Showing papers on "Structure and agency published in 1992"

Reconceptualising Structure and Agency in the Sociology of Education: structuration theory and schooling

Abstract: Since the 1970s there has been considerable debate among sociologists of education about the macro‐micro gap in educational analyses. However, educational research remains divided largely into the study of large‐scale phenomena such as social systems and national policies on the one hand, and case‐studies of individual schools and social interaction on the other. This split has had a number of unfortunate consequences for the development of the field. Most importantly, the dominant conceptions of structure and agency employed in the sociology of education are characterised by a dualism which makes it difficult to conceptualise adequately the processes involved in social change. In this paper, I briefly describe this structure‐agency dualism before critically examining three attempts which have been made to address this problem. The ability of structuration theory to overcome this dualism is then examined, and I conclude by arguing that this approach offers an important new direction for the sociology of e...

Shaping Melbourne's future? : town planning, the state, and civil society

Abstract: Part I. Introduction: 1. Melbourne in the early 1990s 2. Approach to the study Part II. The Evolution of Melbourne and its Planning: 3. An historical perspective 4. The early days: depression, war and recovery 5. The 'Long Boom' and the 1954 planning scheme 6. Transition and turbulence in the 'Whitlam years' 7. The recession bites 8. Strategies for coping or recovery 9. Urban change and planning, 1929-1990 Part III. Structure and Agency in the Social Construction of Melbourne: 10. A socio-political perspective 11. The activities of capital 12. Communities, households and social movements: a countervailing force? 13. The political parties, the state and the bureaucracies 14. The built-environment professionals 15. The legal and statutory framework 16. Frameworks of power Part IV. Space, Plans, Controls and Outcomes: 17. A geographical perspective 18. The macro level: strategic planning intentions and outcomes for Melbourne as a whole 19. The meso level: intentions and outcomes in two segments of the region 20. The micro level: intentions and outcomes in localities 21. Land-use planning and the social construction of built form Part V. Conclusions and Summary: 22. Conclusions 23. Summary Bibliography Index.

Agency, Structure, and Com parat ive Con texts : Toward a Synthetic lnteractionism

Abstract: Recent sociological theorizing has addressed the relationship between agency and structure. Although this issue has not frequently been discussed by interactionists, it is implicitly critical to the perspective. As I argue, an interactionist approach can capture both the objective and subjective components of structures, settings, and events, while reminding us that contexts can be defined at all levels of generality and should be understood in reference to other contexts (a comparative contextapproach). I raise the core concepts of obdurateness, constraint, negotiation, sedimentation, symbolization, identification, and ritualization, attempting to generalize these concepts into a synthetic interactionism based on the grounding of action in the comparison of contexts. My goal is to develop an understanding of the “interaction order” that does justice to both order and interaction.

Doing Things Together: Some Basic Forms of Agency and Structure in Collective Action and Some Explanations

Abstract: Studies of the growth and continuous regeneration of groups suggest answers to recent questions about the relations between agency and structure. Several of these studies are reviewed within a framework built on G.H. Mead's social behaviorism and on research concerning organizational growth and collective behavior. The explanations based on this framework are contrasted with alternative approaches

Multiple traditions and the question of cultural integration

Abstract: Several current problems in social anthropology are confronted in this essay. The main theoretical and epistemological issue raised is the relationship between agency and structure, or between holist and individualist orientations in social analysis. The main empirical and methodological problem is the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to conceptualise society and culture as units of study when we study systems which are in important senses unbounded. The empirical material is mainly drawn from the population of Indian origin in Trinidad, and it is shown in which ways systemic levels as well as agency and structure interact in the creation of Indo‐Trinidadian identity, which, it is argued, is to a great extent created through abstract mediating structures and not exclusively through face‐to‐face contact.

How Should One Study Economic Policy-Making? Four Characters in Search of an Object

Abstract: By focusing on some major contributions to political economy and economic policy-making within advanced capitalism, among the richest subfields of the discipline, the article seeks to analyze the relation between structural constraints and political choice. With the partial exception of Politics against Markets, all the works reviewed here seek to interpret rather than change the world. Attending to the fine grain of historical detail, they insightfully describe important political developments. They provide fine accounts of the interplay of structure and agency in concrete historical settings. By developing impressive theory to illuminate these developments, the works considerably advance our knowledge of the way that political forces affect economic policy outcomes. However, they generally share three important and interrelated shortcomings: they do not adequately conceptualize the structural dynamics of democratic capitalism; they adopt an economistic perspective concerning the organization of interests and social identities; and they confine attention to what is and fail to consider what might be.

Explaining Cross-National Variations of Two Anti-Nuclear Movements: A Political Process Perspective:

Abstract: A recurrent theme in social theory is the micro-macro linkage. In recent social movement research, too, the building of conceptual and empirical linkages between agency and structure has become a prominent concern. Based on empirical examples drawn from the nuclear energy debates in Germany and the United States, an attempt is made to develop a political process perspective that links structure and action in a four-component account. The components considered are: state structure, political culture, temporal opportunity, and movement organisation. This political process perspective helps to explain cross-national variations of the examined anti-nuclear movements.

"Recent Theoretical Advances in Social Psychology: Progress and Promises"

Abstract: Any special issue entitled "theoretical advances" in social psychology is bound to be disappointing to many segments of the field, since it makes possible invidious comparisons between what is included in the journal and what is not. We would like to begin by stating up front that what we have included in the special issue reflects both a sample of the styles of work submitted for consideration and our own editorial efforts to select pieces that would be provocative. The articles included in this special issue do not represent a random sampling of the most current theoretical developments in the field. However, they do provide a clear sense of progress, addressing old themes and substantive topics from new vantage points. The topics will be familiar to mainstream social psychologists: attitudes and behavior, socialization, the production and reproduction of culture, face-management and language use, person perception, the patterning of affiliation, group growth and development, collective action, and the emergence of social order. In addition, recent metatheoretical themes in sociological theorizing are reflected in the pages of this special issue: agency and structure, microprocesses and macrostructures and objective versus subjective perspectives on social reality (Ritzer, 1988). We will describe the nature of the contributions to this special issue and in doing so, draw more general implications of this work for future theoretical and empirical developments in social psychology.

Agency and structure in cultural production. a case study of news work at Canada's CBC Newsworld

Abstract: News and current affairs work at the Canadian all-news television service CBC Newsworld is used as a case study of agency and structure in cultural production. Drawing on participant-observation work at Canada's all-news television service, and on secondary research outside the field of news sociology concerning the nature of cultural practice, a theory of journalism as "cultural agency" is developed in which the structural conditions of news work are seen to both mediate and emerge from the daily activities of news workers. News work is thus seen to truly generate culture in a recursive sense. This view of news work is argued to be significant both as a social theory: as an alternative model of cultural practice; and as a potential intervention in the production process: as a way to begin thinking about changing the way news is produced.