By the end of the 18th century, the number of
black slaves had decreased, as some gained their freedom and
worked as free artisans. Others had escaped and lived, like maroons,
in places far from urban centers (Historical Biographical Dictionary,
2004).

In 1824, the National Constituent Assembly of Central America

decreed the abolition of slavery (Historical Biographical Dictionary,
2004).

Marital relations between people of different ethnic groups gave rise to

a complex class of mestizos: Spanish and Indian, Spanish and black,
Indian and black, mestizo and mestizo. At first, these were
differentiated with names such as mulatto, mestizo or zambo, among
others. This was intended to identify the racial type of a person. But
this became impossible as the miscegenation became more complex,
so in the end everyone was called ordinary or chaste people
(Diccionario Histérico Biográfico, 2004).

Over the years, the mixture between ethnic types diluted the physical
differences and everyone who was not Indian or Spanish ended up
being called Ladino. Ladino is a word with which, in principle, the
culturally Spanishized Indian was designated (Historical Biographical
Dictionary, 2004).

Relationship of society with the law

 There is undoubtedly a very close relationship between law and
society. It lies in the very nature of law, which is eminently social. The
law is created by society and consequently is part of it.
This relationship between law and society can also be explained
through man, since law is directed at the human being, not considering
him as an isolated being, closed in on himself and disconnected from
others, but as an integrated entity that lives in society. ; that is, in
permanent relationship with their peers.
In this way and bringing together the perspectives of the social nature
of law and the human being, it can be stated as an idea of initial
justification of the topic that just as it is not feasible to think of a society
without a human being; Nor is it acceptable to think of a society without
law.

There is a permanent interrelation between the individual and society,

since it influences him in such a way that it can be decided that man is
a product of society, as well as that the individual not only receives the
influence of the whole but he can also modify the society.

Individual and society require each other, in such a way that we can
only speak of the individual when we are dealing with a society, in the
same way that there is no society that is not composed of individuals.
Summarizing opinions, no one can deny that outside of society human
life is not possible because the humanity of man; That is to say, his
human condition derives from the social nature of his species.
With the aforementioned, it can be said that there are certain key
aspects that point out the evident relationship between law and society,
which are:
a) . The law by norming, by regulating social relations, delimits them,
specifies them, fixes them and converts them into legal relations.
b) . Society is the system, the whole; The law is just a subsystem, a
part of it.
c) . Social changes lead to changes in law.
d) . The law contributes to the formation and conservation of society
and establishes with it the conditions for the common well-being and
development of the group.
e) . Law organizes society and realizes justice as the reason for being
for the benefit of its members.
SCIENCE

Definition

Science (from Latin scientĭa 'knowledge') is an ordered system of

structured knowledge. Scientific knowledge is obtained through
observations and experiments in specific areas. From these, questions
and reasoning are generated, hypotheses are built, principles are
deduced and general laws and organized systems are developed
through a scientific method.

Science considers and is based on experimental observations. These

observations are organized through methods, models and theories in
order to generate new knowledge. For this, truth criteria and a research
method are previously established. The application of these methods
and knowledge leads to the generation of new knowledge in the form
of concrete, quantitative and testable predictions referring to past,
present and future observations. These predictions can often be
formulated through reasoning and structured as general rules or laws,
which account for the behavior of a system and predict how said
system will act in certain circumstances.

The laws that constitute its foundation, as well as investigation

procedures and methods, are:
1. Cognitive: (From the Latin Cognoscerce = to know)
2. Concept: it is the meta syntheses of the essential characteristics of
an object or a process
or process group.
3. Objective laws: constitute the general forms of exchange relations
and
represent the internal and necessary connections in which the
variation of the
processes and their properties.

Goals

The objective of any science is to acquire knowledge and

choosing the appropriate method that allows us to know reality is
therefore fundamental.
Science works based on two central objectives which are:
a) Discover answers and solutions to research problems
through the application of scientific procedures.
b) The description, explanation, prediction and control of
phenomena: One of the basic objectives consists of identifying
problems and discovering the relationships between the variables that
allow describing, explaining, predicting and controlling phenomena, to
do so, discover scientific laws and develop scientific theories. .

The objective of science is to describe, explain and predict natural and

social phenomena, with greater or lesser precision depending on the
characteristics of the study and the availability of theoretical-
methodological resources and techniques in order to have greater
control over them and be able to exercise their transformative practice
more accurately.

Because science is not concerned with producing absolute truths, it

can be said that its main objective is to produce useful models of reality
since it can make predictions based on the

observation that benefit society and individuals to draw their

conclusions.

The problem arises when accepting erroneous knowledge as true or

vice versa. Inductive and deductive methods have different objectives
and could be summarized as theory development and theory analysis
respectively. Inductive methods are generally associated with
qualitative research while the deductive method is frequently
associated with quantitative research.

Quantitative research is research in which quantitative data on

variables is collected and analyzed. Qualitative research prevents
quantification. Qualitative researchers make narrative records of the
phenomena that are studied through techniques such as participant
observation and unstructured interviews. The fundamental difference
between both methodologies is that the quantitative one studies the
association or relationship between quantified variables and the
qualitative one does so in structural and situational contexts.
Qualitative research tries to identify the deep nature of realities, their
system of relationships, their dynamic structure.

Quantitative research tries to determine the strength of association or

correlation between variables, the generalization and objectification of
the results through a sample to make inference to a population from
which the entire sample comes.

The objective of science is the search for truth in the most objective
way possible, leaving personal feelings aside. The main tool to
consider true knowledge or scientific knowledge is the scientific
method.
Importance
 Science in our society has allowed man to be able to overcome
diseases, to adapt to the environment and to know the world around
him, while the social sciences have been giving an account of how
human beings organized themselves to survive, overcoming their
conflicts and developing in interaction with others. Formal sciences
establish the rational parameters that allow work in the other sciences,
generally they do so based on objects or models that emerge from
abstraction.

The importance of science is greater to the extent that one can

understand the influence that science has had throughout humanity.
The understanding of man and his environment complemented each
other, and from this combination development was achieved: the
construction of a city, which is an entirely human activity, is subject to
the natural conditions of space, and necessarily that space Then it will
determine which people can live in that place.
Industry or agriculture, the areas par excellence in people's economic
activity, are always subject to the availability of resources, which is why
they need to be nourished by the knowledge provided by the natural
sciences. The growth of both sciences in a complementary manner is
what has made it possible to overcome humanity's greatest obstacles,
giving man the possibility of reaching a situation like the current one,
where, for example, life expectancy is much greater than a few years.
sooner, and you can get from one continent to another in a matter of
hours.

Primary function of science

The primary task and function of science is the explanation of the
physical nature that surrounds man. Science is considered as the way
of seeing the world in a logical and explanatory way. This tries to
understand who we are as thinking beings and understand everything
that surrounds us and relates to us. Science provides us with tools to
think conceptual models and function in daily life.

Science covers different fields of human reality, such as the social

sciences and the ideas that make up the contemporary mentality. Our
reality and way of perceiving the world around us has changed thanks
to the contribution of science. The development of modern societies
requires other approaches to knowing the reality in which science has
contributed to achieving social achievements that shape our
contemporary mentality in the social, economic, scientific, political
sciences, etc. According to Dr. Héctor Luis Ávila Baray in his book
Introduction to Research Methodology, the supreme function of
science is divided into two primary objectives of scientific research and
they are called:
a) Find answers and solutions to research problems through
the application of scientific procedures.
b) Identify problems in which the relationship between
variables is discovered that allows describing, explaining, predicting
and controlling phenomena, discovering scientific laws and theories
through the description and logical explanation of the phenomena.

Based on the above, we can consider that the supreme function of

science is research, which is defined as any activity inherent to man in
which the scientific method must be applied within the framework of
any problem that requires exact resolutions. and ordered. In other
words, science is a system of proportions that describe, explain and
predict the phenomena or facts of the real world, the application of
which also constitutes a tool for transforming reality for the benefit of
human beings.

, How do events happen

What 's going on? Social?

Funds of the
diendi

Why do things happen? Why do things happen?

social facts? social facts?
Field of action of science

The growing range of activities and functions generated by the

need to improve the efficiency of the management of science
constantly gives rise to new areas of study and specialization.

Among its functions:

They study formal, ideal or conceptual entities, these entities are

hypothetically postulated (constructed, proposed, presupposed or
defined) by the scientists who study them.
They start from axioms or postulates and from them they
demonstrate theorems.
- The axioms are relative to the context in which they operate.
- They do not require empirical comparison or experimentation.
- Their conclusions acquire a degree of certainty
- They seek internal coherence.
- Seek the logical and necessary truth, trying to describe and
explain other people's facts and realities.

to themselves.

In the reality
Science characterizes it: Knowing to foresee and foreseeing to act
KEDROV-SPIRKIN (Science) If science makes man powerful before
the forces of nature and before social life, religion and faith, on the
other hand, disorient him, create a feeling of predestination in him and
numb his class consciousness.
Science Perspectives

It explains to us that science does not progress by the simple

accumulation of knowledge, but by a non-cumulative development
where old paradigms are rejected by others which are not necessarily
identical to previous solutions.
It shows us the historical approach with which it analyzes science, it is
where various issues arose that show a historical contrast, on the one
hand science understood as a completely rational and controlled
activity, and on the other hand science understood as a concrete
activity that It has been given throughout the centuries and each
historical era that science presents.

