Classification of social communities

What are the criteria for identifying and classifying social communities?

Systematization of the views of modern sociologists on this issue allows us to identify a number of potential and real, necessary and sufficient grounds for identifying commonality:

similarity, closeness of living conditions of people (as a potential prerequisite for the emergence of an association);

the commonality of people's needs, their subjective awareness of the similarity of their interests (a real prerequisite for the emergence of solidarity);

the presence of interaction, joint activities, interconnected exchange of activities (direct in the community, mediated in modern society);

the formation of her own culture: a system of internal norms of relationships, ideas about the goals of community, morality, etc.;

strengthening the organization of the community, creating a system of governance and self-government;

social identification of members of the community, their self-assignment to the ϶ᴛᴏth community.

social community - ϶ᴛᴏ set of individuals unitedthe sameliving conditions, values, interests, norms, social connectionand awareness of social identity, acting inas a subject of social life

How do social communities emerge?

There are various concepts of creating social communities. It is important to note that one of them was proposed by an American sociologist George Homans, kᴏᴛᴏᴩy thought that people in interaction with each other try to achieve good, and the more significant the good, the more a person undertakes efforts to unite with other people.

Considering collective behavior from the position presets(predispositions), sociologist Gordon Allport put forward a theory according to which a new social subject is formed through convergence of predispositions, i.e. unity of assessments, values, assigned values, stereotypes, which members of the emerging community possess. It is worth noting that he theoretically proved that the emergence of a new community is based on similarity of emotions, and rational preferences of people.

The famous American sociologist Neil Smelser in his book "Mass Behavior" (1964-1967) structured Allport's theory of convergence. It is worth noting that he quite unambiguously linked the ϲʙᴏu explanatory concept of the emergence of a new community not with emotional grounds, but with rational ones.

Note that the theory of rational value-oriented behavior by N. Smelzer made it possible not only to reflect and interpret stages formation of communities, but also to reproduce (scientifically model) logical stages of the ϶ᴛᴏth process:

the formation of the most generalized ideas about the ideals, goals, objectives of the future association;

forcing on the basis of a common vision of the problem a certain tension, primarily due to the exaggeration of threats and the identification of a “common enemy”;

cultivating an implicit, preliminary, rather vague belief about the principles of action of the community, cultivating preferences regarding the future model of activity (legal, illegal, violent, peaceful, etc.);

turning to history in search of models for borrowing (this is what the Cossacks, nobles and other revivalist communities do in the new Russia);

mobilizing forces for action: expanding the number of supporters and preparing them to organize;

the introduction of internal social control, i.e., rights and obligations that allow demanding, punishing, encouraging, expelling, wearing symbols;

the entry of a new mass organization (embedding, infusion, acceptance by public opinion, legalization) into existing social structures.

The last stage marks the incorporation of a new community into the system of established social relations - the formation of a public or legally fixed organization, institutionalization, promotion of "ϲʙᴏ" into the power elites, etc.

Types of social communities

Social communities are distinguished by a huge variety of specific historical and situationally determined types and forms.

Yes, by quantitative composition they range from the interaction of two people (dyads) to numerous international political and economic movements.

By lifetime duration- from lasting minutes and hours (the audience of a particular spectacular event) to living centuries and millennia of ethnic groups, nations.

According to the density of communication between individuals- from closely knit teams and organizations to very vague, amorphous formations (for example, fans of a football team), etc.

By size there are three main groups:

1. Large social communities, i.e. groups that exist throughout the country as a whole (nations, classes, social strata, professional associations).

2. Average social communities, for example, residents of Arkhangelsk or the entire Arkhangelsk region.

3. Small social communities, or small (primary) groups, which include, for example, a family, a team of workers in a small store, etc.

1. Socio-economic (castes, estates, classes);

2. Socio-ethnic (kinds, tribes, nationalities, nations);

3. Socio-demographic (youth, elderly, children, parents, women, men, etc.)

4. Socio-professional, or corporate, communities (miners, teachers, accountants, financiers, doctors, etc.);

5. Socio-territorial (inhabitants of certain territories, regions, districts, cities, villages, villages, etc.).

Primary and secondary social groups

From the point of view of the nature of interaction within the human community, primary and secondary social groups are distinguished. The primary social group is a set of people who know each other well and enter into direct interaction, interpersonal relationships. The ties between the members of the primary group are very close, suggest mutual support, and the group itself has a significant influence on the people included in it. Examples of primary social groups: family, group of friends, stairwell neighbors. Secondary social group - a set of people who enter into formal business relations to achieve a specific common goal. Relations between group members are often impersonal and do not imply a close emotional connection. Examples of secondary social groups: creative union, political party, production and economic association. Representatives of one social group are aware of their belonging to it, regardless of whether there are close ties between them (primary social group) or whether these ties are superficial (secondary social group).

