Institution - Examples of Institutions

Examples of Institutions

• Marriage and the family - sociology of the family
• Religion and religious institutions - see sociology of religion; civil religion
• Educational institutions - schools (preschool, primary/elementary, secondary, and post-secondary/higher - see Sociology of education)
• Research community - Academia and universities; research institutes - see sociology of science
• Medicine - hospitals and other health care institutions - see sociology of health and illness, medical sociology
  • Psychiatric hospitals (history)
• Law and legal system - courts; judges; the legal profession (bar) - see jurisprudence, philosophy of law, sociology of law
  • Criminal justice or penal systems - prisons - see sociology of punishment
• Military or paramilitary forces - see military sociology
• Police forces
• Mass media - including the news media (television, newspapers) and the popular media - see media studies
• Industry - businesses, including corporations - see financial institution, factory, capitalism, division of labour, social class, industrial sociology
• Civil society or NGOs - Charitable organizations; advocacy groups; political parties; think tanks; virtual communities

In an extended context:

• Art and culture (See also: Culture industry, Critical theory, Cultural studies, Cultural sociology)
• Language (See also: Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Sociology of language)
• The nation-state - Social and political scientists often speak of the state as embodying all institutions such as schools, prisons, and so on. However, these institutions may be considered private or autonomous, whilst organised religion and family life certainly pre-date the advent of the nation state. In the Neo-Marxist thought of Antonio Gramsci, for instance, a distinction may be felt between the institutions of political society (the police, the army, legal system, etc.) which dominates directly and coercively, and civil society (the family, the education system, etc.)