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Social Structure and Social Organization

According to Raymond Firth social structure is concerned with the ordered relation of parts to the whole with the arrangement in which the elements of social life are linked together. The abstract social relationship which are displayed in the social reality as a patterned manner and in a regular fashion are concerned about institutional arrangements and relation between social groups. Thus the term social structure means a more permanent and continuous pattern of social reality.

Firth has proposed the concept of social organization in this context which as opposed to social structure is concerned about temporary and changing nature of social reality.Social organization as he explains refers to the systematic ordering of social relations by acts of choice and decision. It allows individual choices and decisions in response to a situational condition. Individuals choose between alternative modes of behaviour and take decisions as they evaluate them according to their perceptions to the fulfilment of a goal which are set by the group they belong.

Radcliff Brown has distinguished between social structure and social organization. According to him social structure refers to the arrangement of persons. Social organization refers to the arrangement of activities of two or more persons. Examples of social organization are social groups, industrial group, political group etc.All the participants of an organization carry out activities assigned to them. This arrangement of activities of persons is the characteristic of the organization. Thus an organization is the arrangement of relationship that operates within the activities of an institution.