Concept and types of social groups

The social group (community) is a real, empirically fixed set of people that is characterized by integrity and acts as an independent subject of social and historical action.

The emergence of various social groups is primarily associated with such phenomena as the social division of labor and specialization of activity, and the second - with the historically established conditions of life, social values and norms, culture.

So, this or that set of people can be considered a social group if its members possess:

1. Similarity of living conditions.

2. The availability of jointly carried out activities.

3. Common needs.

4. Own culture.

5. By self-attributing yourself to a given community.

Social groups and their types and forms are distinguished by extraordinary diversity. For example, they can vary in terms of quantity (small and numerous), and in the duration of their existence (short-term - from several minutes, and stable, existing in millennia), and the degree of communication between participants (stable and random, amorphous formations).

Types of social groups depending on the number

1. Small. They are characterized by a small number of participants (from 2 to 30 people) who are perfectly familiar with each other and are engaged in some kind of common business. Relationships in this group are direct. This includes such types of elementary cells of society as the family, the company of friends, the school class, the crew of the aircraft, etc.

2. The big ones. They represent numerous populations of people who occupy the same position in the social structure and have common interests in this regard. Types of large social groups: strata, class, nation, etc. At the same time, links in such populations are increasingly indirect, since their numbers are enormous.

Types of social groups, depending on the nature of the interaction

1. Primary, in which the interaction of participants with each other has an interpersonal, direct, supportive character. Examples: a group of peers, friends, neighbors on the porch.

2. Secondary, the interaction in which is due to the achievement of a common goal and is of a formal nature. Examples: trade unions, production organizations, political parties.

Types of social groups, depending on the fact of existence

1. Nominal, representing an artificially constructed set of people, which are specially allocated for statistical recording. Examples: passengers commuter trains, buyers of a certain brand of detergent.

2. Real groups, the criterion of existence of which are real signs (income, sex, age, profession, nationality, place of residence). Examples: women, men, children, Russians, townspeople, villagers, teachers, doctors.

Types of social groups, depending on the type of organization

1. Formal groups that are created and exist only within the framework of officially recognized organizations. Examples: class in school, football club "Dynamo".

2. Informal, usually arising and existing on the basis of personal interests of the participants, who either coincide or disagree with the goals of formal groups. Examples: a circle of lovers of poetry, a club of admirers of a bardic song.

In addition to such a concept as a social group, there are also so-called "quasigroups". They are unstable informal sets of people who, as a rule, have undetermined structure, norms and values. Examples: an audience (a concert hall, a theatrical performance), fan clubs, a crowd (rally, flash mob).

Thus, it can be said that the real subjects of relations in society are not real people, separate individuals, but the totality of different social groups that interact with each other and whose goals and interests each other intersect one way or another.