Institutions

Institutions
A social institution is a complex, integrated set of social norms organized around the preservation of a basic societal value. Obviously, the sociologist does not define institutions in the same way as does the person on the street. Lay persons are likely to use the term "institution" very loosely, for churches, hospitals, jails, and many other things as institutions.
Sociologistsoften reserve the term "institution" to describe normative systems that operate in five basic areas of life, which may be designated as the primary institutions. (1) In determining Kinship; (2) in providing for the legitimate use of power; (3) in regulating the distribution of goods and services; (4) in transmitting knowledge from one generation to the next; and (5) in regulating our relation tothe supernatural. In shorthand form, or as concepts, these five basic institutions are called the family, government, economy, education and religion.
The five primary institutions are found among all human groups. They are not always as highly elaborated or as distinct from one another as into the United States, but, in rudimentary form at last, they exist everywhere. Their universality indicatesthat they are deeply rooted in human nature and that they are essential in the development and maintenance of orders. Sociologists operating in terms of the functionalist model society have provided the clearest explanation of the functions served by social institutions. Apparently there are certain minimum tasks that must be performed in all human groups. Unless these tasks are performedadequately, the group will cease to exist. An analogy may help to make the point. We might hypothesize that cost accounting department is essential to the operation of a large corporation. A company might procure a superior product and distribute it then at the price which is assigned to it, the company will soon go out of business. Perhaps the only way to avoid this is to have a careful accounting ofthe cost of each step in the production and distribution process.

Social Institutions

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Social Institutions
by D. Stanley Eitzen and Maxine Baca-Zinn
From: In Conflict and Order, 9th Edition, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2001 (pp. 47-49)
One distinguishing characteristic of societies is the existence of a set of institutions. The popular usages of this term are imprecise and omitsome important sociological considerations. An institution is not anyone or anything that is established and traditional (for example, a janitor who has worked at the same school for forty-five years). An institution is not limited to specific organizations, such as a school or a prison or a hospital. An institution is much broader in scope and importance than a person, a custom, or a socialorganization.
Institutions are social arrangements that channel behavior in prescribed ways in the important areas of social life. They are interrelated sets of normative elements— norms, values, and role expectations—that the people making up the society have devised and passed on to succeeding generations in order to provide permanent solutions to society’s perpetually unfinished business.Institutions are cultural imperatives. They serve as regulatory agencies, channeling behavior in culturally prescribed ways. “Institutions provide procedures through which human conduct is patterned, compelled to go, in grooves deemed desirable by society And this trick is performed by making the grooves appear to the individual as the only possible ones” (Berger, 1963:87).
For example, a society instillsin its members predetermined channels for marriage. Instead of allowing the sexual partners a host of options, it is expected in U.S. society that the couple, composed of a man and a woman, will marry and set up a conjugal household. Although the actual options are many the partners choose what society demands. In fact, they do not consider the other options as valid (for example, polygamy...