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.

Cleavage Politics in Old and New Democracies

Abstract: Stein Rokkan's comparative historical account of party system formation in Western Europe has proved enormously influential due to the appeal of tying individual political behaviour to large-scale historical transformations. This article reviews the literature that has studied the genesis of cleavage-based party systems, as well as theoretical and empirical assessments of the degree to which they have remained stable or "frozen". If it is adapted to allow for a more dynamic perspective, the cleavage approach also helps us to make sense of recent transformations of Western European party systems by pointing to new "critical junctures" that are likely to have a lasting impact on party competition and on individual political behaviour. In the second part of this review, I discuss applications of the approach outside Western Europe, focusing above all on Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe. If it is modified according to the specific historical trajectories of these countries, the cleavage concept helps us understand both how party systems become institutionalized in new democracies, as well as the type of conflicts they are likely to reflect. Furthermore, criticisms of social structural determinism have resulted in a new generation of scholarship that insists on paying more attention to the interplay of structure and agency in forging long-term bonds between parties and voters.

Researching Student Learning in Higher Education: A social realist approach

Abstract: Part I: Setting the Scene 1. Contemporary Chellanges in Higher Education 2. Researching Student Learning: Accounting for structure and agency Part II: A Theoretical Framework 3. Critical realism as philosophical function 4. Realist Social Theiry: Archer's morphogentic approach 5. A Socialist Realist Perspective on Knowledge and Curriculum 6. Conceptualising Student Agency Part III: Developing a Case Study in Engineering Education 7. Geographical Context for the Study: Locating UCT Chemical Engineering 8. Disciplinary Context for the Study: Locating engineering education 9. Choosing Engineering 10. Studying Engineering- defining your project 11. Studying Engineering - engaging with others 12. Studying Engineering - the knowledge project 13. Conclusions for the Case Study Part IV: Drawing the Strands Together 14. A Social Realist Approach to Research on Student Learning

Situating Speech: A Rhetorical Approach to Political Strategy

Abstract: Ideas are increasingly acknowledged as factors in explaining political behaviour But often they are treated as inert resources rather than dynamic instances of action in themselves The latter, I propose, requires reflection on the character of speech – as the medium of ideas – in responding to and refiguring a prevailing situation I undertake such reflection by setting out a rhetorical approach to political strategy Building upon ‘interpretive’ advances in political science I shift the focus from stable cognitive frames to the dynamics of argumentation where ideas work expressively I then explore the rhetorical aspect of strategising with attention to the way speech serves to orient audiences by creatively re-appropriating a situation That approach is shown to be consistent with a ‘dialectical’ political sociology that emphasises the interaction of structure and agency Finally, I sketch a method for undertaking rhetorical analysis and indicate how it might be applied to a concrete example

Media Effects and Beyond: Culture, Socialization and Lifestyles

Abstract: List of figures and tables Acknowledgements Notes on contributors Part I: Introduction 1. Culture, media and society: Agency and structure, stability and change 2. Swenden and her media scene, 1945-90: A bird's-eye view 3. The Media Panel Program and related research Part II: Media use: Differentiation, change and stability 4. Media use under structural change 5. Looking for patterns in lifesyle behaviors 6. Models of change and stability in adolescents' media use Part III: Young perople and medial use: Individual, class and socialization 7. For better and for worse: Effect studies and beyond 8. Self-evaluation in an ecological perspective: Neighbourhood, family and peers, schooling and media use 9. Media and social mobility Part IV: Lifestyle and family communication 11. Seven lifestyles 12. Late modernity, consumer culture and lifestyles: Toward a cognitive-affective theory In conclusion Starting up

Students make a plan: understanding student agency in constraining conditions

Abstract: Drawing on Archer’s perspectives on the agency/structure relationship, this paper explains situations where students in varied, challenging circumstances find ways to negotiate difficult conditions. It reports on a 2007 study undertaken through a survey at three quite different universities in three South African provinces, addressing inter-related questions on access and use. Our findings are that on-campus access is generally reported favourably, and off-campus access is problematic and uneven. There is a cluster of students using their cell phones to access the Internet, and using their cell phones for academic purposes, and this is true across socio-economic groups (SEGs). It is especially striking that students from low SEGs do so. The findings show the choices students are prepared to make and the strategies which they find in order to engage online or access the Internet to support their studies. Archer’s nuanced approach to agency and structure helps us begin to make sense of the way that students exhibit a more complex and nuanced way of engaging with the availability of different kinds of technologies, as well as making considered decisions about using ubiquitous technologies in unexpected ways and for purposes for which they may not have been intended. Her concept of reflexivity provides a way of describing how those choices are made in relation to structural conditions and enables us to explain how students are ‘persons’ showing an inventive capacity to circumvent the constraints imposed by structures. Keywords: students; Archer; agency; higher education; access; use; ICTs; information and communication technologies; South Africa; cell phones DOI: 10.1080/09687760903033058