Social structure is the interconnected relationships of the different groups of people and institutions. It guides our interactions with others through roles and statutes. It can be classified in the following elements: roles, status, social networks, groups, and organizations. Examples of social structure are family as the basic unit of society, religion and belief system and government. The family is considered as a major social institution and a focus of much of a person’s social activity. A nuclear family comprises father, mother and the children, while extended family comprises father, mother, children, and other relatives. Members of the nuclear family have their respective roles in relation with each other. For instance, Confucian societies highlight the importance of a child’s obedience (or filial piety) to his parents. Universally, parents are expected to provide for their children. To maintain order at home and ensure children’s welfare, parents may devise rules. Children, on the other hand, may try to negotiate these rules if they consider them too harsh for themselves.

Philippine citizens belong to three socio-economic classes: (1) low-income, (2) middle-income, and (3) high-income tiers. These socioeconomic classes are people with similar capacities for spending, and levels of education and occupation. Spending capacity is primarily defined by income–higher spending capacity translates to greater access to education, power, and influence. Spending capacity also dictates individual and family activities–those who belong to the low-income class need to work longer to earn more, which deprives them of quality time for self-improvement or leisure with the family.

Religion is a social institution because it includes practices and beliefs that shape society. It acts as reinforcing social stability and unity by giving its common practices and belief system. Most often, religion fosters moral laws that preserve social order and human lives. For instance, most religions consider life valuable which is translated into considering murder sinful–and in the eyes of secular law, a crime. By extension, depriving a person of having a secure and peaceful life–such as theft or gossiping–is also considered sinful. The three main categories of religions are animism, polytheism and monotheism.

A government is an institution through which leaders exercise to make and enforce laws that maintain social or public order and preserve human lives. Education, on the other hand, is a social institution where community members are taught how to read, count and write, interact with fellow community members, and learn needed hard and soft skills. This institution then functions in society as the facilitator of integrating new community members, socialization, innovating sociocultural practices, and social placement.

Political structures refer to the establishment and its relationship with the rest of the members of the community, and vice versa. There  are various kinds of political groups namely: bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. Bands are a small group of self-sufficient hunters. Tribes are similar to bands in terms of population, but possess social, legal, political, moral and religious beliefs. chiefdom is a type of political organization that is composed of different tribes or villages which are in alliance with one another under one political leader or the chief. and the state is a large community of people occupying a definite territory, having a government of their own, wherein a great number of inhabitants render obedience and enjoy freedom from external control.

The Philippines has a republican and a presidential form of government. Its powers are shared by three equal branches that have their distinct functions of crafting policies (legislative), enforcing these policies (executive), and interpreting them (judicial).

Each community engage in essential economic activities for its survival that revolve on directing the flow of goods and services–(1) production, (2) distribution, (3) resource management, and (4) consumption. The Philippines adopts a mixed economic system that strives to balance private freedom with centralised economic planning and regulation.

Community Dimensions

This  diagram shows the community dimensions, definitions and significant attributes. community dimensions are political, economic, geographical, social and cultural. 

From these structures and dimensions, an individual that belongs to a society is both an active and passive agent. As active agents, individuals shape politics and the economy through elections, shaping and sharing public opinion on certain policies, spending and consumption of goods, and being a member of the workforce. As passive agents, individuals are affected, conform, or adapt to existing moral laws, beliefs, social roles, class, and climate. 

Community dynamics and processes include community power, community leadership, community relationship and social change. Community power structure refers to the distribution of power at the local community level. According to Max Weber, the three of legitimate authority are traditional, rational-legal and charismatic. Traditional authority is a type of authority that relies on cultural practices and norms for its legitimacy. Examples of traditional authority include patriarchy, matriarchy, religion, monarchies and caste systems. On the other hand, rational-legal authority is the basis of modern democracies. Examples of this type of authority are policies that are written in a formal document, rules that are in the constitution and officials elected by voters. Lastly, charismatic authority is power legitimized on the basis of a leader’s exceptional personal qualities. Examples of charismatic authority figures include Napoleon Bonaparte, Fidel Castro, Charles de Gaulle and Nelson Mandela.

Sullivan (2007, as cited in Plaza and Windon, 2021) said that community leadership is different from traditional understanding of leadership because community leaders are representatives who ask, persuade and influence followers. Benit-Gbaffou and Katsura (2016) stated that community leaders are usually informal, local, and non elected. Examples of trusted community leaders include school officials, local business leaders, church leaders and community activists.

Schulz (2013) argued that the term “relationship” is important to understand when building community relationships. A relationship begins when some type of connection is made. Community relationships may be long term or short term and are often formed because of some type of commonality built with the community.

Social change refers to the transformation of and in the community in terms of its institutions, structures, dynamics, and relations as a response to a pressing challenge that threatens the welfare of the community’s members. Social change in the community is essentially transformative, cultural, and organized. This is caused by advancements in science and technology, shifts in economic, political, and ecological processes, and the effectiveness of social movements.