Concepts and theories of how people are interconnected and interdependent are indispensable for our understanding of the onset, development and problems of the Anthropocene. This chapter discusses the concept of ‘society’ to denote configurations of people in certain patterns of interdependence. Intensive and extensive growth of these configurations is a central feature of the Anthropocene, a time when human societies started crowding out other forms of life in the biosphere. To understand why growth of societies occurs and why it tends to be persistent, the chapter outlines two ideas – the ‘Pareto principle’ and the ‘power-elite hypothesis’ – to theorize the reinforcing feedback between growth of human configurations and power relations.