| 1. Domain | 1.1 Scope of the Domain | Boundaries | The range of phenomena the science includes and excludes. | Examines patterned arrangements of social positions, roles, institutions, group boundaries, and stratification systems that distribute resources, opportunities, power, and status. Excludes micro-interactional episodes unless linked to underlying structural patterns, and excludes purely psychological explanations. |
| | Scale | The spatial, temporal, or organizational level at which the science operates (e.g., quantum, cellular, social, cosmic). | Operates at macro- and meso-level scales: social classes, organizations, communities, demographic groups, institutional systems, occupational hierarchies, and long-term structural patterns across populations. |
| 1.2 Ontological Commitments | Entities | The kinds of things assumed to exist within the domain (particles, organisms, agents, fields, etc.). | Social positions, roles, stratification systems, institutions, organizations, status groups, class categories, mobility pathways, structural boundaries, legal/organizational rules, cultural schema, structural resources. |
| | Properties | The fundamental attributes these entities possess (mass, charge, genotype, preference, etc.). | Power differentials, resource distribution, role obligations, institutional authority, inequality levels, mobility rates, group boundaries, rule enforcement strength, structural opportunities/constraints. |
| | Categories | The basic ontological types used to classify domain elements (substances, processes, relations, structures). | Social classes, castes, ethnic categories, gender categories, occupational strata, bureaucratic roles, institutional sectors, formal vs informal structures, status hierarchies, boundary-maintenance systems. |
| 1.3 State-Variables | Variables | The measurable or definable properties that describe system conditions. | Income, wealth, education level, occupational prestige, mobility rates, organizational authority levels, institutional access, formal rules, group-membership markers, boundary permeability, inequality indices. |
| | Parameterization | How variables encode and represent the system’s state. | Encoded through class schemas, institutional typologies, stratification indices, organizational charts, legal frameworks, demographic segmentation, access-level hierarchies, formal rule structures. |
| 1.4 Admissible Idealizations | Simplifications | Conceptual reductions used to make the domain tractable (point masses, rational agents, perfect gases). | Treating classes as internally uniform; assuming stable institutions; ignoring within-group heterogeneity; treating boundaries as binary; modeling mobility flows as frictionless; assuming rule compliance is consistent. |
| | Validity Conditions | The limits and contexts in which idealizations hold or break down. | Break down in fluid or rapidly changing societies; informal organizations; hybrid or decentralized institutions; intersectional or multidimensional stratification systems; contexts of institutional failure or weak rule enforcement. |
| 1.5 Domain Assumptions | Structural Assumptions | Background ontological stances such as determinism, continuity, randomness, discreteness. | Assumes structural positions shape behavior; institutions impose constraints; inequalities produce patterned outcomes; boundaries regulate access; organizations follow rule-based logic; mobility is systemically structured rather than random. |
| | Implicit Commitments | Unstated but necessary assumptions that shape the field’s conceptual structure. | Assumes structure persists over time; categories hold social meaning; positions are socially consequential; institutions remain stable enough to organize behavior; resources follow structured distribution patterns. |
| 1.6 Internal Coherence Requirements | Consistency | The demand that domain concepts do not contradict one another. | Roles, rules, and positions must align across levels; institutional mandates must match structural constraints; stratification models must fit observed mobility patterns; boundary definitions must be internally consistent. |
| | Compatibility | The requirement that entities, variables, and assumptions fit together into a unified descriptive framework. | Requires coherence between institutional rules, stratification systems, organizational hierarchies, cultural schemas, and distribution of resources; structural forces must integrate into a unified explanatory framework. |
| 2. Evidence Layer | 2.1 Observable Phenomena | Observables | The aspects of the domain that can produce detectable signals accessible to measurement. | Income distribution patterns; occupational hierarchies; institutional access levels; demographic segregation; mobility flows; inequality indices; boundary-maintenance behaviors; rule-application consistency; organizational authority patterns. |
| | Detection Limits | The boundaries of what can be resolved or sensed by current instruments or methods. | Hidden informal structures; unreported income or resources; disguised power relations; intersectional inequalities not captured by single metrics; institutional bias invisible in quantitative data; difficulty observing closed elite networks. |
| 2.2 Measurement Systems | Units | Standardized quantifications (meters, seconds, volts, decibels, dollars, etc.) necessary for consistent comparison. | Income brackets; wealth quantiles; occupational prestige scores; education levels; mobility rates; inequality indices (Gini, Theil); access scores; rule-enforcement frequencies; demographic proportions. |
