Showing papers on "Structure and agency published in 2021"
TL;DR: In this article, an aspirations-capabilities framework for human mobility is proposed to understand the complex and often counter-intuitive ways in which processes of social transformation and development shape patterns of migration and enable us to integrate the analysis of almost all forms of migratory mobility within one meta-conceptual framework.
Abstract: This paper elaborates an aspirations–capabilities framework to advance our understanding of human mobility as an intrinsic part of broader processes of social change. In order to achieve a more meaningful understanding of agency and structure in migration processes, this framework conceptualises migration as a function of aspirations and capabilities to migrate within given sets of perceived geographical opportunity structures. It distinguishes between the instrumental (means-to-an-end) and intrinsic (directly wellbeing-affecting) dimensions of human mobility. This yields a vision in which moving and staying are seen as complementary manifestations of migratory agency and in which human mobility is defined as people’s capability to choose where to live, including the option to stay, rather than as the act of moving or migrating itself. Drawing on Berlin’s concepts of positive and negative liberty (as manifestations of the widely varying structural conditions under which migration occurs) this paper conceptualises how macro-structural change shapes people’s migratory aspirations and capabilities. The resulting framework helps to understand the complex and often counter-intuitive ways in which processes of social transformation and ‘development’ shape patterns of migration and enable us to integrate the analysis of almost all forms of migratory mobility within one meta-conceptual framework.
120 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the internal relations between structure and agency are conceptualized on the basis of a hierarchical structure and a hierarchical agency structure, and they are analyzed in a special issue on labour conflicts in the Global South.
Abstract: This article provides an introduction to the special issue on labour conflicts in the Global South. We will first conceptualize the internal relations between structure and agency on the basis of a...
17 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors develop and defend a triadic account of structural domination, according to which structural domination under capitalism presupposes collective power but no joint agency or shared intentions on the part of the dominators.
Abstract: textThis article develops and defends a triadic account of structural domination, according to which structural domination (e.g. patriarchy, white supremacy, capitalism) is a triadic relation between dominator(s), dominated, and regulator(s)—the constitutive domination dyad plus those roles and norms expressively upholding it. The article elaborates on the relationship between structure and agency from the perspective of both oppressor and oppressed and discusses the deduction of the concept of the capitalist state from the concept of capitalism. On the basis of these definitions, it shows that structural domination under capitalism presupposes collective power but no joint agency or shared intentions on the part of the dominators.
16 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a layered framework based on scientific realism is proposed to evaluate the policy effects of political leaders in the context of societal structures, formal political institutions, and the framing of policy problems.
Abstract: How should political leaders be evaluated? This article reviews existing approaches and argues that they are insufficiently developed to map the more complex policy effects of political leaders, since they tend to focus on electoral and broader regime level outcomes. In response, it maps out a layered framework based on scientific realism. The layered approach argues that analysis should focus on the effects of leaders within societal structures, formal political institutions, the framing of policy problems as well as policy. The approach requires that we are sensitive to the structure and agency relationships between layers when identifying where leaders brought about policy and political change, as well as the effects on the international system and on other polities. It is proposed that the new approach will help to develop a more complete and nuanced understanding of the policy effects of leaders that will uncover their effects in hidden spaces as well as broader societal shifts.
15 citations
TL;DR: Existence theory as discussed by the authors is a new approach to sociological theory and research, which starts from the assumption that people organise their lives around a limited set of objects (e.g., objects).
Abstract: This article introduces ‘existence theory’ as a new approach to sociological theory and research. Existence theory starts from the assumption that people organise their lives around a limited set o...
15 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue for a relational approach to the agency-structure problem and argue that structure has three dimensions, at its most fundamental, it is a network comprising soci...
Abstract: In this article I argue for a relational approach to the agency–structure problem. Structure has three dimensions from this perspective but, at its most fundamental, it is a network comprising soci...
15 citations
TL;DR: The authors argued that realist social theory could help us better understand the interaction between social structure and human agency in the context of family language policy (FLP) research, arguing that home often becomes a site where dominant societal ideologies and discourses of structuring nature compete with individual views and agency, ultimately informing language behavior.
