Showing papers on "Structure and agency published in 2005"

Health Lifestyle Theory and the Convergence of Agency and Structure

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.

Ontology in organization and management studies: a critical realist perspective

Abstract: Organization Studies has recently been captured by a cultural, linguistic, poststructural or postmodern turn, the impetus for which has come from the ontological turn from a (naive) realist ontology to a socially constructed ontology. Much of the current ontological discussion is, however, characterised by ambiguity which makes it difficult to get to the bottom of ontological claims and, of course, to locate the source of any ontological errors. This paper uses a critical realist perspective to highlight the ambiguity and error encouraged by postmodernism’s commitment to a socially constructed ontology. Critical realism’s ontology is offered as a more fruitful alternative. Labour process theory, specifically agency and structure to demonstrate (i) critical realism is not damaged by many common postmodern criticisms of agency and structure and (ii) once interpreted through the prism of critical realism, there is no need to abandon this powerful analytical device.

The sociology of Bourdieu and the construction of the 'object' in translation and interpreting studies

Abstract: This article introduces Bourdieu's sociological perspective and its relevance to translation and interpreting studies. It discusses Bourdieu's key concepts – habitus, field, capital and illusio – and their contribution to theorizations of the interaction between structure and agency in sociological and philosophical debates. Considerable attention is paid to the relationship between Bourdieu's reflexive sociology and the emergent interest in the ethnographic tradition within translation and interpreting studies, particularly the influence of the interpretive approach of Geertz and the subsequent work of Clifford and Marcus within the culturalist paradigm. The question of methodology is addressed in relation to Bourdieu's reflexive sociology and the construction of the 'object' of sociological research. The article further explores how Bourdieu's concepts may be made to work empirically within translation and interpreting research and how much this depends on embracing Bourdieu's ontological and epistemological stance. Bourdieu's work is briefly explored in relation to other sociological theories that have begun to emerge as relevant to translation studies, in particular the work of Latour and Luhmann, and additional future directions for research within the sociology of translation and interpreting are suggested.

On the making and taking of professionalism in the further education workplace

Abstract: This paper examines the changing nature of professional practice in English further education. At a time when neo-liberal reform has significantly impacted on this under-researched and over-market-tested sector, little is known about who its practitioners are and how they construct meaning in their work. Sociological interest in the field has tended to focus on further education practitioners as either the subjects of market and managerial reform or as creative agents operating within the contradictions of audit and inspection cultures. In challenging such dualism, which is reflective of wider sociological thinking, the paper examines the ways in which agency and structure combine to produce a more transformative conception of the further education professional. The approach contrasts with a prevailing policy discourse that seeks to re-professionalise and modernise further education practice without interrogating either the terms of its professionalism or the neo-liberal practices in which it resides.

Critical realism and empirical research methods in education

Abstract: In the light of recent writings of Richard Pring, and in relation to the application of empirical research methods in education, this paper offers a corrective to a neo-realist viewpoint and develops a critical realist perspective The argument is made that the deployment of empirical research methods needs to be underpinned by a meta-theory embracing epistemological and ontological elements; that this meta-theory does not commit one to the view that absolute knowledge of the social world is possible; and that critical realism is the most appropriate meta-theory to underpin the use of empirical research methods Further to this, unhelpful dualisms between quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and between structure and agency, are discussed in relation to neo-realist and critical realist perspectives

Critical realism as a philosophy and social theory in information science

Abstract: Purpose – The philosophical position known as critical realism is briefly introduced, and some of its central features are used to connect the philosophy and the realist social theory to some current library and information science (LIS) models of information behaviour.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a literature‐based analysis of the critical realism concepts of a stratified social reality, the importance of contextualisation, and the relation between structure and agency. These features are discussed in relation to various models of information‐seeking behaviour, but also to the “interpretative” approach to information as meaning which can only be achieved through discourses in a human community.Findings – The critical realism perspective could lay a fruitful foundation for an interdisciplinary research field like LIS, and its user studies in particular, concerned with many levels of information creation, seeking, use and processing. It is the task of the LIS researcher to explain the mecha...

