Institution and Association

Association & Institutions
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY
B.A. PART- I
SOCIOLOGY (H)
© Dr. Ramjit Kumar
The Formation of Social Group
• Not all people thinks alike. They think differently and they do have different
needs, desires, and interests. These needs are fulfilled by different means
and methods. They either co-operate and conflict with each other
depending upon the social situation.
• However, the cooperativeness among the people leads to the formation of
the collectivity. This could be in forms, like community, association or any
other social groups that try to serve the various needs and purposes of that
particular time.
• As a social canopy, the social groups provides the meaningfulness to people,
overcome the incompleteness and also helps them to form cultural world.
Association
• Association is a type of social group which is an important feature and

part of a modern complex society.
• As society gets more complex with time, people’s needs and interest in
terms of structure as well as function vary.
• This is the time complexity of the group emerges and when they expand
in a particular form, i.e., in form of fixed rules and procedure, the birth
of association takes place.
• This happens because they started to share and form commonality
among each other and form the rules.
Association
• People’s interests started to associate with each other that yield the birth
of association, as a systemically organised group.
• Association broadly refers to the idea that when we consider something
as an organized group.
• Every association has particular interest and character. The church, for
example, has its own sacraments, modes of worship, and rituals.
Similarly, state has its own peculiar institutions.
• One should keep in mind that we belong to associations but not
institutions.
Definitions of Association
– “an organisation deliberately formed for the collective pursuit

of some interest or a set of interests, which its members
share”.
» R.M MacIver
– “a group of social beings related to one another by the fact that
they possess or have instituted in common an organisation
with a view to securing a specific end or specific ends”.
» Morris Ginsberg
– “a group organised for the pursuit of an interest or group of
interest in common”.
The relevance of Association in modern
society.
• Associations have serious objectives like influencing government policy. Tocqueville pointed
out that associations promote democracy.
• Associations allow citizens to organize themselves, articulate their demands, thereby
restricting the authority of the government.
• Associations allow for plurality of opinions. Associations also provide a number of services,
which improve the quality of life of the people.
• In traditional society, individuals become part of the groups on the basis of their ascribed
status.
• For example, in modern India, there is a proliferation of caste associations. These associations
have characteristics of both traditional groups and modern associations. Its objectives are
related to that of a modern society like influencing government policies and building
educational institutions. However, membership is based on primordial considerations like
caste and religion. So these associations though play a significant role cannot be called fully
modern.
Main Characteristics of Association
• Association is a collection of social being who share distinctive social relationships

with one another. As a group it refers to reciprocity between its members
• There is a commonality of Interests. Association is organized for particular
purposes, for the pursuit of specific interests. Interests are the foundational virtue
around which different forms of associations are formed.
• Association is an organisation. An association is known essentially as an
organised group. The character of organisation gives stability and proper shape to
an association.
• Regulation of Relations. Every association has its own ways and means to
regulate the behavior and relations of its members. Therefore, they frame certain
rules and regulations which may be in written or unwritten forms.
Main Characteristics of Association
• Membership is Voluntary: It depends on individual choice as per their interests. In fact

individuals are at liberty to join them.
• Associations also as agencies. Associations are means or agencies through which their
members realize their similar or share interests.
• Association has Corporate Character. Association by virtue of being a social
organisation may own property or funds which are held collectively and do not belong to
individual members. It possesses rights and obligations, powers and liabilities which the
members can not exercise as individuals.
• Co-operative Spirit- One of the characteristics of association is its co-operative pursuit
to fulfil its interests. This co-operative pursuit may be spontaneous as offering a helping
hand to a stranger. It may be casual or in fact may be determined or guided by the
customs of a community as in case of farmers assisting their neighbours at harvest time.
But indeed association is guided by common interests of group members.
Institution
 In sociology the concept ‘institution’ has a specific meaning.

 The study of institutions is critical to the field of sociology.
 Institutions are components of the society that help to maintain
order and stability through structuring human interaction and
activity.
 Institutions are the set of rules that structure social interaction.
 Institutions can be understood as code of conduct or a set of rules
and guidelines for human activity. They structure human
interaction through stated or implied rules that set expectations.
Institution
• According to MacIver, institutions are ‘established forms or

conditions of procedures characteristics of group activity’.
• According to Horton and Hunt, an institution is a system of norms
to achieve some goal or activity that people feel is important, or
more formally an organized cluster of folkways and centered
around a major human activity.
• In fact, Emile Durkheim referred to sociology as the scientific
study of principle institutions. Institutions such as religion, family,
education et cetera are critical to the discipline of sociology.
Definitions of Institution
 “Institutions are definite and sanctioned forms or modes