Abstract: In this article, I argue that one social theory that could help us better understand the interaction between social structure and human agency in the context of family language policy (FLP) research is realist social theory. FLP studies in multilingual contexts have shown that home often becomes a site where dominant societal ideologies and discourses of structuring nature compete with individual views and agency, ultimately informing language behavior. Realist social theory advocates the analytical separation of structure and agency and attributes causal powers to both social structures and individual agency. This conceptualization of structure and agency prevents us from falling into structural determinism or individual voluntarism. Through examining the linguistic ideologies and practices of thirteen mothers of young children in Tabriz, Iran, I illustrate how family language policy emerges in interaction with and response to structural powers. (Family language policy, realist social theory, Iranian Azerbaijanis, agency, social structures, language maintenance)
15 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that employability is always shaped in a structured context: the context shapes what is needed to be employable, the do's and don'ts to achieve this and what kind of opportunities individual actors can expect, while at the same time the actors construct the context and its rules.
14 citations
TL;DR: This article cast light on structural factors limiting and shaping the actions of planners, and attempted to compensate for the emphasis planning theory places on the agency dimension of the planning process, by considering structural factors.
Abstract: The paper casts light on structural factors limiting and shaping the actions of planners. In doing so it attempts to compensate for the emphasis planning theory places on the agency dimension of pl...
13 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how agency and structure interact to influence the changing nature of careers in the French Humanitarian Sector, a sector that is undergoing a significant shift towards increas...
Abstract: This paper examines how agency and structure interact to influence the changing nature of careers in the French Humanitarian Sector – a sector that is undergoing a significant shift towards increas...
12 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed how political leaders harness gender dynamics to further their power, status and authority to act in foreign policy, and analyzed how adept political leaders navigate pro-and anti-gender norms to achieve core and often divergent foreign policy goals.
Abstract: Gender intersects as a major fault-line in increasingly polarized, contemporary global politics. Many democratic states in the global North and South have adopted pro-gender norms in their foreign policies, while other states and populist regimes have resisted the promotion of gender equality and women's rights. This article analyses how political leaders harness gender dynamics to further their power, status and authority to act in foreign policy. While scholarship on foreign policy analysis has emphasized the role of individuals, political leaders and their followers, and of two-level games balancing domestic and international pressures, we advance a novel theoretical concept: ‘gendered multilevel games’. This new concept highlights the gendered dynamics of the problem of agency and structure in foreign policy, which are generated from the interactions between the domestic, international and transnational levels, and reach within and across states. To illustrate the utility of this concept, we analyse foreign policy leadership and the variation in gendered multilevel games in four vignettes: (1) hyper-masculinity and revisionist leadership; (2) normative leadership and gendered nation-branding; (3) compassionate leadership and gendered transnational symbolism; and (4) contested leadership on pro- and anti-gender norms in foreign policy. Importantly, these empirical illustrations show how adept political leaders navigate pro- and anti-gender norms to achieve core and often divergent foreign policy goals.
TL;DR: This article applied a critical realist perspective drawing on the interplay between structure and agency to explore what theory says about introducing programmatic assessment in the context of pre-existing traditional approaches.
Abstract: Although the principles behind assessment for and as learning are well-established, there can be a struggle when reforming traditional assessment of learning to a program which encompasses assessment for and as learning. When introducing and reporting reforms, tensions in faculty may arise because of differing beliefs about the relationship between assessment and learning and the rules for the validity of assessments. Traditional systems of assessment of learning privilege objective, structured quantification of learners’ performances, and are done to the students. Newer systems of assessment promote assessment for learning, emphasise subjectivity, collate data from multiple sources, emphasise narrative-rich feedback to promote learner agency, and are done with the students. This contrast has implications for implementation and evaluative research. Research of assessment which is done to students typically asks, “what works”, whereas assessment that is done with the students focuses on more complex questions such as “what works, for whom, in which context, and why?” We applied such a critical realist perspective drawing on the interplay between structure and agency, and a systems approach to explore what theory says about introducing programmatic assessment in the context of pre-existing traditional approaches. Using a reflective technique, the internal conversation, we developed four factors that can assist educators considering major change to assessment practice in their own contexts. These include enabling positive learner agency and engagement; establishing argument-based validity frameworks; designing purposeful and eclectic evidence-based assessment tasks; and developing a shared narrative that promotes reflexivity in appreciating the complex relationships between assessment and learning.
27 Oct 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight four aspects of sociological thought that are crucial for advancing sustainability science research: social construction and critical realism, structure and agency, historical specificity, and collective action.
