In sociological thermodynamics, social entropy are manifestations of entropy, defined as the amount of energy unavailable for doing work in a given process, in a given social system, distinguished by modes of negative behaviors, specifically alienation, anomie, and deviance, that function to instill a disordering effect in a given social structure or order. [1] These anomalous behaviors are seen as withholdings or cross uses of the deviant manifestations of the human energies that normally go into support or fulfillment of the norms, roles, and statuses that make up a social order. Social entropy is said to be one of the elements or components of the social bond, which, according to American sociologist Robert Nisbet, mediates a part of the force that enables "biologically derived human beings to stick together in the social molecules (human molecular aggregates) in which we actually find them from the moment, quite literally, of their conception. [2]

American communications professor Klaus Krippendorff defines social entropy as a measure of the natural decay of the structure or of the disappearance of distinctions within a social system [6] He reasons that much of the energy consumed by a social organization is spent to maintain its structure, counteracting social entropy, e.g., through legal institutions, education, the normative consequences or television, and that anomie is the maximum state of social entropy. [6]

History
The etymology of the term social entropy is said to trace back to philosopher-historians Brooks Adams and Henry Adams who applied the concept of entropy to human affairs, viewing it as a tendency seen in the histories of whole nations or civilizations, a tendency characterized by a running-down of human energy, of a diminished capacity for meeting the problems set by that nation or civilization. [1]

In the 1968, author Amitai Etzioni described "social entropy" as a state of society in which no social bonds are present. [3]

In 1990, American sociologist Kenneth Bailey published Social Entropy Theory, a nonequilibrium approach of societal analysis using a mix of Bertalanffy's general systems theory, Shannon's entropy, and Clausius' entropy. Bailey defines an "isomorphic complex system" as being comprised of human individuals as the components, interaction of these components, and the national (political) border of the country, with the latter serving as a boundary for social interaction. [4] Bailey also included a section titled the "History of Social Entropy", in which he traces the use of thermodynamics and entropy in sociology from Pareto to Prigogine to Samuelson and others in the literature. [5]

References
1. Nisbet, Robert A. (1970). The Social Bond - an Introduction to the Study of Society, (ch. 10: "Social Entropy", pgs. 260-98). New York: Alfred A. Knoph.
2. Nisbert, Robert, A. (1970). The Social Bond - an Introduction to the Study of Society, (ch. 3: "The Nature of the Social Bond", pgs. 45-56). New York: Alfred A. Knoph.
3. Etzioni, Amitai. (1968). The Active Society - a Theory of Societal and Politcal Processes, (pg. 95). Free Press.
4. Bailey, Kenneth D. (1990). Social Entropy Theory, (ch. 3: "Social Entropy", pgs. 49-87). Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.
5. ibid (Bailey, 1990), section: "The History of Social Entropy", pgs. 71-87.
6. Social Entropy - Klaus Krippendorff's Dictionary of Cybernetics.

Further reading

• Infante, Alfredo, P. & Lawler, James, H.L. (2001). “Social Entropy”. The Nexial Institute.