| | Instruments | Devices and tools (microscopes, spectrometers, sensors, surveys, detectors) used to produce measurements. | Surveys, census data, administrative records, organizational charts, network-analysis software, ethnographic observation, GIS mapping of segregation, stratification indices, mobility-tracking datasets. |
| 2.3 Operational Definitions | Definitions | Terms defined by specific measurement procedures, ensuring empirical clarity. | Definitions of class, caste, status group, mobility, segregation, institutional access, structural inequality, group boundary, stratification category, rule enforcement. |
| | Procedures | The explicit steps required to perform a measurement in a reproducible way. | Coding occupation into class schemas; constructing inequality indices; mapping demographic distributions; analyzing organizational hierarchies; measuring boundary permeability; tracking mobility longitudinally; applying network centrality metrics. |
| 2.4 Data Acquisition | Protocols | Formal processes for gathering data under controlled or standardized conditions. | Large-scale surveys; census collection; institutional audits; organizational structure mapping; administrative data extraction; long-term panel studies; network boundary identification; geographic and demographic stratification studies. |
| | Sampling | Rules determining which subset of the domain is measured and how representative it is. | Sampling households, neighborhoods, occupations, institutional members, demographic groups, organizational units, mobility trajectories, or boundary-crossing events. |
| 2.5 Data Character & Format | Data Types | The form raw evidence takes (time series, spectra, images, counts, qualitative records). | Quantitative tables (income, wealth, mobility); network graphs; organizational charts; demographic distributions; stratification-index datasets; boundary maps; qualitative institutional fieldnotes. |
| | Resolution | The granularity or precision with which data is captured. | Determined by sample size, granularity of income/wealth brackets, precision of occupational coding, accuracy of institutional records, completeness of network ties, and geographic resolution of segregation mapping. |
| 2.6 Reliability & Calibration | Calibration | Adjustment procedures ensuring instruments produce accurate results. | Verifying coding accuracy; cross-validating survey responses with administrative data; calibrating stratification indices; checking consistency of organizational charts; validating network-detection algorithms. |
| | Error Characterization | Identification and quantification of noise, uncertainty, bias, and measurement error. | Sampling bias; underreporting; misclassification of occupations; inaccurate income/wealth data; missing network ties; institutional opacity; measurement error in inequality indices; ecological fallacies. |
| 3. Structural Layer | 3.1 Patterns & Regularities | Laws / Relations | Stable, repeatable patterns governing how observables behave across conditions. | Persistence of inequality across generations; stability of institutional rules; patterned mobility flows; predictable segregation patterns; regularities in status hierarchies; stable distributions of power and resource allocation. |
| | Invariants | Quantities or properties that remain constant under transformations (symmetries, conservation laws). | Relative class positions, organizational authority ranks, institutional rule sets, boundary-maintenance practices, structural constraints, long-term inequality metrics, durable social categories. |
| 3.2 Causal Architecture | Mechanisms | Underlying processes or structures that produce the observed regularities. | Resource-distribution mechanisms; boundary-enforcement mechanisms; institutional-rule mechanisms; credentialing mechanisms; network-closure mechanisms; path-dependence in structural positions; reproduction of inequality via power/authority cycles. |
| | Pathways | Organized sequences of interactions forming a causal chain or network. | Mobility pathways (upward/downward/stagnant); institutional enforcement sequences; class-reproduction pathways; organizational promotion chains; segregation reproduction pathways; rule-violation–sanction cycles. |
| 3.3 Theoretical Vocabulary | Concepts | Core terms that encode the domain’s structure (force, gene, equilibrium, field). | Class, caste, stratification, inequality, mobility, institution, rule system, structural constraint, opportunity structure, boundary maintenance, status hierarchy, organizational authority, structural power. |
| | Classifications | Taxonomies, categories, or typologies that organize entities and relations. | Class schemas; caste categories; occupational strata; institutional types; formal vs informal structures; open vs closed mobility systems; high- vs low-boundary rigidity; centralized vs decentralized authority systems. |
| 3.4 Formal Representations | Equations | Mathematical constructs expressing laws, relations, or mechanisms. | Mobility-flow matrices; inequality-index formulas (Gini, Theil); transition-probability models; network-centrality equations; boundary-permeability functions; organizational-hierarchy models; rule-violation probability models. |
