What Is a Social Institution and the Types

Social institutions are the most fundamental building blocks of societies. They are the structural foundations of human social life. Social institutions "order and structure the behavior of individuals in core areas of society," (Verwiebe, n.d., p. 1). Kinship, religion, and politics are all examples of the social institutions that hold sway over the lives of individuals. However, underneath the strongest of social institutions are the values and norms of that society.

This is why different cultures may have similar social institutions (such as religion, politics, and family) but those institutions appear vastly different. Moreover, the role each institution plays in a society may vary. For example, religion plays a central role in some societies but not in others. Social institutions change over time, and often dramatically. Patriarchy, for example, is a social institution common to many cultures but is being increasingly challenged from within those very same societies.

Likewise, the institution of marriage is being challenged particularly on the grounds that it represents patriarchal values. When social institutions as fundamental as those related to family or religion change, the results can be dramatic and occasionally violent. Changing social institutions can cause serious repercussions not only on the society as a whole, but also on individuals and their own psychological and social ties. Gender is another social institution that is often taken for granted, mistakenly believed to be linked directly to biological sex.

Yet the ways different cultures "do" gender becomes institutionalized. Heterosexuality is, for example, a social institution in most cultures. Yet there are a few cultures in which a more open and tolerant or fluid view of sexuality exists. In this way, social institutions that are strong and apparent in one culture may not be so in another. Most societies have relatively strict gender roles and norms, with division of labor and differential social statuses conferred depending on gender. Political structures and institutions are cornerstones of all societies.

Even in small tribal or kinship-oriented cultures, there is some hierarchy that enables law and order. Power is the most critical dimension of the social institution of politics. Politics becomes the means through which people express their power. Power can be shared among all members of a society as it is in democracies, or power can be vested into the hands of a select few who govern tightly and authoritatively over the vast majority of people.

Closely connected with politics are the economic social institutions, which allow status and capital to be connected with political power. The connection between politics and economics reflects what Miller (2011) states, "Aside from the internal dimensions of an institution, there are its external relationships, including its relationships to other institutions." Social institutions such as economics and politics are developed systematically over time, generally to preserve the status and power of the elite at the expense of the many.

Within many political and economic systems, workers and their labor can be exploited for those with the power to own the means of production and command the rules that govern commercial activity. In my personal experience, religion, family, and education have all become important social institutions that have shaped by identity. Religion is one institution that has been particularly important, not because I am a religious person but because I am not.

In a society that tends to value religious conviction, I found myself feeling quite alone in being able to envision a.