I consider paradigms as universally recognized scientific achievements

that over a period of time provide models of problems and solutions to
a scientific community.
Paradigms analyze problems and try to solve them.
The objective is to clarify the flaws of the paradigm, for example:
empirical data that do not exactly match the theory. This paradigm-
based research process is called “normal science.”
Normal science is based on one or more scientific achievements.
Extraordinary science occurs in the scientific revolution.
The crisis supposes the proliferation of new paradigms in a tentative
and provisional principle.
Finally it is scientifically reproduced when one of the new paradigms
replaces the traditional paradigm. The scientific revolution is
considered here as those episodes of non-cumulative development in
which an old paradigm.

We currently find ourselves in a world flooded by the products of

science and technology. They are all part of our daily lives and we
perceive them as something natural in our environment. Modern
science and technology greatly determine our attitude towards nature
and the vision we have of it, as stated by Werner Heisenberg, one of
the greatest scientists of recent times. And in his own words “technique
modifies to a considerable extent the environment in which man lives
immersed and places him before a vision of the world derived from
science; with which the technique profoundly influences the
relationship between man and nature.”
But are we aware of the meaning of these products of science and
technology that surround us? Do we perceive the benefits they bring to
our society, as well as the dangers and inconveniences they also
cause? Are we capable of valuing each other as much as each other?
If we reflect a little on those questions, the answers are largely
negative. On the other hand, although there is abundant information in
the media about all these aspects, very often this information is not
entirely true and is sometimes even misleading. Therefore, perhaps
science – and also technology – are not as “popular” as one might
initially think. Hence the interest shown by educational policies in
recent times in achieving the so-called “scientific and technological
literacy” (Gil and Vilches, 2001), understanding this in the sense that
citizens are capable of participating in the democratic process of
decision-making. of decisions and in the solution of societal problems
related to science and technology (Membiela, 1995). To this end,
educational programs, strategies and projects are designed that tend
to promote interest in science from the first levels of education. To this
end, that of bringing science closer to students and to society as a
whole, they obey, for example, the frequent celebrations of weeks,
olympiads and science fairs or the existence of science clubs. And the
creation of government bodies, even ministries, expressly dedicated to
science and technology is a clear exponent of this concern.

This broad and general objective of science for all requires the
fulfillment of certain more specific goals. Firstly, make it easier for
students to learn scientific content. Secondly, encourage their interest
in science. Thirdly, create in them an awareness that makes them
sensitive to the benefits and problems inherent to scientific
development.

technology of our society and train them as future responsible citizens.

These three partial objectives are not mentioned following a
hierarchical order of priority: they are actually all intertwined, each one
is a function and cause of the others, so they are of equivalent
importance.

To achieve all these objectives, and with them scientific and

technological literacy, the contextualization of science is necessary.
And by this it is understood, expressed in a synthetic way, a teaching
approach that aims to address scientific topics of social and economic
relevance taking into account, as main aspects, the relationship of its
scientific content with the elaboration of hypotheses, with observation
and interpretation. of data and any information, and with the ability to
make decisions. Likewise, it involves learning to manipulate materials
and devices and the use of other teaching strategies apart from
traditional expository lessons, such as carrying out laboratory
experiments and classroom demonstrations, carrying out small
investigations, watching videos, scientific readings. , debates and
conferences or visits to science museums and industries.

We will focus on the study and learning of natural sciences at the

different stages of secondary education. Daily experience in the
classroom shows teachers that science disciplines, in general, are
quite difficult for students to study – especially physics and chemistry,
although not so much biology and geology – with scientific content.
hard”, boring and far from their reality. In short, they are not very
attractive disciplines for students, for whom learning consists more of
memorizing than understanding. This is also the cause, although
certainly not the only one, of the notable decline in enrollment in
traditional science courses. These facts would be enough to justify the
search for new teaching/learning strategies for science content as keys
to overcoming those barriers that students encounter when studying. In
this way, experimental teaching has been developed, seeking to
improve its quality and suitability through numerous investigations and
increasing the time dedicated to laboratory and classroom
experiments. It is intended that the theory/practice connections
become evident and that their character as an essential condition in
this type of disciplines – qualified precisely as “experimental” sciences
– is highlighted. By integrating these two aspects, theoretical and
practical, students will be able to perceive that the contents are neither
so theoretical, nor so experimental: it is a unique “whole”, in which both
types of content maintain a dialectical relationship. This intensification
of experimental teaching has been felt above all in the Anglo-Saxon
sphere, while in many other countries – such as, for example, ours –
this has been reduced rather to a tendency towards that objective,
which, on the other hand, part, has not yet been reached.

Problems you face

The adoration of science has reached its highest level, to the point
of seeing in it the possibility of solving all the problems that human
beings may have, including those of a spiritual nature; Science has
become, according to Ortega's expression, “the faith by which modern
European man lives.” But it turns out that, for no less than almost a
century and a half, there already existed among scientists themselves
considerably high levels of distrust towards their own validity.

It is a general opinion that the validity of science is based on two major

supports: objective experimentation, that is, the more or less direct
observation of reality, and the mathematical formulation of its contents.
Let's start with the observation:
Let's say, to introduce ourselves once and for all to the subject, that the
current problem of the credibility of science must be inscribed within
the framework of a profound attitude of doubt regarding the human
capacity to know. In fact, the credibility of science is one more episode
in a long history of distrust regarding the general value of our
knowledge, a distrust that began to manifest itself in philosophy very
early -5th century BC-, but which It achieves its most decisive and
consequential expression with Descartes, at the very beginning of the
Modern Age. However, it is worth clarifying that Descartes was not a
skeptic. For him all our faculties can lead us to the truth. The question
arises in his philosophy only with respect to the possibility of finding a
first absolutely certain truth that can serve as the foundation and
starting point of all other truths. That's where Descartes had difficulties.

From Descartes onwards, the problem only increases in crescendo

until today. And today, with respect to the value and limits of our
capacity to know, something very important is admitted, at least without
serious difficulties, although it may seem like a truism: that human
knowledge is “human” knowledge, that is, our own. of man, and that,
consequently, each type of being has its own, peculiar way of knowing.
From this it follows, and we will soon see the consequences of this
statement, that if we had faculties different from the ones we have, we
would know the world differently than we know it.

This is already clear regarding our perception of things. Firstly,

because the human being initially knows through the senses, which
have a specific constitution and a specific organization. They are
formed, for example, by certain types of cells: cones and rods, among
others, for the sense of sight, which allow us, respectively, to capture
light or see in the dark; Corti cells for the sense of hearing, etc. And all
these types of cells are different from each other. That is, we have
senses that are a certain way, and this constitutes an immovable
condition. They function in a certain way, and because they are the
way they are and function that way, we perceive the way we do. If we
did not have adequate cells to capture light, it would be impossible for
us to see colors and, in fact, there are animals that do not see colors,
or that see different ones, such as animals that do not hear. Which
means, in short, that if our sensory organs were different, reality would
also be presented to us differently. What is reality like, then? Can we
affirm that things are as we perceive them?

And don't think that it is just a problem of degree: that the animal, for
example, perceives less or more than we do. This is a different type of
problem, of a more accentuated qualitative nature. Müller, with his law
of the specificity of the senses, had already shown that the type of
sensation we have does not depend so much on the characteristics of
the external stimulus as on the nature of the organ itself.

Let's enrich these data a little with a more complex case: that of the
ear. The least we can say with respect to hearing is that what we hear
is nothing more than the final result of the operation, in thousandths of
seconds, of that simple but impressive mechanism that, starting with
the eardrum and continuing through the chain of ossicles and a certain
liquid medium, the endolymphatic fluid, transmits the vibrations of the
tympanic membrane to the central auditory nerves which, in turn,
forward that impulse to a certain place in the brain, which is where the
sensation occurs. It is not, therefore, the sounds that penetrate the ear.
The sounds are what emerge at the end of the process. Outside of us
there will most likely be something that sets this process in motion, but
that something does not necessarily have to be “noisy.” It is even
possible that outside of us there is no noise at all.
Stereotypes about Science

There are three popular stereotypes that make it difficult to

understand scientific activity and they are the following:

A) White coat: Scientists as individuals who work with facts in the

laboratory, use complicated equipment, do many experiments and
accumulate facts in order to perfect humanity.
B) The second stereotype is that they are brilliant individuals who
think, develop complex theories, and spend their time in the laboratory
distancing themselves from the world and problems.

C) The third stereotype wrongly equates science with engineering and

technology, and this stereotype's work is dedicated to optimizing
inventions and artifacts.

These stereotypes limit the student to understand science, the

activities and thinking of the scientist and general research.

• There are two versions of science: static and dynamic, according

to Conant.

1) The static vision is one that seems to influence the majority of

ordinary people and students, it consists of the fact that science is an
activity that provides systematized information to the world, the work is
to discover new facts and add them to the information, that is,
conceived as a set of facts that explain the observed phenomena.

2) The dynamic vision considers science more as an activity than as

what scientists do. They form the basis for future theories and scientific
research

LEGAL SOCIOLOGY

There are a series of definitions that explain what legal sociology

is, they have been given by different authors so
We will state some of them, but not before talking a little about how it
was born and who was its author.

