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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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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper , the conditions and mechanisms of the formation of transformative agency at different levels of education and in its various segments, with an account of the processes of de-structuration that weaken the forms of institutional coercion familiar to the 20th century.
Abstract: The issue of “transformative agency”, which proactively improves and transforms social structures, is relevant both for theoretical discussions and practical agenda. The field of education is of particular importance in terms of shaping the potential for agency. However, the dominant areas of research in education, including the sociology of education, focus, on the contrary, on the mechanisms and factors of reproduction of social structures and related activities. The authors propose to expand the research agenda by increasing attention to the conditions and mechanisms of the formation of “transformative agency” at different levels of education and in its various segments, with an account of the processes of de-structuration that weaken the forms of institutional coercion familiar to the 20th century. The article raises theoretical questions and suggests relevant empirical phenomena for further research.

4 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article investigated the discursive effects of African development in the face of western capitalism and its hegemonic altruism with close reference to insights from selected African creative art and social ‘writings.
Abstract: This paper in interdisciplinary studies investigated the discursive effects of African development in the face of western capitalism and its hegemonic altruism [1] with close reference to insights from selected African creative art and social ‘writings’. It found out that I.Wallerstein’s world systems and its analysis are limited in spatial scope and explanatory power because of the conflict between structure and agency, the powerful presence of Africa states despite capitalism, the role of class struggles and the place of culture in the identity politics of Africans. Key words: Africa’s historical development, (neo/classical, neoliberal) capitalism, Immanuel Wallerstein’s world systems structure of ‘core’ and ‘periphery’, old and new imperialisms, forms of agency, class struggles, cultural discourse, creative art and social ‘writings’.

4 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In the last two decades the school systems in the German speaking countries have seen profound changes: schools have been given new tasks and new room for manoeuvres, performance standards and state-wide testing of performance have been introduced, new inspection systems have been established, national education reports are written in many countries, new institutions for evaluating and promoting the quality of education have been built up as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: During the last two decades the school systems in the German speaking countries have seen profound changes: Schools have been given new tasks and new room for manoeuvres, performance standards and state-wide testing of performance have been introduced, new inspection systems have been established, national education reports are written in many countries, new institutions for evaluating and promoting the quality of education have been built up. These changes and reforms may be also understood as changes in the way education systems are coordinated and governed.

4 citations

Dissertation
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address the research gap by investigating young people's transition from education to the labour market, and exploring the impact of social changes on their lives beyond the global north, in Kuwaiti society.
Abstract: Within the social sciences, there is extensive literature on youth transitions as a key context for understanding how social changes and complex contemporary life have an impact on young people’s lives, focusing generally on the ‘global north’. However, far too little attention has been paid to exploring youth transitions in the ‘global south’. Even if it is acknowledged that youth research in the global south has grown in recent years, and has discovered different youth experiences from those in northern contexts, these studies have still been narrow and mostly based on theoretical rather than new empirical work. This research addresses the research gap by investigating young people’s transition from education to the labour market, and exploring the impact of social changes on their lives beyond the global north, in Kuwaiti society. It provides insight into how contemporary young people are constructing and negotiating their pathways to work within a complex reality in which traditional norms and cultural restrictions come into conflict with modernity. It highlights the role of certain variables that continue to mould their transition, including family, gender, religion, education, and government policies. It demonstrates that the rapid change and the compressed manner of modernity in Kuwait have made young people live in a state of tension and contradiction between modernity and tradition, agency and structure, and individual and collective ways of life. It shows how the unique nature of modernity and its consequences in Kuwaiti society have made the young people’s experience distinct from that described in other contexts. This study draws on data generated through questionnaires and interviews. It involves a sample of 1,120 secondary school students, and 24 young adults who had recently entered the labour market. The thesis, which reports the results, challenges existing models in the youth studies literature and critically assesses general sociological theories which tend to be northern-centric. In considering the ideas of the German sociologist Ulrich Beck on modernisation and individualisation, it is difficult to apply his western ideas to the Kuwaiti context. This thesis therefore calls for a cosmopolitan sociology, claiming the need to re-define the concepts within social sciences in such a way that can be easily and flexibly used in a variety of global contexts.

4 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight the implicit heterosexism of current literature on informal care, providing an alternative approach to gender which focuses on multiple dimensions of difference, and emphasize the fundamental importance of emotions in creating a link between agency and structure, that is, between individual action and interaction and the emergence, maintenance and transformation of social structure.
Abstract: This chapter challenges the misleading dualism of gender and highlights the implicit heterosexism of current literature on informal care, providing an alternative approach to gender which focuses on multiple dimensions of difference. Closely related to this alternative approach is the necessity to underscore the fundamental importance of emotions in creating a link between agency and structure, that is, between individual action and interaction, on the one hand, and the emergence, maintenance and transformation of social structure, on the other.

4 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202335
202288
202148
202039
201954
201859