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Society - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (903 words) |
 | The social sciences use the term society to mean a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. |
 | Societies can also be organized according to their political structure: in order of increasing size and complexity, there are band societies, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies, with varying degrees of political power, depending on the what cultural geographical, historical environments that these societies have to contend with. |
 | Marx's concept of society as the sum total of social relations among members of a community contrasts with interpretations from the perspective of methodological individualism where society is simply the sum total of individuals in a territory. |
| social structure -- Encyclopædia Britannica (813 words) |
 | Social structure is often treated together with the concept of social change, which deals with the forces that change the social structure and the organization of society. |
 | If such mobility involves a change in position, especially in occupation, but no change in social class, it is called horizontal mobility. An example would be a person who moves from a managerial position in one company to a similar position in another. |
 | It is particularly concerned with patterns in human behavior as a description of social and cultural phenomena. |