Question 3. Sociology as a science of social communities

Contemporary sociology has at least four levels of sociological analysis of social reality: micro-, meso-, macro-and mega levels with the corresponding four units of analysis: individual, community / social group, society in its national and state borders and mega community or global world society that is formed by the processes of globalization.

Formation of Ukrainian sociology began in the early twentieth century. It has its original face and its specificity. These peculiarities are caused by the issues of mega level of sociological analysis being put into the first place. They are mainly concerned with the formation and functioning of social communities that are formed by people and make up any particular society. In terms of sociology a social community is a particular social group, an existing aggregate (an existing totality of) individuals that can be empirically fixed, and which is characterized by a relative integrity. Social communities arise throughout the process of historical development of mankind at all its levels and differ with a huge variety of diverse forms and meaningful links within them. They are the product of activities of people who during their lives are members of the existing communities and create new ones. In the early stages of human development people united into families, genera clans and tribes based on incest relations blood relation. In these primitive communities they were searching for a protection from wild animals, natural forces or external enemies. In other words, in the early stages of their development, people tended to create communities rather guided by the external factors mostly directed by the external factors, the desire to ensure their existence and to survive in the hostile and threatening world.

With time Later on, other motives appeared, the unification became is based on common industrial interests and needs, religious believes, political views, personal preferences etc. In other words, with the development of society, external objective factors, that caused the creation of primitive communities, increasingly yielded to (increasingly giving way to the internal subjective (i.e. depending on person) aspects of human coexistence.

According to Ukrainian sociological tradition the centre of social life of the Ukrainians has long been considered to be a community. The community had existed since the ancient times and acquired various social and legal meaning. At first the communities were the main territorial-administrative units connected with one dwelling (premises); there were also religious communities, the community of shared property (common property societies) and others. A characteristic feature of communities was self-government (public assembly), which operated in the cities and villages of Ukraine for a long historical period of time. Later on, the communities within the meaning of territorial and administrative units yielded (gave way) to communities as centers of national, cultural, social and political life of the Ukrainian intelligentsia (2^nd half of the XIX – the beginning of the XX century). Thus, for the Ukrainian nation throughout the whole history of its existence the social life was built around the community, ( the social life was built up just around the communities) through them an average person stepped into this life and managed (provided) links (forged links )with broader social institutions such as state or political parties and movements.

This is also reflected in the Ukrainian sociological thought and the activities of local (native) sociologists, one of the first purely social institutions was called Ukrainian Institute of Sociology (Український інститут громадознавства) (set up in Vienna by M. Hrushevsky in 1919 and later moved to Prague, where it functioned from 1924 to 1945). The name of the institution in English sounded like Ukrainian Institute of Sociology. Thus, in the interwar years among Ukrainian scholars and social scientists, who were in exile, an understanding of sociology remained ( existed first and foremost) as a science of the social community, and sociology itself was called hromadoznavstvo (community studies).

Apparently (Obviously), this also explained (this is explained) by the fact of the huge interest in sociology of Ukrainian scientists, social and political activists in exile, who were creating there the first sociological centers (faculties and departments of sociology), since in Soviet Ukraine sociology was proclaimed bourgeois science ( the science of bourgeois) and virtually stopped existing, partly restored ( resumed) only after the so-called "thaw" at the beg. 60-ies of XX century. M. Hrushevsky (prominent Ukrainian historian and president of the Ukrainian People's Republic), M. Shapoval (politician and Minister of Land Affairs in the government of Hrushevsky) and representatives of other professions and tastes among Ukrainian emigrants turned (appealed) to sociology, hoping to clarify the real state of Ukrainian society as well as the possibility of the development of Ukrainian community to the condition of being able to have ( obtaining ) its own independent state.

The specific feature of Ukrainian sociology ( sociological thought ) is its primary reference ( its primary appeal ) to the problems of communities and social groups and, therefore, the use of the Meso level of sociological analysis allows to clarify and expand the definition of sociology.

Sociology is the science study of :

1) formation and functioning of social communities that make up a separate society and humanity in general and between which there are certain social relations and interactions;

2) social man who is a creator of the above-mentioned communities and the main subject of historical development.

Question 4. Types of social communities

If sociology to consider sociology being a science about is considered to be a study first and foremost of social communities that are created by people and with the help of which a person enters public life and makes connections and relations establishes connection and relations with wider social institutes (e.g. country or political movements), it is necessary to find out, which meaning sociologists put into this concept and which changes, caused by the process of globalization, characterize the development of modern communities.

Thus, social community in a Short sociological dictionary edited by V. Volovych is determined as relatively permanent totality of people, united by common signs features; this is a social organization formation that fulfills common economic, political, cultural and other tasks and has a certain social organization. Society consists of a great number of different communities, types of which are distinguished by different criteria.

1. When talking about the oldest communities, we mean communities created on ties of blood: household real kinship: family or wider kin in a broader meaning of the word.

2. By social-demographic criterion such organizations as men, women, youth, seniors etc. are distinguished.

3. By the principle of settling settlement and occupied territory settling residential and territorial-regional communities are investigated: this can be the population of a city, a village, certain region (e.g. Eastern or Western Ukraine).

