In sociology, a social system is the patterned network of relationships constituting a coherent whole that exist between individuals, groups, and institutions. It is the formal structure of role and status that can form in a small, stable group. An individual may belong to multiple social systems at once; examples of social systems include nuclear family units, communities, cities, nations, college campuses, religions, corporations, and industries. The organization and definition of groups within a social system depend on various shared properties such as location, socioeconomic status, race, religion, societal function, or other distinguishable features.
World-systems theory
World-systems theory is a multidisciplinary approach to world history and social change which emphasizes the world-system as the primary unit of social analysis. World-systems theorists argue that their theory explains the rise and fall of states, income inequality, social unrest, and imperialism.
After Eurosky: W Social connects social network for Europe to Bluesky technology
Bluesky's AT protocol forms the basis for an increasing number of social services. Now W Social aims to establish a European network for verified users.
The Technological Construction of Social Power
This essay presents a theory of the role of technology in the distribution and exercise of social power. The paper studies how technical artefacts and systems are used to construct, maintain or st...
SocialWeb.Network - Your Gateway to Decentralized Social
Comprehensive resources for decentralized social web protocols including ActivityPub, AT Protocol, Nostr, and more.
We need to talk about the social graph - Philip Sheldrake
Concepts are the fundamental building blocks of thinking, of designing. While there are plenty of things in the mix when it comes to contemplating system design, if the primary concepts remain unchallenged and unchanged from what came before, then the outcome will likely look very familiar.
PubLib.social
Imagine a space where your love for libraries and community thrives. PubLib.social is that space: a decentralized network where every member feels a special connection to public libraries. Built on the AT Protocol, your circle stays intact, no matter what changes.
The emergence of consensus: a primer
The origin of population-scale coordination has puzzled philosophers and scientists for centuries. Recently, game theory, evolutionary approaches and complex systems science have provided quantitative insights on the mechanisms of social consensus. However, the literature is vast and widely scattered across fields, making it hard for the single researcher to navigate it. This short review aims to provide a compact overview of the main dimensions over which the debate has unfolded and to discuss some representative examples. It focuses on those situations in which consensus emerges ‘spontaneously’ in the absence of centralized institutions and covers topics that include the macroscopic consequences of the different microscopic rules of behavioural contagion, the role of social networks and the mechanisms that prevent the formation of a consensus or alter it after it has emerged. Special attention is devoted to the recent wave of experiments on the emergence of consensus in social systems.
Eusociality
Eusociality is the highest level of organization of sociality. It is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care, overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive groups. The division of labor creates specialized behavioral groups within an animal society, sometimes called castes. Eusociality is distinguished from all other social systems because individuals of at least one caste usually lose the ability to perform behaviors characteristic of individuals in another caste. Eusocial colonies can be viewed as superorganisms.
Self-organizing systems: what, how, and why?
I present a personal account of self-organizing systems, framing relevant questions to better understand self-organization, information, complexity, and emergence. With this aim, I start with a notion and examples of self-organizing systems (what?), continue with their properties and related concepts (how?), and close with applications (why?) in physics, chemistry, biology, collective behavior, ecology, communication networks, robotics, artificial intelligence, linguistics, social science, urbanism, philosophy, and engineering.
W Social: Kurznachrichtendienst für per Ausweis verifizierte User vor Öffnung
Blueskys AT-Protokoll bietet die Basis für immer mehr soziale Dienste. Nun schickt sich W Social an, ein europäisches Netz für verifizierte User zu etablieren.
friendica – A Decentralized Social Network
Decentralized architecture with no central authority or ownership.
Capitalism and markets are closely connected, but they aren't exactly the same thing. And once we recognize that it opens up a huge new terrain for different types of social organization. J.K. Gibson Graham wrote on this a lot. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Gibson-Graham
J. K. Gibson-Graham - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org09.06.2026 - release 1 of 3 Sovereign social infrastructure, one layer at a time. We’re now mirroring the did:plc directory - where identities live - on European infrastructure: plc.eurosky.network Decentralisation means not depending on a single directory.
