The National level
· Institutions are stable patterns of behavior, traditions, customs, groups of persons banded together for common purposes having rights, privilages, liabilities, goals, or objectives; structures or mechanisms of social order, they govern the behaviour of a set of individuals within a given community; organizations, or entities. Institutions are identified with a social purpose, transcending individuals and intentions by mediating the rules that govern living behavior. Primary or meta-institutions provide the general idea of some notions (family, religion, environment, economics, politics, marriage, education, health, liberty, democracy), whereas secondary institutions encompass organizations, or other facilities that carry out the functions of meta-institutions.
· Social Institutions Categories:
A Community: A group of people residing in the same locality and under the same government or a group or class having common interests.
· Non-Governmental Organizations are Non-profit organizations: charitable organizations (dedicated to assisting others meet basic needs, resolve personal or family problems, or improving their community: soup kitchens, rotary clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs, scouts); advocacy groups; political parties; think tanks; virtual communities.
· Educational Institutions: Social organizations dedicated to teaching skills and knowledge to individuals: schools (preschool, primary/elementary, secondary, and post-secondary/higher). Research community – academia and universities; research institutes.
· Ethnic or Cultural Groups: A social organization consisting of many extended family groups related by a distant, common ancestry (clans, nations, ethnic minorities).
· Households: domestic establishments including the members of a family and other who live under the same roof.
· Governments and Legal Institutions: incorporate institutions according to three branches of power: a legislative branch which writes law and policy, executive branch which executes law and policy, and judicial branch which enforces law and policy. This includes local, state, and national governments, political parties. This includes all branches of the military. Legal systems. The penal systems acts upon prisoners and the guards.
· Health Care Institutions: Social institutions that specialize in monitoring public health, providing health maintenance, and treating illness and injury.
· Intellectual and Cultural Organizations (mass media): Social organizations dedicated to search for new knowledge or the development and preservation of art and dissemination of knowledge and data. (Language: People learn to socialize differently depending on the specific language and culture in which they live. A specific example of this is code switching. This is where immigrant children learn to behave in accordance with the languages used in their lives: separate languages at home and in peer groups (mainly in educational settings). Depending on the language and situation at any given time, people will socialize differently. Mass media: the media's function is to connect people. The media can teach norms and values by way of representing symbolic reward and punishment for different kinds of behavior. Mass media has enormous effects on our attitudes and behavior.
· Religious Organizations: are groups of people who share a common, codified belief in and reverence for a supernatural power acepted as the creator and governor of the universe. Some believe religion is like an ethnic or cultural category, making it less likely for the individuals to break from religious affiliations and be more socialized in this setting.
· Peer groups: are social groups whose members have interests, social positions and age in common.
· Economic organisations incorporate economic systems (market, mixed, planned) and all types of economic enterprises that generate profit via various activities within such sectors as: 1) Agriculture and mining businesses are concerned with the production of raw material, such as plants, animals / cattle, metal, coal, or minerals (resources); 2) Financial businesses include banks and other companies that generate profit through investment and management of capital. 3) Information businesses generate profits primarily from the resale of intellectual property and include movie studios, publishers and packaged software companies. They are concerned with such notions as open access and transparency of information, censorship, copyright, plagiarism, cyber security, cyber crimes; 4) Manufacturers produce products, from raw materials or component parts, which they then sell at a profit. Companies that make physical goods, such as cars or pipes, are considered manufacturers; 5) Real estate businesses generate profit from the selling, renting, and development of properties, homes, and buildings; 6) Trade (Retailers, wholesalers, franchising, chain stores, distributors (act as middle-men in getting goods produced by manufacturers to the intended consumer, generating a profit as a result of providing sales or distribution services); 7) Transportation businesses deliver goods and individuals from location to location, generating a profit on the transportation costs; logistics, terminals, road infrastructure, types of vehicles.; 8) Utilities produce public services, such as heat, electricity, or sewage treatment, waste disposal; 9) Service businesses offer intangible goods or services and typically generate a profit by charging for labor or other services provided to government, other businesses or consumers. Organizations ranging from house decorators to consulting firms to restaurants and even to entertainers are types of service businesses + catering, education services, medical services, tourism.
Economic organisations can be private (profit / non-for-profit) and state-owned (profit / not-for-profit).
