Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@@The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration.
TL;DR: Giddens as mentioned in this paper has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade and outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form.
Abstract: Anthony Giddens has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade. In "The Constitution of Society" he outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form. A particular feature is Giddens' concern to connect abstract problems of theory to an interpretation of the nature of empirical method in the social sciences. In presenting his own ideas, Giddens mounts a critical attack on some of the more orthodox sociological views. "The Constitution of Society" is an invaluable reference book for all those concerned with the basic issues in contemporary social theory.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: The authors argued that Polanyi employed embeddedness as a methodological principle akin to methodological holism and as a theoretical proposition on the changing place of economy in society, which reveals a tension in his thought.
Abstract: While Polanyi argues that all economies are embedded and enmeshed in social relations and institutions, he tends to see market economy as disembedded, which reveals a tension in his thought. The main motivation for this paper is to understand the origins of this tension. On the basis of a systematic formulation of Polanyi's work, it is argued that Polanyi employs embeddedness in a dual manner: (a) as a methodological principle akin to methodological holism, and (b) as a theoretical proposition on the changing place of economy in society. These two formulations of embeddedness contradict each other. After tracing out the origins of this contradiction, this paper concludes by considering the implications of this analysis for economic sociology. It is argued that embeddedness as a methodological principle is the only acceptable usage of the term. Yet, in this capacity, embeddedness falls short of economic sociology's goal of providing a theoretical alternative to neoclassical economics.
184 citations
Cites background from "Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@..."
...The physical notion of a ‘sphere’ is a misleading way of thinking about economy and society because neither is a physical entity with a definite shape and boundary; rather, they are the accumulation and patterning of social relationships in a given time-space regionalization (Giddens, 1984)....
[...]
TL;DR: The promise of facilitation’s promise lies in its potential to stimulate higher-order learning in organizations through experimenting with, generating learning about, and sustaining small-scale adaptations to organizational processes and work routines.
Abstract: Facilitation is a guided interactional process that has been popularized in health care. Its popularity arises from its potential to support uptake and application of scientific knowledge that stands to improve clinical and managerial decision-making, practice, and ultimately patient outcomes and organizational performance. While this popular concept has garnered attention in health services research, we know that both the content of facilitation and its impact on knowledge implementation vary. The basis of this variation is poorly understood, and understanding is hampered by a lack of conceptual clarity. In this paper, we argue that our understanding of facilitation and its effects is limited in part by a lack of clear theoretical grounding. We propose a theoretical home for facilitation in organizational learning theory. Referring to extant literature on facilitation and drawing on theoretical literature, we discuss the features of facilitation that suggest its role in contributing to learning capacity. We describe how facilitation may contribute to generating knowledge about the application of new scientific knowledge in health-care organizations. Facilitation’s promise, we suggest, lies in its potential to stimulate higher-order learning in organizations through experimenting with, generating learning about, and sustaining small-scale adaptations to organizational processes and work routines. The varied effectiveness of facilitation observed in the literature is associated with the presence or absence of factors known to influence organizational learning, since facilitation itself appears to act as a learning mechanism. We offer propositions regarding the relationships between facilitation processes and key organizational learning concepts that have the potential to guide future work to further our understanding of the role that facilitation plays in learning and knowledge generation.
184 citations
Cites methods from "Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@..."
...Social practice theory, inspired in part by Giddens [78] structuration theory, involves the analysis of “practices” in social settings (including but not exclusive to organizational settings) that are both generated and sustained by shared understandings about the skills and knowledge required to complete activities, and these shared understandings are in turn shaped by assumptions and presuppositions [77] about what is referred to in the learning literature as actionoutcome relationships [15]....
[...]
...Giddens A....
[...]
TL;DR: The vast and growing array of concepts, methods and tools in the sustainability field imply a need for a structuring and coordinating framework, including a unifying and operational definition of sustainability as discussed by the authors.
184 citations
Cites background from "Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@..."
...…looking for meaning and purpose is a concept in several disciplines, such as sociology, anthropology, and other social sciences (Kurzman 2008).5 Giddens (1984), e.g., speaks of structures of signification, the interpretations or meanings that individuals use to make sense of their experience,…...
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the role of income inequality in comparison to other factors was analyzed using multivariate regression to identify which of them influence Internet usage to what extent and the results showed that income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient is an important influencing factor besides per capita income, the degree of urbanization, and the level of democratization.
Abstract: This article is subject to the following research question: Is the role of income inequality in comparison to other factors an element that influences the digital divide? Eleven variables providing data on 126 countries are analyzed using multivariate regression to identify which of them influence Internet usage to what extent. The used data on 126 countries refer to the year 2005. The results show that income inequality measured by the Gini coefficient is an important influencing factor besides per capita income, the degree of urbanization, and the level of democratization. The results question reductionistic digital divide approaches that analyze information inequality via focusing on a single variable (such as technology or markets). Access to ICTs is shaped by the interaction of socioeconomic, political, cultural, social, and technological factors. These results cast doubt on technological determinism, economic reductionism, and linear trend projection in the digital divide debate. Digital divide causes are complex.
183 citations
Cites background from "Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@..."
...This distinction can also be found in other contemporary sociological theories: Giddens (1984, pp. 28-34) distinguishes between economic institutions, political institutions, and symbolic orders/modes of discourse as the three types of institutions in society....
[...]
References
More filters