| | Models | Structured representations—mathematical, computational, or conceptual—used to predict and explain phenomena. | Stratification models; mobility-regime models; organizational-structure models; institutional-rule systems; structural-network models; segregation-simulation models; boundary-maintenance models. |
| 3.5 Idealized Structures | Simplified Models | Purposeful abstractions that capture essential dynamics while omitting irrelevant detail. | Two-class models; frictionless mobility systems; perfectly rigid or perfectly permeable boundaries; ideal-typical bureaucratic hierarchies; simplified institutional-rule sets; stylized resource-distribution systems. |
| | Limit Conditions | Regimes where specific models or approximations hold (classical vs. quantum, linear vs. nonlinear). | Breakdowns under rapid social change, institutional collapse, boundary erosion, hybrid/complex identities, unstable inequality patterns, or informal structures overriding formal ones. |
| 3.6 Integrative Frameworks | Unifying Theories | Higher-order structures that connect disparate laws or mechanisms under a coherent whole. | Structural functionalism; conflict theory; neo-institutionalism; Weberian status and class analysis; network structuralism; stratification theory; path-dependence frameworks. |
| | Interdisciplinary Links | Points where the theory connects to adjacent sciences or larger explanatory systems. | Links to economics (mobility, inequality), political science (institutions, power), anthropology (boundaries, kinship structures), geography (segregation patterns), and organizational theory (hierarchies, formal rules). |
| 4. Method Layer | 4.1 Inquiry Design | Experimental Design | Structured plans for manipulating variables to test causal claims. | Manipulating institutional rules, altering access criteria, varying boundary rigidity, introducing hypothetical reforms, simulating mobility scenarios, or adjusting organizational structures to test structural effects on outcomes. |
| | Observational Design | Systematic approaches for gathering non-manipulated data (surveys, field studies, natural experiments). | Observing natural inequalities, institutional behavior, segregation patterns, demographic distributions, organizational hierarchies, and mobility trends without manipulation of structural conditions. |
| 4.2 Testing & Validation | Hypothesis Testing | Procedures for evaluating whether evidence supports or contradicts specific claims. | Testing predictions about resource distribution, mobility likelihood, boundary permeability, institutional bias, stratification stability, rule-enforcement effects, and structural path dependence. |
| | Replication | The requirement that results be independently reproducible under similar conditions. | Re-running stratification analyses in new datasets; replicating mobility models across populations; validating institutional-audit results in multiple organizations; repeating network-boundary detection using alternate tools. |
| 4.3 Inference & Evaluation | Statistical Inference | Rules for drawing conclusions from noisy or incomplete data. | Estimating inequality metrics; assessing causal effects of structural variables; testing mobility probabilities; analyzing boundary-crossing likelihoods; evaluating organizational-rule compliance; comparing stratification models. |
| | Model Comparison | Criteria (fit, simplicity, predictive accuracy, robustness) used to evaluate competing models. | Comparing class schemas; evaluating alternative mobility models; contrasting institutional-rule frameworks; comparing segregation models; differentiating centralized vs decentralized authority systems; assessing network-structure models. |
| 4.4 Error Management | Error Analysis | Identification and quantification of random and systematic errors. | Misclassification of occupations or classes; biased survey responses; incomplete administrative records; missing network ties; inaccurate mobility histories; boundary misidentification; institutional opacity distorting measurement. |
| | Bias Control | Methods for minimizing subjective, instrumental, or procedural biases. | Using representative sampling; correcting for demographic skew; using multiple coders; triangulating survey and administrative data; adjusting for nonresponse bias; validating network data with multiple sources. |
| 4.5 Adjudication & Revision | Peer Scrutiny | Collective evaluation of claims through critique, review, and debate. | Independent review of coding schemas, inequality metrics, institutional analyses, organizational charts, network models, boundary classifications, and mobility interpretations. |
| | Theory Revision | Procedures for modifying, replacing, or discarding models based on new evidence. | Refining stratification categories; updating mobility frameworks; revising institutional-rule models; adjusting boundary-maintenance theories; integrating new empirical findings into structural models. |
| 4.6 Integrity Conditions | Transparency | Requirements to disclose methods, data, assumptions, and limitations. | Full disclosure of class-coding rules, data sources, mobility definitions, network-construction parameters, boundary criteria, and measurement assumptions. |
| | Ethical Standards | Norms ensuring responsible conduct in experimentation, data handling, and publication. | Protecting confidentiality; avoiding reinforcement of harmful categories; reporting inequalities responsibly; ensuring institutional audits do not endanger participants; maintaining neutrality and accuracy in stratification research. |