A complex set of features allows divide all communities into two broadest subclasses, types: mass and group communities, which are divided into large and small social groups. (According to Marx and Tönnies)

Mass social communities

Our life is comprehensively permeated with concepts, which constitute the main content of such a sociological category as “mass social community”.

Mass communities are characterized by the following features:

are structurally undivided amorphous formations with rather extended boundaries with an indefinite qualitative and quantitative composition, do not have a clearly defined principle of entering them;

for such communities characterized by a situational mode of existence, i.e. they are formed and function on the basis and within the boundaries of one or other specific activity, are impossible outside of it, and therefore turn out to be unstable, changing from case to case formations;

them inherent heterogeneity of the composition, intergroup nature, i.e. these commonalities break class, group and other boundaries;

due to its amorphous formation, they are not able to act as part of wider communities as their structural units.

A typical example of mass communities will be participants in broad political or environmental movements(for peace, against the nuclear threat, against environmental pollution, etc.), fans pop stars, fans sports teams, members of amateur associations of interest (philatelists, etc.). the same type of behavior is often dictated not by reason, but by feelings, common emotions.

To mass social communities ᴏᴛʜᴏϲᴙ are:

ethnic communities (races, nations, nationalities, tribes);

socio-territorial communities - ϶ᴛᴏ aggregates of people permanently residing in a certain territory, formed on the basis of socio-territorial differences, having a similar way of life,

social classes and social strata(϶ᴛᴏ sets of people who have common social characteristics and perform similar functions in the system of social division of labor). Classes are distinguished in connection with the attitude towards ownership of the means of production and the nature of the acceptance of goods.

Social connections

The functioning and development of the social community occur on the basis of social ties and the interaction of its elements-individuals.

In its most general form, a relationship is an expression of the compatibility of the functioning or development of two or more elements of an object or two (several) objects. Communication is the most profound manifestation of such compatibility. In social research, various types of connections are distinguished: connections of functioning, development, or genetic, causal connections, structural connections, etc. In the epistemological plan, it is important to distinguish between object connections and formal connections, that is, connections established only in the plane of knowledge and having no direct analogue in the field of the object itself, the mixing of these connections inevitably leads to errors both in the methodology and in the results of the study.

Under the "social" connection is usually understood as a set of factors that determine the joint activities of people in specific communities, at a certain time, to achieve certain goals. Social ties are established for a long period of time, regardless of the personal qualities of individuals. These are the connections of individuals with each other, as well as their connections with the phenomena and processes of the surrounding world, which are formed in the course of their practical activities. The essence of social ties is manifested in the content and nature of the actions of people who make up this social community. It is possible to single out connections of interaction, control, relations, as well as institutional connections.

Features of social communities

A characteristic feature of a social community (city, village, labor collective, family, etc.) is that social systems are formed precisely on its basis. A social community is a set of people that is characterized by the conditions of their life (economic, social status, level of professional training and education, interests and needs, etc.), common to a given group of interacting individuals (nations, classes, socio-professional groups, labor collectives, etc.); belonging to historically formed territorial entities (city, village, region), belonging of the studied group of interacting individuals to certain social institutions (family, education, science, politics, religion, etc.).

Reasons for the disorganization of social communities

Social processes (demographic, migration, urbanization, industrialization) as an undesirable result can have a destructive, disorganizational impact on social communities. The phenomena of disorganization are reflected both in the external (formal) structure of communities and in their internal, functional characteristics. So, if from the outside, processes such as migration, urban development, industry, etc. Lead to the disintegration of large families that previously consisted of two or three generations, in production groups - to staff turnover, etc., in territorial communities - to an increase in the number of migrants in the composition of the indigenous population, to a violation of the natural age and sex structure, then the disorganization of the functions of such communities is expressed in the loosening of values, the increase in the inconsistency of standards and patterns of behavior, the weakening of the normative structure of the community, which in turn leads to an increase in deviations in the behavior of its members.

Among the social causes that disorganize the personality, one can include its participation either in several social communities that impose conflicting social values ​​and patterns of behavior on it, or in those that are characterized by the uncertainty of social roles, i.e., the requirements for the individual, the lack of social control, ambiguity of criteria for assessing behavior. As a rule, such phenomena are associated with a weakening of the socio-psychological effect of community, which serves as a means of intra-group cohesion and mutual understanding.

