The meso-level realm of social reality is structured by corporate and categoric units, along with their respective cultures. Unlike the macro and micro realms of social reality, the meso-level does not reveal its own unique forces. Rather, the dynamics of meso-structures and cultures are driven by macro- and micro-level forces pushing on individual and collective actors as they build corporate units and develop parameters defining membership in particular social categories.

Jonathan H.Turner is Distinguished Professor of Sociology. He received his PhD from Cornell University in 1968, and since the 1969-1970 academic year,he has been at UCR. Within the discipline, he is known primarily as a general theorist, although he has a number of more subtantive specialities,including: the sociology of emotions, ethnic relations, social institututions, social stratification, and bio-sociology. He has been Faculty Research Lecturer at UCR, and in the profession, he has been president of the Pacific Sociological Association and California Sociological Association. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has lectured widely all over the world, and he has been a visiting professor at Cambridge University, UK, Universitat Bremen, Germany, Universitat Bielefeld, German, Shandong University and Nan Kai University, Peoples Republic at China.