social actors

The concept of actor, whose etymological root is found in the Latin language, refers to who plays a character or assumes a certain role. Social, for its part, is that linked to society (a community of people who live in a territory and share a culture).

The notion of social actor is used to name the subject, the group of individuals or the entity that assumes the representation of certain interests and that works in order to achieve certain goals. To achieve the goal, the different social actors must interact with each other.

The social actors, in this framework, are active subjects that affect various economic, cultural or political processes of the community in which they intervene. Their actions have meaning and carry values.

Specifically, we can determine that political authorities, religious leaders, official representatives of different organizations can be considered social actors… Of course, employers, workers' representatives, who they are in charge of non-governmental organizations ...

It is often said that a social actor assumes a social role: a certain pattern of behavior that the community imposes on him in a certain context. Take the case of teachers. They are social actors whose function is to educate. Beyond the individual identity of each teacher, teachers, as social actors, represent the role that society assigns them (they must spread positive values, have exemplary behaviors, protect children, etc.).

Mothers can also be seen as social agents. Specifically, they are attributed that they have to be, in relation to their children and society in general, as follows:
-They must instill in them values ​​such as love.
-They have to be women who are willing to go out of their way for their little ones and who do not hesitate to take care of them, feed them, educate them, protect them ...

In the field of history, it is always established that social actors have played, play and will play an essential role in its development and course. And it is that they can cause a revolt to start a strike, initiate a change in society, claim certain aspects ...

It is important to establish, in addition to all the above, that it is necessary that in order to determine the existence or not of social actors, a series of aspects must be supported. Specifically, to indicate if they are, you have to look at the following criteria:
-The function they perform.
-The representativeness they have.
-Its field of intervention.
-The power they hold.
-The objectives they seek to achieve.
-The results that they allow to obtain.
-The resources available to them.
-The actions they are responsible for carrying out.

Sometimes social actors are more abstract entities or concepts. It can be said, in this sense, that the engineering it is constituted as a social actor in the field of environmental protection. Those professionals and Business that act in the field of engineering can influence, for or against, ecological care as they develop their activities.