Mike O’Donnell (1997) describes culture as “the way of life of a particular society” (P475). You could say that it’s a guide for living. A way of life in a society can include; religion; laws; diet; fashion and other characteristics that are common to members of a particular group or society. It is through culture people as individuals or groups identify themselves: this is how they are being conventional to society’s shared values and to have their own say in society. Culture as a concept is important to sociologists because it holds a society together.
The functionalist perspective recognises that families perform vital functions for their members and for their society, to ensure stability and harmony in order to achieve social order (Giddens, 2009). Functionalists say that society is held together by social consensus, in which members of the society agree upon, and work together to achieve, what is best for society as a whole. Emile Durkheim suggested that social consensus takes one of two forms, one of which is Mechanical Solidarity – the sense of togetherness within a society
[1] Society is made up of social institutions that together form the building blocks needed to create a culture, a belief system, a religious belief, a set of values, rules, laws, regulations, and how we're expected to behave and conduct ourselves. When we are born we are surrounded by social institutions that will impact our personality and lifestyle. These are: • the family • the education system • the income available • the environment • the political system • the culture or sub-culture • the religious beliefs • our peers These factors have a major influence on us as we grow and develop. This is also known as 'stratification'. Social class is the system of status layers.
She is just one of many people who have birth certificates and passports from their new countries but feel themselves closer to their native lands. One should be proud of the heritage that he gets from the previous generations. It helps people to become who they are including their choice of profession. When it comes to a career option it is often a case for one to continue doing the job of his forebears. Up till now it is common to see long lines of lawyers, jewellers, and the like within one family.
The family for example contributes a lot toward society as it is the main route of reproducing the population and teaching them the important lesson of socialization as they grow. Functionalists believe that the family introduces traditional culture to the new members of society and creates well joined members of society. The family is seen to provide important statuses that will be well known in society and recognised statuses such as lower class and higher class along with defined background history to new members. The family is seen to be responsible for replacing and reproducing new family members when the older generation pass away. Furthermore functionalists believe that families offer material and emotional security and provide care and support.
The Hyacinth Berry case study will be used throughout to identify and discuss the interconnections of values, ethics and legislation. The General Social Care (GSCC) and BASW offer the social work profession its value base. The message from reading their requirements is that values are a fundamental part of a competent social worker. There is also a clear need for both students and qualified workers to ‘identify and question their own values and prejudices and their implications for practice.’ The need for social workers to have respect for persons and their right to self determination still remains the key to practice. Complexities of the social work task relate partly to the worker having to negotiate the tension between these values and the dilemmas that decision making brings.
Ethnic Identities are socially constructed. This assertion is commonplace among social scientists. To understand this statement better it is important to explain what identity means. Identity means “a social category”. In our case, a category of people different from others by character, ideologies, views and so on for example Kenyans, Catholics, Protestants, and Muslim etc.
In order to create sustainable community development, Hopkins (2008) stated that it involves the ability to work with others from different experiences to close the gap of social capital. Creating and continuing good relationships with local community’s members require ability to recognize personal differences. Beem (1999) mentioned that to build or rebuild community and trust among its members by utilizing social capital, it demands face-to-face communication. In terms of citizen participation and community design, it is essential to provide enough resources for a local community to work together to produce desirable outcomes that benefit the group members or the third party. This mutual opportunity to share knowledge on public issues offer
What is a community, and how would you investigate an aspect of a community that fits that definition? Community used to be thought of in terms of family, friendship and neighbors that share common interests and lifestyles. In recent times it has been looked at in terms of personal interests that bring us together and form a community such as sporting communities, multicultural communities, arts and crafts communities, and online gaming communities. People can also be members of different communities at the same time. Communities are groups of people who have a common interests; community in turn provides people with a sense of belonging.
It’s a means to communicate values, beliefs and customs. It has an important social function and it promotes feelings of group identity and solidarity. It is how culture and its’ traditions and values may be transferred and preserved. Language is a complicated dance between internal and external analysis of our identity. Our external identity is genetically passed down from our parents and is basically what you see on the outside in terms of gender, hair and eye color and so on.