Transcript Structuration Theory - Topics

Modernity and Postmodernity
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Order
versus
Clear Distinctions versus
Predictability
versus
Rational Progress versus
Control
versus
Future-orientation versus
Production
versus
Experts
versus
etc. etc
Fluidity
Negotiable Meaning
Uncertainty
Playfulness
Uncertainty
Present-orientation
Consumption
Gurus
Is there a Third Way?
The Sociological Tradition(s)
Sociology is the study of:
1. persisting patterns or structures external to
individuals re Marx, Durkheim, Foucault, Bourdieu
etc etc power and constraint
2.
OR
The purposeful actions of human beings re Weber,
Simmel, ethnomethodology etc etc meaning and
decision-making
Is there a Third Way
Lord Anthony Giddens (1938-)
1.
A globally recognised British social theorist
2.
Considerable political and cultural influence
3.
Typically associated with attempts to reconcile
apparently opposed ways of thinking in both
Sociology and practical politics
4.
Still alive
5.
The Third Way?
Structuration Theory - Topics
1.
Action and Structure
2.
Key Term - Agency
3.
Key Term – Structure
4.
Key Term – Structuration (agency+structure)
5.
Consciousness & Society
6.
Time & Space
Structuration Theory -goal
To overcome the opposition between the two
traditions. This requires:
1. Action is not equated with individual human
activity: re. Weber
2. Structure is not identified with external
constraint: re. Durkheim
Men make their own history but not in
circumstances of their own choosing: Marx
Key terms – not action but agency
AGENT = any social unit that is capable of making a
difference.
Source: Giddens
i.e. agent ≠ only human individuals
AGENCY the continuous flow of conduct.
Source: Dallmayr
i.e. agency ≠ events just in the here-and-now
Key terms - structure
STRUCTURE(S): rules and resources, or sets of
transformation relations, organized as properties of
social systems
SYSTEM(S): reproduced relations between actors or
collectivities, organised as regular social practices
Source: Giddens, A ‘The constitution of society’ p.25
Structure is the “objectification of past actions of past
agents” (re Berger & Luckman)
Source: Dallmayr
Key terms -Structuration
Agency and Structure (are therefore) mutually
dependant...Structure is the medium through which
(agency) is produced”
Source: Giddens Central Problems in Social Theory, page 69-70
Duality of Structures means that social structures are
both constituted by human agency and yet at the same
time are the very medium of this constitution
Source: Giddens New Rules of Sociological Method, page 121
Structuration (is a) connecting of human action with
structural explanation in social analysis
Source: Giddens Central Problems in Social Theory page 49
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
What is the relationship of an MP to their constituents?
x Delegate one who follows the instruction of others
√ Representative one who uses their judgement on
behalf of others to whom he/she is accountable.
Structuration Theory As agents we use our practical
understanding (phenomenology) and the resources of
the social structure (Bourdieu et al) to construct
social reality
Instance – International Migration
Goss, J. Conceptualising international labor migration
International Migration Review 1995
1. Filipinos migrate overseas to seek work
2. They are obligated to assist their kin; remittances
3. They recommend their kin to employers
4. Therefore, kinship structure takes on a new
economic significance through the agency of
migrants
5. AND the agency of migrants is constrained by the
rules and relations (structure) of kinship
i.e. migration (agency) and kinship (structure) depend
upon and affect each other
Instance: Managerial Innovation
Coopey et al Manager’s Innovations…
1. Changing the situation (agency)
2. in context of constraints, rules and resources
(structure)
3. through selecting among available courses of
action (structuration)
4. and in changing the situation managers
change their perception of themselves
(reflexivity)
Consciousness and Society
Practical Consciousness; taken-for-granted raelity
Discursive Consciousness; legitimation
Unconscious; unacknowledged motivations
make possible
Reflexivity the knowledgeability of agents (informed
citizens/klever burgher)
but there is also
Sequestration the institutionalised hiding
away/separation of different spheres of personal life
1.
2.
3.
Therefore,
intentional agency has unintended consequences
Time & Space
1. Agency is constituted (constructed) through
time and space
2. Schutz on predecessors, contemporaries and
successors
3. The problem of ‘infinite regress’ in
structuration theory
Modernity and Postmodernity
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Order
versus
Clear Distinctions versus
Predictability
versus
Rational Progress versus
Control
versus
Future-orientation versus
Production
versus
Experts
versus
etc. etc
Fluidity
Negotiable Meaning
Uncertainty
Playfulness
Uncertainty
Present-orientation
Consumption
Gurus
Is there a Third Way?
High Modernity
Continues the processes of modernity eg
rationalisation, urbanisation, technological
advance etc (modern culture)
But, because of its own reflexivity, (selfexamination of its practices) high modernity
increases uncertainty through accelerating
change (postmodern culture)
High Modernity as Jagernnath (Reith lecture)
Modernity & Time
High Modernity = a changed relationship to time
because modernity is institutionally reflexive
Cause: De-traditionalisation The loss of the legitimating
authority of tradition. This is part of the process of
modernisation. A respectful, deferential attitude
towards the collective past is replaced by a sense of
loss, ‘nostalgia’ and, re consumer images, ‘heritage’.
Source: adapted from Giddens, A. Consequences of modernity
Re also Bellah Habits of the heart
Modernity and Space
High Modernity = a changed relationship to
space which both expands and contracts
Cause: Disembedding the "lifting out" of social
relations from local contexts and their
rearticulation across indefinite tracts of timespace
Source: Giddens 'Modernity & Self-Identity' p.18
The Problem of Order as the Problem of Trust in High
Modernity
Ontological Security A sense of continuity and order in
events, including those not directly within the
perceptual environment of the individual
Source Giddens, A Modernity and Self-identity p.243 (emphasis
added)
Trust trust in others ….is at the origin of the experience
of a stable external world and a coherent sense of selfidentity. It is 'faith' in the reliability and integrity of
others that is at stake here…trust, interpersonal
relations and a conviction of the 'reality' of things go
hand in hand in the social settings of adult life
Source: Giddens 'Modernity & Self-Identity' p.51-52
Trust & Expertise
expert systems bracket time and space through
deploying modes of technical knowledge which
have validity independent of the practitioners
and clients who use them
Source: Giddens 'Modernity & Self-Identity' p.18
That is, we no longer trust persons but systems
of which we know little
High Modernity as Risk Society
In the charged reflexive settings of high
modernity, living on 'automatic pilot' becomes
more and more difficult to do
Source: Modernity & self-identity p.125
living in the "risk society" means living with a
calculative attitude to the open possibilities of
action, positive and negative, with which, as
individuals and globally, we are confronted in a
continuous way
Source: Giddens 'Modernity & Self-Identity' p.28
Risk and Hazard
Giddens (possibly) confuses these terms
Risk = likelihood of particular outcomes
Hazard = damage of particular outcomes
Arguably:
Traditional societies = high risk, low hazard
High Modernity = low risk, high hazard
Risk Society
A society organised (structure) around the
management of man-made (agency) risks
We attempt to control (structure) risk through both
personal and institutional risk assessment (agency)
but this itself is inherently risky (i.e. less than
reliable)
The Risk Society produces and distributes both
‘goods’ (things, commodities) and ‘bads’ (risks
resulting from, in part, the production of goods)
(Beck)
Giddens & Beck
Giddens typical focus is on the risks of intimacy
and the fragility of contemporary self-identity
Beck’s typical focus is on the risks of large scale
processes e.g. environmental degradation,
nuclear disaster
Re-opening the agency/structure divide?