SOCIAL STRUCTURE: Structure refers to the pattern within culture and organization
through which social action takes place; arrangements of roles, organizations,
institutions, and cultural symbols that are stable over time, often unnoticed, anda
changing almost invisibly. Structure both enables and constrains what is possible
in social life. If a building were a society, the foundation, supporting columns,
and beams would be the structure which both constrains and enables the various
kinds and arrangements of spaces and rooms (roles, organizations, and
2 institutions). Schemata and resources (material and human) through which social
action takes place, becomes patterned, and institutionalized. Incorporates both
culture and the resources of social organization.