scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
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.


Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argued that young migrants considering higher and further education require robust structural support that attends to their psycho-social, communal, and material needs, despite evidence of young migrants having high aspirations to achieve in this country.
Abstract: This article puts forward the argument that young migrants considering Higher and Further Education require robust structural support that attends to their psycho-social, communal, and material needs. Despite evidence of young migrants having high aspirations to achieve in this country, policy in the United Kingdom increasingly presents them with structural barriers rather than structures of support. This argument is based on findings from a recent research project which was conducted in the East Anglian region of the UK with children originally from central and eastern Europe. The children were all aged between 13–15 years and living in designated deprived areas. The article situates the project's findings in the context of the wider literature on aspirations in relation to education and employment, and examines the implications of recent UK government policy changes on the structures impacting on migrant youth's agency to achieve through Higher and Further Education. The authors suggest that migrant stu...

5 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2020
TL;DR: In this paper, a conceptual exploration of native-speakerism as ideology within a contingent social realm is provided, where the authors develop a realist approach to answering the above question by drawing from the works of Layder (Modern social theory: key debates and new directions).
Abstract: Why are some ideologies more resilient than other ideologies, which gradually fade in the background of history? In this opening chapter, I provide a conceptual exploration of native-speakerism as ideology within a contingent social realm. Specifically, I develop a realist approach to answering the above question by drawing from the works of Layder (Modern social theory: key debates and new directions. UCL Press, London, 1997) and Carter (Realism and racism: concepts of race in sociological research, Routledge, London, 2000), considering the “positions” of native-speakerism in relation to specific social domains. By assuming that “human activity is the outcome of the dual influence of structure and agency” (Carter, Realism and racism: concepts of race in sociological research, Routledge, London, 2000, p. 140), the internal conversation (Archer, Structure, agency and the internal conversation. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003; Making our way through the world, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007; The reflexive imperative in late modernity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012) acts as the principal mediating force between culture, structure, and agency, and by looking at possible links between Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and Archer’s model of reflexivity, I attempt to answer why native-speakerism appears to be a resilient force in foreign language education around the world. Hopefully, this exploration can provide (a) a descriptive and an explanatory account for the apparent resilience of the ideology, despite our best efforts to deconstruct it and (b) valuable conceptual tools for subsequent ethnographic studies of native-speakerism in context.

5 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the author questions whether the Bourdieu social practice framework, which Ephraim Poertner, Mathais Junginger, and Ulrike Muller-Boker employ in their article, provides the most appropriate lens through which to view migration and argues that the authors fail to present convincing evidence of the relevance of its application.
Abstract: In this comment on an article published in Critical Asian Studies 43 (1), "Migration in Far West Nepal," the author questions whether the "Bourdieu social practice framework," which Ephraim Poertner, Mathais Junginger, and Ulrike Muller-Boker employ in their article, provides the most appropriate lens through which to view migration. He argues that the authors fail to present convincing evidence of the relevance of its application. Furthermore, he says, a further dichotomy might need to be addressed first: that between French approaches to social theory and Anglo-Saxon approaches such as that of Anthony Giddens, where the time/space dimensions are much more evident, even if problematic, in the examining structure and agency.

5 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
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.

5 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: Hong Kong lesbians identify same-sex relationships as family along three major axes: affirmation of commitment, provision of care, and integration with blood families as discussed by the authors, and argue that Hong Kong lesbians are active agents who borrow and sometimes even go beyond the rules of heterosexual relationships in constructing a new social reality for themselves.
Abstract: This chapter adopts the theoretical approach of social constructionism and considers family to be a human product rather than manifestation of any inherent or transhistorical essences Specifically, it explores the meaning-making processes of lesbian couples who consider themselves family, despite being shut out of wedlock in Hong Kong The first section critically reviews the family studies in Hong Kong, and it will highlight same-sex partnerships as a missing part of family diversity In what follows, I shall discuss the findings of a qualitative study based on biographical interviews with 10 lesbians who identified their same-sex partners as family members It is found that, unlike the “lesbaby boom” in the West during the 1980s, the making of family by Hong Kong lesbians is not so much associated with the plan to have children Rather, they articulate and experience the same-sex relationships as family along three major axes: affirmation of commitment, provision of care, and integration with blood families This study shows the interaction and interdependence between agency and structure, and argues that Hong Kong lesbian couples are active agents who borrow and sometimes even go beyond the rules of heterosexual relationships in constructing a new social reality—same-sex family—for themselves

5 citations


Network Information
Related Topics (5)
Politics
263.7K papers, 5.3M citations
80% related
Democracy
108.6K papers, 2.3M citations
78% related
Social change
61.1K papers, 1.7M citations
77% related
Public policy
76.7K papers, 1.6M citations
76% related
Globalization
81.8K papers, 1.7M citations
76% related
Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202335
202288
202148
202039
201954
201859