Social Institution

A Social Institution is a Social Structure/Social Mechanism that governs the behavior of a set of individuals within a given community.

• Context:
  • It can be characterized by an Institution Ontology.
• Example(s):
  • an Educational Institution, such as an Institution of Higher Learning (Preschool Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education, Higher Education).
  • an Organization Entity.
  • an Institution of Marriage.
  • an Institution of Family, such as an extended family or a nuclear family.
  • an Institution of Religion.
  • a Political Institution.
  • an Economic Institution.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a Government Policy.
  • a Government Regulation.
• See: Social Order, Social Purpose, Society, Government, Social Sciences, Political Science, Public Institution.

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References

2014

• (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institution Retrieved:2014-4-29.
  • An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order governing the behaviour of a set of individuals within a given community; may it be human or a specific animal one. Institutions are identified with a social purpose, transcending individuals and intentions by mediating the rules that govern living behavior. The term "institution" is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public services. As structures and mechanisms of social order among certain species, institutions are one of the principal objects of study in the social sciences, such as political science, anthropology, economics, and sociology (the latter being described by Durkheim as the "science of institutions, their genesis and their functioning"). Institutions are also a central concern for law, the formal mechanism for political rule-making and enforcement.

• (Wikipedia, 2014) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institution#Examples_of_Institutions Retrieved:2014-4-29.
  • Marriage and the family - sociology of the family.
  • Religion and religious institutions - see sociology of religion; civil religion.
  • Educational institutions - schools (preschool, primary/elementary, secondary, and post-secondary/higher - see Sociology of education)
  • Research community - Academia and universities; research institutes - see sociology of science.
  • Medicine - hospitals and other health care institutions - see sociology of health and illness, medical sociology.
    • Psychiatric hospitals (history)
  • Law and legal system - courts; judges; the legal profession (bar) - see jurisprudence, philosophy of law, sociology of law.
    • Criminal justice or penal systems - prisons - see sociology of punishment.
  • Military or paramilitary forces - see military sociology.
  • Police forces
  • Mass media - including the news media (television, newspapers) and the popular media - see media studies.
  • Industry - businesses, including corporations - see financial institution, factory, capitalism, division of labour, social class, industrial sociology.
  • Civil society or NGOs - Charitable organizations; advocacy groups; political parties; think tanks; virtual communities

    ** In an extended context:

    • Art and culture (See also: Culture industry, Critical theory, Cultural studies, Cultural sociology)
    • Language (See also: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Sociology of language)
    • The nation-state - Social and political scientists often speak of the state as embodying all institutions such as schools, prisons, and so on. However, these institutions may be considered private or autonomous, whilst organised religion and family life certainly pre-date the advent of the nation state. In the Neo-Marxist thought of Antonio Gramsci, for instance, a distinction may be felt between the institutions of political society (the police, the army, legal system, etc.) which dominates directly and coercively, and civil society (the family, the education system, etc.)n Schenck v. United States, what circumstance made this speech case special
    • In some circumstances, individuals can be considered institutions if they are responsible for creating motifs or worldwide phenomena. Examples of this include Stanley Kubrick, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi.

2013

• http://mirror.undp.org/magnet/policy/glossary.htm
  • Institution and institution building
    • Institution - an organisation or group of related organisations created to serve a specific purpose.
    • Institution building - the creation, development and linking of certain functions to accomplish specific tasks within institutions.

2005

• (Searle, 2005) ⇒ John R. Searle. (2005). “What is An Institution.” In: Journal of Institutional Economics, 1(1).
  • QUOTE: Economics as a subject matter, unlike physics or chemistry, is largely concerned with institutional facts. Facts about money and interest rates, exchange and employment, corporations and the balance of payments, form the very heart of the subject of economics. When Lionel Robbins, in a classic work, tells us that “Economics is a study of the disposal of scarce commodities,” he takes for granted a huge invisible institutional ontology. Two dogs fighting over a bone or two school boys fighting over a ball are also engaged in the “disposal of scarce commodities, ” but they are not central to the subject matter of economics. For economics, the mode of existence of the “commodities” and the mechanisms of “disposal” are institutional. Given the centrality of institutional phenomena, it is somewhat surprising that institutional economics has not always been at the center of mainstream economics.

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