Under these conditions, the so-called normal social communities are not in all cases able to ensure the fulfillment of a number of their essential functions, i.e., to provide the individual with a consistent, internally consistent system of behavior standards, to stimulate a sense of solidarity and belonging to it, to provide an ordered system of social levels. prestige and recognition, etc.

Question #3The concept and types of social communities.

The social system can be represented in three aspects. The first aspect is as a set of individuals whose interaction is based on certain general circumstances (city, village, labor collective, etc.); the second - as a hierarchy of social positions (statuses), which are occupied by individuals included in the activity of this system, and the social functions (roles) that they perform on the basis of these social positions; the third - as a set of norms and values ​​that determine the nature and content of the behavior of the elements of this system. The first aspect is related to the concept of social community, the second - to the concept of social organization and the third - to the concept of culture. The social system, thus, acts as an organic unity of three sides - social community, social organization and culture.

A characteristic feature of a social community (city, village, labor collective, family, etc.) is that social systems are formed precisely on its basis. A social community is a set of people that is characterized by the conditions of their life (economic, social status, level of professional training and education, interests and needs, etc.), common to a given group of interacting individuals (nations, classes, socio-professional groups, labor collectives, etc.); belonging to historically formed territorial entities (city, village, region), belonging of the studied group of interacting individuals to certain social institutions (family, education, science, politics, religion, etc.).

The main types of social communities.

The functioning of social relations, institutions of control and organizations gives rise to a complex system of social relations that governs the needs, interests and goals of people. This system unites individuals and their groups into a single whole - a social community and through it - into a social system. The nature of social ties determines both the external structure of social communities and its functions. The external structure of a community can be determined, for example, by its objective data: information about the demographic structure of the community, the professional structure, the educational characteristics of its members, etc.

Functionally, social communities direct the actions of their members to achieve group goals. The social community ensures the coordination of these actions, which leads to an increase in its internal cohesion. The latter is possible due to patterns of behavior, norms that determine relations within this community, as well as socio-psychological mechanisms that guide the behavior of its members.

Among many types of social communities, such as family, work collective, groups of joint leisure activities, as well as various socio-territorial communities (village, small town, large cities, region, etc.) are of particular importance in terms of influencing behavior. . In the framework of this topic, we will consider this type of community in more detail.

The socio-territorial structure of society constitutes a kind of social network, each cell of which (one or another type of settlement - a city, village, settlement and the community living in it) appears as a kind of microcosm of society as a whole. Two components are organically intertwined in this network. The first of them - a city, village, region, etc., which is a territorial-subject collection of dwellings, transport and other communications - is the immediate spatial environment of the life of individuals and social groups. The second is the population of a certain territorial structure, which forms a social community, which turns out to be immediate social environment formation, development and daily life of individuals.

The population of a certain territorial-settlement structure is called a settlement community. Settlement community is a group of people who have a common permanent residence, depend on each other in their daily lives and carry out a variety of activities to meet their economic, social and cultural needs.

the totality of the life activity of individuals and social groups in a certain territorial-settlement structure is determined by the interaction of diverse factors, can be grouped according to four types.

1. Production activity (environment).

2. Non-production environment.

3. Natural habitat.

4. Man-made environment.

Of these four interconnected components, in most cases the city has an advantage over other types of settlements in three of the four named components:

Working conditions;

Conditions of the non-productive sphere;

The artificial environment and its well-being, yielding to the village only in one thing - in the favorable nature of the environment.

In this regard, the dichotomous division of socio-territorial communities into two main types according to the method of organizing the settlement structure and the features of its functioning - the city and the village - is of great social and sociocultural significance.

The city is a historically established socio-territorial community with polystructurality, the dominance of a highly developed artificial material environment over a natural, concentrated type of socio-spatial organization of people, which is characterized by a variety of labor and non-productive activities of the population, the specifics of its composition and lifestyle.

The city is characterized by:

1. Variety of labor activity of the population - industry, transport, communications, services, etc.

2. The variety of non-productive activities - education, health care, culture, science.

3. Social and professional heterogeneity of the population: workers, engineers, teachers, doctors, professors, actors, writers, musicians, entrepreneurs, economic managers, policemen, judges, lawyers, government workers, etc.

4. Powerful development of transport, telephone and other means of communication.

5. The presence of bodies that perform power, management and executive functions - the mayor's office, the city council of deputies, mountains (rai) police departments, courts, prosecutors, banks, various institutions.

