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.
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TL;DR: In this paper, a multi-level perspective (MLP) is presented as a heuristic framework to analyze the interactions between industry, technology, markets, policy, culture and civil society.
798 citations
Cites background from "Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@..."
...These actors do not act in a vacuum, but are instead embedded in socio-technical regimes, which are the deep-structural rules that coordinate and guide actor’s perceptions and actions (Giddens, 1984)....
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TL;DR: The direction of this article is to present a theory of health lifestyles that includes considerations of both agency and structure, with an emphasis upon restoring structure to its appropriate position.
Abstract: This article utilizes the agency-structure debate as a framework for constructing a health lifestyle theory. No such theory currently exists, yet the need for one is underscored by the fact that many daily lifestyle practices involve considerations of health outcomes. An individualist paradigm has influenced concepts of health lifestyles in several disciplines, but this approach neglects the structural dimensions of such lifestyles and has limited applicability to the empirical world. The direction of this article is to present a theory of health lifestyles that includes considerations of both agency and structure, with an emphasis upon restoring structure to its appropriate position. The article begins by defining agency and structure, followed by presentation of a health lifestyle model and the theoretical and empirical studies that support it.
784 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the nature of strategic communication, defined as the purposeful use of communication by an organization to fulfill its mission, and identified key aspects of communication.
Abstract: This article examines the nature of strategic communication, which is defined as the purposeful use of communication by an organization to fulfill its mission. Six relevant disciplines are involved in the development, implementation, and assessment of communications by organizations: management, marketing, public relations, technical communication, political communication, and information/social marketing campaigns. The nature of the term strategic is examined, and key aspects of communication are identified. This article is based, in part, on a panel discussion involving the journal's editors and international scholars at the International Communication Association in May 2005 in New York.
780 citations
Cites background from "Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@..."
...The struggle to exert power and control is inherent in all agency, as is power (Clegg, 1994; Giddens, 1984)....
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...Giddens (1984) had a much more positive interpretation of agency....
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01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: Ling et al. as mentioned in this paper found that the mobile phone is a big part of teenagers' lives and that it is used for a range of interaction and is also important as a symbol.
Abstract: Introduction The mobile telephone is a big part of my life . A mobile telephone is actually an expression of your personality . These words of two teenaged female informants describe their relationship to the mobile telephone. Yet their use of the device is a recent phenomenon. None of the teens included in this analysis had had a mobile telephone for more than four years. What is surprising is the degree to which the mobile telephone has been integrated into their lives. It is not simply a security device, nor is it used only to coordinate everyday events spontaneously. It is used for a range of interaction and is also important as a symbol. Our chapter looks at how the mobile telephone's adoption has yielded new forms of interaction and especially coordination. We call these micro-coordination and hyper-coordination. In Norway, where the analysis has taken place, the mobile telephone is well entrenched. With more than half the population armed with at least one mobile phone, no other country, save Finland, has a higher per capita consumption. The penetration is even higher among certain groups. In one of the focus groups, five of nine boys had two mobile telephones. For example, as of May 2001, as many as 94% of the oldest teens have a mobile telephone (Ling, forthcoming). Owing to the recent yet explosive growth of mobiles, it is quite noticeable as a cultural phenomenon. All the informants, even the youngest ones, remember life before its popularization.
778 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, an inter-organizational virtual team, tasked with creating a highly innovative product over a 10-month period, adapted the use of a collaborative technology and successfully achieved its challenging objectives.
Abstract: The adaptation process for new technology is not yet well understood. This study analyzes how an inter-organizational virtual team, tasked with creating a highly innovative product over a 10 month period, adapted the use of a collaborative technology and successfully achieved its challenging objectives. The study of such a virtual team is especially useful for extending our understanding of the adaptation process as virtual teams have more malleable structures than typical organizational units and controlled group experiments. Data were obtained from observations of weekly virtual meetings, electronic log files, interviews, and weekly questionnaires administered to team members. We found that the team initially experienced significant misalignments among the pre-existing organizational environment, group, and technology structures. To resolve these misalignments, the team modified the organizational environment and group structures, leaving the technology structure intact. However, as the team proceeded, a series of events unfolded that caused the team to re-evaluate and further modify its structures. This final set of modifications involved reverting back to the pre-existing organizational environment, while new technology and group structures emerged as different from both the pre-existing and the initial ones. A new model of the adaptation process - one that integrates these findings and those of several previous models - is proposed.
775 citations
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