An Elementary Theory of Social Structure

This paper gives an overview of the Elementary Theory, a theory which infers interests from conditions of social structure and uses that information to predict interaction outcomes. It also reviews how the theory models social structure and the seven conditions of structure (i.e. exclusion, inclusion, null, inclusion-null, inclusion-exclusion, hierarchy/mobility and ordering) known to affect one type of human activity, the exercise of power. This paper ends up with a brief presentation of the recent theoretical developments of the Elementary Theory.