Social space: definition, features and functions

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

As soon as primitive people began to unite to make it easier to survive and safer to hunt, they began to create a social space. There was no society as such at that time, all people belonged to some tribe or clan, which could be headed by a leader (the best hunter) or a shaman.

As humanity developed and spread on the planet, new social forms of relationships between people were formed.

Views of space

There are two kinds of space in the world:

• physical, which is an objective form of real matter and can exist even in the absence of civilization;
• social space is a product of the relationship between people and the values they create, both material and spiritual.

It is possible to analyze the second type only from the standpoint of the formation of the world history of mankind within the framework of thateconomic, material and temporal territory in which it took place. For example, the development of social space during the period of the primitive system was extremely slow, although this type of community existed for tens of thousands of years.

The study of the surrounding material world for people has always been associated with the gradual development of the area, and the impact on it was carried out through labor, for example, hunting, fishing, building primitive dwellings, domesticating wild animals.

Everything that people have done throughout the history of mankind has had an impact on the physical space, improving and expanding the social.

Social space in a slave society

Primitive people gathered in communities and tribes based on kinship or other types of ties. Often they did not even suspect that there was some other physical space inhabited by other people besides them.

It was precisely because of their isolation and fear of leaving their territories that the social space of that system developed so slowly. With the advent of class differences, the life zone of people began to expand, cities and towns began to form, wars were waged for land and slaves.

At the same time, all communities developed their own cultural and religious values, primitive technical devices appeared, for example, sewerage and water supply. People began to travel long distances, adopt inventions seen in other cities and countries, and conduct trade. So evolvedslave system based on class differences.

During this period, not only social, but also political and economic space was rapidly developing. Peoples exchanged their cultural values, scientists shared scientific discoveries, merchants paved new ways for the sale of goods - this is how the historical space was formed.

At the same time, people did not subjugate the world around them, but on its basis formed a new environment controlled by them and obeying them.

Medieval social space

When the feudal system replaced the slave system, all types of space expanded even more and began to interact more closely. If earlier some states were isolated due to geographical or climatic conditions and did not participate in common historical and social events, then interstate cooperation began in the Middle Ages. It was customary not only to conduct trade between countries, but also to compete in the field of scientific discoveries and new lands. One of the ways to strengthen the historical space was marriages between the ruling royal houses.

As can be seen from the examples in the development of human civilization, the most powerful countries have the largest social space and a high level of cultural and economic development. But even in the Middle Ages, a common historical zone had not yet been formed, but the boundaries of the geographical area were determined.as the discovery of America, India and other countries. People have realized that they are part of a common physical space for all.

Social space in our time

As technological progress grew, the formation of social space began to occur at the planetary level through the unification of countries into a single world market. Production in different countries became dependent on the supply of raw materials and finished products to each other. The discovery of the New World, the settlement of Australia and other regions of the planet expanded the spread of civilization and its cultural values, which, in turn, brought the social space beyond the borders of Europe and Asia.

All these processes were often painful for other peoples, which is clearly seen from the history of the conquest of Peru by the Spaniards, when the ancient civilization of the Incas was destroyed. But on the other hand, these countries have received numerous scientific and technological advances that have accelerated their progress.

Today, the market has become even more integrated. In one country, raw materials can be grown, in another they can be processed, and in a third they can produce the final product. Countries have become interdependent on each other, especially with regard to natural energy resources. Under such conditions, for the first time in the entire period of human development, social space has acquired a single historical, geographical, economic, legal and cultural territory on a global scale.

Classification of social space

Because social spaceis a product of the vital activity of people and their existence on the physical plane, then it can be classified according to several indicators:

• Firstly, on the perception of reality, which can be both subjective and objective. In this case, the main mechanism for studying the surrounding world is either an individual attitude towards it, or the interaction of teams consisting of individuals united by a single view of it.
• Secondly, by its duality. Social space exists both at the physical and at the social level, which is manifested in the consumption of natural goods of the surrounding reality and, at the same time, their redistribution among the people who inhabited it.

Thus, reflection on the subjective and objective levels is two sides of the same space. It also means that without the use of the physical plane, the social plane cannot exist.

The concept of socio-economic space

As the historical experience of the existence of human civilization shows, the world has developed unevenly. Some countries quickly grew rich or became huge empires, seizing foreign territories, others disappeared from the face of the Earth or assimilated with the alien culture of the conquerors.

At the same time, accordingly, the socio-economic space also developed unevenly, which means a territory saturated with numerous economic, industrial and energy facilities.

Previously, the difference in the level of development was more noticeable, while in the modern worldmany countries have pooled their natural, technical and human resources. The constant exchange of technologies and means of communication, the introduction of unified banking systems, the adoption of legal laws protecting the rights of people, and much more - all this contributed to the fact that the number of rich and highly developed countries prevails over the poor, which was not the case 200-300 years ago.

An excellent example is the European Union, which not only united the countries of Europe economically and geographically, but also successfully cooperates with such developed countries as China, Japan, the USA, Canada and others.

The concept of social time

Calendar time exists regardless of the presence of people in it. Before they appeared, days turned into nights, ebbs into tides, nature "died" and was reborn at the change of seasons, and so it will be if humanity disappears.

Social space and time, on the contrary, are associated exclusively with the activities of people in different historical periods. If primitive people did not have the concept of time, and the date of birth could be remembered only in connection with some event, such as a fire or flood, then already about 500 BC. e. they begin to realize its transience and significance for their lives.

It was during this period that so many philosophers, scientists, poets, artists and politicians were born over the course of several centuries, as there were not several tens of thousands of years before. Time began to acquire a social and historical character.

His speed is alsochanged. Things that were previously considered long-term, such as travel, delivery of goods or mail, are happening rapidly in the modern world. Today, people know the value of time and correlate it not only with the duration or transience of their life, but also with its success, usefulness and significance.

"Inclusion" of a person in social space

Those structures that a person creates in the social space are considered to be its content. These can be groups of different nature:

Unsteady, combined accidentally or intentionally for a short period, such as the audience in a movie theater

• Medium stable, interacting for quite a long time, for example, students of the same class.
• Stable communities - peoples and classes.

"Inclusion" of people in any category forms the social space in which they exist in a given period of time. A person cannot avoid interaction with all social institutions (state, family, army, school, and others), since he is a social being.

Culture and social space

Socio-cultural space is an environment in which people create, preserve and increase spiritual and material values. It is filled with objects of human activity created over the entire period of its existence.

Spiritual values include folk customs, folklore, religion and relations between people from different countries at the level of politics, culture and education.

Creating social space

There are two ways to organize it:

• unconscious, when a person influences him through his activities, for example, through creativity or work;
• a conscious way when people, united in a team or at the level of an entire nation, create a new or modify the old social space, for example, during a revolution.

Since this kind of being is directly related to human activity, it is in constant development, during which some of its forms may disappear, while others may arise. As long as people exist, social space will be part of their life.