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.

Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences : The state of the art

Abstract: Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part I: Framing the Issues 1. Understanding the Complex 2. Restricted Complexity and General Complexity: An Outline of the Arguments 3. Complexity Theory and the Philosophy of Social Science Part II: Complexity Theory Meets Social Theory. Introduction to Part II. 4. Evolutionary Social Theory 5. Structure and Agency 6. Time and Place Part III: Complexity Theory: Methodology and Methods 7. Complexity and Methodology: Exploring Trajectories through Narratives 8. Hunting Causes in a Complex World 9. Researching the Complex Social Part IV: Complexity in Action 10. Complexity in Disciplines and Fields 11. Opening the Social Sciences: The Post-disciplinary Implications of the Complexity Frame of Reference. Conclusion: Complexity and the Social Sciences: The Way Forward

Transforming power: Social science and the politics of energy choices

Abstract: This paper addresses key implications in momentous current global energy choices – both for social science and for society. Energy can be over-used as a lens for viewing social processes. But it is nonetheless of profound importance. Understanding possible ‘sustainable energy’ transformations requires attention to many tricky issues in social theory: around agency and structure and the interplay of power, contingency and practice. These factors are as much shaping of the knowledges and normativities supposedly driving transformation, as they are shaped by them. So, ideas and hopes about possible pathways for change – as well as notions of ‘the transition’ itself – can be deeply constituted by incumbent interests. The paper addresses these dynamics by considering contending forms of transformation centring on renewable energy, nuclear power and climate geoengineering. Several challenges are identified for social science. These apply especially where there are aims to help enable more democratic exercise of social agency. They enjoin responsibilities to ‘open up’ (rather than ‘close down’), active political spaces for critical contention over alternative pathways. If due attention is to be given to marginalised interests, then a reflexive view must be taken of transformation. The paper ends with a series of concrete political lessons.

Institutionalist Analysis, Communicative Planning, and Shaping Places

Abstract: This article reviews the developments in the new institutionalism in social science and their relation to communicative planning theory, with emphasis on the relevance to the practcal task of responding to demands for a more place-conscious evolution in public policy. I trace the evolution of forms of governance that are more responsive to the multiple claims and social worlds of civil society and include discussion of the social-constructionist conception of institutions, the significance of actors and networks, the interrelation between structure and agency, and the cultural dimesions of social networks. The implications for developing governance capability or instittional capacity are also explored. In reviewing comnmunicative planning theory, I discuss how Habermas's approach to communicative ation may be reworked or positioned in an institutionalist perspective. Finally, I explore how these developments can be used to dvelop understanding and strategies for evoling more inclusionary approaches to int...

The Causal Power of Social Structures: Emergence, Structure and Agency

Abstract: 1. Introduction 2. Emergence 3. Cause 4. Social ontology and social structure 5. Agency 6. Normative institutions 7. Organisations 8. Social events 9. Conclusion.

Governance, the state and sustainable tourism: a political economy approach

Abstract: Collective actions are often needed to promote the objectives of sustainable tourism in destinations. Governance is the basis of these collective actions. This paper contends that research on the governance of tourism and sustainability would benefit from greater use of social theory. It shows how one social theory, a strategic-relational political economy approach, can offer insights into state interventions affecting tourism and sustainability in destinations. The paper uses a literature review and case studies incorporating ideas from this approach to understand the state's influences on tourism and sustainability. Case studies are taken from Germany, China, Malta, Turkey and the UK. A range of distinctive perspectives and themes associated with this approach are assessed. They include the approach's holistic, relational and dialectical perspective, its focus on the state's roles in regulating the economic and political systems, its concern with the interactions between agency and structure, and the ad...