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institution

Structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behaviour of a set of individuals within a given community

Entitytype of object type of structure type of systemQ178706

Also known as social institution · social institutions · system

Instance of: type of object
, type of structure
, type of system
Subclass of: social structure
, organization

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and norms are all examples of institutions. Institutions vary in their level of formality and informality. Institutions embody a great deal of knowledge of how to do things in society and have been described as the social science equivalent of theories in the natural sciences.

Overview

All data

52 statements · 25% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Said to be the same as: social organization
Different from: institute
legal institution
Subject has role: normative social influence
Has characteristic: type of institution

On other databases

35 identifiers linking institution across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

25%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 13, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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Cite this page

AIDB. (2026). institution (Q178706). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/institution-Q178706