Current global tendencies:
· Globalization / integration
· The increasing activity of national governments and international organizations on the global arena;
· International and intercultural integration / interaction / cooperation / collaboration in the spheres of information technologies, science, human rights, education, healthcare, environment, financial flows / monetary policy, transportation, tourism, sports, and production;
· Setting international standards in political, economic, social, and ecological spheres;
· Organizing international conferences, summits, negotiations in all spheres of human activity.
· Bureaucracy--impersonal, social hierarchies that practice a division of labor and are marked by a regularity of method and procedure
· Rationalization--the world can be understood and managed through a reasonable and logical system of objectively accessible theories and data
· Consumerism--the reduction of all aspects of life to objects of monetary consumption and exchange
· Nationalism--the rise of the modern nation-states as rational centralized governments that often cross local, ethnic groupings / diversity / Cultural Plurality, awareness, visibility, multiculturalism
· Urbanization--the move of people, cultural centers, and political influence to large cities (urban sprawl / rural decline)
· Mass society--the growth of societies united by mass media and widespread dissemination of cultural practices as opposed to local and regional culture particulars
· Industrial society--societies formed around the industrial production and distribution of products
· Homogenization--the social forces that tend toward a uniformity of cultural ideas and products
· Democratization--political systems characterized by free elections, independent judiciaries, rule of law, and respect of human rights
· Mechanization--the transfer of the means of production from human labor to mechanized, advanced technology, from conventional (traditional) skills to computer-aided designs
· Digitalization and big data processing, visualizing, modeling / artificial intelligence / the 4 th industrial revolution / e-turn / e-effect / digital turn
· Propaganda
· Human rights and freedoms, dignity, and autonomy / tolerance (intolerance)
· Inclusion and possibilities for everyone: Decision-making and participation, eligibility, opportunity, equity, equality, poverty, (un) employment, income, wealth, recreation, geography, health, education, welcoming, respect, support, social cohesion, social capital, social solidarity, belonging, frequency, amount, quality, friendships, interactions, exclusion, barriers inequality, goods, services, markets, social systems, poverty, income, status, life expectancy, democratic processes, volunteering, voting, collaborations, self-expression values, elite-challenging actions
· Participation and consensus / collaboration
· Behaviors: cooperation, neighboring, and participation; and, Social conditions: independence, autonomy, and recognition, tolerance and acceptance: social capital, norms, habits, respect, cooperation, attitudes, and values / compatibility
· Affordability / Accessibility / Accountability
· (No) Division of labour / soft (social) skills / hard (technical) skills / robotisation / automatisation
· Open access to information and Transparency
· Democracy
· Sustainability (17 sustainable development goals): no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry/innovation/infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, marine life, life on land, peace/justice/strong institutions, partnership for the goals.
People / experts
Politicians / economists / environmentalists / proponents / opponents / the general public/ ordinary people / analysts / sociologists / civilians / citizens / consumers / peers / co-workers / professionals / amateurs / connoisseurs
It is essential for People: To work hard / To pay taxes / To satisfy all basic needs / To fulfill / meet all requirements / responsibilities / To be self-motivated to do smth / To be tolerant to other people’s views, ideas, principles… / To become active members of a democratic community / to set and achieve goals / To be part of a community and to contribute to the common goal / To be law-obedient / To educate oneself / to face challenges / to acquire new knowledge and skills (problem-solving, time-management, multitasking, team-working, leadership, efficiency, productivity, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, initiative, innovation, curiosity, literacy, numeracy, IT literacy, social literacy, cultural awareness, scientific literacy, transition from lower-order thinking skills to higher-order thinking skills – analysis, synthesis)
Authorities / Governments are appointed by citizens to manage the affairs of their country. Their responsibilities include:
-Ensuring the security of a state - Government must maintain law and order internally. This is realized through legislation, the court of justice and the police force. Externally the armed forces protect citizens against external threats.
-Protection and general welfare of citizens - Government is responsible for the general health and education of citizens. Welfare programmes must be provided for those who are very poor and vulnerable.
-Management of the economy – Governments are appointed by citizens to efficiently manage the economy to bring about growth and development. This includes: encouraging local and foreign investment, controlling inflation, maintaining the foreign reserve (NIR), curbing balance of payments deficits and achieving high levels of employment.
-Protecting the environment – Sustaining the environment is important to the well-being of citizens. Ways of protecting the environment include: legislation to prevent further degradation, zoning to protect wildlife areas from disruption by development of factories, shopping and residential areas and taxation to reduce the level of pollution by enterprises.