The founder of this discipline was the great jurist Eugene Ehrlich
who was born in Cznowitz, part of the disappeared Austro-Hungarian
empire and which today belongs to the Ukrainian republic. Ehrlich had
the idea that "The center of gravity of the development of law does not
reside in legislation, nor in legal science or jurisprudence, but in society
itself" with legal phenomena being social phenomena, wherever
sociology legal entity perceives the existence of some type of right, it
will be there to investigate.

Legal sociology as a science is extremely young, but its origins

must be located in antiquity, with thinkers such as the sophists in the
5th century before our era, who tried to explain the reasons for the
dichotomy between what is just and what is positive.

Those stated by this author in 1913 are valid today, as is his

interest in the role of judges and their power of creativity.

The author understands that the essential idea in legal sociology

is the existence of a peaceful and spontaneous, contentious social
order, which is formed by the free arrangement of individual or
collective wills, and that although conflict usually arises, this is largely
resolved. without the need to resort to abstract norms, through the
appreciation of the justice of the case.

In principle, we can point out that legal sociology is a branch of

general sociology, and its objective is a variety of social phenomena,
particularly legal phenomena or legal phenomena . Jean Carbonnier
states that legal sociology encompasses all phenomena of which law
can be the cause, effect or occasion, including the phenomena of
violation, effectiveness or deviation.

Max Weber believes that it is a science that seeks to understand,

interpreting social action, in order to explain it casually.

Oscar Correa proposes that legal sociology or sociology of law is

a scientific discipline that attempts to explain the causes and effects of
law, and that science is a set of statements that aims to describe
plausively - that is, it claims to be true - both the phenomena that They
can be seen with causative or determining.

It is a branch of General Sociology that aims to study legal or law

phenomena. Legal Sociology starts from the principle that all legal
phenomena are social phenomena . We must understand the
Sociology of Law as “the special part of Sociology that describes and
explains the influence of law on social life and in turn how social and
cultural phenomena become legal norms and institutions and why.”
Note that we are describing a “double-handed” path, that is, on the one
hand we investigate how the regulatory system influences social life
and, on the other, how society promotes the creation of new legal
norms and institutions.

Ramón Soriano, notes that Legal Sociology “deals with the

influence of social factors on law and the impact that it has, in turn, on
society; the mutual interdependence between the social and the legal.

I. Function of Legal Sociology:

Legal sociology takes charge of the basic social function of law,
which is to govern human coexistence and therefore the different social
groups without ignoring that it carries values of justice, freedom,
security, order, etc., which must be incarnated in the respective social
group.

This discipline also analyzes an aspect of capital importance,

which is the reciprocal relations of law with other social phenomena,
that is, with morality, politics, art, economy, religion, culture, language,
etc. In short, it is about studying not only the influence of these social
factors on the law, but also the effects that the law in turn exerts on
these social phenomena.

Legal sociology also studies the transformations of law, in order

to explain them causally, but not with the individualizing scope, typical
of history, but with a generalizing scope, in order to formulate laws (it is
understood that laws in the sociological sense and not natural) that
explain these transformations.

II. Foundation of Legal Sociology:

In the theoretical commitment beyond the definition of the
representatives and what Legal Sociology means, the aim is to make
an articulation not only from the theorists of Contemporary and
Classical Sociology, but from the same foundations that allowed the
scientificity of the sociological discipline; This genesis dates back to a
journey from some thinkers considered pre-sociologists, who, without
being sociologists and without the discipline even existing, laid the
foundations to create and consolidate a science that is responsible for
analyzing society and responding to problems. , social phenomena
and trends.

Although this proposal is a connection between history and

everyday life, which allows us to build, contrast, and refute theories,
this academic exercise, due to the limitations of space, is only a
fragmentary, succinct, suggestive, challenging, presentation. which
offers basic objective arguments despite the fact that “there is no
sociological theory free of values, nor anything that resembles it,
therefore no less important authors or theoretical currents will be left
out, in order to provide a common thread. Legal Sociology requires a
previous phase, which is to place future lawyers among other
disciplines, in the genesis of sociology, which is why the journey
begins with some thinkers considered pre-sociologists (Montesquieu,
Rousseau, Tocqueville, SaintSimon, Comte, Spencer) moving on to
 classical and contemporary sociology (Durkheim, Marx, Weber,
Parsons, Merton, Schutz, among others, without ignoring the
contribution of women sociologists), to decant all this dynamic
knowledge as a conclusion in what Today it is called the Sociology of
Law or Legal Sociology.

The legacy of these thinkers in the construction of knowledge

goes beyond the observation and analysis of their reality, their context;
varieties of situations that served as a starting point for social-scientific
reflection, as well as for the emergence of the approaches of different
schools and authors, whose studies and research have emerged
gradually and systematically. Many social phenomena occur invisibly
before our eyes and we only pay attention when said “everyday life” is
altered or transgressed or affects us directly. Therefore, as Legal
Sociologists we must start from reality without ignoring the norm,
placing ourselves in line with the law in motion, with the world of
lawyers who, beyond the norm, must see the realities; the game, the
dance, the dialectical language between the descriptive and the
prescriptive, between morality and ethics, between values and
principles. This look at the present must necessarily have some
background, a historical retrospective, “the return to the source”, “to the
base”, “to the most elementary”, “to the simple”.

In the same practice of his daily activities as those of a French

magistrate and as a traveler in Europe, which made it possible to
analyze the customs and behaviors of its inhabitants, the role played
by the institutions, whose English political model (Great Britain)
allowed him to fill of arguments to criticize the absolute monarchical
model of his beloved France.

His work “Persian Letters,” published anonymously in 1721,

portrays his society, how disorder, privileges, debauchery, the
influence of the church, the problems of law, among others, are part of
its reality; He makes this situation a criticism of society through a work
that is entertaining due to the sarcasm and humor with which it is told.

The Englishman John Locke (1632-1704) had an enormous

influence on Montesquieu, since the English model allowed him to
develop a model of constitutional monarchy, where the executive
(monarch) was restrained by a parliament that would be in charge of
the legislative and judicial; For this reason, the division of powers of the
State allows us to have a balanced system, where there is no relapse
into despotism or absolute authority, which is why laws and
constitutional control are guarantors not only for the State but for its
society. This division of powers was absolute in Montesquieu, and
today such division is not so rigid, allowing control, balance,
interdependence and complementarity.

In his masterpiece “The Spirit of the Laws” published in 1748,

the law is expressed as a governing mechanism, through a critical and
objective analysis of the nature of things, using the comparative
historical method and the scientific method, that is, observation. ,
experience and even experimentation to complicate the very diversity
of societies, their actions, their forms of government in Republics,
Monarchies and Empires; Therefore, for Montesquieu, law in the
abstract is superior to positive law and democracy must be inherent to
the forms of government, which allows legal security, equality,
enjoyment of citizenship, love of self and others, among others.
“Montesquieu realized that every social fact must also be understood
within its physical, moral and institutional context, since its isolation
invalidates any interpretation”

The analysis of society as an integrated system allows

Montesquieu to start from concrete realities, go beyond the legal and
establish links between forms of government and sociocultural,
economic, political, geographical, climatic contexts, in ways of
achieving construction of a consolidated bureaucratic and political
sociological theory, which gives movement to the lethargy and old
practices inherited from the Middle Ages, and which leads to the
development of an enlightened era in which the generation of
knowledge and the need for changes is a guideline for many thinkers.

Montesquieu's contribution to sociology is recognized by

Durkheim as one of the first to use scientificity in the construction of
knowledge, and beyond this author there are many authors who
recognize Montesquieu as one of the first legal sociologists for his
contribution in matter of contracting and analysis of society in different
contexts and private law. “If one sticks to the essentials, the Spirit of
the Laws is already Legal Sociology conceived as a science. The
essential thing must be sought in two features: relativism and
determinism."

Turning to another pre-sociologist ideologist of the French

Revolution (1789 to 1799), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) born
in Geneva, Switzerland in a modest family, orphaned from an early
age, at the age of 16 he arrived in Paris, where he He educates himself
and it is life itself that shapes him, giving him opportunities to develop
and enlighten himself in the arts and sciences, including music,
philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, Latin,6 achieving intellectual
consolidation. which allows him to take a critical position against the
ideals defended by Diderot (1713-1784), D'Alambert (1717-1783),
Voltaire (1694-1778) or Montesquieu, no longer on the principle of
rationalism but on the concept of passion and feeling as core values of
society.

The “Discourse on Sciences and Arts” was an essay that

generated great controversy in its time, since Rousseau starts from a
hypothesis contrary to that maintained by Hobbes, in which man is
immersed in a savage state of nature. , “man is a wolf to man”, which
makes the other view with distrust, fear or as an enemy; On the
contrary, Rousseau conceives that the "natural" state of man, before
life in society emerged, was good, happy and free, therefore the "noble
savage" lived independently, guided by healthy love of himself, thus
His maxim “man is born good, society corrupts him”, frames a position
in which the need for a healthy return to nature is contemplated to
mitigate the inequality between the powerful and the less favored and
in this way unleash man that this one was born free.