Critical Realism and the Strategic-Relational Approach.

Abstract: This article develops a distinctive critical realist analysis of structure and agency . It first describes Roy Bhaskar�s account of critical realism; then discusses critical realism in general; next introduces Anthony Giddens�s structuration theory and two particular applications of critical realism to structure and agency � those of Bhaskar and Margaret Archer; and, finally, presents a third such application based on the strategic-relational approach. The latter goes beyond conventional analyses of the duality, dualism, or dialectic of structure and agency by studying the recursive conditioning, mutual coupling, and complex co-evolution of structure and agency and, above all, by stressing the differential, spatio-temporal relationality of structure and agency. Its advantages over other approaches should emerge as we proceed.

Implementing change in construction project organizations: exploring the interplay between structure and agency

Abstract: Although change in management culture and practice has been a recurrent theme in recent years, there is comparatively little research available that explores the issues and challenges facing construction firms as they attempt to implement management ‘best practices'. Yet, understanding the complex social processes involved is vital if the industry is to respond effectively to prescriptions for organizational change. This paper draws upon Giddens’ (1984) structuration theory to explore the effects of the relationship between structural conditions and managerial agency on attempts to introduce change within project-based organization. The paper reports research from case studies of changed management practice in two UK construction firms. The main findings demonstrate the impact of dispersed managerial practices on the interpretative and normative rules deployed by project managers and the power resources mobilized by companies and individuals as they seek to impose, accept or resist change.

PostScript: Doing Agency in Archaeology

Abstract: We argue that since agency and structure are indivisible parts of a single process through which society is continuously created over time, everything that persists or changes in archaeological sites is evidence of agency. The challenge is to adopt appropriate descriptive levels and language to avoid falsely dividing agency and structure. Successful archaeological studies use networks and chains as models or metaphors for connections in sequences of action over time. We argue that models must also link micro-scale actions to outcomes on the macroscale. Because theories of agency differ in the degree of freedom of action they assume, archaeologists must also clearly identify their own position with respect to constraints on action.

Masculine domination, radical feminism and change:

Abstract: Feminists are starting to look to the work of Pierre Bourdieu, in the hope that it might provide a useful framework for conceptualizing the tension between structure and agency in questions of gend...

Unconscious conflict or everyday accountability

Abstract: Hollway and Jefferson's paper ‘Panic and Perjury: A Psychosocial Exploration of Agency’ is a thought-provoking and evocative piece of analysis. Hollway's work, and her recent research with Jefferson, has made a major contribution to the reshaping of social psychology. It raises profound and challenging questions from a direction that has been under-represented, and I welcome the opportunity to comment on the paper from a discursive psychological standpoint. The central analytic claim of the paper is that powerful unconscious forces explain the ‘puzzle’ of Vince's illness. The central theoretical claim is that psychoanalysis offers a resolution of the agency/structure debate in contrast to discursive and social constructionist approaches in social psychology. According to Hollway and Jefferson, discursive approaches remain hopelessly mired in dualism and in deterministic positions. My first reaction to these two claims is to identify strongly with Vince. Both of us, the participant in this piece of research and the discursive psychologist constructed here as straw antagonist, have been placed in storylines not of our choosing. For Hollway and Jefferson's paper to work as a new resolution of the agency and structure debate, Vince needs to be presented as facing a ‘stark choice’ and to be inexplicably ill. There also needs to be an ‘old theory’ which can be rejected. As Vince comments in relation to his original injury, we have had ‘words put in our mouths’. Vince and the discourse analyst acquire identities which we might not recognize and may want to strongly repudiate. Obviously, for Vince this is a much more serious matter, since as is the way in psychoanalytic interpretation (Parker, 1997), his very character is at stake. It is probably just as well then that it is the discursive psychologist who is offered the chance to reply in the pages of his journal. For ethical reasons (as Hollway and Jefferson intended) one hopes that Vince will never have to engage with this analysis of himself as a timid man choosing illness to avoid confrontation with a bullying boss.