4. These are also the communities based on the ground of cultural-historical and ethnic originality: people peoples, nations.

5. By the criterion of distribution according to work division of labour and occupational activities certain classes, layers and statuses are distinguished.

6. The use of the criterion of unity of goal-seeking activity gives the opportunity to pick out, for example, the adherents of some political ideas, members of religious organizations, creators of art movements and styles, non-registered organizations of different kinds etc.

7. Under macrocommunity we can consider Macroeconomy can be considered to be the whole society of one or another country (e.g. Ukrainian society).

8. By the thoughts of many modern sociologists, mankind is the megacommunity of the global character.

Thus, the quantity of communities is increasing in course of time that assures increases as the time elapses being indicative of the growing activity of a man in creation establishment of different forms of human life together co-existence.

Sociology records certain distinctions between communities, they differ by:

• quantative structure (the smallest social community – a family – consists of two people, an the biggest – mankind – numbers family is the smallest social community which consists of two people, mankind is the biggest and counts 6.5 billion of population);

• time of existence (from a few hours, as for example shows the community of football fans on the football match, and to the millenniums, if we talk about the age of the mankind);

• the principle of joining (community of interests and taste tastes or the way and character of spending free leisure time can represent these principles);

• the level of unity and system of organization (from non-registered groups to the organizations and parties with their statuses regulations and programs);

• character of activity (directed for the good to the welfare of society or antisocial, crucial activity referring to it; spontaneous or goal-seeking; passively-contemplative or actively-transformative etc.).

A person enters these communities from the very beginning of his/her life, and after a while creates new, according to the conditions of his/her evolution and existence. Thus the individual can enter different communities simultaneously. For example, students of higher educational establishments can be at the same time the representatives of some family, nation, settling settled or regional community, the members of some political party or adherents of some political idea, be a part of different public (including student) organizations, be the members of sport community (take part in the activities of some sport section), fan-club, be the members of different Internet-communities such as “Odnoklasniki” or “Vkontakte”, be the representatives of certain social networks etc.

The development of the processes of globalization also has put its imprint on the creation and functioning of social communities at in the end of XX – at the beginning of XXI century. . We can group the qualitatively new characteristics of the social communities of globalization period the following way: Qualitatively new characteristics of social communities of globalization period can be grouped the following way:

• if during the former eras of human existence the social communities were tightly connected with certain territory and existed in particular country, then new communities of the global world are transnational by their nature, that is to say they are created in global social spaces and unite people of different nations and people from different countries of the world. These new global communities can be built on the ground of common religious beliefs, transmission of knowledge, life styles, political likes and dislikes etc. It is possible to consider migrants to be a transnational community who in search for a job or political shelter are not tied to one place of living but move from country to country and are united by the connections of a new type. The new quality of these communities lies in the fact that they often don’t predict the direct contacts between their members, they are imagined or virtual (for example numerous Internet-communities). Their main features are short life, anonymity, flexibility, the ability to appear and disappear according to the changeable variable requirements of their users;

• if in the past local social communities, as a rule, didn’t cross national-state state boundaries of their country, then in the conditions of globalization a part of local communities has started has started globalization the process of globalization. Such phenomenon of modern world sociologists call “glocalization” and provide us with the example of non-isolated groups of people who are the users of the “ethnic” (as Chinese for example) supermarkets all around the world; who are the participants of Brazilian-like carnivals away from Brazilian boundaries; who are the members of Islamic or terrorist organizations and even the representatives of student communities that nowadays in acknowledged centers of education consist of people that are of different countries extraction acknowledged nowadays in certain centers of education which consist of the representatives of different countries. Another part of local communities just the opposite, in the course within the time demonstrates the tendency to weakening, dispersion, reduction in sizes and influences. Here the example of city communities is most frequently used, where zones of social interaction are being reduced, and also the existence of ghetto zones in the most developed cities of the world, in which the poorest population that almost doesn’t have the access to the places for having rest, in which live the poorest people who almost don’t have the access to the resort places, distribution of high culture, centers of university education and so on.

Thus, a person creates and enters different social communities from which some society or mankind on the whole consists of. With the course of history of which consists certain society or mankind. Within the history the character of communities is changing, the element of subjectivity is increasing in them. where the element of subjectivity is increasing. It is about the fact that in the past a person, as a rule,A person in the past was a passive participant of some communities, and they in their turn and these communities were the objects of influence, manipulation or political pressure that was seen in the Soviet society, where the one only ideology, only party and dictatorship of one class dominated.best shown in Soviet society, where dominated one ideology, one party and dictatorship of one class. The beginning of XXI century assures the growth of role of communities, increase of activity of their members, the growth of factors of their self-organization, self-management and self-perfection.

Therefore, one of the signs of present daytime is the increase of level of inner organization of these communities, forming of the germs centers in their boundaries, and in a while registration of social institutes. In relation to the history of Ukraine, it finds its display in the long-term process of formation of the great social community of Ukrainians with further striving of its representatives to create and build up their own country, to form multi-party system etc.