Anthony Giddens developed structuration theory to explain the relationship between human agency and social structure. He argued that social systems are both the medium and outcome of human practices, and that structures both enable and constrain human action. Structuration theory emphasizes the duality of structure, where social practices are both shaped by structures and reproduce those structures over time through human agency. Giddens' work has influenced fields like strategic management by providing a "third way" between determinism and voluntarism.
Anthony Giddens developed structuration theory to explain the relationship between human agency and social structure. He argued that social systems are both the medium and outcome of human practices, and that structures both enable and constrain human action. Structuration theory emphasizes the duality of structure, where social practices are both shaped by structures and reproduce those structures over time through human agency. Giddens' work has influenced fields like strategic management by providing a "third way" between determinism and voluntarism.
Anthony Giddens developed structuration theory to explain the relationship between human agency and social structure. He argued that social systems are both the medium and outcome of human practices, and that structures both enable and constrain human action. Structuration theory emphasizes the duality of structure, where social practices are both shaped by structures and reproduce those structures over time through human agency. Giddens' work has influenced fields like strategic management by providing a "third way" between determinism and voluntarism.
Anthony Giddens developed structuration theory to explain the relationship between human agency and social structure. He argued that social systems are both the medium and outcome of human practices, and that structures both enable and constrain human action. Structuration theory emphasizes the duality of structure, where social practices are both shaped by structures and reproduce those structures over time through human agency. Giddens' work has influenced fields like strategic management by providing a "third way" between determinism and voluntarism.
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ANTHONY GIDDENS AND STRUCTURATION THEORY
Appointed director of the London School
of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1997, Anthony Giddens was previously a Fellow and Professor of Sociology at King's College, Cambridge.
He is the author of 34 books, published in
29 languages, and numerous articles and reviews. In 1985, he co-founded the academic publishing house Polity Press.
More recently, Dr. Giddens has been an
advisor to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, helping in popularizing the ideas of left-of-center politics known as the "Third Way.“ (The Globalist, 2004) Rooted in social theory Creator of structuration theory
Making an impact on the world STRUCTURATION THEORY ‘The basic domain of … the social sciences … is neither the experience of the individual actor nor the existence of any form of societal totality, but social practices ordered across time and space. Human activities are recursive. … They are not brought into being by social actors but continually recreated by them via the very means whereby they express themselves as actors. In and through their activities as agents, they reproduce the conditions that make their activities possible’ (C of S, 1984: 2)
‘According to the notion of the duality of structure, the structural
properties of systems are both medium and outcome of the practices they recursively organise… Structure is not to be equated with constraint, but is always both constraining and enabling’ (C of S, 1984: 25) CONCEPTS OF STRUCTURATION THEORY
Agency: the capability to make a difference to the world,
i.e. to exercise some sort of power, reliant on knowledgeable, competent human actors
Structure(s): rules (routines, norms) and resources (material,
authoritative), organized as properties of social systems
System(s): reproduced relations between actors or
collectivities, organized as regular social practices; under modernity, plural and open
Structuration:conditions governing the continuity or
transmutation of structures, and therefore the reproduction of social systems CONTRIBUTIONS OF STRUCTURATION THEORY
‘third way’ between voluntarism and determinism,
important to strategic choice
respect for competent human agency, relevant
for methodology
multi-level, recognising the embeddedness of
human actors in wider society TWO STRUCTURATIONIST STUDIES Barley (1986), ‘Technology as an Occasion for Structuring …’ Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 2: 78-108.
Comparative ethnography of two hospital radiology departments
implementing the same new scanner technologies, demonstrating qualitatively and statistically similar dynamics, but different outcomes in terms of centralisation.
Hung and Whittington (1997) ‘Strategies and Institutions…’,
Organization Studies, 18, 4: 551-77
Comparative case studies of Taiwanese computer
entrepreneurs, explaining strategic choices in terms of reflexive exploitation of rules and resources afforded by positions in plural social systems (‘technological’, ‘political’ and ‘national’). SOME QUESTIONS
1. How does Giddens add to (or subtract from) other
theorists of practice?
2. How far does ‘strategy-as-practice’ incorporate
Giddens’ dual attention to the ‘micro’ and the ‘macro’?
3. What kinds of methodologies does Giddens mandate
(or rule out)?
4. Does Giddens license an exaggerated view of
managerial agency? FURTHER READING
Barley S. and Tolbert P. (1997) ‘Institutionalization and
Structuration: studying the link between action and Institution’, Organization Studies, 18, 1: 93-118
Parker J (2000), Structuration, Open University Press
Pozzebon M. (2004), ‘The Influence of a Structurationist View
on Strategic Management Research’, Journal of Management Studies, 41, 2: 247-272
Whittington R (1992), ‘Putting Giddens into Action: Social Systems
and Managerial Agency’, Journal of Management Studies, 25, 6: 521-36
