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.

Re-aligning children's agency and re-socialising children in Childhood Studies

Abstract: In Childhood Studies, in contrast to strands of thinking that have foregrounded a political emphasis on “child-centredness” (e.g. reference to standpoint theory [Alanen, 1994]) and a theoretical emphasis on the re exive agency of children in the context of social structure (James and Prout, 1990; James et al., 1998), there has been a line of thinking that has stressed the distributed, ontologically heterogeneous, and dependent capacities of children (Lee, 2001; Oswell, 2013; Prout, 2005). In the rst line of thinking, children’s agency is often discussed in the context of a sociological problematic concerning agency and structure, often resting on the theoretical premises of Anthony Giddens’ social theory; in the second, agency is often understood as distributed across “actor-networks” or “assemblages” in the context of “post-social” theories derived from Bruno Latour or Gilles Deleuze. In much of the literature in the eld, the distinctions between these two lines of thinking are often not made evident. However, where the differences are made evident, discussion often centres on the distinction between human-centred and post-humanist epistemologies of children’s agency. This chapter will frame these two lines of thinking about children and child- hood in the context of broader shifts in sociological understanding concerning the ontology of agency, the questioning of the scalar attributions of structure (macro) and agency (micro), and a methodological shift of focus from ethnog- raphy and discourse analysis (James and Prout, 1990) to what is often seen as a more “object-centred” focus on devices, descriptions, liveness and invention (Marres, 2012; Back and Puwar, 2012; Lury and Wakeford, 2013). In doing so, the intention is to refocus discussion on the question of children as a complex social collectivity and to offer a line of thinking t for understanding the place of children within an ontologically complex, interconnected, multi-mediated social world.

Re-evaluating the Links between ‘Race’ and Residence

Abstract: There is a wide swathe, and indeed long history, of UK literature featuring attempts to theorise differentials in housing position and shifting spatial settlement patterns in relation to ethnicity and ‘race’ (and also, more recently, faith group). Most of the earlier accounts were based on simplified versions of the structure-agency dualism or one or other variant of rational choice theory. Responding to criticisms that these relied too heavily on overly static notions of ‘choice’ and ‘constraint’, a few then turned to a form of theorisation that deployed a modified version of Giddens' structuration theory. This paper seeks to take the debate further by developing a model that retains much of the essence of structuration yet embodies a more dynamic and theoretically nuanced interpretation of both structure and agency. Structure, normally seen predominantly as a form of social regulation, will be seen as multi-layered and multi-dimensional and also, importantly, as subject to often unpredictable exogenous ...

Conceptualising the Lives of NEET Young People: Structuration Theory and "Disengagement".

Abstract: Official discourse in the United Kingdom and many other OECD countries emphasises education and training as a vehicle for social inclusion and economic growth. Accordingly, those who do not participate are seen to be at risk of long-term exclusion. However, interventions aimed at re-engaging young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) can be ineffective or counter-productive. This article presents findings from the first year of a 3-year ethnography of NEET young people in the north of England and examines the opportunities and barriers experienced by NEET young people as they attempt to negotiate the complex territory following the end of compulsory education. Drawing on Giddens' structuration theory, we discuss young people's actions and the narratives underlying their decisions about post-school education, work and training. The article explores the limitations young people experience and the interplay of agency and structure for those on the margins of education and employment.

Doing Things Together: Some Basic Forms of Agency and Structure in Collective Action and Some Explanations

Abstract: Studies of the growth and continuous regeneration of groups suggest answers to recent questions about the relations between agency and structure. Several of these studies are reviewed within a framework built on G.H. Mead's social behaviorism and on research concerning organizational growth and collective behavior. The explanations based on this framework are contrasted with alternative approaches

Knowledge, power and monetary bargaining: central bankers and the creation of monetary union in Europe

Abstract: This article specifies and explains the role of central bankers as an epistemic community in the process of European monetary co-operation. The article argues that it is necessary first to find the right balance between structure and agency and second to specify alternatives to the observed outcomes. While structure is arguably a strong shaping force for outcomes in monetary bargaining, it is ultimately indeterminate in predicting change. Contrasting the Maastricht process with potential alternative outcomes, I argue that the content of the Maastricht Treaty on European monetary union can be explained largely by underlying structural factors. On the other hand, the process of institutional change itself raises the issue of agency. Within this process of institutional change, the epistemic community of central bankers played a special role to facilitate the Maastricht accord.