Sociology For Dummies
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Sociologist Richard B. Scott, an expert in the study of social organization, has described a useful way of understanding how social organizations work. Every social organization behaves, to some extent, in each of these three ways.

  • As a rational system: as a machine designed to accomplish a specific task.

  • As a natural system: as a group made up of real human beings who relate to one another in complicated ways.

  • As an open system: interacting with its environment, from which it takes both resources and social norms.

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Jay Gabler, PhD is a writer and editor living in Minneapolis. He has authored or coauthored several books and sociological research studies, including Reconstructing the University. He works as a digital producer at The Current (a service of Minnesota Public Radio) and holds three graduate degrees from Harvard University.

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