Superstructure

A superstructure is a set of socio-psychological feedback loops that mantain a coherent and residulant structure in a given society. It includes the culture, institutions, power structures, roles, and rituals of the society. It is that which, through conditioned behaviors (both interpersonal and situational), enforces a set of constraints and guidelines on human activity in a stable and effective fashion, such that it engenders a society's characteristic organization, and it is that characteristic organization itself.

Superstructure does not refer to the specific objective structure of organizations, such as a school or a store, but rather to the psychological configurations and dynamics whereby that structure is enforced. That is, the "invisible forces" behind the structure. These are examined by examining the direct interpersonal engagements that take place within canonical(typical) settings or situations, through the hermeneutic of sociobiology.

see also: sociology, structuralism, post-structuralism, Michel Foucault

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