In 1754 Rousseau published one of his great works “Discourse

on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Men”, which is a
harsh criticism of political and social institutions as great corrupters of
man's natural innocence and goodness. Around 1760 he published his
“Nouvelle Eloïse”, a work in which he denounces the imposture, the
falsehood, the will to dominate that same leading French society and
proposes a utopia as a way out of the disaster he announces. Already
in 1762 two of his most important works appeared: “The Social
Contract” and “Emile or Education, both works were immediately
banned by the Parliament of Paris (later in Geneva, Holland and
Berne), ordering the arrest of the author. , so Rousseau took refuge in
the city and commune of Neuchâtel in French Switzerland, and later in
England. These works were strongly opposed to Montesquieu's
liberalism and utilitarianism, as well as any form of ideological or
political aristocratism.

In the search for balance between man and nature, man and
society, Rousseau starts from an educational project in the “Emile” that
arises from bringing out the best feelings of love for oneself and for
others, and of passion for what is done. This apprehension of
knowledge should not be of an encyclopedic and rationalist nature,
since these change the natural process of man. Education must be
above all a conscious, empirical, self-taught process, which enables
the individual to create a society that does not ignore its natural state.

In "The Social Contract", Rousseau explains that in order to

mitigate the degeneration in the social state, the injustices, the fracture
of "class", not only education is a vital element which adds to the
transformation of the social order that entails to an improvement from
within the individual and from the same society in whose process
violence is not contemplated, therefore as men a new social contract
must be established that brings them closer to their natural state,
where “the only legitimacy of a society is the consent of its members...
this consent would be carried out through a unique pact of association
between equals by which 'each one uniting with all, he obeys no one
but himself and remains as free as, a pact of transparency that allows
him the individual recognizes himself in others, in the community and
the community in the individuals, this “general will” is what legitimizes
sovereignty, being indivisible and inalienable, which allows equality
and freedom.

The thought of the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-

1859), who comes from a noble family, has a great influence since it is
based on the principle of love for freedom and human dignity, which
takes him to the new world with its friend Gustave de Beaumont, to
study the American prison system. It can be said that Tocqueville is a
continuator of Montesquieu's thought, since democracy implies the
distinction between the aspiration for equality and freedom as an ideal,
in order to respond to the political contrast. The United States offered a
path to the solution of this crossroads, since in the North American
reality the ideal of freedom was based as a guiding principle of
democracy for the defense and guarantee of individual rights as
citizens.

For Tocqueville, equality of conditions is not equivalent to

equality of goods, on the contrary, it refers to equality of rights for any
individual, and this is precisely what freedom consists of. His
masterpiece “Democracy in America” comes to light as a reflection of
the profound tendencies of modern North American society and as an
expression of the habits, ideas, customs, lifestyle and principles on
which a nation is based. democratic state; This comparison allows us
to make a parallel between the different structures, institutions, political
and sociocultural traditions, which distances him from being
pigeonholed to any political party of the French era and as he himself
expresses it “I did not intend to serve or fight any party. I did not want
to see, from a different angle than that of the parties, but beyond what
they see; and while they deal with tomorrow, I wanted to think about
the future.”

Based on the comparative analysis of the United States and

Europe, Tocqueville contributes to the world of law, to legal sociology
for his contributions to political association, the right to association,
equality, freedom and democracy. “If Tocqueville, who in Anglo-Saxon
countries is considered one of the greatest political thinkers, equal to
Montesquieu in the 18th century, has never been counted in France
among sociologists, this responds to the fact that the modern school of
Durkheim is “originated in the work of Auguste Comte.”

Continuing with one of Saint Simon's students, although he has

distanced himself from the thinker, he is a disciple who was deeply
influenced; Augusto Comte (1798-1857), of French origin, is a
prominent intellectual, followed by other works for many of equal
relevance, including: “Discourse on the Positive Spirit” published in
1844; “System of positive politics or treatise on sociology” in four
volumes between 1851 and 1854; and the “Positive Catechism”
published in 1852.

The first stage of Comte's thinking on industrial society develops

ideas influenced by the thinking of Saint-Simon, and the second stage
of his thinking, on positivism specifically, is reflected in his positive
philosophy courses, which respond to the reorganization in the
different political, economic and social spheres under the context of the
industrial revolution.

Finally, the pre-classical thinkers of sociology, the Englishman

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), strive to put into practice the ideals on
which that society based on utilitarianism and free competition was
built; We must take into account the context in which Spencer was
immersed, which gave him elements of analysis of a society
characterized by individualism, based on common sense and
pedagogical desire without further analysis. He was an autodidact with
a prodigious mind; For him, culture was a transformative pattern that is
linked to freedom, freedom that has limitations in particular in the
exercise of its right that should not trample on that of others27. His
daily life was spent in jobs that could contribute to progress, working as
an engineer, as a journalist, or as an empirical theorist, whose vision
was nourished by colloquiums, gatherings, theater, day-to-day life and
the same network of friends that gave him elements to produce
scientific knowledge, which from an academic perspective without
being in it, caused admiration and was the object of numerous
recognitions and honors that he always rejected.

He was characterized by applying a logical and rational mind to

his intellectual production, since he only found satisfaction in
systematic elaborations. He took principles from Darwin and Lamarck,
regarding the evolutionary theory applied technically and scientifically
to social problems and the manifestations of the spirit, for which the
State must protect the free action of natural selection in society, as a
source of progress. , consequently the need to pay attention to the
limits established by state authority and its rationally systemic
interpretation of society.
Karl Marx (1818-1883) is a humanist above all, a German
philosopher, historian, sociologist, economist, writer and socialist
thinker of Jewish origin. Theoretical father of scientific socialism and
communism along with Engels. Marx proposes a dialectical analysis of
society, whose process is directed objectively and not by desire,
allowing ideals to be achieved through the collaboration of the various
social classes. The study of the material world does not contemplate a
single and unidirectional cause-effect relationship between the various
parts of the social world, therefore social values are not separable from
social facts. Marx analyzes the conflict between capitalists and the
proletariat, part of its by-products are derived from this; The most
important task for Marx was the critical analysis of contemporary
capitalist society. This is how human potential, despite social
limitations, is what could make communism possible (abolition of
private property, establishment of the collectivization of the means of
production and consumption and the equitable distribution of all work,
organized society, workers free and aware), will provide a suitable
environment.

Max Weber (1864-1920) is one of the most relevant German

intellectuals in the different disciplines of the social and human
sciences. His intellectual production covers politics, economics,
administration, sociology, law, among others, evidence of this can be
seen in one of his masterpieces “Economy and Society”. For Weber,
science cannot give rise to values, since they must be seen as
historical products, therefore the role of values is a problem that each
individual has to resolve in their own life (value conflicts), this is how
Science must contain its evaluative neutrality and social scientists must
suppress their personal values so that they do not influence scientific
research, and they must be as objective as possible in teaching and
research. Verstehen, understood as understanding through the
rational, allows the understanding not only of historical processes but
of social reality. With his study of society, Weber allows us to
understand in a positive and scientific way the influence of values and
beliefs on forms of human behavior, for example, the intellectual and
existential affinity between an interpretation of Protestantism and
certain economic behavior evidenced by Weber.

III. Usefulness of Legal Sociology:

The legal sociologist is very useful since she serves to discover
the laws or causes that explain the birth or genesis, development and
the different systems and institutions of law, and for this she works
within the framework of general sociology.

It has two essential functions that explains what it is for, Rafael

Márquez Piñero mentions the following:

1. Scientific, It is reasoned, systematized and coherent knowledge.

Check reality. Discover and find reality. What jurists can expect from
jurisciologists:

a) Knowledge of Law framed in reality.

b) Explanation of the Law

2. Practice, It has three fundamental manifestations:

a) Legislative Sociology.

b) Sociology of Jurisdiction

c) Contractual Sociology.

RELATIONSHIP OF LEGAL SOCIOLOGY WITH SOCIOLOGY

Legal sociology is closely related to general sociology as

demonstrated by the fact that practically the same research methods
are used as historical-comparative ones; statistics; the survey; the
survey; among others.
Emilio Durkheim recommended that sociologists observe the rules of
law, since he saw in them an objective revealer of social facts.

Although today they appear as different disciplines, exchange

relations between them do not cease to exist. Legal sociology has
received much from general sociology, of which it is a daughter. Many
of the concepts that legal sociology uses (social coercion and social
control, collective conscience, role of statute, accumulation.) are
nothing other than concepts of general sociology on which an
emphasis on law has been placed. Even among many notions that
seem to correspond to strictly legal phenomena such as the conjugal
family, the distinction between property and power in corporations can
be seen to have been highlighted by sociologists.

The search for judicial truth is driven by the principle of

contradiction, which is an organized conflict of partialities. The survey
and counter-survey are something that the law recognizes. Sociology
does not have as rigorous a concern for objectivity as in Durkheimian
times, and sometimes partiality in methods prevails. This is, however, a
unilateral bias. Therefore, introducing a contradictory procedure in the
administration of scientific tests could be the gift that the law gave to
sociology.

Disciplines related to Legal Sociology

6.1 Auxiliary Sciences of Legal Sociology:

6.1.1 Legal Dogmatics:

Knowledge and study of the current Positive Law regulations. It

investigates what the legal duty is with reference to certain realities.

The Jurist receives from the current legal order, the rules with
which he has to operate, he must obey them, they are dogmas.

The jurist must find the solution to the cases that arise in the
regulations.

6.1.2 Philosophy of Law:

The philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy and ethics that

studies the philosophical foundations that govern the creation and
application of law.

Philosophy of Law is any approach to the legal fact, the approach

to a phenomenon that has accompanied humanity since its
appearance, since law and law constitute a historical constant that has
had a general and constant impact on people and social and political
models.