Towards an interdisciplinary perspective on the life course

Abstract: Why Look at Life Courses in an Interdisciplinary Perspective? (R. Levy, The Pavie Team). Part I: Agency and Structure. Structure Agency and the Space Between: On the Challenges and Contradictions of a Blended View of the Life Course. (Richard A. Settersten, L. Gannon). Agency, Events, and Structure at the End of the Life Course. (V.W. Marshall). Looking at Ambivalences: The Contribution of a "New-Old" View of Intergenerational Relations to the Study of the Life Course. (K. Luscher). Part II: Transitions. Agency and Structure in Educational Attainment and the Transition to Adulthood. (J. Mortimer, J.T. Staff, J.C Lee). Non-Normative Life Course Transitions: Reflections on the Significance of Demographic Events on Lives. (F.Y. Furstenberg). The Secret of Transitions: The Interplay of Complexity and Reduction in Life Course Analysis. (K. Bird, H. Kruger). Part III: Biographical Re-Construction. Life-Course Transitions and Social Identity Change. (N. Emler). The Impact of Personality and Living Context on Remembering Biographical Transitions. (P. Perrig-Chiello, W.J. Perrig). Studying Lives in Time: A Narrative Approach. (D.P. McAdams). Part IV: Methodological Innovations. Life Course Analysis: Two (Complementary) Cultures? Some Reflections with Examples Form the Analysis of the Transition to Adulthood. (F.C. Billari). Life Course Data in Demography and Social Sciences: Statistical and Data-Mining Approaches. (G. Ritschard, M. Oris). Five Steps in Latent Curve Modeling with Longitudinal Life-Span Data. (J.J. McArdle). Afterthoughts. Incitations for Interdisciplinarity in Life Course Research. (P. Ghisletta et al.).

Middle-Class Social Reproduction: The Activation and Negotiation of Structural Advantages

Abstract: Research on social reproduction focuses predominantly on the working class. Middle-class social reproduction is not as widely studied and is often assumed to be a structurally determined process lacking human agency. Using in-depth interviews with 41 college seniors, I demonstrate that middle-class social reproduction arises out of the interplay between agency and structure, specifically, from individuals’ activation and negotiation of structural advantages. My analysis centers around the themes often invoked to illustrate working-class reproduction: resistance and contestation; the importance of the peer group; and familial structural resources—or the lack thereof. I discuss how these themes are reflected in middle-class social reproduction.

A network approach for researching partnerships in health

Abstract: Background: The last decade has witnessed a significant move towards new modes of governing that are based on coordination and collaboration. In particular, local level partnerships have been widely introduced around the world. There are few comprehensive approaches for researching the effects of these partnerships. The aim of this paper is to outline a network approach that combines structure and agency based explanations to research partnerships in health. Network research based on two Primary Care Partnerships (PCPs) in Victoria is used to demonstrate the utility of this approach. The paper examines multiple types of ties between people (structure), and the use and value of relationships to partners (agency), using interviews with the people involved in two PCPs – one in metropolitan Melbourne and one in a rural area. Results: Network maps of ties based on work, strategic information and policy advice, show that there are many strong connections in both PCPs. Not surprisingly, PCP staff are central and highly connected. Of more interest are the ties that are dependent on these dedicated partnership staff, as they reveal which actors become weakly linked or disconnected without them. Network measures indicate that work ties are the most dispersed and strategic information ties are the most concentrated around fewer people. Divisions of general practice are weakly linked, while local government officials and Department of Human Services (DHS) regional staff appear to play important bridging roles. Finally, the relationships between partners have changed and improved, and most of those interviewed value their new or improved links with partners. Conclusion: Improving service coordination and health promotion planning requires engaging people and building strong relationships. Mapping ties is a useful means for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of partnerships, and network analysis indicates concentration and dispersion, the importance of particular individuals, and the points at which they will fragment. A narrative approach adds an assessment of whether the partnerships are being used and valued. The approach outlined here, which examines structure and agency as separate but related explanations, has much to offer in examining partnerships.

