sociation

sociation

Kurt Wolff's rendering of SIMMEL's general term (Vergesellschaftung) referring to the conscious association of human beings (K. Wolff, 1950). A central concern of Simmel's sociology was to establish the general forms of sociation (see FORMAL SOCIOLOGY).

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Sociation

 

(also microassociation), a taxonomic unit of vegetation distinguished by the dominant forms of the principal strata of the vegetational cover. A sociation is smaller than an association (seeASSOCIATION, PLANT). The following sociations are distinguished in an association of a pine forest with a ground cover of lichens: pine groves with a ground cover of the lichen Cladonia alpestris and pine groves with a cover of the lichens C. silvatica and C. rangiferina. The term “sociation” was introduced in 1930 by the Swedish geobotanist G. Du Rietz.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.