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Integration: Meaning, Problems and Modes of Integration!
Meaning of Integration:
Society is a constellation of groups, organisations, institutional agencies, collectivities and ecological entities so interrelated that it operates as an interconnected system. In society persons are bound together and dependent upon each other in systems of interrelationships that combine to constitute a total functional structure.
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But despite the fact that the structural units of society are inter-connected and inter-dependent so that they constitute a continuing entity, we find in every society, what Merton called, “a strain towards anomie.” This refers to a condition where the continuity of the society has broken down to some degree. The degree of anomie may range from slight contradiction and confusion to serious deterioration and disintegration.
But along with the “strain towards anomie”, we also find in every society, “strain towards consistency”. The “strain towards consistency” is called the integrating process. Integration is, therefore, the harmonizing or unifying process whereby the various structural components of society are properly organised.
Integration does not involve similarity of various structural parts. Thus, the family system may not be similar in the different communities or all the people may not believe in the same religion or carry on the same occupation. What is essential for integration is that certain values must be accepted as common and the different institutional agencies should preserve and promote these values.
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When basic changes occur in a society as when a new technology is introduced into the economy, and the old values become inadequate and the structures serving these values; cease to function effectively, then new altered values may be developed and new social forms created or old ones readjusted to serve the altered values. This process serves to maintain integration.
The aim of integration is to maintain a harmonious and active relationship between the various structural components of society. It not only keeps the society going but also imparts a meaning and purpose to the lives of the individuals so that they feel themselves to be a part of a comprehensible and harmonious social life.
As we know the structural forms come into existence to perform functions in relation to social values. Thus family provides sanctioned sex relations, care of the offspring, protection, education and recreation etc.
Religion or church develops a sense of relationship with the Divine and promotes character building. But change is the law of nature and consequently there comes a change in the functions of the structural forms.
Thus, family has lost most of its traditional functions which have been taken over by other agencies. The functions of education once performed by church agencies have passed on to the public supported or privately owned schools and colleges. With the change in the functions of different structural parts integration becomes necessary to keep the society going. Integration is thus the consequence of differentiation and. specialization.
Had there been no differentiation and specialization of functions in the society, there would have been no need of integration. The more the differentiation and specialization of functions, the more becomes the need for integration.
The modern society with its elaborate division of labour and complex institutional pattern is much faced with the difficulty of integration. Integration organises and harmonizes the institutions, organisations and other structural forms so that they operate together to serve the purposes of society and to develop orderly social entity.
Problems in Integration:
Integration is a difficult process. It is faced with various difficulties. Firstly, the complexity of society makes it difficult to co-ordinate all the structural parts and to socialise all the humans. As we know society is a complex of different structural forms and elaborates division of labour.
To bring about a harmony and unity among the complex institutional patterns is a formidable task. The problem of integration in a simple and small society is not so complicated as in a complex and large society as ours. So the first difficulty is presented by the complex and large size of modern society.
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The second difficulty is presented by the cultural heterogeneity. The people in a society belong to many ethnic and racial origins and are marked by class, religious and occupational differentiation. The presence of numerous sub-cultures within a society adds to the problem of integration.
This is particularly true of Indian society. Ours is a multi caste and multilingual society. The sentiments of Casteism and Linguism have made deep inroads into our social structure. Even the development of Hindi as a link language is being opposed by the South.
The third difficulty is presented by the rapidity of social change. New elements are being introduced at an unprecedented rate. Numerous cultural lags have produced stresses and strains in the inter-related parts of the web. The individual today finds himself in a state of bewildered vacuity.
He has slipped out of the warm embrace of a culture into the cold air of fragmentary existence. He is marginal man. The rapidity and magnitude of the present day change tax the human imagination. We do not know whether or not we can make the necessary readjustments and make them rapidly enough.
The last difficulty is presented by the tendency of persistence found in a structural form. Sometimes, the structures of a social system become so rigid that they will not adapt to change. Vested interests develop around these structures which block change. Thus the capitalists oppose change in the economic structure, the priestly class opposes change in the caste system and the authors oppose change in the educational system.
Modes of Integration:
Societies are integrated in different ways. In totalitarian societies the government controls social life so completely that each structural form is completely co-ordinated with the aims these societies support. Thus, in communistic societies the schools, the churches, economic agencies, organizations and all manifestations of collective behaviour are subsumed under the policies and controls of the government.
There is only one political party, and it controls all other organizations including families. It controls all communication channels. The activities of each agency are directed through its official hierarchy.
No challenge to its power or the system of values that defines its aims is tolerated. It achieves its integration by threat or use of force, such a mode of integration has been called “closely woven” type of integration.
On the other hand, there are “loosely woven” societies. In such societies, there is a variation not only in individual behaviour but also in national behaviour. It does not, however, mean that the society is not integrated or poorly integrated.
It only implies that there are no rigid social norms and that people have a wide range of alternative modes of behaviour open to them. The group relationships are not well-defined and the moral norms are laxly carried out. Ours is a loosely woven society.
In order to remove the strain towards anomie and to keep the society on-going integration is persistently sought. Generally speaking, people carry their activities in a normative fashion. There is general support for the folkways, mores and institutional patterns. However, beyond the daily reinforcement of integration by normative behaviour, deliberate efforts are also made for bringing about social integration.
Thus ameliorative programmes are carried out to decrease delinquency, to educate voters, to provide help to the underprivileged and the overburdened and to improve education, housing, medical care, recreation and local administration. These programmes seek to make improvements in the existing structural forms without fundamentally affecting the basic pattern of social structure.
To some integration means not only social reform but social reconstruction. They form radical groups who want to abolish the existing social system and organise it in a completely new way. They do not believe in half-way measures but go to the root of the matter and want a fundamentally changed organisation of society.
Thus instead of cleansing capitalism of its evils, they will abolish the system itself. According to them, piecemeal changes do not provide a solid foundation for integration. To them reintegration means a “new order”.
In between the mildly ameliorative and radical programmes come the social movements such as the abolition of bonded labour, prohibition, ‘Lib’ movement, the labour movement and the non- formal education movement.
All the programmes to bring about integration or re-integration involve social planning. Social planning employs research and involves decision and action. In our country social planning is still in its infancy. Planning in this country is more visible in the economic field than in the social field.
At the hand of Planning Commission, social planning gets step-motherly treatment. Planning in a democracy is a much more difficult matter than in a totalitarian society. However, it must be admitted that social planning is the most effective method of achieving reintegration in a complex and rapidly changing society.