6. The development of a specific urban lifestyle, which is most often characterized by the absence of household plots, isolation from the earth, the predominance of anonymous, business, short-term contacts in interpersonal communication, the attenuation of neighborly ties, the relative isolation of families and individuals not only in space, but also in social respect. The latter, in particular, is characterized by such features as the “elevator effect”, when neighbors, even meeting in an elevator, do not know each other, or “loneliness in the crowd”.

Unlike the city, the village as a specific socio-territorial community is characterized by the dominance of natural conditions over the artificial material environment, a dispersed type of socio-spatial organization of people, and a significant monotony of their production activities, concentrated mainly in agriculture. The countryside differs from the city also in the duration of fixing the same functions, the limited and poor opportunities for socio-cultural development.

The social identity of the village is expressed in the following features:

1) the subordination of labor activity to the rhythms and cycles of nature, the resulting uneven employment at different times of the year, more difficult working conditions due to lower power supply, technical equipment of agricultural production compared to urban enterprises;

2) a lower degree of socio-economic development than in the city;

3) predominantly low population density and a small number of inhabitants;

4) the relative paucity of types of labor activity and the resulting much greater than in the city, social and professional homogeneity of the population;

5) much smaller conditions and opportunities for educational and sociocultural development;

6) a fairly high population stability - about 60 % the villagers of Belarus live in the villages continuously (of course, with short trips to the city) from the day of birth;

7) the specific features of the rural way of life associated with this: the close connection of all life activity with the land, the presence of a household plot, a large unity of work and life, poorly developed labor mobility, simpler norms of communication between people, the important role of traditions, customs, local authorities, social opinions and value orientations of villagers.

Having clarified the social essence of the two main types of the socio-territorial structure of society - the city and the countryside, the peculiar features of each of them, we can more definitely and concretely imagine the content and social role of urbanization.

Urbanization (from Latin urbanus)- the process of concentration of the population, economic, political and cultural life in large cities and the associated increase in the role of cities in the development of society, in spreading the features and characteristics inherent in the urban lifestyle to the whole society, including in rural areas.

Signs of urbanization:

Increasing proportion of the urban population;

High density and degree of location of the network of cities throughout the country;

Transport and other accessibility of large cities for the population of other settlement structures;

Increasing variety of types of labor activity and leisure of the population.

In addition to urban and rural settlement structures and the change in the relationship between them as a result of urbanization, regions play an important role in the dynamics of socio-territorial communities. Region- this is a certain part of the country, characterized by a combination of natural and historical features. The more extensive a country is in its territory or the more different natural and climatic zones it has, the more diverse its regions are.

If we sum up the totality of the distinctive features and living conditions of people in settlements of various types and different regions, then we can say that the specifics of a socio-territorial community is determined by:

1) historical features of the development of a given community: its past and present, its inherent traditions, customs, relationships, peculiarities of work and life, etc.;

2) economic conditions - the structure of the economy, the peculiarities of the division of labor, the professional composition of the population, its labor mobility, etc.;

3) socio-political conditions - the degree of involvement of the population in the adoption of managerial decisions, the characteristics and effectiveness of management and self-government, the attitude of the population to power and management structures;

4) socio-cultural conditions - the presence or absence of institutions of education, culture, science, relevant detachments of the intelligentsia, etc.;

5) environmental conditions - the features of the natural landscape environment, the damage caused to it, the efficiency of its reproduction, protection, etc.

In accordance with the structure of the socio-territorial organization of life, a certain hierarchy (subordination) of socio-territorial communities is formed different rank. For Belarus they are:

1. Highest - the entire population of the Republic of Belarus as a specific socio-territorial community.

2. Regional socio-territorial communities.

3. District (city) socio-territorial communities.

4. Settlement and rural socio-territorial communities.

But no matter what hierarchical rank or whatever type (urban or rural) of the settlement structure we consider, always and everywhere the population of a country, region, city, district, town, village comes to the fore in sociological research. The population is understood as a set of people who carry out their livelihoods within certain socio-territorial communities - a country, region, city, village, etc. When sociologists talk about socio-territorial communities, they do not forget that these territorial-settlement structures include complexes of buildings, structures, vehicles, etc., but the main role in these communities is played by people who create such buildings and structures, inhabiting certain territories, building cities and villages on them, creating the life support structure necessary for life in them - factories, schools, hospitals, shops, etc. And the highest rank structure in all these socio-territorial communities is represented by the people. People- it is a combination of all social communities, strata and groups engaged in various activities in the system of social division of labor, having a common historical destiny, essential signs of a similar way of life, as well as a sense of belonging to a single socio-historical community. The people act as the bearer of centuries-old collective experience, socio-cultural values ​​- language, culture, historical memory and statehood, the main creator of material and spiritual values, the arbiter of their own destiny.

