Foundations of a theory of social forms

Sociologists frequently invoke the concept of form when analyzing organizations, collective action, art, music, culture and other phenomena. Nonetheless, the form concept has not received careful theoretical analysis, either generally or in specific context. Using the tools of formal logic, set theory, and algebra, we propose a language for defining social forms that is suAEciently general to incorporate feature-based, position-based, and boundary-based approaches to defining forms. We focus on organizational forms although we intend for our conceptualization to be general. We define forms as a type of socially coded identity. We deₙe identity in terms of social codes that specify the properties that an entity can legitimately possess. These codes can be enforced by insiders or outsiders. We claim that one knows that a social code exists when one observes that departures from the codes after periods of conformity cause a devaluation of the entity by relevant insiders and/or outsiders. This construction allows us to deₙe a population as the set of entities with a common minimal external identity in a bounded system in period. The minimal property ensures that we localize to the most specic socially enforced identities. The reliance on identities instead of forms allows us to deₙe populations that never achieve form status and to extend population deₙitions back to the period of early legitimation. Research design implications follow.