How Social Systems & Cultural Systems Work

A Comparison ofCities as Social Systems to Countries

as Cultural Systems

Example 1:The Social

Dynamics of Cities(Urban Systems)

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Imagine a Society of independent farmers. Each farmer makes her/his own tools for farming (hoes) and grows and consumes her/his own crops.

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Suppose, for whatever reason, B is good at making hoes. (For purposes of this example, it doesn’t really matter why.)

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Let’s Trade!

So, C says to B, “tell you what, I don’t like making hoes. If you make hoes for me, I’ll giveyou my extra grain (agricultural surplus).”

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B makes extra hoes for C. C gives extra grain to B in exchange for the hoes.

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B is spending time making the hoes, so doesn’t have as much time for farming. But that’s ok because B is getting surplus food from C.

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Hmmm… Hmmm…

A and F see this, and think, “That’s a pretty good idea, B makes really good hoes, and I don’t really like making hoes.”

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Grain

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Hoes Grain

So A and F start trading with B, exchanging agricultural surplus (grain) for hoes as well.

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B quits farming altogether, and specializes in hoe production.

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Grain

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G and H see this, and think, “I really don’t like farming. I want to get into this hoe business.”

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Grain

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In order to get involved in the hoe business, they move to where the action is.

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Grain

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Hoes Grain

There are several reasons for this, all of which have to do with the dynamics of exchange.

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Grain

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One is that B happens to be centrally located, which facilitates trade with many customers. H and G can take advantage of that location.

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Grain

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Hoes Grain

Also, B, G, and H can all reside close to each other; it does not take a lot of space to produce hoes (in contrast to agriculture).

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In extremely simplified form, this is a classic example of how urban systems arise.

Several well understood things are happening here:

1.As can be seen in the diagrams, there is a reconfiguration of spatial patterns of inhabitation. Cities arise as central nodes in exchange networks. In addition to the exchanges between the hoe manufacturers (B, G, H) and the farmers (A, C, D, E, F, I), the farmers will very likely use the city as a site to exchange with other farmers (for example, if A, C, and E produce grain and D, F, and I produce vegetables).

2.Social Division of Labor is taking place (e.g. Durkheim’s arguments about the transition from ‘organic’ to ‘mechanical’ solidarity). Farmers and hoe-makers arise as two distinct occupational classes (where previously everyone was both a farmer and hoe-maker).

3.These exchange dynamics also result in accumulation of wealth (concentrated in urban sites) and with that accumulation, substantial disparities in the distribution of wealth within the society (the reasons for this are complex, and not represented in the diagram; but this seems to inevitably occur under the conditions outlined here; see for example Marx’s analysis of Capital).

The important point here is that all of this has to do primarily with Social (Exchange) Dynamics. It is driven by the entailments of the exchange relationships; not primarily what people think about those relationships. People do ‘think’ and make decisions (in a rational choice way), but the system is not dependent on what people believe about these exchanges (other than believing that the exchanges are worth doing).

Moreover, history shows that similar urban systems arise over and over again under very different cultural (belief, ideological) conditions.

All the system requires, is that the individuals involved believe that it is in their interest to engage in the exchange relationships. It does not matter at all WHY they believe it is in their interest (that can vary widely and even arbitrarily).

Agricultural & Surplus provide conditions for:

1. Settled Populations2. Specialization in non-

agricultural production

3. Increased interdependence

4. Increased trade and exchange

5. Hierarchy and State Building

Complex Social Networking

Mesopotamian Ziggurat: Representation of State Power

First Urban Revolution

• From 5,500 – 2,500 yrs ago• Urban Centers appear independently in:• Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus Valley (5,500-4,500 y.a.)• China (3,800 y.a.), Central & South America (2,500 y.a.)

Example 2:The Cultural Dynamics

of Countries(“Territorial Nation-States”)

Say we have an island, or continent, with people living on it.

A few of the people on the island are particularly prominent, wealthy, or otherwise powerful.

In order to avoid conflict amongst themselves, they get together and decide to specify which territory each of them will control.

You stay on your side, I’ll stay on mine,

ok?

Ok!

Sure

Together, they draw a map of the island with borders so that they all know where one territory ends and the other begins.

I thought YOU were

bringing that!

Oops!

Any one have paper and a pen?

Next, the people who drew the borders and the map have to let everyone else know about this.

So, they make copies of the map they’ve drawn and pass them around for everyone to see.

To make sure that everyone knows to which territory they belong, passports (identity cards, birth certificates) are issued to each person.

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In very simplified form, this is how the system of countries (territorial nation-states) came into existence and how it operates.

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BordersMaps,Place Names

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Passports,Identity Cards,Birth Certificates

Countries are produced through cultural processes. Borders, maps, place names, identity cards, etc. are all ways to symbolically represent

the existence of countries. They are images. Countries are ideas.

Countries exist because people imagine them to exist; because people are able to share and communicate these ideas.This is a cultural process andcountries are culturalconstructs.

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Countries (unlike urban systems) do not exist in the absence of such representations.

Social & Cultural Systems

The Comparison of Cities as Social Systems and Countries as Cultural Systems illustrates the

distinction between the two.But neither exists without the other.

We always live our lives in social systems (of relationship and exchange) and cultural systems

(of beliefs and ideas).