Social communities are historically formed associations of people based on the objective conditions of their existence and having their place in the system of social ties. This is society as a whole, social classes, strata, ethnic groups, labor collectives, family, etc. The most important social communities are national-ethnic and demographic. With the development of a community, specific communities appear associated with professional activities, settlement structure, and so on. In this regard, substructures of society appear: socio-demographic, national-ethnic, socio-professional, settlement, social-class, status, etc. All substructures are interconnected and influence each other.

Social groups are relatively stable, historically established communities of people that differ in their role and place in the system of social ties of a historically defined society - tribe, clan, classes, professional groups. Traditionally, primary and secondary groups are distinguished. The primary ones include small groups of people where direct personal emotional contact is established (family, a group of friends, work teams). Secondary groups are formed from people between whom there is almost no personal emotional relationship, their interactions are due to the desire to achieve certain goals, communication is predominantly formal, impersonal.

Socio-territorial communities

Socio-territorial communities (these are aggregates of people permanently residing in a certain territory, formed on the basis of socio-territorial differences, having a similar lifestyle). The main essential features of such a community are stable economic, political, social, spiritual, moral and economic ties and relationships that distinguish it as a fairly independent system of spatial organization of people's life.

In the general set of territorial formations, the primary territorial community is the initial one, which has the properties of integrity and indivisibility according to the functional criterion, and its constituent parts cannot independently perform specific functions that are inherent in this socio-territorial community. The region is such an initial territorial community.

There are significant differences between socio-territorial communities: in terms of the level of development of productive forces, population density, the nature of economic activity based on one form of ownership or another, the way of life and the mode of social reproduction.

Socio-ethnic communities

Ethnic communities (ethnos) are the most important social structures of society. These include tribes, nationalities, nations. Historically, ethnic communities were formed on the basis of blood relations. The smallest consanguineous group is a family, the union of several families formed a clan, clans united into clans, several clans, united, made up a tribe.

The tribe is already a higher form of social organization; tribes have their own language, territory, organization, traditions.

Nations are the most numerous ethnic formations, distinguished by a common self-consciousness, a certain national character and mental make-up. Representatives of one nation, in addition to a common language and culture, have a common mentality.

An ethnos is a stable set of people that has historically developed in a certain territory and has a common economic and spiritual culture, psychological characteristics, and ethnic self-consciousness.

Ethnic, or national, self-awareness is the awareness by representatives of a nation of their unity and difference from other similar entities, based on a common origin and historical development, fixed and transmitted in legends, epics, songs, and tales. The ethnos is reproduced through a system of internal marriages or through socialization. The formation of a nation is often accompanied by the formation of a single national-territorial entity - the state.

Society, understood as a "product of people's interaction", as the integrity of people's social relations to nature and to each other, consists of many heterogeneous elements, among which the economic activity of people and their relations in the process of material production are the most significant, basic, but not the only ones. On the contrary, the life of a society consists of many diverse activities, social relations, social institutions, ideas and other social elements. All these phenomena of social life are mutually interconnected and always appear in a certain interconnection and unity.

This unity is permeated by material and mental processes, and the integrity of social phenomena is in the process of constant changes, taking various forms.

The study of society as the integrity of social relations in all its various manifestations requires grouping the heterogeneous elements of society into separate entities in accordance with their common features and then identifying the interconnections of such groups of phenomena.

One of the important elements of the social structure of society is the social group. Of great importance is the socio-territorial group, which is an association of people that has a unity of relations to a certain territory they have mastered. An example of such communities can be: a city, a village, and in some aspects - a separate district of a city or state. In these groups there is their relationship with the environment.

Territorial groups have similar social and cultural traits that have arisen under the influence of certain situations. This happens even though the members of this group have differences: class, professional, etc. And if we take the characteristics of various categories of the population of a certain territory, we can judge the level of development of this territorial community in social terms.

Basically, territorial communities are divided into two groups: rural and urban population. Relations between these two groups developed differently at different times. Of course, the urban population prevails. Basically, urban culture today with its patterns of behavior and activity penetrates more and more into the village, village.

The resettlement of people is also important, because regional differences affect the economic, cultural state, the social appearance of a person - there is a lifestyle.

