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.

Alternative view on niche development: situated learning on policy communities, power and agency

Abstract: In this article, we analyse how situated learning influences niche development. Situated learning is tied to social action and context, perceiving knowledge and learning as socially constructed. In addition, a dialectic view of structure and agency is adopted. Policymaking is used as an example of a community. A qualitative case study of Finnish energy policy is presented. The regime in Finland is the electricity industry that supports bioenergy, while wind energy development is supported by active individuals and a few niche actors. The full-members of the policymaking community consist of the government and the regime actors. The niche actors did learn how the community functions and developed alternative strategies accordingly, but without success. A reason could be that the niche actors excluded the regime from their strategies. We conclude that situated learning is likely to enhance niche development, but compromises in niche development may be needed.

Crossing the Boundary to East Asian: A Political Context Analysis of Female Labor Policy-Making in Taiwan

Abstract: This study examines the political context in female labor poli cy domain of Taiwan. What state and pressure groups are deployed and negotiated to achieve their collective interests in the diverse levels of institutional in vestigations. The discussion combines the institutional system of structure and agency in a systematic discussion of the policymaking. At the national level, it is importan t to note that the relationship between dependency and distribution of resources may be structuralized; however, they are not permanently fixed in the policy events , which have to be understood in dynamic terms. Policy outcome is determined by the dynamic interaction between institutional structures and the behavior of policy actors. The resources of organizational actors and their reciprocal relation ships would be changed across the events in the diverse policy stages. Different forms of organizational interactions among the female organizational actors will mutuall y influence their choices, which affect the outcomes of labor events policy decision -making. Basing on the Gender Equality in Employment Act case study indicates the organizational involvements and

OUP accepted manuscript

Abstract: Abstract This commentary proposes a reorientation of diaspora studies towards new configurations of participation and identification. Digital media affordances in this sense are just such new configurations that enable, sustain and multiply diasporic encounters through social media platforms, digital devices and infrastructures. The emerging digital diasporas do not oppose or replace traditional diasporas, but on the contrary further expand and transform their agency in the digital age Mihaela Nedelcu (2018). In our thinking, we are inconversation with, as well as departing from, previous notions of diaspora. In this commentary, we briefly establish the complex and non-linear genealogy of the term, as partaking in multiple disciplinary takes and discursive orientations, and then migrating to the new realm of technology and digital connectedness.

Trust: Economic Notions and its role in Money and Banking

Abstract: This thesis has two aims; to explore the economic notions of trust to develop a coherent understanding of trust within economics and to apply this understanding to the operation of money and banking. There has been a recent explosion of work about trust within economics but little consensus. This thesis explores this body of work by first developing a framework based on the different perceptions of the work of Adam Smith. The framework argues that the academic discipline of economics can be understood as mirroring the discussions of the work of Adam Smith. The Academic discipline of economics can be seen as comprising of approaches that only consider behaviour as relating to self-interested and those approaches that have adopted a stance that includes both self-interest and social, organic behaviour. The beginning of this thesis explores the notions of trust offered by Behavioural Game Theory and Institutional Economics and argues that the notions of trust developed using the institutional framework offer a richer conceptualisation and are more widely applicable to other areas addressed by economics. This concludes by developing a theory of trust in the institutional tradition based on the work of Simmel and draws a distinction between trust as applied to agency and confidence applied to structure. After drawing a distinction between trust and confidence based on agency and structure, this thesis then uses this theory to address the understanding of the operation of money and then banking. Money, or more specifically the operation of money as influencing behaviour, can be understood as being a complex institution with both agency and structural elements allowing a coherent understanding of money and trust. The same can be said of trust and banking, but a very different model develops as banks are organisations rather than complex institutions. This thesis concludes by considering the current financial crisis and the policy responses using the trust and confidence framework. Trust has been an important concept for money and banking, but without a satisfactory framework for analysis. The contribution of this thesis is to have developed a coherent framework for analysing trust, and applying it to money and banking.