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Social Norm & Custom

This meta-model describes the informal rules of social life: norms, customs, traditions and etiquette that bind communities without being law, together with the informal sanctions that uphold them and the observations that evidence them. It is its own model because these rules are observed rather than decreed, they have holders (communities) rather than issuers, and their lifecycle (emergence, drift, contestation, lapse) follows social dynamics that no legal or organizational model represents.

AI YAMLAGENTS.mdSource
IDworld.d9-social-norm-and-custom
Version history0.2.0-legacy
CategoryReference example
IndustryCross-industry
Domaincivilization
Tagssocial, norm, custom
Data structure

Bundles and layers

Bundle

norm

Informal rules as described statements

Layers

normStatement`: the rule as observed and articulated · `applicabilityScope`: which community, setting and situation the rule binds

Bundle

custom

Practiced traditions and etiquette

Layers

tradition`: customs, traditions and etiquette forms · `transmission`: how customs pass on, drift and lapse

Bundle

enforcement

How communities uphold their rules

Layers

informalSanction`: disapproval, exclusion and reputation responses · `complianceObservation`: documented adherence, deviation and contestation

Findings

Catalogue-native findings must describe the information grouped by each layer. This legacy version does not declare them separately.

Questions & artifacts

Questions, artifact requirements and serial naming rules are required by Vercy vNext; they remain unassigned in this reference version.

Service layers

How this specification operates

Dimension & namespace

  • REFERENCE `world.populationGroup` (H3): the holders of every norm and custom are communities and groups; this model never defines communities itself
  • REFERENCE `world.religionBelief` (D6): religiously grounded observances cross-link to their tradition's practice records
  • REFERENCE `world.lawAndRegulation` (R): the codification boundary; a norm that becomes law is thereafter the law model's fact
  • REFERENCE `world.publicDiscourse` (D8): contested norms surface as discourse topics; contestation records link across
  • imports: social science practice (ALIGN): descriptive and observational method vocabulary
  • imports: SKOS (REFERENCE): classification schemes for norm domains, settings and custom types

Canon, patches & standards

  • REFERENCE `world.populationGroup` (H3): the holders of every norm and custom are communities and groups; this model never defines communities itself
  • REFERENCE `world.religionBelief` (D6): religiously grounded observances cross-link to their tradition's practice records
  • REFERENCE `world.lawAndRegulation` (R): the codification boundary; a norm that becomes law is thereafter the law model's fact
  • REFERENCE `world.publicDiscourse` (D8): contested norms surface as discourse topics; contestation records link across
  • imports: social science practice (ALIGN): descriptive and observational method vocabulary
  • imports: SKOS (REFERENCE): classification schemes for norm domains, settings and custom types

Artifact formats & serial data

Format-independent core. Concrete artifact formats and naming prefixes are not declared in this legacy version.

Policies & accepted processes

  • `ethnographicResearchAccess`: community-granted access for systematic study of its norms and customs
  • `communityReviewContract`: the holder community reviews and validates descriptions of its own norms before publication
  • `descriptiveCatalogueAccess`: public access to validated, aggregated norm and custom descriptions

Read / add / edit / delete

CRUD procedures and interface bindings are not declared in this legacy version.

Ownership, roles & access

The holder communities steward descriptions of their own norms and customs; the model records what is observed, never what anyone decrees. Publication requires community validation, and access is granted by the community steward through the catalogue's S1/S2 ownership and access models with audit via S4.

Existing assembly

Objects, relationships, events and projections

Objects

  • `norm`: an informal rule held by a community; key attributes: statement, strength, holder reference, codification status
  • `custom`: a practiced tradition; key attributes: name, occasion, form, transmission mode
  • `etiquetteRule`: a situational conduct expectation; key attributes: setting, expected behavior, breach severity
  • `applicabilityScope`: where and to whom a rule applies; key attributes: community reference, setting, situation, exceptions
  • `informalSanction`: a typical community response to breach; key attributes: form, severity, typical duration
  • `practiceObservation`: a documented instance of practice or breach; key attributes: date, setting, method, observer class
  • `contestation`: a documented challenge to a norm; key attributes: challenger community segment, grounds, period

Relationships

  • `norm` -> heldBy -> `community` (n..m): norms belong to the communities that live them, resolved via H3
  • `custom` -> practicedIn -> `community` (n..m): customs are located in practicing communities
  • `norm` -> scopedBy -> `applicabilityScope` (1..n): every norm declares where it binds
  • `informalSanction` -> respondsTo -> `norm` (n..1): sanctions are typed responses to specific norms
  • `practiceObservation` -> evidences -> `custom` (n..1): observations are the evidential base of every description
  • `contestation` -> challenges -> `norm` (n..1): contestation records a live challenge without judging it
  • `norm` -> codifiedInto -> `legalRule` (0..1): when a custom becomes law, the successor lives in the law model (R) and this record marks the boundary

Events

  • `normObserved`: a norm was first documented from observed practice
  • `customPerformed`: a documented performance of a custom took place
  • `sanctionApplied`: a community applied an informal sanction to a recorded breach
  • `contestationRaised`: a segment of the community openly challenged a norm
  • `normShifted`: accumulated observations established that the rule's content or strength changed
  • `customLapsed`: observation ceased to find the custom in practice

Projections

  • `etiquetteGuide`: practical conduct expectations for visitors and newcomers by setting; omits sanction records and observations
  • `normAtlas`: norms and customs by community and scope with strength indicators; built on aggregated observations only
  • `changeTimeline`: how norms shifted, were contested or lapsed over time; omits individual observation details