Abstract: Sociological insights are often underutilized in sustainability science. To further strengthen its commitment to interdisciplinary problem-driven, solutions-oriented research, sustainability science can better incorporate fundamental sociological conceptions into its core. We highlight four aspects of sociological thought that we consider crucial for advancing sustainability science research: (1) social construction and critical realism, (2) structure and agency, (3) historical specificity, and (4) collective action. We draw on examples from sociology to support a dynamic understanding of how social relations interact with the bio-geo-physical world. This necessary integration of sociological insights, we argue, is critical to generate comprehensive assessments of the causes and consequences of human-induced environmental change, and tend to be overlooked or oversimplified within the field of sustainability science. Beyond that, it can stimulate the development and implementation of viable solutions to sustainability challenges.
TL;DR: This paper argued that the conditions and circumstances in which May governed limited the feasibility, increased the costs, and compromised the effectiveness of her actions in office, and argued that this confirms that May was a victim of circumstances as much as a victim on her own agency.
Abstract: Theresa May’s premiership is widely acknowledged to have been a failure, but political commentators and the scholarly literature have, thus far, tended to focus on May’s misuse of her agency. This article argues that May’s premiership presents a particularly powerful example of the need to disentangle structure and agency when assessing prime ministerial performance. Drawing upon the work of Stephen Skowronek, it sets out a framework of evaluating prime ministerial agency in ‘political time’. This is then used to show how the conditions and circumstances in which May governed limited the feasibility, increased the costs, and compromised the effectiveness of her actions in office. We argue that this confirms that May was a victim of circumstances as much as a victim of her own agency.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the importance of avoiding simplistic dichotomies between good vs bad institutions, a classification that obscures as much as it reveals, needs to be taken more seriously.
TL;DR: Transitions from authoritarianism and breakdowns of democracy have long been central puzzles for scholars of Latin American politics as mentioned in this paper. But structural explanations have proved to be weak, and recent...
Abstract: Transitions from authoritarianism and breakdowns of democracy have long been central puzzles for scholars of Latin American politics. Because structural explanations have proved to be weak, recent ...
TL;DR: The authors argue that critical race theory has the conceptual flexibility to study British society and demonstrate the strength of critical race analysis as a practical social theory, and demonstrate its theoretical nature, paying specific attention to the notions of social space, the racial structure and racial interests; the racialized interaction order, racialized emotions, and structure and agency; and racial ideology, racial grammar, and racialized cognition.
Abstract: Critical race theory is growing in popularity in Britain. However, critics and advocates of critical race theory (CRT) in Britain have neglected the racialized social system approach. Through ignoring this approach, critics have thus "missed the target" in their rebuttals of CRT, while advocates of CRT have downplayed the strength of critical race analysis. By contrast, in this paper, I argue that that through the racialized social system approach, critical race theory has the conceptual flexibility to study British society. As a practical social theory, critical race theory provides us with the tools to study the realities and reproduction of racial inequality. To demonstrate this strength of CRT, and to demonstrate its theoretical nature, I discuss the conceptual framework of the racialized social system approach, paying specific attention to the notions of social space, the racial structure and racial interests; the racialized interaction order, racialized emotions, and structure and agency; and racial ideology, racial grammar, and racialized cognition.
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05 Mar 2021TL;DR: The authors argue that the solution to both problems lies in attempting to finally transcend the traditionally hostile and mutually exclusive paradigms of "humanist" or "cultural" Marxism on the one side and "anti-humanist or scientific" on the other.
Abstract: The main aim of the article is to suggest what and how a contemporary, revised version of humanism, inflected with critical realism and Marxism, can contribute to sociology. I focus primarily on two areas in which sociology is often found lacking today: theorizing the relationship between structure and agency, and deciding what to do with moral evaluations in sociological analyses. I argue that the solution to both lies in attempting to finally transcend the traditionally hostile and mutually exclusive paradigms of “humanist” or “cultural” Marxism on the one side and “anti-humanist” or “scientific” Marxism on the other. This enables us to carefully reinstate the agency of human subjects and the moral dimension, both of which were and still are dismissed by anti- or post-humanist social science, without neglecting the objective and causally relevant existence of social structures at the same time.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an Irish case study where migrants, general practice staff and service planners engaged in a project to implement the use of trained interpreters in primary care over 17 months.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the implications of applying a Bourdieusian meta-framework to business interaction and relationship building within networks and explore how a framework benefits understanding of structure/agency relations as a mutually constituted duality within business networks.
