Interest in norms has been rising in the last twenty-five years in real life as well as in the sciences (Hydén 2011). One question, which never is raised, is: where do norms come from? One reason for this is that the answer is not straightforward. It is hard to find a common denominator. We generally do not think much about norms because most of the time we take them for granted. One possible answer is that we become aware of the norms that guide our behavior primarily in times of sudden or radical change. In these situations, we become conscious about our norms because they are challenged and may need to be revised to deal with the new circumstances. I argue that norms arise out of normativity, something which can be seen as the core of various systems, social, economic, bureaucratic or legal. As actors we participate in these systems and take our leads from what they demand of us. For example, a civil servant becomes a “bureaucrat” because his behaviour is extensively shaped by being an employee of a hierarchical organization. A similar socialization occurs when we participate in the marketplace: its structures encourage us to become optimisers of our own interest.

 This chapter will explore further the relation between norm and normativity. The ambition is to define the concept normativity from a socio-legal point of view and argumentative underpin the claim that normativity constitute the core of norm systems from which norms can be derived. The chapter begins with an overview of the various types of norms that are especially important in shaping our life and who we are. The bulk of the article is devoted to the concept of normativity and how it can be best applied in socio-legal studies.