The governments of all countries are:
1) To act effectively and efficiently / to take measures
2) To protect citizens from violence
3) To provide citizens with goods and services that individuals cannot provide individually for themselves, for example, the basic economic infrastructure of human connectivity falls into this category: the means of physical travel, such as roads, bridges and ports of all kinds, and increasingly the means of virtual travel / to ensure that everyone has access all basic needs
4) to meet current national and global economic, security, demographic and environmental challenges
5) to invest not only in the cultivation of citizen capabilities, but also in the provision of the resources and infrastructure to allow citizens to succeed
6) To ensure social, political, economic, and environmental security and stability within a community
7) To impose various norms, standards, restrictions, requirements on people
8) To introduce / issue / pass / make laws and make amendments
9) To ban / abolish ineffective laws
10) To provide effective measures to improve smth
11) To initiate various social programs to help underprivileged groups of people
12) To develop strategies to improve some sector of national economy
13) To support the dominant sector of economy
14) To provide citizens with social benefits (pension, unemployment benefit, disabled people’s benefit) / to provide citizens with all basic needs
15) To distribute monetary means honestly
16) To manage / regulate life within a community
17) To preserve national image and national identity
18) To provide public services like healthcare and education
19) To support people who are living in poverty or unable to work
20) To spend money on resources and election campaigns
21) To create new jobs
22) To provide resources for schools, hospitals
23) To be responsible for the security and well-being of their citizens
24) To control the military sector and the police
25) To educate, to motivate, to stimulate, to encourage people to become active members of democratic societies
International organizations
The significant role of international organizations in the modern international community is undeniable. International organizations adopt measures which greatly influence or regulate interstate activities in many fields of international cooperation. Their involvement has become a predominant feature of the areas of international relations such as international trade, human rights protection or so-called international regimes, (i.e., regulation of international fisheries, telecommunications, and flights). It is crucial to consider that international organizations act as independent actors at the international scale. They provide collaboration, control, and coordinate the work of national governments.
International organizations are:
1) To study, collect and disseminate information and statistical data;
2) To set internationally acceptable norms and standards;
3) To foster cooperation through meetings;
4) To engage in technical cooperation activities.
5) To cooperate / collaborate with countries and national governments
6) To supervise / to control the work of national governments / to provide intergovernmental interactions
7) To initiate some international programs, processes, projects, negotiations
8) To issue international documents: conventions, declarations
9) To ensure that laws and human rights are not violated
10) To make sure that developed countries financially assist the third-world countries
11) To conduct public research, surveys, opinion polls, reviews…and to make conclusions on their results
12) To establish multilateral and bilateral agreements between and among countries, ensure diversity and multiculturalism
13) To motivate countries to join international conventions
14) To establish norms and standards (Construction standards / emission standards / educational standards / medical standards) and involve countries to sign them
15) To regulate international conflicts
16) To organize summits, conferences
Факторы развития информации
· Технологический: ключевой фактор — информационные технологии широко применяются в производстве, учреждениях, системе образования и в быту.
· Социальный: информация выступает в качестве важного стимулятора изменения качества жизни, формируется и утверждается «информационное сознание» при широком доступе к информации.
· Экономический: информация составляет ключевой фактор в экономике в качестве ресурса, услуг, товара, источника добавленной стоимости и занятости.
· Политический: свобода информации, ведущая к политическому процессу, который характеризуется растущим участием и консенсусом между различными классами и социальными слоями населения.
· Культурный: признание культурной ценности информации посредством содействия утверждению информационных ценностей в интересах развития отдельного индивида и общества в целом.
Sustainable living is a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual's or society's use of the Earth's natural resources and personal resources. Practitioners of sustainable living often attempt to reduce their carbon footprint by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption, and diet. Proponents of sustainable living aim to conduct their lives in ways that are consistent with sustainability, in natural balance and respectful of humanity's symbiotic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology and cycles. The practice and general philosophy of ecological living is highly interrelated with the overall principles of sustainable development. Here are 9 simple tips to help you start living a greener existence right away. 1. Bring a reusable grocery bag to the store when you shop. 2. Quit buying bottled water. Instead, get a water bottle that you can refill. 3. Avoid buying things packed in Styrofoam or plastic. 4. Buy locally. 5. Eat seasonally. 6. Get e-tickets for movies, flights and other events instead of printing. 7. Wash your clothes in cold water. 8. Take public transportation, carpool, ride your bike or walk whenever possible. 9. Volunteer at a community garden.