Abstract: This paper aims to explore the implications of applying a Bourdieusian meta-framework to business interaction and relationship building within networks. The motive is to advocate the use of Bourdieu’s work in its entirety rather than sub-optimal use of selected concepts in isolation.,The aim of this conceptual paper is to explore how a Bourdieusian framework benefits understanding of structure/agency relations as a mutually constituted duality within business networks. The concept of duality regard relationships as emergent from synergies between structure and agency made possible by the translational capacity of “habitus”. Habitus is, therefore, the main intersection, catalyst or chiasmus between structure and agency facilitating enacted, emergent properties of business relationships.,The Bourdieusian framework suggests that structures and practices are related by multiple dualities brokered by multiple knowledge forms. The main contribution that this triadic framework brings to debates on structure-agency relationships is mostly contained in the concept of “habitus”, which is identified as a translation vehicle provides critical brokerage between actors’ resource structures and activities. It is a key concept that helps us understand how structures and agentic behaviours are equally important and mutually constituting influences upon emergent properties of business interaction. For business marketing, this means that the habitus of actors’ schemas are both embodied and cognitive. Habitus acts as the main catalyst for emergent and diverse capital resources and a plural set of skills essential for effective practical activities.,The research focus of a Bourdieusian framework is upon investigating a triadic understanding of concepts of habitus, field and practice as elements of a “pan-relational” or mutually constituted amalgam facilitated by a corresponding triadic relationship between three types of knowledge; namely, “illusio”, “phronesis” and “poiesis”.,By adopting a Bourdieusian framework, this paper can regard the practical development of durable business relationships as involving interactions that adequately co-ordinate the different habitus, sub-fields and practices of parties as shared. The implication is that the practitioner needs to be equally competent in their use of “illusio”, “phronesis” and “poiesis” as different knowledge forms whose sum is greater than its parts.,The approach reveals that habitus emphasizes that structures are never entirely conscious and calculated schemas as they contain unconscious, embodied habits fuelled by tacit, cultural knowledge infused with symbolism, mythologies and rituals, which are communicated mostly indirectly through analogical reasoning, narrative, heuristics and embodied gestures.
27 Apr 2021
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined how structure and agency influence educational trajectories in Switzerland and found that lower-secondary track attendance significantly predicts individuals' probability of transitioning into academic education, whereas human agency plays a minor, albeit non-negligible, role.
Abstract: In the research on life-course outcomes, there is a long-standing debate on the relative importance of institutional structure and human agency. This study examines how structure and agency influence educational trajectories in Switzerland. The Swiss education system is hierarchically differentiated but permeable, providing both standard and non-standard pathways to higher education. Using data from a 15-year panel survey, the study assesses, first, the extent to which lower-secondary-school track attendance is associated with individuals’ probability of moving into an academic or vocational programme at upper-secondary level and, second, how this predicts the probability of subsequently entering a university. The study also examines how human agency influences these probabilities. Results of a structural equation model show that lower-secondary track attendance significantly predicts individuals’ probability of transitioning into academic education, whereas human agency plays a minor, albeit non-negligible, role in this regard. In turn, pursuing an academic rather than a vocational programme is associated with a 47-percentage point (or 16-fold) higher probability of subsequently attending university. Individuals comparatively rarely follow non-standard pathways to university, irrespective of their level of agency. The education system channels educational trajectories, but the power of the channelling effect varies across the different junctures of the system.
TL;DR: This paper argued that Knafo and Teschke fundamentally misread Brenner's original contribution to the transition debate and argued that their critique of the analysis of capitalist expansion and crisis is also theoretically and empirically questionable.
Abstract:
This essay argues that Knafo and Teschke fundamentally misread Brenner’s original contribution to the transition debate. They equate his rejection of trans-historical or trans-modal laws of motion with the notion that social-property relations do not have strong rules of reproduction that structure the actions of agents and give rise to ‘developmental patterns’ specific to each form of social labour. Knafo and Teschke’s critique of Brenner’s analysis of capitalist expansion and crisis is also theoretically and empirically questionable.
