Structure and Agency

Bibliographic Data

ID22369397
AuthorsRob Stones (0000-0003-3621-5794)
Year2015
Publication date2015-10-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeOTHER
VenueThe Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (JOURNAL)
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781405165518.wbeoss293.pub2
OpenAlexW2605167187
ISBN9781405165518
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited11

The concepts of structure and agency are central to sociological theory. Structures are typically seen as the more fixed and enduring aspects of the social landscape. As used by Émile Durkheim and others working within a similar tradition, structure is a metaphor that denotes qualities in society that are akin to the qualities of the body skeleton in the field of anatomy or to those of a building's frame in architecture. Durkheim's work was heavily influenced by his desire to establish a sphere of study for sociology that would be distinct from the spheres of both biology and psychology. To this end, he insisted that there are structured ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that are general throughout a society and act as external constraints over its members. This approach was meant to emphasize the role of society in the process of causation, as opposed to individual or group agency. Some writers, taking issue with this position, went to the other extreme. Weber, for example, emphasized the role of individuals and rejected the idea that terms such as “society” or “group” could refer to any reality other than that of individuals and their actions

Causation · Epistemology · Feeling · Metaphor · Social science · Sociology · Structure and agency · Critical Realism in Sociology · Emile Durkheim and Sociology · Management and Organizational Studies · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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