A society is a group of individuals involved in social interaction,

Society as a collection of individuals united by certain relations or mode of

behaviour which mark them off from others who do not enter into these relations
or who differ from them in behaviour.
Society as the complex of organized associations and institutions with a
community.
Society is a system of usages and procedures of authority and mutual aid of many
groupings and divisions, of controls of human behavior and liberties.

Hunting and food gathering

As Gerhard Len Ski pointed out in his “Human Societies” (1970) the oldest and the simplest type of
society is the hunting society. Such a society is characterized by a small and sparse population; a
nomadic way of life and a very primitive technology. They have the most primitive tools such as
stone axes, spears and knives. Hunting societies consist of very small, primary groups and their
number not exceeds generally 40-50 members. They are nomadic in nature they have to leave one
area as soon as they have exhausted its food resources. Family and kinship are the only
interconnected social institutions which these societies have political institution are not found as all
people are considered to be equal as they virtually have no property. Division of labour is limited
along the lines of age and sex. Men and women, young and old perform different role, but there are
no specialised occupational roles. There is gender based division of labour, but there is no gender
inequality as such, production is communal and cooperative and the distribution system is based on
sharing. Religion is not developed among these people in to a complex institution. They tend to see
the world as populated by unseen spirits that must be taken into account but not necessarily
worshipped.

The economy of hunting and food gathering societies is subsistence based. They collect enough for
the needs of their people and there is hardly any surplus in such a economy. The primary means of
production consist of their hunting and gathering skills and their own labour. All able bodied bodies
adults and children engage in hunting and food gathering activities. Sharing is one of the central
economic characteristics of a hunting and food gathering society. The most common type of social
relationship is co-operation. Co-operation is important because hunting and gathering activities need
group efforts. The sharing of the produce is common. There is no competition and conflict too is
minimal as there is no accumulated surplus to fight over. The concept of private property as it applies
to personal possessions is absent. Hence, private property as we understand it did not exist in hunting
and gathering societies. The rate of social change in nomadic hunting and gathering societies was
very slow. A few such societies still exist, for e.g the Bushmen of South Africa, some Eskimo tribes
etc.

 Agrarian

Agricultural societies first arose in ancient Egypt and were based on the introduction of the
harnessing of animal power. The mode of production of the hunter gathering society which
produces none of its food, and the horticultural society which produces food in small gardens
rather than big fields. Invention of the plough had enabled people to make a great leap forward in
food production and has enabled a person to achieve great productivity. It also made it possible
to work on land which as been previously useless for food production. Size of the agricultural
societies is much greater than the horticultural of pastoral communities. The full-time specialists
who engage themselves in non-agricultural activities tend to concentrate in some compact places
which lead to the birth of cities.

In course of time, agricultural societies led to the establishment of more elaborate political
institutions. Power was concentrated in the hand of a single individual and a hereditary
monarchy emerged who became powerful. Court system providing justice also emerged and
these developments made the state a separate powerful institution. For the first time, two distinct
social classes those who own the land and those who work on the land of others made their
appearance and this created major differences between the strata. Warfare became a regular
feature and for the first time, full time permanent armies made their appearances. Proper roads,
waterways were developed and such developments brought the previously isolated communities
into contact with on another. Since more food was produced than is necessary for
subsistence, agricultural societies were able to support people whose sole purpose is to provide
creative ideas to the culture. Hence poets, writers, artists, scientists were encouraged and new
cultural artifacts such as paintings, statues, building and stadiums came into existence. Hence the
agricultural societies had a more complex social structure and culture compared to the earlier
societies.

 Industrial
The industrial mode of production began in England about 250 years ago. It became a very
successful one and has since spread all over the world. Industrial societies have existed only in
the very modern era, dating from the industrialisation of Great Britain in the late 18 century. The
most advanced industrial societies today are found in North America, Europe and East Asia
including Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Countries such as India, Mexico, Brazil
and some African countries have also become industrialised to a great extent.

Industrial Revolution spanning the later 18th to the early 19 th centuries is an event of great socio-
economic and historical significance. Technology based on modern scientific knowledge lead to
higher rate of technology innovation. These innovations in turn brought about a flood of social
changes. New technologies such as steam engine, electrical power, atomic energy brought about
a lot of changes in the society. this stimulated population growth with increasing members living
in cities and metropolitan areas where most jobs are located. New medical technologies and
improved living standards served to extend life expectancy. Division of labour became highly
complex and tens of thousands new specialised jobs were created. The family lost many of its
function as it no longer remained as a producing unit but had to be content with as a unit of
consumption. Various technological and scientific developments made religion lose its hold in
controlling the behaviour of the people. Education evolved into an independent and distinct
institution and formal education became a compulsory rather than a luxury for a few. Hereditary
monarchies died out giving place to more democratic institutions. State assumed the central
power in the industrial society ad was more known for its welfare activities. Industrial societies
gave rise to a number of secondary group such as corporations, political parties, business houses
and organisations of various kind. Primary groups tend to lose their importance and more social
life takes place in the context of secondary groups. New life styles and values created a much
more heterogeneous culture which spread its influence far and wide.

