The social context is the set of circumstances that frame a situation that affects one or more individuals. The same event can occur in one environment or another and its analysis and evaluation will change depending on what it is. You can grow up in a specific family, live in a certain city, have relationships with certain friends and move in a circle of relationships, which is what is known as the social context with which an individual interacts immediately.
What is social context
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The term comes from the Latin contextus, which means both physical and symbolic environment or space whose definition refers to the understanding of a situation or episode. And social, which refers to society and encompasses the set of subjects who have a common culture and who also interact with each other to be part of a community.
The person and their social context are created according to the circumstances that surround them and that, in addition, allow deciphering the message they intend to give. These situations can occur in different ways, so they can be discussed in an abstract or concrete way.
Both definitions make it possible for people to understand the circumstances that human beings live according to their social, economic, political, social, historical and cultural level, since all this shows the reality of individuals.
Human beings have different social characteristics and their development will always rotate according to the links that you establish in their environment (either in a social, economic and cultural context), with this it is meant that individuals build their own social framework and, in turn, this interferes with the reality they live.
Importance of social context
While it is true that there is no influence as cause and effect, it is true that no human being can be oblivious to the circumstances they have had to live because all experiences influence us from the cradle. In other words, it is not the same to grow up in a broken family as in a happy home in which parents protect their children.
The social framework is decisive for any type of study of a phenomenon or reality. As the Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset said, I am myself and my circumstances, that is, we can only understand an individual within the social environment in which they live.
When we try to approach a reality, we can do it in a decontextualized way, that is, without considering the environment that involves a series of events. This type of analysis is considered invalid in most cases, especially if it involves understanding human problems.
Decontextualization is feasible in some cases: a statistical work or the study of certain scientific topics. But even in those cases, there is always a social framework, a reason why what is apparently neutral is done.
The influence of the social environment is also noticeable in adolescence, a stage of life in which the adolescent is very vulnerable to the companies he has. In this way, given bad influences, it can be conditioned by peer pressure.
One of the main concerns of any parent is knowing who their child is related to. We can say that society is a fundamental element for the understanding of man. Society generates a type of vision, behavior, attitude in each person that must be specifically studied.
This leads us to consider that each phenomenon of importance has a correlate of this nature. To give an example that perhaps sheds light on the subject, the French Revolution involved the abolition of a political regime, but this abolition was actually already taking place on a surreptitious plane, within society. The ideas, the philosophies, the development of the economy, the desire for freedom and equality on the part of man, inevitably led to the historical process described.
Social historical context
It is a set of situations that produce facts based on stories in a given place or time, which have events that are totally relevant for the future.
Historical frames make references to situations that include historical events that marked the before and after of society, events that changed the way people think, their way of life, the way they expressed themselves (this includes the art, in fact, there is the social context architecture) etc. All this is usually found on the web as a pdf social context, but here the most relevant aspects of social history according to the times will be explained.
Social context of the Renaissance
The Renaissance is remembered as the era of transformations that defined history, in fact, it is remembered for cultural and religious impact, as well as philosophical, political, and scientific. Science managed to evolve and produced shocking geographical discoveries, in addition, new territories were discovered, among them, America, which was endowed with nature.
Philosophically, there was a social change that encompassed skepticism, Platonism, and Epicureanism, thus employing reason as a source for basic knowledge. Finally, the economic change with the appearance of the famous current figure of capitalism should be mentioned.
Social context of romanticism
This aspect encompasses too many structural changes in the society of that time, in fact, everything changed with the confrontations of different ideologies, among them, the absolutist, which even today refuses to disappear. There is also the artistic illustration that fully supported the revolutionary ideas in France.
Baroque social context
Here reference is made to baroque art, which was born between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with an origin in Rome. This influence managed to expand greatly in nations whose predominant religion was Catholic, a classic example is Spain, but Flanders and Naples also apply, nations that were under the rule of the Spanish empire.
Social context of modernism
It was born between the years 1885 and 1914, time in which the well-known universal crisis of the spirit and the letters originated, which totally changed the way of thinking of people, leaving a path of changing features, among them, the lack of trust in the spiritual, social and economic process, thus precarious living conditions prevail. A total distrust of information regarding the origin of the world also began, leaving reason aside and living according to instinct. In the religious sphere, people gradually became secular citizens.
Social context of neoclassicism
It is a literary movement or thought that had its beginnings in the French nation during the second half of the seventeenth century and had enough concern to reorder ancient norms, for example, Roman and Greek culture based on Renaissance history.
Examples of social context
In this aspect, different examples can be placed according to various environments, starting with a social context of a school. One can speak of two children from a European nation, one is from the lower middle class and the other is from the upper class.
At first glance, you can see that the upper-class child has better opportunities around study, goes to a private school and has an excellent education, but the lower-middle-class child does not have the same resources, does not live in a good locality and access to education is more difficult for him.
The living conditions of this last child are very different from those of the upper class, so the social context of a school does not have the same meaning for him, there is no equality of conditions, there are different situations that give a turn to both lives. The same can happen in a family social context.
A family group that does not have enough resources to live, usually has more problems feeding, having a home or educating their children, it is a very different type of life from a rich family that has all the comforts to have an excellent quality of life.
The family social context of both cases is different, some have more possibilities and opportunities for life, others do not. And this can be applied in different areas, being political, economic, social… Social frameworks are always going to be different and that is going to generate very different patterns in society.
The same can happen in a social environment at the level of friendship, there is always a friend with better life opportunities than the other, either at work, educational level, with social contacts, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions about Social Context
What are social contexts?
Situations that affect individuals according to different areas.
How does the social context influence education?
In communication and the tools used to promote learning.What is a social historical context?
They are circumstances lived in the past and that define the present.How does the social context influence the development of a child?
It influences the communication and learning of the child, that is why mechanisms and tools are provided to improve orientation.
