Abstract: There are analyzed the inter-human relations from two cities of Romania, according to a poll made among 1000 dwellers, which revealed the significations born by the relations from a family, between colleagues, relatives, friends or neighbours. The field research was preceded by conceptual explanations and the displaying of some sociological theories.
Key words: normal social relations, pathological social relations, theoretical-sociological patterns, human capital
1. Theoretical-methodological specifications
The fact that the society represents a totality of relations between humans constitutes an axiomatic statement in the sociological thinking. The main types of inter-human relations are the interpersonal relations, the inter-groups relations and the relations between the institutions specific to a national society. The essence of the human society is determined by the nature of the inter-human relations that can be either good, functional (if they rely on communication, cooperation, solidarity) or bad, dysfunctional (if they are of opposition, disagreement or conflict).
The present approach is supported by the premise that the general development of a territorial community is dependent, in a great extent, on the nature of the relations between its members. In this respect, we have formulated the next hypothesis: the more the solidarity relations between the dwellers of the same city are increasingly active and stronger, the more the chances for progress of that collectivity are higher.
The pursued objective was that to diagnose the actual condition in which the relations between humans functions in two urban communities from Romania, with the purpose of correcting or solving the eventual dysfunctional or pathological manifestations.
The concrete data were gathered through a poll, based on a questionnaire (filled in by the students in sociology from The University from Craiova), among the over 18 years old population, who lives in two cities from Romania: Craiova (almost 300.000 people, one of the large cities) and Drobeta Turnu-Severin (approximately 100.000 dwellers, a middle-sized city). The sample included 1000 subjects from the both cities, from all the socio-professional categories and was established randomly, being the probable and stratified type.
- The normality and the pathology of the inter-human relations
Due to the fact that the history of the human becoming did not register societies inhabited by saints, this means that the social relations have known both normal and altered forms of manifestation. In the classic and contemporary sociology there are several criteria and theories that explain the distinction between normality and morbidity along the social relations. We are going to present a classical theory, that of Emile Durkheim and a contemporary one, that of J. H. Fichter.
a) The conception of the French sociologist Emile Durkheim. He considered the public conscience the fundamental factor that ensures the unity, the cohesion in a society and he defined the normality of a social fact through the attribute of its generality. It results that abnormal are those phenomena with restricted character and those that break the moral and juridical norms accepted by society (such are the family, professional or working duties etc.)
b) The conception of the American sociologist J.H. Fichter. The thinker “identified the normal way of life in a society with the process of cooperation between humans, with the solidarity between people and social groups. He considered the processes of opposition and conflict as abnormal, because they affect the maintaining and the continuity of groups and societies” [1].
In sociology we can meet two important patterns of researching the social relations that are specific to the global societies: the equilibrium pattern and the conflict pattern. The last one originates in the socio-political Marxist conception, according to which the permanent character of the fight between the main social classes, with fundamental opposed interests, from the slave-owning, feudal and capitalist systems. From here, it emerges the later sociological formulation of the postulate that “the tensions and the divergences, especially of interest, the fight for power and economic advantages have permanent character and are stronger than the tendencies of harmony and equilibrium of the society” [2]. The equilibrium pattern belongs to the functionalist sociology. A celebre promoter of this was the American sociologist Talcott Parsons, who accentuated the harmony and the equilibrium of the internal relation, on their unperturbed functioning in the analysis of the social system, in order not to affect the social order and, implicitly, perturb the community on the whole.
3. The diagnosis of the inter-human relations
The analysis of the relations between humans, in the two mentioned cities, was made through the measuring of their opinion, expressed through the answers to the questions of the questionnaire.
a) The general evaluation evidences that approximately two third of the questioned individuals (1000 subjects) considered that the relations between people in their city are “of indifference, maliciousness, each of them fighting for their own interests” and 21% on the dweller from Craiova and 38% of those from Turnu-Severin appreciated them as being “of collaboration, support, based on respect”. In the opinion of 78% of the inhabitants from Craiova and 86% of Turnu-Severin, the nowadays people are “meaner, more selfish, do not offer help in need”; only 11% of the individuals from Drobeta Turnu-Severin and 16% of those from Craiova expressed positive opinions. Among “the good, generous and solidary” people were mentioned, in Craiova, those who belong to the next socio-professional categories: of doctors (sustained by 36.1% of the total number of the interviewed people), priests (18.1%), teachers (11.1%), workers (9.7%) and peasants (9.7%). The same five categories of good people were also indicated by the dwellers from Drobeta Turnu-Severin, but in another hierarchic order. We must keep in mind that almost three quarters of the questioned subjects are preoccupied by the faith of other people (other 20-25% are concerned only by their own person and family) and confessed their availability to offer help to someone in need.
b) The analytical evaluation of the inter-human relations aimed the concrete relations in which people are usually engaged: the family and kindred relationships; the collegial and working relations; the neighbourhood and friendship relations. For 63% of the questioned ones, the relationships with the husband/wife are “good and very good”, for 7% from Drobeta Turnu-Severin and 12% from Craiova are “satisfactory” and “tight, of conflict”, uncommunicative, are indicated by under 3% of the citizens. Furthermore, over 70% of the parents evaluated as being “good and very good” or “satisfactory” the relations with their children (only 1.5% of the inhabitants from Craiova and 0.8% of those from Drobeta Turnu-Severin attributed to them dysfunctional meanings). At their jobs, the collegial relations are appreciated in a positive way of over 70% from the interviewed ones; over 90% of them are in good, very good and satisfactory relations with their relatives from their extended family and, in the same percentage, with their neighbours and friends. All these percents mentioned above confirm the hypothesis of our study, demonstrating the existence of a preponderantly unitary human capital.
4. Conclusions and proposals
a) The broad appreciation of the human relations from the same city has generally pathological meanings, because the general psychological climate is perceived through some negative moral features, being in disagreement with the meaning of the concrete social relations. Moreover, the Romanian society is presently constituting a capitalist social environment that, through its essence, cultivates the individualism and the competitive relations;
b) The relations in which people are frequently trained and depend on meeting their direct material and affective needs, on keeping their social identity (family, job, group of friends and neighbourhood etc.) are, on the other side, evaluated in positive shades and attest that they function as a capital of community cohesion, maintaining the cooperation and the solidarity of the dwellers. As long as the people are connected through marriage, kinship, collegiality, neighbourhood and these appear as normal, functional for most of the people, it means that there is a solid support for the development of the urban community structures that the public institutions can render valuable for elaborating some social policies;
c) The improvement of the process of education for young people and all the other social groups, through the systematic promotion of the spirit of understanding between people and the permanent mediation of the conflict relations, though awarding chance equality to all the individuals, though the cultivation of an affective-moral fund and of the sensibility, the responsibility towards the destinies of the entire community, though the interiorization of the values that ensure the peaceful living together. Education must be connected with a prosperous economic environment, capable to attenuate the unemployment and poverty phenomena (that represent the source of some intergroup conflicts and community disequilibrium).
Material publicat în International Journal of Scientific Research, Volume: 2 | Issue: 8 | August 2013 • ISSN No 2277 – 8179