Social distance: definition and types

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

In 1924, Robert E. Park defined social distance as an attempt to reduce to something like measurable terms the degree and level of understanding and intimacy that characterize personal and social relationships in general. It is a measure of the closeness or distance a person or group feels towards another person or group in society, or the level of trust one group has in another, as well as the degree of perceived similarity of beliefs.

The concept of social distance is often applied to the study of racial attitudes and race relations. It is conceptualized in the sociological literature in several different ways.

Affective distance

One widely held concept of social distancing focuses on affectivity. According to this approach, it is associated with affective distance, that is, with the idea of \u200b\u200bhow much sympathy members of one group feel for another.group. Emory Bogardus, creator of the social distance scale method, typically based his scale on this subjective-affective concept of distance. In his research, he focused his attention on people's sensory reactions to other people and to human groups in general.

Regulatory distance

The second approach considers social distance as a normative category. Normative distance refers to generally accepted and often consciously expressed norms about who should be considered an insider and who should be considered an outsider. In other words, such norms define the differences between "us" and "them". Consequently, the normative form of this phenomenon differs from the affective one, since it assumes that social distance is seen as not a subjective but an objective structural aspect of relationships. Examples of this concept can be found in some of the writings of sociologists such as Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim and to some extent Robert Park.

Interactive distance

The third conceptualization of social distance focuses on the frequency and intensity of interaction between two groups, arguing that the more members of two groups interact with each other, the closer they become socially. This concept is similar to approaches in sociological network theory, where the frequency of interaction between two parties is used as a measure of the "strength" and quality of the connections that arise between them.

Cultural and habitual distance

Fourth conceptualizationsocial distance focuses on the cultural and habitual orientation proposed by Bourdieu (1990). One can think of these concepts as "dimensions" of distance that do not necessarily intersect. Members of two groups may interact with each other quite often, but this does not always mean that they will feel “close” to each other or that they will normatively consider each other to be members of the same group. In other words, the interactive, normative, and affective dimensions of social distance may not be linearly related.

Other studies

Social distance is the basis of much modern psychological research. It has also been used in a different sense by anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher Edward T. Hall to describe the psychological distance an animal can keep itself from its group before becoming anxious. This phenomenon can be observed in children and infants, who can only walk or crawl as far away from their parents or caregivers as possible in terms of psychological comfort. The socio-psychological distance of children is rather small.

Hall also notes that the concept has been extended by technological advances such as the telephone, walkie-talkie and television. Hall's analysis of this concept preceded the development of the Internet, which greatly increased social distancing. The distance between people is expanding even beyond our planet, as we begin to activelyexplore space.

Cultural aspect

Some sociologists say that each person believes that his culture is superior to all others, while other cultures are "inferior" because of their differences from his own. The distance between two cultures may eventually manifest itself in the form of hatred. The consequence of this social and national distance and hatred is the prejudice that different cultural groups believe is true for their various social groups. For example, Indian Brahmins (Brahmins) believe that they have the highest and Shudras the lowest status in Hindu society, and that this is quite fair and natural. If a brahmin child touches a sudra child, he is forced to take a bath to get rid of the alleged contamination caused by contact with the untouchable.

Measurement methods

Some ways to measure the social distance of communication include techniques such as direct observation of people interacting, questionnaires, accelerated decision tasks, route planning exercises, or other social design techniques.

In questionnaires, respondents are usually asked which groups they will accept in certain respects. For example, to see if they would accept a member of each group as a neighbor, as a work colleague, or as a marriage partner. Social distancing questionnaires could theoretically measure what people actually arewould do if a member of another group aspired to be a friend or neighbor. However, the social distance scale is only an attempt to measure the degree of unwillingness to be equally associated with a group. What a person will actually do in a given situation also depends on the circumstances.

In accelerated decision problems, researchers have proposed a systematic relationship between social and physical distance. When people are asked to indicate the spatial location of a presented word or check for its presence, people respond faster when the word "we" is displayed in a spatially closer location, and when the word "others", in turn, is displayed in a more distant location. This suggests that social distancing and physical distancing are conceptually linked.

Periphery Theory

Social periphery is a term often used in conjunction with social distancing. It refers to people who are "distant" from social relationships. It is believed that the representatives of the social periphery are most of all in the capitals, especially in their centers.

The term "local periphery", in contrast, is used to describe places that are physically distant from the city center. These are often suburbs that are socially close to the heart of the city. In some cases, the local periphery intersects with the social periphery, as in the Parisian suburbs.

In 1991, Mulgan stated that the centers of two cities are often, for practical purposes, closer to each other than to their own periphery. This link tosocial distancing in large organizations is especially relevant for metropolitan areas.

Concept source - essay "Stranger"

"The Stranger" is an essay on the sociology of Georg Simmel, originally written as an excursus to a chapter on the sociology of space. In the essay, Simmel introduced the concept of "stranger" as a unique sociological category. He distinguishes the stranger from both the "outsider" who is not specifically related to the group, and the "wanderer" who comes in today and leaves tomorrow. The stranger, he said, comes today and stays tomorrow.

The stranger is a member of the group in which he lives and participates, and yet remains distant from other, "native" members of the group. Compared to other forms of social distance, differences (such as class, gender, and even ethnicity) and distance of a stranger are related to their "origin". The stranger is perceived as an outsider to the group, although he is in constant relationship with other members of the group, his "distance" is more emphasized than his "proximity". As one later commentator on the concept put it, the stranger is perceived as being in a group.

The essence of the concept

In the essay, Simmel briefly touches on the consequences of such a unique position for the stranger, as well as the potential consequences of the stranger's presence for other members of the group. In particular, Simmel suggests that, because of their special position in the group, strangers often perform specific tasks that other members of the groupeither unable or unwilling to comply. For example, in pre-modern societies, most strangers were involved in trading activities. In addition, due to their remoteness and detachment from local factions, they can be independent arbitrators or judges.

The concept of the stranger found relatively wide application in subsequent sociological literature. It is actively used by many sociologists, from Robert Park to Zygmunt Bauman. However, as with most commonly used sociological concepts, there has been some controversy regarding their application and interpretation.

Georg Simmel is the creator of the concepts of the stranger and social distance

Simmel was one of the first German sociologists: his neo-Kantian approach laid the foundations of sociological anti-positivism. By asking the question, "What is a society?" in direct reference to Kant's question "What is nature?", he created an innovative approach to the analysis of social individuality and fragmentation. For Simmel, culture was called the cultivation of individuals through the medium of external forms that were objectified in the course of history. Simmel discussed social and cultural phenomena in terms of "forms" and "contents" with temporal relationships. The form becomes the content and depends on the context. In this sense, he was the forerunner of the structural style of thinking in the social sciences. Working in the metropolis, Simmel became the founder of urban sociology, symbolic interactionism, and the analysis of social connections.

Beingfriend of Max Weber, Simmel wrote on the topic of personal character in a manner reminiscent of the sociological "ideal type". However, he rejected academic standards, philosophically covering topics such as emotions and romantic love.