6.1.3 Law history:

The History of Law is the historical-legal discipline that analyzes

the set of historical facts and processes related to the set of legal
norms, as well as strong social uses, that is, those that have a
relationship with Law.

The very nature of the History of Law as a discipline means that

it must be placed between two other great branches of knowledge,
such as History and Law. In this way, it has been stated that the legal
historian has dual citizenship, being considered a good historian
among jurists, and a good jurist among historians. In this way, the
History of Law has had the need to develop a justification that supports
its own existence, as well as its independence from the rest of the
disciplines.

6.1.4 Comparative Law:

Comparative Law is a discipline or method of studying Law that

is based on the comparison of the different solutions offered by the
various legal systems for the same cases. It is not properly a branch of
Law. For this reason, Comparative Law can be applied to any area of
law, carrying out specific studies such as: Comparative constitutional
law, Comparative civil law, etc.

6.1.5 Legal Ontology:

Ontology is the study of being itself. Legal ontology is the branch

of legal philosophy in charge of establishing the being of law, that is,
what will be the object about which it is going to philosophize. Note that
this object is prior to the knowledge that is applied to it, that is, it has its
own reality before being studied.

Legal ontology will obtain a concept of Law that will serve as a basis
for subsequent philosophical reflection.

6.1.6 Legal Anthropology:

Legal anthropology is a discipline of cultural or social

anthropology, strengthened during the 19th and 20th centuries thanks
to the research of important jurists and anthropologists such as Henry
Summer or John Mac Lennan, who applied the concepts of cultural
anthropology to the study of law.
 Although the concepts of anthropology and law belong to two
totally different disciplines, with very different research methods and
terminologies, they have a strong interrelationship because they are
fields of study that investigate human coexistence and its
corresponding problems.

6.1.7 Juridic psychology:

Legal psychology includes the study, explanation, evaluation,

prevention, advice and treatment of psychological, behavioral and
relational phenomena that affect the legal behavior of people. To do
this, use the methods of scientific psychology.

IV. Legal Sociology and its object of study

According to Roger Pinto, the object of study is reduced to:

• The genesis of the notion of legal norms, origin, evolution and

differentiation of the modes of creation of law (custom,
jurisprudence and legislation) origins of development of social
structures (constitutions, legal statuses, collectivities and
individuals, as well as origins of political relations.

• The genesis and development of the regulation of the various

categories of social conduct (religious, ethical, aesthetic,
economic, political, domestic, etc.), the conditions and limits of
effectiveness of legal norms.

• The role of authorized and specialized personnel in the field of

law (legislators, judges, administrators, legal advisors and legal
practitioners.
Sociology studies law, that is, legal institutions and
practices as an objective reality, and treats it as if it were a social
phenomenon, for this it has to:
 a. Determine the fact
b. Study the genesis of the rules of law
c. Distinguish the type of legal organization.
d. Analyze the fundamental notions of public and private law as a
whole.

V. Methods used by legal sociology:

Observation, method used to obtain written information, such as:
text of laws, notarial files, statistical tables.

Interpretation means extracting all possible information from a

text, without changing the meaning of the words or the text.

Content analysis method

Comparison, achieving, through the method of comparison of
the different legal institutions, a type of loggia of legal systems

Historical, comparative method widely used to study history.

Achieving through this method, obtaining a rational knowledge of
legal phenomena.

Content analysis method This method adjusts to the mental

habits of jurists and the law itself, presenting it in text form. Content
analysis is composed of qualitative analysis and quantitative
analysis.

Legal document analysis studies documents related to law.

VI. Characteristics of Legal Sociology.

Legal sociology would have the following characteristics that
identify it as an autonomous discipline compared to law and other
social and human sciences:

1. It is seen either as a discipline or as a specialty of sociology.

2. In general, it is not defined as a discipline of law.

3. Regarding its methods and way of approaching knowledge, it is

more linked to sociology than to law.

4. Although not exclusively, it emphasizes the use of empirical

research methods.

5. It seeks a critical analysis of legal situations, a realistic approach.

6. It deals with the purposes and functions of law, although it does

not have exclusivity on the subject.

7. It deals with the organization of the legal system, its operators

and the way in which people define their legal reality.

So we can say that Legal Sociology is characterized by being an

autonomous discipline.

Aim:

It is the study of social phenomena that refer to law. The sociological

knowledge in this study will contribute to evaluating the validity of the
legal norm, to observe if a change is necessary in them in addition to
observing the interests of the different social groups that constitute
legal operators as well as the correlation between the actions of
these and their evaluation of legislation and social change. Legal
Sociology will try to discover the laws or causes that explain the birth
or genesis, development and the different systems and institutions of
law, and for this it works within the framework of General Sociology.

Importance:

It is of great importance because it takes charge of the basic social

functions of Law, which is to govern human coexistence in social
groups and to be the bearer of justice, freedom, security and order.
 Legal sociology can provide useful information to the science of law
on almost all topics. Lautmann, when referring to the contribution of
the activity of jurists and judges, points out first of all the information
about social states, in order to apply a decision to social reality that
can be effective, if it aspires to be something more than an
observation. prejudiced and superficial. This is clearer when, due to
the lack of a specific norm, the solution must be created from
general principles, that is, moral, ethical conceptions or customs
whose knowledge should be made from specific sociological
theories. By studying the dimension of social reality, society is
identified in a concrete way to develop rules that are effective and
allow the best coexistence between individuals in a certain territory.

Function:

Regarding the function of Legal Sociology, it is quick to point out its

field of study and development, without pretensions to limit but rather
to determine its origin and its function, with society being its central
point, one of its functions is to regulate the actions of citizens by
through legal norms that are followed because they are logical in
nature, that is, it is in society from which these norms emanate and are
imposed by it.

Within legal sociology, it is possible to determine why the norms, which

arise from society, present problems that result in new norms. By
having the cause of certain conflicts determined, it is possible to work
on their resolution.

Legal sociology relies on the technique of jurists, in order to

capture nascent rights, institutions become fundamental so that
compliance is effective and becomes adequate legislation that has as
its main mold the society on which it is based and be free of
arbitrariness.

Legal sociology also gives way to society being aware that by not
complying with some rule, it is possible to resort to some type of
sanction, without being something arbitrary, these sanctions can be
reflected within the legislation because it is logical that it is a
consequence to the improper actions of citizens.

Action field:

Considering that Legal Sociology is closely linked to General

Sociology, we can deduce that when referring to the field of Action we
are referring to a group of people organized to seek the common good,
that is, in other words, society itself. The field of action can also be a
specific territory, that is, a state, since this state is also governed by a
set of legal rules that were created through a study carried out through
legal sociology so that they adapt to the needs. of the society. In short,
the field of action is the place where sociology can be used and applied
and, as mentioned above, it is in society and in the state.

Perspectives and Problems that such research may face:

When referring to the perspectives of legal sociology we are referring

to the way in which this science makes us aware of or shows us the
different aspects of topics related to the object of its study.

The scientific perspective is reasoned, systematized and coherent

knowledge. Check reality. Discover and find reality. We emphasize
then how society is living at this time, to a certain extent problems have
been generated with the application of legal sociology due to the depth
of research for the needs of people in a certain territory.

The practical perspective; It is the way in which Legal Sociology is

applied to society through the creation of laws according to the needs
of society, the form of application and legislation of the different states.

There is also a great problem, since the sociology of law should not be
confused with legal sociology; since the terms are related but at the
same time they are very different; The conception of the sociology of
law is much more complete, and has a greater relationship with general
sociology; Apparently this terminological confusion has become a
problem in legal sociology; since what is understood by legal is limited
in relation to the conception of law.

THE STATE AND THE LAW

Before defining the state and the law, each of the concepts must be
analyzed separately. We can find that each concept has a specific
description:

Right:
It is the regulatory and institutional order of:
human behavior in society inspired by postulates
of justice and legal certainty, whose basis is the social relations that
determine its content and character in a given space and time. In other
words, it is a set or system of rules that regulate social coexistence and
allow legal conflicts to be resolved. Throughout history jurists,
philosophers and legal theorists have proposed alternative definitions
and different legal theories without there being, to this day, a
consensus on their definition.

State:
The State as the set of institutions that have the authority and
power to establish the rules that regulate a society, having internal and
external sovereignty over a given territory .

As a result of these two definitions we can say that the state and the
law are related because the state will be in charge of human behavior
in society that complies with what is established in the norms that are
regulated by the authorities created for said control such as each
organism is.

Relationship between the State and the Law:

The analysis of the link that exists between Law and political power
inevitably leads to the need to examine the relationships between Law
and the State, since this is precisely the most representative historical
incarnation of the institutionalization of the exercise of political power. .
The State is identified with any politically organized and ordered social
unit. In its strict and proper sense, the State is a model of political
organization that was created in the 14th-15th centuries through a
process of concentration of the dispersed and fluid medieval order,
which is fundamentally characterized by: secularization, unification,
centralization, determination territorial,
institutionalization and legal legitimation:
V The process of unification and centralization of political power that
occurs generates the concentration of two of the most important
activities of dominion, such as the creation and application of
Law and the minting of currency.

^ In turn, a territorial determination of political power took place,

since, overcoming the ties of personal loyalty typical of the
medieval organization, political dominance began to be exercised
over all individuals living within a given territory.

