Ontology: Social Order


A social order comprises a range of elements and characteristics that interact in accordance with behavioural patterns or regimes:

  • Natural and legal persons that are its members;
  • The language that members use to communicate mutually and to future generations. Language is defined by a vocabulary and a grammar, and serves as a foundation for the production, consumption and preservation of content. As different languages are used, translation possibilities must be provided.
  • Claims and contracts that exist in a context of prevalent norms among members of a social order. These claims and contracts involve natural and legal persons vis-a-vis elements in these orders: Natural, produced assets, Content and Monetary, and their exchanges as part of interactions.
  • Territory: The precise description of land, its boundaries, area and dimensions, matters at different levels in society: between countries, and between inhabitants of countries.
  • Financial assets and liabilities (controlled in a monetary order) are economic assets comprising means of payment, financial claims and economic assets which are close to financial claims in nature. Financial claims entitle their owners, the creditors, to receive a payment or series of payments without any counter-performance from other institutional units, the debtors, who have incurred the counterpart liabilities. Examples of economic assets which are close to financial claims in nature are financial derivatives and shares and other equity.