We explain what social context is, its types and a detailed example. Furthermore, its relationship with the historical and cultural context.
What is the social context?
The social context, social environment or social environment is the space within society that an event or thing occupies, that is, the social situations (that is, referring to the functioning of society) in which it occurred or occurred. that conditioned its appearance. That is to say, It is the configuration of society at the historical moment in which an event occurredor in which an organization operates, or in which an individual lived his or her life.
In this sense, every social context is at the same time a historical context. However, it is a less ambitious and less comprehensive category, since the historical context even includes the state of other societies, other than the one that is of interest to us.
For example, if we think about the Irish poet Oscar Wilde, many aspects of his life were determined by the historical moment in which he lived, but at the same time said historical context was different for people from different social classes. The latter is, precisely, a form of the social context.
Thus, when talking about this type of context, the way the local society operates is taken into account, but also the way the object studied is positioned within it. For example, one company may operate better than another in a certain social or socioeconomic context, and a scientific discovery may well be conditioned by the social context of the organizations involved in it.
The set of emotional, social and psychological support networks of an individual is also called social environment. at a given time. In this sense, they are very important for the healthy development of each person.
See also: Context in communication
Types of social context
The social context can refer specifically to:
- The social classthat is, the place that an individual occupies within the strata of society.
- The sociopolitical situationto the extent that the balance of powers in a society can determine (through social policies) the way in which an event occurs.
- The collective imaginationthat is, the discourses that circulate most frequently between the media and the citizens themselves, forging certain ways of thinking and feeling along the way.
- The national idiosyncrasywhich is equivalent to the collective temperament or the traditional, customary way of doing and thinking things in a given society.
Example of social context
A clear example of social context is what happened in the United States with the murder of citizen George Floyd at the hands of the police in 2020, which motivated an intense wave of protests throughout the country. The social context in which this homicide occurs is that Floyd was African-American, and that this group has a long history of systemic racial discrimination in the United States.
Furthermore, every so often an African American is executed by the police under questionable conditions. Thus, the social context explains why it was a homicide so significant as to trigger a set of civil and street actions throughout the country.
Social context and cultural context
A very thin line separates the social context from the cultural one. Strictly speaking, the first refers to the configuration of society, and The cultural context encompasses the discourses that a society producesthat is, the way of thinking that sustains it. But one thing cannot occur, logically, without the other, given that societies respond largely to themselves and their own impulses.
Thus, we could say that the social context of an individual is the way in which they experience the culture in which they are immersed; while the cultural context It is the collective mental pattern that society manages. It is possible to differentiate them as practice and theory.
However, we can also refer to “cultural context” as a synonym for educational context, especially if we are talking about a person. In that way, we would be referring to how well he was educated and what type of ideas and training he had access to, for example.
Historical context
Just as there is a social context, it is also common to talk about the historical context, that is, of the conjuncture of local events that are relevant when thinking about or studying a given event or object.
In other words, the historical context refers to the panorama of the moment, to all the aspects of interest that are contemporary with what was studied. Only by taking into account the historical context can one avoid making unfair judgments, whether retrospective or untimely.
References
- “Social environment” in Wikipedia.
- “Social environment” at Phil Foundation.
- “What is social environment?” (video) at The Audiopedia.
- “Explaining social contexts” (video) in More Than Blended Content.
- “What is social context?” at IGI Global.
