Have you ever asked yourself what the purpose of an economy, government, education, and religion is? Or, why does family even matter? Try to think of education, religion, and family-like parts of a bicycle. Each piece serves a different purpose to the overall operation of the bike. In sociology, social institutions, such as education, economy, government, religion, and family, are the ‘bike parts’ and the overall society is the ‘bicycle.’
Social institutions are established sets of norms and subsystems that support each society’s survival. Each sector carries out certain tasks and has different responsibilities that contribute to the overall functioning and stability of a society. This helps to decrease chaos and increase structure. While societies may differ in how they establish these responsibilities, they all have economic, governmental, family, educational, and religious institutions.
In this discussion, you are a social scientist, and your duty is to identify which social institutions would be the most important to society and why. To put it another way, you must convince two of your peers that your choice is the best choice? The five social institutions from which you must pick ONE, and they are education, family, religion, economy, and government.