V At the same time, the tendency towards institutionalization began

to intensify, such that political power was increasingly embodied
in a bureaucracy that was hierarchically linked to the prince.
 ^ And finally, the principle of legality began to be imposed as a
fundamental criterion of legitimation for the exercise of political
power, that is, the submission to the law of the political
community.

The most important event was undoubtedly the progressive role that
the State began to assume in the process of creation and application of
Law. The State not only attempted to be the supreme and sole
legislator, but at the same time, it did everything possible to become
the maximum guarantor of the effectiveness of its own laws through
the monopoly of the exercise of judicial power.
Different approaches put forward by experts in the matter give us the
basis that justifies the State-Law relationship, among which it is worth
highlighting:

{ The one that affirms the primacy of the State over the Law.
{ The one who advocates the primacy of Law over the State and,
{ The one who defends the equality and even identity between
Law and the State.
/

State Objectives:
The state's objective purposes are:

I. The construction and improvement of the political community and

the sole purpose of the state is to achieve the common good,
which is the set of social conditions that allows people to develop
comprehensively.

II. The common good, in the political constitution of the Republic of

Guatemala
Article 1.- Protection of the person. The State of Guatemala is
organized to protect the person and the family; Its supreme goal
is the realization of the common good.
Article2.- Duties of the State. It is the duty of the State to
guarantee life, freedom, security, peace and the integral
development of the person to the inhabitants of the Republic.
Based on our constitution, the supreme objectives of the state are:

1. The general well-being.

2. Comprehensive security.

Objectives of Law:
Law is the set of rules that impose duties and confer powers that
establish the bases of social coexistence and whose purpose is to
provide all members of society with the minimum of security, certainty,
equality, freedom and justice.

This activity has as its primary objective and reason for being:

I. legal security, which is the guarantee given to the individual to

ensure their person, their property and rights, so that they are not
subject to violent attacks and in the event that they occur, society
gives them protection and reparation.

II. Justice is another objective of law, it is giving everyone what they

deserve; The application of this requires that similar situations be
treated in the same way; This corrective function of law is
commanded by a Judge. Ulpian, a Roman jurist, defined justice
as the constant and perpetual will to give each person his due.

III. Another purpose of this activity is the common good, which is the
set of conditions, values, goods and experiences that contribute
to the progress of the community and the material, moral and
intellectual good of individuals, to have more easily and
integrates perfection in the maintenance and development of life
in society.
Importance of the State and Law:
Rule of Law derives Legal certainty, and this is achieved with the
existence of clear laws and their application, which produces personal
certainty in each of the members of society, in addition the rule of law
entails due process of law, which is nothing more than the observance
and restriction of the procedure of legal applications, not subject to
individual will or discretion.

In summary, the rule of law is the fundamental basis to stimulate

economic and social progress, and in this way promote the
development of the country, since otherwise investment and the
creation of new companies are stimulated, so it is It is evident that
without the rule of law there can be no development of the country.

Function of the State and Law:

The state:

From a broad approach that examines the reason for being of the
State, it can be highlighted that it plays a role that has to do with tasks
such as institutionalization, legitimacy and consensus, legality, social
coercion, education and propaganda, collective organization, economic
policy and relations. international

Among these functions, it is coercion that has most characterized the

State; Many definitions of the State take into account the exercise of
coercion as the main ingredient; this serves to fight against the
disturbances and dangers that threaten the set of interests it protects.
The following purposes, among others, of coercion by the State can be
highlighted:

A. creation and conservation of the permanent and legalized

monopoly of violence at its head, which is thus institutionalized,
officialized and organized. It is precisely the achievement of this
purpose that gives the State its sovereign character.

B. Deal with conflicts of interest, either by mitigating, eliminating or

adjusting them.

C. Create and maintain national unity.

The social coercion carried out by the State includes various forms of
pressure on the population that can range from the deprivation of an
advantage to the use of physical or psychological violence.

Coercion has been one of the key elements for the definition of the
concept of the State and political power. Let us remember that Weber
maintains that the State "must be understood as a political institute of
continuous activity, when and as long as its administrative staff
maintains success the claim to the legitimate monopoly of physical
coercion for the maintenance of the current order"

Right:

When we talk about law, taking it into account as a mechanism for

regulating community life, we can see that it fulfills this role through
several functions:

-Conflict resolution function: Acts as a device for prevention, solution

and, in general, conflict treatment. However, it cannot be denied that it
can create them. This function can manifest itself in various ways: as a
regulatory function, repressive function, guiding function 12 :

- As a regulatory function: when the law accepts and absorbs the

conflict because the reasons for the conflict are supported by public
opinion or political power, giving rise to regulatory norms. Example:
intellectual property rules, protective rules of the half
atmosphere etc

- As a repressive function: when the reason for the conflict has no

justification for political power. Here would be the rules that establish
as crimes, certain behaviors.

- As a guiding function: if the conflict is channeled or guided so that it

can be resolved peacefully, by those who have competing interests.
For example, the regulations on collective labor law, which seek to
channel conflicts between workers and employers.

Notwithstanding the above, the law sometimes generates conflicts, it is

a dysfunction. This occurs when the law does not adapt to the needs of
the social sector or activity to which it is applied, or when the law treats
relations of inequality equally, with the same standards. Many
situations that make the law unjust are examples of this dysfunction.
For example, the collection of a toll on a road that is mainly traveled by
low-income farmers, which makes the payment very burdensome
compared to the profitability of the products they sell.

Field of Action of the State and Law:

The general activity of the State is what must be done in

accordance with the legal order prevailing in a country. The State is a
collective and artificial work, created to order and serve society. The
purpose of the State is the objective idea of a higher good. The State is
the total order, it is a certain territory, and regulated by purposes that
are the result of a historical process.

The activity of the State, that is, what the State must do, is defined by
the set of rules that create bodies, establish their operation and the
purposes they must achieve. The logical requirement of the State is
specified by the ends or purposes that an organized society has been
indicating to it in accordance with its own nature.

The State and law are means, organizations or instruments, made by

men and for men. To ensure its purposes, society creates or
recognizes the power of the State and subjects it to law to make it
rational and logical. The State is not an organism endowed with a soul.
Because there is no other spirit than that of human beings themselves,
nor is there any other will than their will. The State can be defined as
an institution that creates institutions.

The functions of the State and the public powers that correspond to it
are constitutional powers that logically and politically divide the action
of the State for democratic and technical purposes and prevent the
concentration of state force in a person or entity.

Two aspects of the good of the State:

1. The existence of the State implies, in turn, defense against its
enemies, which may exist inside or outside of it.
 2. The conservation of the State presupposes the proper
functioning of its administrative machine, and also presupposes
the existence of a healthy state economy.
State action may have as its objective:

a) The regulation, surveillance and control of private activity;

b) Aid to private initiative and private companies of collective

interest ;

c) The creation and management of public services; and

d) The administration judging conflicts, that is, what is called

administrative litigation.

In the last third of the 20th century, four fundamental purposes of the
State can be identified, in which all of its activities can be integrated;
firstly, the purposes of general policy and public order; secondly, the
purposes of economic development ; Thirdly, the goals of social
development.

These are considered in their material aspect, the main purposes of

administrative activity: that of the economy, that of education and that
of spiritual values . The formal elements of the public good are
specified in three categories: the need for order and peace; the need
for coordination, which is also order, but from this special point of view;
and the need for help, encouragement and eventually replacement of
private activities.

Now, if we talk about the Rule of Law and its field of action, we say that
it is the political form of organization of social life by which the
authorities that govern it are strictly limited by a supreme legal
framework that they accept and to which they adhere. they submit in
their forms and contents. Therefore, any decision by its governing
bodies must be subject to procedures regulated by law and guided by
absolute respect for fundamental rights.

The concept that concerns us in this review is used prominently at the

political level. A state, as we know, is that territory or superior political
unit that, as such, is autonomous and sovereign. Countries, states, can
be governed in an autocratic manner, which is that system that is
characterized because a single person who has total power governs;
there is no division of powers as, for example, exists in a democratic
system. In democracy, for example, there is a government exercised
by one person, who embodies the executive and makes decisions in
this sense, however, his power will be limited to that and there will be
two other powers, legislative and judicial, that will act as controller of
the first. .

Generally, democracies are characterized by having and respecting

what is known as the rule of law. Without a doubt, it is the ideal state of
any nation because all the powers that make up the state are subject
to law, that is, subject to the authority of the current laws, the mother
law, such as the national Constitution of a country, and the rest of the
regulatory body.
Perspectives and problems of the State and Law
State Problems:
The ability of the State to maintain itself depends precisely on the
substance of which it is made: power. Consequently, excessive use of
one of the sources of power would place the State in a precarious
situation, by exhausting its own substance. There cannot, therefore,
exist a State that depends solely on persuasive, economic or coercive
power: it is the combination of the three that allows the survival of the
State. This being so, the State can exist (and by this I mean: for a
reasonable period) when an adequate combination of the three
sources of power is achieved. A State dependent on pure persuasive
power will not be able to withstand a threat (external or internal); A
State solely dependent on force will quickly exhaust itself, the same as
if it is only economic power that sustains it.