Painting as Agency, Style as Structure: Innovations in Mimbres Pottery Designs From Southwest New Mexico

Abstract: The act of painting a design is a form of agency, and the overall style of that design in part can be conceptualized as a kind of structure. This perspective is used as a basis for analyzing chronological changes in designs on Mimbres Black-on-white pottery (ca. AD 750–1150) from Southwest New Mexico. Specific focus is on a methodology that can be used to detect innovations, that is, the introduction of novel designs that are incorporated into the design corpus and thus transform the structure. The conceptualization of a particular tradition (in this instance, pottery painting) as a form of structure analogous to general structure in Giddens' sense thus provides important insights into the recursive relationship between agency and structure.

Accessing Habitus: Relating Structure and Agency through Focus Group Research:

Abstract: The article focuses on the intersection of theory methodology and empirical research to argue that we can learn about habitus through certain types of focus groups. An account of the relationship between structure, individual and collective agency is developed to provide a grounding for the methodological argument. The article suggests, on the basis of this understanding, that focus groups can be constituted to give us access to interactions which draw upon the collective basis of habitus. Some empirical work is drawn upon for illustrative purposes.

Choosing to Labour: Structure and Agency in School-Work Transitions

Abstract: We still know relatively little about how young people rationalize their educational and occupational plans and what this might tell us about the relationship between structure and agency in school-work transitions. In this paper, based on a multi-method comparison of youth apprentices in Canada and Germany, the range of school-work transition alternatives realistically under consideration was circumscribed by socio-economic status, habitus, cultural capital, and institutional factors. While their vocational choices reproduced their class position, youth apprentices nevertheless saw their entry into the trades as an expression of a preference for, and identity with, working-class ideals of manual work. Further analysis suggests, however, that these narratives can also be interpreted as post-facto rationalization strategies in response to public discourses that equate life course success with ever higher levels of educational attainment.

Jovens europeus: retrato da diversidade

Abstract: This article explores the diversity of education to work transitions amongst some European young people. Following contextualisation of recent social change in issues relating to the family, individualized trajectories and transition regimes in Europe, youth transitions are discussed through the presentation of results of current qualitative research. This research is represented by exemplary case studies from six of the regions participating in this research, namely, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, East Germany and the United Kingdom. These accounts illustrate the range of responses young people with contrasting social conditions across Europe make to changing circumstances, such as the extension and prolongation of educational pathways, the transformation of the labour market and a shifting balance between state and family support in enabling labour market entry. Dimensions such as family ties and future plans are also portrayed in this article in relation to current theoretical debates around the issues individualization, agency and structure in youth trajectories.

Tracing the social processes of change : the political economy of Mexico's transformations

Abstract: This thesis is a theoretical exercise which relies on the Strategic Relational Approach to analyze the broad social processes of change and to deliver a critical account of the contingent contemporary transformations in Mexico. By engaging in an exercise of process-tracing, this thesis aims to examine critically key features of social change, challenging economic deterministic accounts, and ignoring social and political circumstances. Its focus is on the application of theories of change to illuminate broad trajectories of reform. By presenting a theoretically informed empirical narrative of contemporary transformations in Mexico, it is possible to enhance the insight into the particular processes of commodification, democratization and integration. Moreover, the varied and combined paces, depths and strengths of these transformations provide an excellent opportunity to understand and assess the importance of tendencies and countertendencies in play. By referring to the analytical tools of structure and agency, material and ideational elements, all within specific locations of time and space the contingency of processes of change is recognized. The restoration of agency is a crucial element for an analysis of the socially embedded processes of commodification, democratization and integration. By relying on the accounts of political economists and economic sociologists, it can be shown that the processes are deeply political and non-determinate. Therefore, alongside constraints, they also offer windows of opportunity which encompass a broader social and political spectrum and possibilities of transformation. Since different modes of governance are not necessarily incompatible with each other, the account offered here focuses on the state, the market and networking, as well as their complementary roles, which are not reducible to determinisms or inevitability of any sort.

