Theoretical Issues: Structure and

Agency
Anthony Giddens
Breaking down the
‘structure-agency’ divide
How social systems
come about
Anthony Giddens 1938-present
 Currently director of the School of Social Sciences, LSE.
 Giddens' has shifted from a concern with how societies work to some of
the core problems of our such as inequality, globalisation, democracy,
risk, family, tradition.
  Main works referenced in this lecture:
  Central Problems in Social Theory, (1979)
 New Rules of Sociological Method (1982)
 The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (1984)
 Modernity and Self-Identity, Cambridge (1991)
 Conversations with Anthony Giddens: Making Sense of Modernity, 1998
(with C. Pierson)
 The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy,1998.
The Third Way (1998) influenced New Labour’s
alliance with 'radical centrist’ politics

1. ‘No rights without responsibilities'.

2. Takes a positive but not uncritical attitude towards globalisation
3. Concerns itself both with equality and pluralism
4. Tries to respond to changing patterns of inequality.
5. Accepts that existing welfare systems, and the broader structure of the
state, are the source of problems as well as means of resolving them
6. Emphasises that social and economic policy are intrinsically connected
7. Places a stress upon active welfare, coupled with labour market
reform.
8. Concerns itself with mechanisms of exclusion at the bottom and the
top
 Giddens: breaking down the
structure-agency divide
Challenged 'agency-structure' dualism as an
epistemological problem, i.e. he posited that the duality
between agency versus structure was a false dichotomy
Sought to avoid reductionism, i.e. grounding social action as
a primary effect of agency or as a primary effect of
structure
By this means we could avoid determination
Dual structuration amounted to bridging analysis which
sought to break down the entrenched division in
traditional sociology between structure and agency
Giddens on the divide (2)
 Synthesised these forces as an explanatory
framework for the links between human action
and the evolution of social structures.
 There is an ongoing relationship between
human agency and social structure as they
are interactive and reciprocal.
 Hence our analytical attention ought to be on
the mutuality of processes of social
development and of human interaction.
Structure-agency in a nutshell
 'Society only has form, and that form only has effects
on people, in so far as structure is produced and
reproduced in what people do' Conversations with
Anthony Giddens (Giddens and Pierson, 1998: 77)
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution
of Society

  Structure and agency are inextricably linked

 ‘People are intrinsically involved with society
and actively enter into its constitution’
 people are not 'outside of’ social structures
and vice-versa
So how do social structures come
about?
 social life is more than random individual acts, but is
not merely determined by social forces
 it's not merely a mass of 'micro'-level activity - but on
the other hand, you can't study it by only looking for
'macro'-level explanations
 human agency and social structure are in a relationship
with each other
 the repetition of the acts of individual agents
reproduces the structure
Breaking down the traditional
dichotomy…
 Giddens’ 'structure' relates to a more holistic model
that incorporates social systems and rules, social order
and social reproduction
 So we are constantly involved in predicting and
reproducing society.
 Structure are the products of human action
 'Society only has form, and that form only has effects
on people, in so far as structure is produced and
reproduced in what people do' (Giddens & Pierson,
1998: 77).
Giddens’ views on ‘agency’:
 We are not social or cultural 'dupes' or 'plastic' individuals; rather
we act intentionally
 Modernity characterised by our being actively involved in
constructing our identity and positions of agen
 because we are reflexive agents:
 In post-traditional order (modern society), self-identity becomes a
reflexive project
 Self-identity, then, is not a set of traits or observable characteristics.
It is a person's own reflexive understanding of their biography.
 Self-identity has continuity - that is, it cannot easily be completely
changed at will - but that continuity is only a product of the person's
reflexive beliefs about their own biography (Giddens 1991: 53).
Are we just free-floating, self-
creative individuals then?
 Not quite. Our social actions have effects on others
and on society, beyond our intentions
 We are, then, always engaged in social action
 Gives sociologists a wider capacity to analyse the
meanings of social agency beyond out intentions
 Secondly, it underlines Giddens' notion of the continuity
of social production and reproduction (they are always
ongoing, social reproduction never sleeps)
How about structural power?
 Power (as a social structure) is also in a constant state of
evolution.
 Authority is never held as a form of total power, but is involved in
a 'dialectic of control'.
 Dialectic refers to the shifts that take place in the balance of
power relations as a result of attempts by subordinate groups to
alter power balance)
 This means that all social actors have arole in developing power
structures
 Giddens' concept of power also reflects Foucault's notion of power
(from whom he heavily borrowed his ideas in this regard, but lacks
the empirical weight of Foucault)
STRUCTURE IS A DUALISM
 G defines 'structure' as sets of rules and resources that actors draw
upon as they produce and reproduce society in their activities. Rules
are “generalisable procedures, implemented in enactment or
reproduction of social practices" (1984: 21).
  Some are highly explicit, and formally codified (laws, prohibitions,
bureaucratic, (doesn't have very much to say on signification - unlike
Blumer).
 Others are the 'unwritten' social rules that apply to the the realm of the
informal - body posture, linguistic register, linguistic tact, etc).
 These 'social rules' are the blueprint that enables us to get on in
social situations.
 We often cannot consciously account for these skills or knowledges,
rather they appear to be embedded.
Rules as sanctioning conduct:
how do we acknowledge social ‘rules’ ?

 Giddens uses an analogy with language -

people react strongly against those who
disregard its rules and conventions
 In a similar way, the 'rules' of social order may
only be 'in our heads‘ but it is noticed when
seemingly minor social expectations are not
adhered to
 Resembles ideas from Harold Garfinkel's 1984
[first published 1967]studies on ethnography.
Resources

 Resources are frames of reference for carrying

out social ‘rules’
 I.e. society provides the resources that enable us to
acquire a sense of social 'rules').
 Allocative: control over material objects, which enable
things to get done (land, raw materialism information).
 Authoritative resources (status, education and
knowledge, authority) which establish command over
other people.
Three modalities of structure
 Or, the ways in which rules and resources are
embedded
 Social structures enable and constrain, (rather than
compel or prohibit) in three ways:
1. Communication of meaning - individuals draw upon
interpretative schemes
2. Application of sanctions - people draw upon norms
and these eventually become 'moral rules'
3. The use of power - people draw on facilities
('resources') involving structures of (soft) domination.
The ‘reflexive individual’
 We possess different levels of awareness which affect the
way we act in the world. We switch between them in
differing contexts
 Practical consciousness; describes to the practical skills
and knowledge that we employ.
 Discursive consciousness refers to the ability to reflect on
and comment rationally on our behaviour.
 It is in shifting to one mode of consciousness to another
that we employ another characteristic of agency - our
ability to reflect on and monitor our own behaviour. Thus
we become reflexive agents.
Next Week

 Structuration Theory and Critiques of Giddens.

 Presentation briefing.
 Finalising presentation groups.
 Group work.