 Post Industrial Society

The concept of Post Industrial Society was first formulated in 1962 by Daniel Bell and
subsequently in his seminal work (Coming of post-industrial Society – 1974). It described the
economic and social changes in the late twentieth century. According to Bell in the economy this
is reflected in the decline of goods production and manufacturing as the main form of economic
activity, to be replaced by services. With regard to class structure, a new class of professional
and technical occupations have come in to existence. In all spheres like economic, political and
social decision making this new class influenced in making a new intellectual technology. The
post-industrial society is predominated by a manufacturing based economy and moved on to a
structure of society based on the provision of information, innovation, finance and services. The
economy underwent a transition from the production of goods to the provision of services and
knowledge became a valued form of capital. Through the process of globalisation and
automation, the value and importance to the economy of the blue collar, unionized work,
including manual labour (eg-assembly- line work) declined and those of professional workers)
grew in value and prevalence. Behavioural and information sciences and technologies are
developed and implemented.
  Network Society

Networks are very old forms of human practice. But for the sociologist Manuel Castells,
networks, powered by the development of information technology and particularly of the
Internet, are the defining organizational structure of our age. Castells believes that “we are
passing from the industrial age into the information age” (Castells, 2000, 5). He talks of how this
historical change was brought about by the advent of new information technologies particularly
those for communication and biological purposes. He noted how space and time are being
transcended in social practises due to the ability to do everything from everywhere thanks to the
capacity for ubiquitous perpetual contact in communication technologies. “A number of major
social, technological, economic and cultural transformations came together to give rise to a new
form of society” (Castells 2000, 17). Castells first mentioned the term “network society” in his
book “The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture”
which was the first part of his Information Age trilogy. He claimed, “The definition in terms of a
network society is a society where the key social structures and activities are organized around
electronically processed information networks. So it’s not just about networks or social
networks, because social networks have been very old forms of social organization, it’s about
social networks which process and manage information and are using micro-electronic based
technologies” (Castells, 1996, 34). Simply put a network society is a society whose social
structure is made of networks powered by microelectronic based information and communication
technologies. While he explains that networks are not a new form of social organization, they
have become a key feature of social morphology, essentially they are new forms of old
processes. He claims this is largely due to communication technologies, for example the internet
or mobile telephones, which increase decentralization of operations and focusing of control
which in turn increase the effectiveness of networks relative to hierarchical structures. Castells
talks of how the global economy is now characterized by the instantaneous flow and exchange of
information, capital and cultural communication. These flows order and condition both
consumption and production. The networks themselves reflect and create distinctive cultures.
Both they and the information they carry are largely outside of national regulation. This means
that society’s dependence on these new modes of informational flow can give enormous power
to those in a position to control them to control us, “Networks have become the predominant
organizational form of every domain of human activity” (Castells, 1996, 101).

 Risk Society
Ulrich Beck (1992) coined the term ‘risk society’, which is used to describe the type of risks that
have primarily been created as a result of the industrialisation and modernisation processes. Beck
(1992) examined the hazards of pre-industrial society to see whether they are just as damaging as
the risks that we are facing in modernity. Beck et al (2003) states that modernity has not been
replaced but that it has become more problematic. Beck (1992) however is not as pessimistic as
other theorists such as Weber, Foucault or Adorno; he states that for society to evolve then
modernisation must become ‘reflexive’. Therefore introducing ‘Reflexive modernity’ as a central
feature of Beck’s ‘risk theory’, which is a process whereby development is attained through
reform. He, like most of society uses the term ‘risk’ as a synonym for danger, a danger that is
caused through the need of ‘controlling’ certain aspects of society, in aid of heightening social
security (Elliot, 2002). However Beck (1999) had previously stated that ‘ultimate security’ is
unattainable to human beings. This ‘new risk’ according to Beck differs from the ‘risk’
experience by pre-modern society; instead of ‘risk’ being generated by natural disasters, which
were seen as a ‘stroke of fate’, it has derived through the evolution of technology, and individual
choice. The latter is seen as crucial to Beck’s debate, as it “is societal intervention, in the form of
decision-making that transforms incalculable hazards into calculable risks” (Elliot, 2002: 3)
thus Beck’s theory of risk society has become a political debate. For Beck the “production of risk
has become more important than the production of wealth” (Albrow, 1996: 9). Here Beck
introduces another key element to his debate, the idea of ‘globalisation’. He argues that the risk
of nuclear radiation, many modern technologies, the greater mobility of diseases, global
warming, and invasive species affects everyone, globally. Supported by Elliot (2002) who points
out; that Beck mention even; the rich and powerful are unable to avoid hazards such as global
warming. Thus creating what Beck (1992) describes as the ‘boomerang effect’, which simple
means that even those who produced or once profited from certain risks, will sooner or later be
effected by them, thus, in effect, eliminating the element of class inequalities.