All this is influenced by the movement of migrants.

The highest level of development of the socio-territorial community is the people. The next step is national territorial communities. The initial is the primary territorial community, which is integral and indivisible.

An important function of this community is the socio-demographic reproduction of the population. It ensures the satisfaction of people's needs through the exchange of certain types of human activities. An important condition for reproduction is the self-sufficiency of the elements of the artificial and the nature of the environment.

It is also important to take into account the mobility of territorial communities. In some cases, the living environment for reproduction requires the formation of a combination of urban and rural environments, taking into account the natural environment (agglomeration).

Sets of people permanently residing in a certain territory, formed on the basis of social-territorial differences in specific. social formations that act as carriers of locally manifested connections and relations that prevail in this society. The very fact of the connection between the resettlement of people and social. development recorded by sociology in the late XIX - first quarter of XX centuries. F. Tennis, K. Bucher, R. Mackenzie considered the territorial community of Ch. arr. through the prism of people living together in a particular territory. At the same time, the “locality” of the community, in contrast to the community, and “territoriality”, in contrast to the factors of formation of other social groups, turned out to be in the foreground. groups. O.s.-t. - one of the key categories of the sociology of settlement, because it expresses a certain section of the social. differentiation of people, emerging on the basis of historical. due to the territorial-settlement organization about-va. O.s.-t. - Historical category. Its emergence is associated with the transition from a primitive communal system based on personal blood ties to a class society, one of the signs of which is that it divided the people for societies. goals not by related groups, but by living in the same territory. Since that time, the place of residence of a person, as well as resettlement in general, has become a link in the social. determination and at the same time a factor and environment soc. development. The premise of O.S.-T. is a kind of attachment of the individual to the settlement, which finds its external expression in the phenomenon of permanent residence. This phenomenon is due to the division of labor. An integral part of the latter is the distribution of people according to one or another of its types. Naturally, it also exists at the level of the settlement: firstly, the connection of the worker with the means of production presupposes a certain territorial "binding"; secondly, the nature of the development of technology and technology up to a certain time presupposes the direct inclusion of the individual in the production process, which is always territorially defined; Finally, the very attachment of the worker to the type of labor limits the possibility of his movement both in space and in the social. respect. Thus, the permanent nature of the place of residence means that the settlement of people is "tied" to production, and their resettlement as a whole follows the location of this production. Thus, the settlement becomes a direct environment for human activity. From the sociologist t. sp. this means that the society social-economic conditions that determine social the development of communities and the individual, perform their function not only at the level of the society as a whole, but also at the level of a certain settlement, because it is there that a person (and the population as a whole) acts as a subject of labor, a subject of consumption, etc. Conditions for the life of people , starting with the form of connection of the worker with the means of production, are specific in the settlement, determining the possibilities for the development of people and the satisfaction of their needs, i.e., they perform the function of the actual basis of their social. development. This means that the settlement plays a certain role in the socialization of the individual. But the mere attachment of people to a settlement and the transformation of the latter into the immediate environment of their life activity is still not enough for the formation of an OS-t. A community of this kind can be formed only on the basis of differences in the conditions of people's life in such and such a place from the conditions of another place and the formation of common interests on this basis. Differences in living conditions in the settlements - a manifestation of uneven economic. and social development of certain territories, regions. It is due to differences in the level of development of productive forces, the degree of economic development of territories. On this basis, differences in living conditions in settlements exist not only in economic terms. areas, but also in the field of social life. According to their societies. meaning they represent nothing more than social-territorial differences. A special case of such differences is the differences between the city and the countryside, but social-territorial differences can also be traced between the urban (as well as rural) settlements themselves. The social-territorial community is not only the population of a city, village, agglomeration. Due to the fact that the settlements are included in more complex territorial-administrative formations - district, region, republic - and the latter also differ in the specifics of economic. and social development. At the same time, in the hierarchy of O.S.-T. settlement plays a special role: in the basis of territorial differences in the context of any administrative units, there is always the state of living conditions in the places of settlement, where they become the direct basis for development. Therefore, the population of a separate settlement acts as the primary O.s.-t., and the totality of primary O.s.-t. objectively is the lower, primary level of the structure of the socio-territorial (see). Lit .: Staroverov V.I. Socio-demographic problems of the village. M., 1975; Baranov A.V. Socio-demographic development of the city. M., 1981; Lanno G.M. Cities on the way to the future. M, 1987; Large city: problems and development trends. L., 1988. M.N. Mezhevich.