04 Feb 2021
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how a state owned Colombian multi-utility conglomerate has used management accounting practices to shape efficiency, which has enabled the company to operate as a private enterprise, taking advantage of NPM-led reforms and management accounting technologies.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how a state owned Colombian multiutility conglomerate has used management accounting practices to shape efficiency. We bring out the interplay between structures and agency in the process of shaping efficiency, which has enabled the company to operate as a private enterprise, taking advantage of NPM-led reforms and management accounting technologies. Design/methodology/approach - This is an interpretative case study of a Colombian multi-utility conglomerate. Data for the study are derived from interviews, nonparticipative observations and document analysis. Giddens’ structuration theory provides the theoretical approach for the study. Findings: Results show that management accounting practices have shaped efficiency in a Colombian multi-utility conglomerate, promoting the profitability criteria prevailing in private enterprises. Theoretically, the paper shows how structure and agency are embedded in shaping efficiency in an emerging economy context through management accounting practices. It does this by analysing both the broader influence of the School of Mines and multilateral development banks and the micro-situated practices of employees at the Colombian multi-utility conglomerate. The employees who have worked in the company for long periods of time have transformed the profitability criteria into a corporate value that influences their day-to-day practices. Originality/value – The paper adds to the literature that draws on structuration theory by illustrating a paradigmatic case in which agents have brought in knowledge and values to a state-owned company, and changed its ethos and practices whilst remaining under state control.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how political Marxism offers powerful conceptual tools to understand modes of production that structure historical processes as fundamentally constituted by exploitative social and political relations, and explain how structure, or rules of reproduction, should be understood as alienated social relations.
Abstract:
Replying to Samuel Knafo and Benno Teschke, this article shows how Political Marxism offers powerful conceptual tools to understand modes of production that structure historical processes as fundamentally constituted by exploitative social and political relations. I explain how structure, or rules of reproduction, should be understood as alienated social relations, which are inherent to all class societies. Understanding structure this way leaves ample space for – and makes inevitable – the consideration of agency.
TL;DR: In this paper, a mature student's processes of social engagement at a university, based on nine years of biographical interview data, is analyzed. But the analysis is limited to a single event.
Abstract: This article aims to unravel a mature student’s processes of social engagement at a university, based on nine years of biographical interview data. By framing itself within the realist social theor...
TL;DR: The discipline of psychology has been under-represented in the critical realist account of the relationship between structure and agency as discussed by the authors, and a critical realism perspective of educational institutions has been proposed.
Abstract: The discipline of psychology has been under-represented in the critical realist account of the relationship between structure and agency. In this paper a critical realist perspective of educational...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the factors shaping an inclusive approach to labour market activation for clients who experience multiscale stressors through a dynamic analysis of the interplay between structure and agency.
Abstract: Through a dynamic analysis of the interplay between structure and agency, this article explores the factors shaping an inclusive approach to labour market activation for clients who experience mult...
26 Jan 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how individuals creatively engage in activities that improve their households and find evidence that creative individuals improved their households' well-being through meaning-making, learning, and acting while navigating structural imperatives.
Abstract: Community development, especially in developing societies, has focused on mobilizing community members for collective action. Little attention has been paid to creative efforts of individuals engaged in transformative activities that improve their lives and from which other members of a community can learn. This paper examines how individuals creatively engage in activities that improve their households. The research, done in a rural area of northern Malawi, Africa, involved in-depth unstructured qualitative interviews of a number of individuals and careful observations of what was going on in their households. The analysis reveals evidence that creative individuals improved their households’ well-being through meaning-making, learning, and acting while navigating structural imperatives. Some of their actions were counter to social and cultural expectations, others were behavioral outliers, but all were driven by choices each made. Community development facilitators ought to consider identifying creative individuals (could be Christians) in a community, enhancing their agency, and organizing communities of practice around these individuals for other members of a community to learn from or for them to engage in the spreading of the Good News. I term this constructivist community development / evangelism and argue that it is particularly relevant in subsistent, substantive, and allocentric communities where group norms are a significant factor in people’s behavior. These group norms are important for collective action but can stifle individuals’ creativity.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that there is a need for educational reform to help new engineers understand social dimensions of their work and act as change agents, and propose a reform curriculum for engineering education and engineering studies research.
Abstract: Engineering education and engineering studies research has clearly articulated a need for educational reform to help new engineers understand social dimensions of their work and act as change agent...