{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T23:11:21Z","timestamp":1760224281373,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":12,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2000,7,28]],"date-time":"2000-07-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":964742400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Certain statistical aspects of social systems are described by appropriately defined quantities named social potentials. Relations between social potentials are postulated by drawing an analogy with thermodynamics relations between thermodynamic potentials, thus obtaining a toy model of some of the statistical properties of social systems. Within this model, an interpretation of a socially relevant acting (acting as opposed to action, see ref. [1]) that does not invoke structural changes in social systems, is given in terms of social po-tentials.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e2030098","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2008,10,25]],"date-time":"2008-10-25T13:44:42Z","timestamp":1224942282000},"page":"98-105","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Approach to a Quantitative Description of Social Systems Based on Thermodynamic Formalism"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"2","author":[{"suffix":"Jr.","given":"Josip","family":"Stepanic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Quality, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, I. Lucica 5, Zagreb, Croatia"}]},{"given":"Hrvoje","family":"Stefancic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Theoretical Physics Division, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Bijenicka 54, Zagreb, Croatia"}]},{"given":"Mislav  Stjepan","family":"Zebec","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Marulicev trg 19\/1, Zagreb, Croatia"}]},{"given":"Kresimir","family":"Perackovic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Marulicev trg 19\/1, Zagreb, Croatia"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2000,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Parsons, T. (1951). The Social System, Free Press. Glencoe, III."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"See various issues of the Journal of Mathematical Sociology."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Ritzer, G. (1992). Contemporary Sociological Theory, McGraw-Hill. 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[2nd ed.]."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"777","DOI":"10.1126\/science.201.4358.777","article-title":"Time, Structure and Fluctuations","volume":"201","author":"Prigogine","year":"1978","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_10","first-page":"133","article-title":"Social Entropy Theory: An Application of Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics in Hu-man Ecology","volume":"2","author":"Bailey","year":"1993","journal-title":"Advances in Human Ecology"},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Nunnally, J.C., and Bernstein, I.H. (1994). Psychometric Theory, McGraw-Hill. [3rd ed.]."},{"key":"ref_12","unstructured":"Blalock, H.M. (1979). Social Statistics, McGraw-Hill."}],"container-title":["Entropy"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1099-4300\/2\/3\/98\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T22:28:18Z","timestamp":1760221698000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1099-4300\/2\/3\/98"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2000,7,28]]},"references-count":12,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2000,9]]}},"alternative-id":["e2030098"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/e2030098","relation":{},"ISSN":["1099-4300"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1099-4300"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2000,7,28]]}}}