This being so, the State can exist (and by this I mean: for a reasonable
period) when an adequate combination of the three sources of power is
achieved. A State dependent on pure persuasive power will not be
Able to withstand a threat (external or internal); A State solely
dependent on force will quickly exhaust itself, the same as if it is only
economic power that sustains it.
With respect to these three sources of power, the structure called
“State” also has three characterizations. On the one hand, the State is,
effectively, the “monopoly of legitimate violence,” in Weber's phrase,
which, in reality, mixes two dimensions of power: the violence that the
State can exert on individuals or groups of them, and the “legitimacy”
that is the result of the provision of persuasive power that the State
has. On the economic side, the State is a provider of a special type of
goods, called “public goods.” These goods are not produced by
companies, and have to be provided by the State. The public goods
par excellence are “national security” and the administration of justice.
In fact, the emergence of medieval States is usually analyzed based on
the provision of these two goods, which forces the State to finance
itself through taxes.

Based on the above, we can identify a set of “basic problems of the

State”, that is, conditions under which the very existence of the State is
called into question:

•Sovereignty, territorial integrity

•Center-region relationship
•Alternative legitimacies
•State financing
•Productive capacity of society
Now, these five problems, although we can differentiate them for
analysis, in reality they are strongly connected to each other. Evidently,
the problem of territorial sovereignty-integrity defines the State itself,
and is therefore “prior” to the other four. However, this problem is
greater or less depending on the second, the center-center
relationship.
Regions. The weaker the bond between them, the more difficult it will
be to resolve the problem of territorial integrity. On the other hand, this
relationship between the center and the regions depends strongly on
the legitimacy of the State government. Again, the less legitimacy, the
weaker the link with the regions and therefore the less likely it is that
the problem of territorial integrity will be resolved.
Law Problems:
Law, as a socio-cultural science, is a problematic activity that is built
on deep and interdisciplinary research, in order to achieve, in others,
the analysis and questioning of the normative order, without neglecting
the socioeconomic context that gives it life and determines him.

The problem of accepting Law as an object of study arises from trying

to apprehend it with the characteristic features of physical-natural
objects, since these do not contradict the criteria of causal ordering,
while the object of the Science of Law undergoes dialectical
modifications between its forms and contents; This intertwined game
arises between the accidental form and the content of the Law, since
the substantial form seems to be immutable and not participate in this
dialectical game. However, the form does not exist in the idea of Law
and it is real to the extent that it is attached to the form; form that is
combined and structured from the essence of the legal.

State Perspectives
The State from the Attica historical perspective, for Plato, has a
teleological direction, a programmatic principle defined as "Justice",
which is at the same time a peculiar didactics; Happiness as a means
to achieve the end is a hedonic element proposed by the author;
However, the Platonic State is a duelic attack against selfishness; The
material bases of the Platonic State are: the economy, justice and the
military, as well as tyrannical and oligopolistic models fragment society;
The State's priority task is to promote education, and at the same time
social and economic organization; The legitimation of the State for
Plato is not rooted in the Status Quo of the powerful and rich.
Regarding Aristotle, we must mention the aspect of "Equitable Justice"
that the State as such must promote, however all his discourse in this
area leans more towards the political.

Despite its Greek application, the first to systematize the concept in the
political sphere was N. Machiavelli, with his statement "Statu rei
publicae"; Thus the new understanding was defined as a political
organization, based on a common territory and the control exercised
over the inhabitants of that territory. For a State, the existence of a
government is essential, just as the Constitution is essential for a State
of Law. The State has been stigmatized by various concepts and
theories, ranging from its full justification to considering it as a simple
fiction to hide interests of domination over people, groups or societies.

The State under its classical meaning is constituted by the territory, the
population and sovereignty, these being the constitutive elements of its
essence; However, it would be necessary to delve deeper into the
primitive conceptions to develop a clearer discourse on the State as a
political element. The State has been a political organization of the
dominant class, which has had the responsibility of maintaining the
existing order and resisting the interests of the most dispossessed
classes; This phenomenon arises analogously with differentiated social
stratification; Thus, the State coercively guaranteed a public power of
certain securities for the privileged class. Thus, the State has been an
instrument of the dominant classes, rather than an entity serving the
entire population as it could be understood today.

Legal Perspectives

From the triadic perspective: Description of its structure, its

dynamics and its purpose : To effectively know the Law, its nature, its
reason and its purposes, countless theories were designed throughout
history, justifying it as a divine order or of the nature, revealed by God
to initiates, a natural order revealed by reason, an order purely of
reason, of logical thought; or a pragmatic order, of free initiative, of the
law of the market, of the historical evolution of events, etc. The theses
of Natural Law stand out in the context, which are based on the
supposed knowledge of the order and functioning of the whole,
including the Law, through revelation, turning them into a matter of
faith, therefore irrefutable. This was the foundation in antiquity, also
assumed by Christian theology from the Middle Ages onwards, even
valid throughout the period of enlightenment. With the loss of the
hegemony of faith as a source of knowledge, reason enters the scene,
taking its place, and also becomes the source of the legal order.
However, the dispute for hegemony between faith and science, Church
and State, that is, between the supernatural and the natural, that has
always existed regarding the subject, is revealed. But with the advent
of the theories of evolutionism, of Hegel's dialectic, among others of
historicism, its foundations became changing, according to the time,
place and culture of each society.

On the other hand, under the inspiration of reason, the Law began to
be based on a set of laws supposedly established by society itself, with
exclusive force in the decree and the power of coercion of the
constituted authority, and to correspond to a supposedly scientific
precept. , unique, true, structured, logical, with methodological purity,
although in reality with gaps and casuistry. With a monadic and
unilateral character, it is usually represented in positivist and
neopositivist theories. To its exclusively normative-state foundations,
historical, socioeconomic and political data, etc., are added, although
only as complementary data, without any capacity to integrate legal
concepts. Thus, the legal phenomenon is limited to the concepts,
categories and definitions of legal dogmatics.

The Evolution of Authority

Depending on the circumstances in which each town finds itself,

with regard to its forms of production, the established social
organization and the set of beliefs it has developed, as well as the
most diverse vicissitudes it has had to face, it varies. establishing and
defining the form of authority that governs it. Generally, these forms
constitute a development or projection of family authority, passing
through patriarchal systems that are erased with the growth of society.

When one passes from the roughest stages, in which physical strength
is the predominant element, and reaches a state in which the
knowledge acquired becomes more important, it is common for the
oldest to acquire the greatest authority over the group.

The size, geographical extension and great complexity that societies

acquire when reaching a certain degree of evolution, as occurs in
ancient empires, and the need for a greater concentration of power and
force to maintain the unity and submission of the subjects, requires the
formation of bureaucracy for its coordination, direction and
administration.

To the extent that a society becomes more numerous and complex, it

is no longer enough for whoever governs the group to simply give
specific orders to resolve specific situations, since these multiply in
such a way that this would be impossible.

But it is convenient to keep in mind that historically, in very large

societies, such as empires, individuals are never directly integrated into
them, as individualists might think, but rather they were formed by the
gathering of smaller organizations, such as groups. parents or territorial
groups.
However, in every central authority there is always the tendency to
strengthen its power, increasing its powers in the production and
expansion of law and, of course, in achieving the monopoly of physical
force.

As can be seen, although rights and authority develop in parallel, they

are independent entities. In the same way, but from the opposite point
of view, just as such authors affirm that there can be no law without the
State, they also maintain that there could be no State without law.
Even in the era of absolute monarchs this was a postulate of their
political conception “What is law? “The king commands it,” was the
motto of the system.

The National State:

Groups organized as city-states are found, the same in Athens as in
Tikal, the same as in China or in the Andes in Mexico, Guatemala. The
national state appeared as a response or form of solution to a set of
demands that were raised in that historical situation. Firstly, the
economic need to create markets larger than the feudal ones to make
room for the increase that artisanal production and the expansion of
trade had experienced.

To achieve these goals, it was necessary to achieve the greatest

concentration of power in the state, embodied in the monarch, through
the monopolization of law, as the smallest instrument of domination
and government, and of force as the supreme resource to impose its
authority, factors These were previously dispersed in the feudal
lordships. But what we are interested in demonstrating here is only to
take into account some facts stated in the most cursory way so as not
to deviate from our object.

In America, as in Europe, the United States, populated exclusively by

emigrants from the old continent, followed the European model quite
faithfully, but in Latin America the States were artificially implanted,
both in terms of their borders and the parceling of their territories. Its
population that has common national characteristics or, in any case,
the differences that exist in them do not correspond to their borders,
the Mayan population is distributed between Mexico, Guatemala and
Honduras.

SOVEREIGNTY
Sovereignty is the supreme political power that corresponds to an
independent State.
Sovereignty is the absolute and perpetual power of a Republic; and
sovereign is the one who has the power of decision, to give the laws
without receiving them from another, that is, one who is not subject to
written laws, but is subject to divine or natural law.

In 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau returned to the idea of sovereignty

but with a substantial change. The sovereign is now the community or
people, and this gives rise to power by alienating its rights in favor of
the authority. Each citizen is sovereign and subject at the same time,
since he contributes both to creating authority and being part of it, in
that he gave rise to it through his own will, and on the other hand, he is
a subject of that same authority, in that he he is forced to obey her.

