What is social order?

Answer 1

Social order is the result of successful formal and informal control, in that things that you don't want to happen, don't happen; and things you do want to happen, do happen. Because people don't agree on what's desirable, one man's order is another man's repression.

Answer 2

Every society has a set of norms--some informal, some formal (these are laws and regulations). Particularly with regard to the latter, social order means pretty much everyone follows those rules--and the authorities have the resources and ability to keep the rule-breakers in check.

Social order, though, takes on added signifigance when we look at the social structure. For example, in a highly stratified society (e.g. the American South prior to the civil rights movement) the social order also included norms--both formal (the Jim Crow laws) and informal customs--that kept whites on top and African-Americans subordinated. Any act that challenged this--even legal actions--was a challenge to the normal functioning of the society -- normal meaning within te boundaries of the society's norms. Thus, the civil rights movement upset the social order--the smooth functioning of the society--just as much (mre, in fact) than blantently criminal actions (violation of formal norms) would have done.

Answer 3

If the answer you seek is not for a term paper, here's a simple explanation that we all can undertand.

Imagine an orchestra - there's the wind section, the strings section and the percussion section. These sections may be thought of as the major systems/institutions of a society (economic, political, family & relations, etc.). If these various institutions are functioning and developing towards the same common good of the society, then there's social order. In like manner, when the various sections of the orchestra play well, the result is harmony in music.

The opposite would be discord or chaos.

Answer 4

Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences.

It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving.

Thus, a "social order" is a relatively stable system of institutions, pattern of interactions and customs, capable of continually reproducing at least those conditions essential for its own existence. The concept thus refers to all those facets of society which remain relatively constant over time.

These conditions could include both property, exchange and power relations, but also cultural forms, communication relations and ideological systems of values.

The "problem of social order," how and why it is that social order exists at all, is historically central to sociology. Thomas Hobbes is recognized as the first to clearly formulate the problem, to answer which he conceived the notion of a social contract. Social theorists (such as Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, and Jürgen Habermas) have proposed different explanations for what a social order consists of, and what its real basis is. For Marx, it is the relations of production or economic structure which is the basis of a social order. For Durkheim, it is a set of shared social norms. For Parsons, it is a set of social institutions determining moral behaviour. For Habermas, it is all of these, as well as communicative action.

Social order contrasts with social change. Social change implies that the status quo is modified, changed or breaking down (see social disintegration). One of the most basic conflicts in politics is between those seeking to conserve social order and those seeking social change. Social order is rarely absolute, since there will always be something that is changing. Nevertheless, there is both continuity and discontinuity in social existence; some things change, other things stay the same. The human brain is unable to cope with a situation where everything changes constantly, and thus it seeks to impose order, even where it doesn't truly exist.

Answer 5

you can try hierarchy i think they are so close to each other

peace