- What are social relationships?
- Characteristics of social relationships
- Types of social relationships
- Importance of social relationships
- Examples of social relationships
- Production social relations
We explain what social relationships are, their types, characteristics and examples. In addition, the social relations of production.
What are social relationships?
Commonly, social relations are understood to be the set of interactions that occur between two or more people, or two or more groups of people. persons, according to a series of protocols or mutually accepted guidelines, that is, according to rules specific.
These relationships are studied by the sociology and they constitute for her the maximum degree of complexity of social behavior. They are the basis of other concepts such as social organization, social structure or social movements.
The Humans we are gregarious creatures, that is, we tend to live among their peers. Thus, we form communities that require a set of regulated interactions to coexist in relative peace. Therefore, social relationships are part of who we are and their study will reveal much of how we think of ourselves and others.
In this sense, both the types of link (the friendship, love, rivalry, etc.), and the type of norms with which we distinguish legitimate or appreciated relationships from those forbidden, unacceptable or incorrect. The socialization is the way in which these elements are modifying and forging the conduct of human beings.
Characteristics of social relationships
Social relationships can be:
- Materials. They involve some kind of exchange of objects. These are concrete relationships that include those that have a link with the economic, the material.
- Ideological. They involve the adhesion or transmission of some kind of patterns of thought. They are abstract relationships that are linked to the moral, spiritual, political, etc.
On the other hand, social relations are usually based on protocols and standards. These norms are determined historically and culturally, but also based on the needs of the group.
In fact, the courtesy and the forms of daily treatment are evidence that even brief and superficial contacts with those who live around us require a certain way of doing the things that we must learn, so as not to clash with the society.
Types of social relationships
Social relationships can be classified differently, depending on whether our approach to them is psychological, sociological, or of another nature. For example, we can distinguish between social relationships according to the type of link established, as follows:
- Afective relationships. Those we have with the people chosen to make up our intimate environment: friends, partners and colleagues, people with whom we develop deep emotional connections.
- Labor Relations. Those that we must undertake in our work environment, whatever it may be, and that are usually governed by hierarchical, formal and different from intimate rules. In general, they are less deep emotional ties, but very important in everyday life.
- Family relationships. Another type of intimate and intense relationships, but that we cannot really choose, since they are given in advance, are ours. family, at least the close nucleus of father-mother-siblings. In fact, these relationships are psychologically vital to individuals, both in a positive and negative sense.
- Circumstantial relationships. Those superficial, ephemeral and local relationships that we will have with strangers throughout the day, many of which could become of another type, or not. They tend to have little emotional connection and are quickly forgotten.
Importance of social relationships
As we said at the beginning, social relations are the basis of human society as a whole. They are determined by the social interaction of human beings, especially as it is passed on to future generations.
Our social relationships are the legitimate ways of bonding with each other, which is very important if we consider that the humanityAt this point, she is increasingly forced to accept those who think differently, those who live differently and present, precisely, other types of social relationships.
To what extent is it legitimate to tolerate the other's ways of bonding? To what extent should we sacrifice our own and learn those of others? This is a debate that is at the heart of human civilization at the beginning of the 21st century. globalized.
Examples of social relationships
Examples of social relationships are the order of the day. We establish them with our friends, family, the people with whom we work or study, the rivals of our soccer team, the buyers we serve in our store, the boss who supervises us or the people with whom we have a romantic date.
As a whole, the totality of our social relationships is a fundamental aspect of our existence.
Production social relations
The term "social relations of production" must be understood in a different sphere from what we have discussed so far. It is a term from the school Marxist from thought, founded in the 20th century by the European theorists Carlos Marx and Federico Engels.
His approach involved a historical reading of society, looking at what social classes they had held the can at each stage. In addition, it studied how they had achieved their power through the control of the mechanisms of the production of consumer goods.
Therefore, in this context, social relations of production are the type of links established between human beings based on their role within the process of economic production. These relationships are determined by the control of the means of production.
These relationships are legally valid and validated. They determine the management of socially produced assets (such as real estate, vehicles or machines used to produce), and allow the distribution of benefits according to those who occupy the dominant position.