Chapter 1: Social Communities as Complex systems

Complex social systems can be explored in terms of a number of paradigms, each of which establishes a set of propositions that, when challenged, can provide the basis for a new set to develop and replace it. The development of these conceptualizations requires close inspection, and an understanding of their evolutionary development.

The development of social communities can be explained through Sumner’s notion of Folkways, written in 1906. Folkways are created when people come together and share concepts. The folkways develop into mores of habitual unreasoned ways of acting that may in turn mature into customs. Nicholson (1993: 209) sees customs as behavioral attributes that together with rituals and other forms of expression demonstrate a manifestation of the organizational culture. Customs, then, appear as a representation of culture from which acceptable modes of behavior are identified, and structures arise that support them.