Social organization

Social organization (aka social structure) is a general term used in sociology to refer to formal or institutionalized (that is, regular recurring) clusters of roles, statuses, and meanings in the form of normss, folkways and mores. In this sense, families, businesses, government agencies, peer groups, crowds, voluntary associations, political parties, churches, and social movements are all social organizations.

The term most frequently used for specific social structures or institutions like is formal organizations, bureaucracies or simply organizations.