SOCIAL PRACTICES: TYPES AND PRACTICES OF LANGUAGE - GEOGRAFÍA - 2025

Social practices are habits and ways of doing things that are established in a society and are practiced in the same way by all its inhabitants. These practices differ from culture to culture and therefore behaving in the same way in two different societies can lead to misunderstandings.

Because they are only implicit agreements about how to do things, no social practice is in itself right or wrong. The adequacy of social practices will have to do with the place and time in which they are carried out; therefore it makes no sense to think that the practices of another society are wrong.

Social practices are built over the years and are modified as time passes. Therefore, what is common in today's society has nothing to do with the way it was correct to behave decades ago. This means that social practices are not immutable either, but are always subject to change.

Types of social practices

Social practices emerge as a way in which humans relate to each other and to our environment. By needing to structure and set standards for the way we behave, the people who make up a society develop their habits and guidelines on what is correct and what is not.

Therefore, these social practices exist in different areas and allow us to know more about what is appropriate in each situation. Some of the most common types of social practices are the following:

- Linguistics.

- Religious.

- Cultural.

- Of identity.

- Of customs and traditions.

Linguistics

Spoken language is one of the characteristics that most differentiate us from the rest of the animals on the planet. According to experts, its appearance was one of the main causes of our development as a species; This is because the use of the tongue made our brain increase in capacity.

Therefore, linguistic social practices are a fundamental part of every culture. They include elements such as the language spoken, expressions and phrases, or the importance given to certain words.

Religious

Religion is another of the central elements of most cultures. Based on the beliefs of their faith, people living in a society organize their lives based on what is right and what is not.

Therefore, the influence of religions can be seen in almost all aspects of people's daily lives.

Although today religion no longer has as much weight as in decades and centuries past, the beliefs about how to act instilled by it remain fundamental to understanding cultural differences.

Thus, what is correct in a country of Buddhist origin will have nothing to do with what is socially acceptable in another Catholic.

Cultural

Cultural social practices have to do with traditions, art forms and expressions of cohesion within the people of the same society.

In general, culture is considered to include many facets of life: values ​​and norms, dress code, day-to-day customs, among other factors.

Although due to globalization these cultural factors are less and less important, today their preservation is still essential for most societies.

Of identity

Social identity practices are all those that make people belonging to a culture feel part of the same group.

For example, a social practice of identity could be the American custom of singing the national anthem at all important events.

Of customs and traditions

Finally, the social practices of customs and traditions have to do with the way in which certain events of daily life were carried out in the past.

These can range from how the deceased is buried to how a young couple must marry.

Social practices of language

Among all the types of social practices that exist, some of those that most influence a given society are those that have to do with its linguistic expression.

Due to the way in which language modifies the brain and the individual experience of people, the social practices of language take on great importance when it comes to understanding the customs and ways of seeing the world typical of a given society.

Several studies have even shown that bilingual people change their personality depending on the language they are speaking. So what are the social practices of language?

These are ways of interacting that include both spoken and written language, in addition to all those activities that surround the communication process through it. Depending on the context in which we find ourselves and what we want to convey, these practices will be different.

Language diversity

The breadth of this definition allows us to consider aspects as diverse as mime, writing, symbols and signs, and spoken language as social practices of language. This is because the objective of all these systems is to allow us to transmit and receive information.

On the other hand, the social practices of language can also be classified into three large groups depending on the medium used to transmit the information:

- Oral language mainly uses auditory means, that is, the spoken word or a recording of it.

- Written language is based on printed messages. It has the advantage that it lasts over time, which allows us to collect information and knowledge that we could not otherwise access.

- Finally, the kinesic language has to do with the way in which we accompany the words with gestures and movements, as well as with the inflections of our voice. According to experts, more than 70% of communication occurs at this level.

References

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4. "Social practices of language" in: Social practices of language. Retrieved on: March 19, 2018 from Social Language Practices: irzsa.wordpress.com.
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