Dr. Ronald Bolender School of Business Publishing Forum April 23, 2009

Economics, business, and organizational behavior are branches of the social sciences. The concept of social statics relates to the assumption that the order of society is knowable. Without this basic premise, the study of the social sciences lacks rational predictability.

Social statics is the order of society. This order includes structural components (e.g., family, government, and economics) and the interaction between these components.

Auguste Comte based social statics on the positive philosophy. Note: Positive philosophy is the foundation for mathematical statistics. Comte moved the explanation of the how’s and why’s of society away from the theological and metaphysical toward the rational and scientific.

Social dynamics is the progressive change in social statics. Comte’s “law of human progress” is the foundation for social dynamics.

Social dynamics is a progressive evolutionary process. As society progresses, new elements of society are created and unfit elements decay and drop away. The nature of society moves from homogeneity toward heterogeneity; there is greater differentiation.

Social Statics and the Division of Labor In primitive times, the structure of society was very simple with a minimal division of labor. As society progresses, the division of labor becomes more complex with the addition of new elements of social structure and new customs (interactions). In addition, the level of interdependency increases as there is greater differentiation through increased stratification.

Stratification is the ranking and ordering of this interdependency. Stratification is usually the first social static to change due to increased differentiation.

In modern terms, stratification is the ranking of abilities and training to fulfill the needs of society. The purpose of stratification is identifying the most important resources needed for societal survival and progress.

Bolender, R. K. (2007). Social statics. International Encyclopedia of Social & Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA / Thomson Gale. Supporting Sources Comte, Auguste. [1855] The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Trans. Harriet Martineau. New York: AMS Press Incorporated. Plato. [360 BCE] The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. New York: Books, Incorporated. Spencer, Hebert. [1877] Social Statics: The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of Them Developed, 2 nd ed. New York: Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. Turner, Jonathan H., Leonard Beeghley, and Charles H. Powers The Emergence of Sociological Theory, 6 th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Note: Publication Required a non-APA format.