Topic
Structure and agency
About: Structure and agency is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1265 publications have been published within this topic receiving 63660 citations.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the interactions between the process of institutional change and the actors' strategic behaviour and identify three consequences of incumbents' actions on the institutional change process (alternative practices selection, alternative practices modification and process duration).
Abstract: The relationship between structure and agency is a central issue in studying change. The aim of this paper is to focus on the interactions between the process of institutional change and the actors’ strategic behaviour. Based on research on the music industry, we observed co-evolution between the actor level and the organizational field level by identifying three consequences of the incumbents’ actions on the institutional change process (alternative practices selection, alternative practices modification and process duration) and three consequences of coercive pressures on agency (strategic adjustment, traditional practices modification and legitimization).
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 propose Bourdieu's theory of practice (TOP) as a useful framework for conceptualizing agents' strategizing by considering players' strategies as based on their habituses and capitals as well as their assessments of their relevant field(s).
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose Bourdieu's theory of practice (TOP) as a useful framework for conceptualizing agents' strategizing by considering players' strategizing as based on their habituses and capitals as well as their assessments of their relevant field(s).Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on Bourdieu's theory to better understand the strategizing of some of China's major players. The basic concepts of the model – strategy, field, habitus, and capital – are defined and developed for the major players studied.Findings – This paper conceptualizes the strategizing as a dynamic set of players playing within and between multiple fields. It applies the fractality – in social space – of Bourdieu's TOP into specific agents or fields not only encompassing but going beyond isolated cognitive, cultural, and institutional considerations of one or more players to offer the possibility of taking into account structure and agency, variability and commonality and diverse degrees of g...
15 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines state-citizen interactions in the Pelourinho Historical Center of Salvador, Brazil and argues that attention to sound provides a number of ways of updating longstanding anthropological concerns with structure and agency.
Abstract: This article examines state–citizen interactions in the Pelourinho Historical Center of Salvador, Brazil. It argues that attention to sound in the Pelourinho provides a number of ways of updating longstanding anthropological concerns with structure and agency. On the basis of attention to sound it addresses social action around play, the ability to position oneself in flows of signs, and the adroit manipulation of different classes of sign. This article is thus a phenomenologicallyinfluenced criticism of an anthropology of meaning based on the arbitrary sign and accompanying form/content and subject/object distinctions. Yet it emphasizes also that a naive celebration of ontology and the materiality of sign vehicles ignores the extent to which both communication and agency may turn on people's ability to move pragmatically between non-referential language and more fully symbolic communicative events.
15 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a case study in a third-year basic engineering course at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology supports the idea that social change as a phenomenon should be paid more heed.
Abstract: Norwegian higher education has for a long time been strongly committed to individual strategies for development and change. A case study in a third-year basic engineering course at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology supports the idea that social change as a phenomenon should be paid more heed. After discussing this study, the paper turns to the kinds of challenges we face in higher education in general, and how these challenges can be met, theoretically and practically. Anthony Giddens' structuration theory is discussed in this context. It is not an educational theory, but has great potential for analysing situations of change. According to this theory it is the recursive social practices that help us to conceive both stability and change. Hence, structures in Giddens' sense not only represent barriers, but also enable change and development to take place.
15 citations