of relationship between social beings, in respect to one
another or to some external object”.
o M. Ginsberg
“an institution consists of a concept, idea, notion,
doctrine or interest and a structure”.
o W. G. Sumner
Definitions of Institution
 “every institution centers around a fundamental need, permanently

unites a group of people in a co-operational task and has its
particular body of doctrines and its technique or craft”.
o B. Malinowski
 “a complex of positions, roles, norms and values lodged in particular
types of social structures and organising relatively stable patterns of
human activity with respect to fundamental problems in producing
life-sustaining resources, in reproducing individuals, and in
sustaining viable societal structures within a given environment”
o J. Turner
Institutions emerge out of social interactions
within a group.
• According to Sumner, there are two types of institutions —
crescive institutions and enacted institutions. Crescive institutions
are those in which norms emerge unconsciously in the society. Its
origin is not well-defined.
• On the other hand, enacted institutions are consciously created for
specific purposes. Rules and legislations conceptualized and listed
in the modern era, are rationally formulated and a typical example
of enacted institutions.
Institutions are structural processes that
control human behavior.
• Any member of society is expected to follow the rules, regulations
and usages prevalent in the society. These rules, regulations and
usages can be informal or formal. If it is formal, then it is codified
and, in most cases, will have responsible body to monitor whether
the individuals follow these rules or not.
All institutions have roles and status.
• Every institution gives a particular role and status to the

individuals involved in it. Role is a set of behavior expected out of
an individual in a particular social context. Whereas status is the
position of the individual in society.
Institutional roles are learnt by socialization.
• Every institution prescribes specific roles for the particular

individual. The different roles individuals perform are learnt
through the process of socialization. Main agencies of socialization
are family, educational institutions, peer group, state and religion.
Institutions influence each other.
• There are many institutions in a society and they influence each other.
• For example, the school teaches the students how to be a good citizen which
ultimately tries to make them good citizens who are aware of the laws and their
responsibilities.
• At times various institutions give contradictory norms, which result in
confusion in the individual.
• For example, feudalism and modern democracy co-exist in some parts of India,
each of which makes opposing demands on the individual. Democracy
advocates equality while feudalism advocates structured inequality.
• The major institutions which are the subject of the sociological study are
political, economic, family, educational and religious. Other important
institutions in society are bureaucracy, welfare institutions and military.
Main Characteristics of Institution
1. Institutions are not the physical entities. They are present only in the
form of co-ordinated patterns of behavior of members of a society.
2. Institutions manifest themselves in terms of overt or implicit rules that
structure human interactions.
3. Institutions have both restrictive and enabling potential roles. In other
words, it both constraints and provides choices to individuals.
4. Institutions seek to assign and define the social roles to the members
of a particular society. Therefore, Institutions can be understood as an
ensemble of many roles that adopt different roles and responsibilities.
5. Institutions function to forge and reiterate solidarity among members
of a society. Hence, institutions can help explain the behavior of
individual member of the society.
Institutions
• Institutions can be identified, in terms of the regular and consistent

patterns of behaviors that are structured through norms and sanctions.
• Institutions maintain stable patterns of expectation, thought and action.
The consistency and synchronisation among these elements determine
the stability of the institution.
• Sociologists consider institution as the enduring features of social life.
• Institutions, in one sense are also expectations of attitude, behaviour
and a code of conduct that individuals feel obligated to fulfill. However,
the working of institutions is contingent on people understanding the
conventions and rules associated with an institution.
Conclusion
• Though the concept of association and institution seem similar, both concepts
differs in terms of their meaning, nature and in many more ways.
• It needs to be clarified that institutions are defined as established forms or
conditions of procedure characteristic of group activity. While forming
association which is a deliberate formation surrounding certain common
interests this create rules and procedures to deliver the objective.
• Association denotes membership whereas institution denotes a mode or means
of service. For example, when we view a college as a body of teachers and
students, we are selecting its associational aspect, but when we regard it as an
educational system, we are selecting its institutional features.
• Therefore, we belong to an association not an institution. Similarly, we do not
belong to marriage we do belong to families.

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Association & Institutions

• Association is a type of social group which is an important feature and

– “an organisation deliberately formed for the collective pursuit

• Association is a collection of social being who share distinctive social relationships

• Membership is Voluntary: It depends on individual choice as per their interests. In fact

 In sociology the concept ‘institution’ has a specific meaning.

• According to MacIver, institutions are ‘established forms or

 “Institutions are definite and sanctioned forms or modes

 “every institution centers around a fundamental need, permanently

• Every institution gives a particular role and status to the

• Every institution prescribes specific roles for the particular

• Institutions can be identified, in terms of the regular and consistent

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