In
sociology,
macrostructures, often simply called 'structure', correspond to the overall organization of
society, described at a rather large-scale level, featuring for instance social
groups,
organizations,
institutions,
nation-states and their respective properties and relations. In this case, societal macrostructures are distinguished from societal microstructures consisting of the situated
social interaction of social actors, often described in terms of
agency. This distinction in sociology has given rise to the well-known macro-micro debate, in which microsociologists claim the primacy of interaction as the constituents of societal structures, and macrosociologists the primacy of given social structure as a general constraint on interaction.