Agency Versus Structure: Path Dependency and Choice in Low-Wage Labor Markets:

Abstract: The growing preponderance of low-wage work in America challenges the dual mission of Human Resource Development Practitioners to foster individual and organizational learning and performance. In the prevailing discourse of the learning society, individual success and mobility are available to all who assume personal responsibility and agency in the labor market. A competing discourse posits that the emerging structure of work disadvantages a growing number of workers, leading to labor market segregation and significant economic disparity. The author argues that both agency and structure interact in low-wage labor markets to create and limit opportunity for workers. The aim of this article is to locate the learning challenges faced by low-wage workers and their employers and to explore what Human Resource Development Practitioners can do to mitigate the g rowth o f l ow-wage w ork a nd i ts i ndividual a nd s ocial consequences.

Marxism and the State: An Analytical Approach

Abstract: Introduction: The Theory of History and the State Marx, the State and Functional Explanation The Instrumentalist Thesis: A Restatement Structure and Agency in State Theory Base and Superstructure A Theory of the 'Needs of Capital' State Autonomy: A Conceptual Framework Constraints on the State: Mechanisms of Economic Determination Globalization, History and the State

Critical realism in the soclial sciences

Abstract: Critical realism is gradually gaining ground in the social sciences. In this interview the founder of the critical realist philosophy of science, Roy Bhaskar, gives an account of the overall developments in his thought. Having briefly accounted for his background and reasons for becoming a philosopher and having explained how he took reflections on certain natural scientific practices as his starting point in the development of his philosophy, Bhaskar moves on to outline the main differences between the natural and the social sciences and to discuss his attempt to transcend the dualisms of the social sciences. The critical realist approach to the agency-structure dualism is contrasted with Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration, and Bhaskar explains what he sees as the main difference between critical realism and poststructuralist discourse theory. Towards the end of the interview, Bhaskar deals with the latest developments in his thought, and he reflects on the state of crisis in today's world.

Concerns with "Mutual Constitution": A Critical Realist Commentary

Abstract: The case for “analytical dualism” as a means of approaching sociotechnical action is presented as an alternative to accounts which tend to conflate agency, structure, and technology. This is based on the work of Margaret Archer, whose work is in turn located in the traditions of critical realism. Her commitment to analytical dualism, which stresses both the importance of time in analysis and the emergent properties of structure, is argued to give a firmer purchase on the notion of context than the alternatives based on, for example, the work of Giddens and Latour.

Bridging Structure and Agency: Processes of Institutional Change

Abstract: The tension between (social) order and change, or, alternatively formulated, between structure and agency, has a long history in the social sciences (e.g. Verburg 1991). The discussion has substantial philosophical overtones. In this article we recount the history of the discussion. We both acknowledge the more recent admonition that the agent may have been given short shrift in previous eras (Davis 2003), but at the same time argue that one should not negate the reality of social structure or institutions (Hodgson 1999, 2004). In this article we argue, however, that these recent contributions, from the fields of economics, sociology, political science and management, do not provide a much needed account of how the tension between structure and agency may be resolved conceptually. Accounts seem to emphasize either structure or agency, and fail to capture their interrelationships. We submit that that the process of institutionalization does resolve the tension conceptually, focusing on the role of the agent in reproducing institutional setting, but also in instigating institutional change. We provide a theoretical account of the conditions under which institutions change, and the likely direction of such change. In doing so we emphasize the relation between socio-cultural values subscribed to in a society or community and institutional settings and practices (Dolfsma 2004). As institutions should be conceptualized to have both structural as well as ‘cultural’ aspects (Neale 1987), in many but not all cases irrevocably related, agents can re-interpret or re-define a given institutional structure in the light of a differing perspective, giving rise to tensions felt and possilbly setting in motion a process of institutional change.

Human Agency in Mission Work: Missionary Styles and Their Political Consequences

Abstract: One has to go beyond the structural determinants of mission work to understand how human agency affects religion diffusion across cultures. Missionaries personalize their faith for local converts, and in so doing they reproduce religious conditions akin to those of their own experience. These personal schemas for appropriating the faith exemplify the way human agency interplays with organizational settings in cross-cultural situations to create unique missionary styles. This interplay of agency and structure helps set the local parameters for transplanted denominations, as they in turn interact in unexpected ways with the host culture. The result is a spectrum of missionary styles. This paper explores the end poles of that spectrum, the diffusion and the acculturation styles and their unique consequences in terms of mission outcomes.