Sieyès postulated that sovereignty lies in the nation and not in the
people, thereby wanting to express that the authority not only acted
taking into account the current majority sentiment of a people, which
could be the object of dismantling influences or passions, but also had
takes into account the historical and cultural legacy of that nation and
the values and principles under which it had been founded.
Furthermore, the concept of nation would contemplate all the
inhabitants of a territory, without exclusions or discrimination. Sieyès
indicates that parliamentarians are representatives and not leaders,
since they enjoy their own autonomy once they have been elected and
will exercise their positions with a certain amount of responsibility and
objectivity when legislating; On the other hand, the leaders must do
what their principal tells them, in this case the people.

Thus, the concept of popular sovereignty was born from Rousseau,

while the concept of national sovereignty was born from Abbe Sieyès.
Both concepts occur interchangeably in modern constitutions, although
after the Second World War the concept of popular sovereignty has
been strongly revived, which is seen as closer to the people, who are
supposed to currently have a much greater degree of civic culture and
moderation. higher than at the time of the storming of the Bastille in
1789.

The word sovereignty is also conceptualized as the right of a political

institution to exercise its power. Traditionally, it has been considered
that there are three elements of sovereignty: territory, people and
power. In international law, sovereignty is a key concept, referring to
the right of a state to exercise its powers.
The concept of sovereignty was not handled by either the Greeks or
the Romans. Georg Jellinek says that the idea of sovereignty was
forged in the Middle Ages and in struggle with these three powers (the
Church, the Roman Empire and the great lords and corporations) the
idea of sovereignty was born, which is, therefore, impossible. of
knowing without also having knowledge of these struggles.

In absolute monarchies, sovereignty corresponds to the State, which in

turn is identified to the king. Hence the monarch is called sovereign, a
name that still exists. Liberalism subverted the concept of sovereignty
and conceived two modalities of it: one, revolutionary, in which the
people, considered as a group of individuals, exercise universal
suffrage (popular sovereignty); another, conservative, which resides in
a census-voting parliament (national sovereignty).

NATIONAL AND POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

The term popular sovereignty was established against the thesis of
national sovereignty. The French Constitution of 1793 was the second
legal text that established that sovereignty resides in the people. Jean
Jacques Rousseau, in the social contract, attributes to each member of
the State an equal share of what he calls sovereign authority and
proposed a thesis on sovereignty based on the general will. For Jean
Jacques Rousseau, the sovereign is the people, who emerge from the
social pact, and as a body decree the general will manifested in the
law.

According to the various theses maintained to date, popular

sovereignty implies that the legal and effective residence of the power
of command of a social group is found and exercised in and by the
universality of citizens, and particularly in democratic States.
In the field of international law, sovereignty is known as the right that a
State has to exercise its powers. The violation of a country's
sovereignty can have tragic consequences, including the start of a war.
FEATURES
The state and law are in a whole-to-part relationship. Law is one of
the substantial parts of the state because it is not conceived without
Law or Law as a positive reality.
Separated from the State. It is from here that different characteristics
arise from each of them.

RIGHT:
REGULATIONS: Since this is immersed in social reality
BILATERALITY: because this requires two or more people
COERCIBILITY: it is the existence of protecting the right
PRETENTION OF INVIOLABILITY since this is susceptible to being
violated

STATE:
The main characteristics of the state are to legislate, administer,
judge state and municipal powers in a command relationship that
distinguishes it from any other with an imperative purpose.

RULE OF LAW
The term “Rule of Law” has its origins in the German doctrine of the
Rechtsstaat. The first to use it as such was Robert Von Mohl in his
work The Science of German Politics in Conformity with the Principles
of the Rules of Law (in German Die deutsche Polizei-wissenschaft
nach den Grundsätzen des Rechtsstaates) , however, the majority of
German authors locate the origin of the concept in the work of
Immanuel Kant. In the Anglo-Saxon tradition, the most equivalent term
in conceptual terms is the rule of law.
The Rule of Law is the political organization of social life subject to
procedures regulated by law in which the acts of the State are strictly
limited by a supreme legal framework, guided by the principle of
legality and absolute respect for fundamental rights.

The Rule of Law is made up of two components: the State (as a form
of political organization) and the law (as a set of rules that govern the
functioning of a society). In these cases, therefore, the power of the
State is limited by Law.

The Rule of Law arises in opposition to the absolutist State, where the
king was above all citizens and could order and command without any
other power to counterbalance him. The rule of law, on the other hand,
assumes that power arises from the people, who elect their
representatives to the government.
With the development of the Rule of Law, the division of the
organizations appears (executive body, judicial body and legislative
body, three instances that, in the absolutist State, were brought
together in the figure of the king). In this way, the courts become
autonomous with respect to the sovereign and the parliament appears
to counteract the power of the ruler.

The notion of democracy is another concept related to the rule of law,

since it assumes that the people have power and exercise it through
elections, when they choose their representatives.
In any case, it must be taken into account that democracy does not
imply that there is a true rule of law. A leader can come to power
through democratic means and then abolish the rule of law, as in the
case of Adolf Hitler in Germany. There may also be governments that
respect democratic functioning in certain issues but violate the rule of
law in others.
A rule of law is one that is governed by a system of laws and
institutions ordered around a constitution, which is the legal basis of
the authorities and officials, who are subject to its rules. Any measure
or action must be subject to a written legal standard. Unlike what
occasionally happens in many personal dictatorships, where the
dictator's desire is for a large measure of actions without a legal norm.

Items
For a rule of law to be effective it is necessary:
^ Let the Law be the main instrument of government.
{ May the law be capable of guiding human behavior. (His
positivism)
{ May the powers interpret and apply it consistently.
Importance of the Rule of Law
It is important to point out that in all territories there is some type of
legal system but that this does not imply that a State of Law governs
there, since for it to exist it is necessary that the political society is fully
juridified and where the rules ensure that every citizen will be treated
equally before justice.

Characteristics of the Rule of Law

It is important to mention that for a State of Law to be considered as
such, it must comply with a series of standards which are:

• The law must be the fundamental mandate. All citizens, even

those who govern, must submit to the laws and be judged on
equal terms and no exceptions will be made for any individual, no
matter how high the position he or she holds. Since the law is the
daughter of the legislative body and it is separated from the rest
of the State bodies, compliance with the rules could be more
possible.
• All rights and freedoms must be guaranteed. It is the
responsibility of the State that the law is complied with and that it
ensures the freedom of all individuals who live under its
guardianship; The maximum norm of the State is to guarantee
this principle.
• Division of public power. This mechanism that guarantees the
indiscriminate use of power. It also allows establishing inspection
and control systems between them.
• Fundamental rights. In a State of Law, a set of fundamental rights
and duties of citizens are recognized. Currently, it is advocated
that there be no such recognition but that, in order to be
considered a rule of law, there must be absolute respect for
Human Rights.
• System of responsibilities. To be considered a rule of law, there
must be a system of responsibilities for public servants, thus
 demanding errors from administrators.
• Jurisdictional control of legislation. For a rule of law to exist, there
must be an entity, independent of the public power bodies, that
controls the possibility of violation of the political constitution.
•The court must strictly respect due process. Criminal due
process is the set of sequenced and essential formal stages
carried out within a criminal process by the procedural subjects,
complying with the requirements prescribed in the Constitution
with the objective that: The subjective rights of the party reported,
accused, accused, prosecuted and , eventually sentenced, do
not run the risk of being unknown; and also obtain a fair, prompt
and transparent process from the judicial bodies.
UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES OF THE RULE OF LAW
According to the Rule of Law Index published annually by the World
Justice Project, the Rule of Law is referred to when it refers to the
following universal principles:
■ The government as a whole and its officials are publicly
accountable to the law.
■ The laws are clear, public, stable, fair and protect fundamental
rights including the security of people and their property.
■ The process through which laws are passed, administered, and
implemented is accessible, fair, and efficient;
■ Justice is delivered by judges who are competent, ethical,
independent, neutral, sufficient in numbers, have adequate
resources, and reflect the composition (ethnic and cultural) of the
community they serve.
These principles are derived from international sources that are widely
accepted among countries with different social, cultural, economic and
political systems, and incorporate both substantive and procedural
elements.

WRITTEN LAW

DEFINITION
Denomination applied to how many rules have been expressly
established and promulgated by the authority using a graphic medium.
POSITIVE LAW ALSO CALLED WRITTEN LAW
In general there are three meanings of Positive Law; the first as a
set of norms of a certain State; as Written Law or Law of Men and
finally the meaning that García Máynez gives it as synonymous with
compliance or effectiveness of the legal norm, and it is in this last
sense that the treatment of this topic of the meanings of the word Law.

The Italian philosopher Giorgio del Vecchio states: “ By positive law we

understand that system of legal norms, which effectively informs and
regulates the life of a people at a certain historical moment. Positive
law is made up, therefore, of those legal norms that are really
observed, effectively enforced. With respect to this character, that is,
with respect to the notion of positivity, the intrinsic value of the system
is indifferent: a legal norm can be unjust, contrary to the supreme
aspirations of conscience, to the ideal of justice, to Natural Law (using
the classic expression), without ceasing to be legal and positive. For it
to be positive, it only requires that there be a preponderant social will,
that is, a sufficient historical force capable of affirming and imposing it,
so that it is observed.”

Positive law is opposed to, and at the same time closely linked, -like
sides of a coin-, to natural law, and closely linked to the current one. As
García Máynez states, Positive Law is the right that is fulfilled, the right
that is effectively respected by society, socially valid, effective law, and
called by Villoro Toranzo, the living Law. An example of a positive
norm is when the majority of people go to the polls to exercise their
citizen right to vote.