Structure, position-practices, and enablement/constraint

pp. 197-231

in: Ira J. Cohen, Structuration theory, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1989

Abstract

In this chapter and the next I shall be dealing with topics regarding the nature and implications of structural concepts in structuration theory. The present chapter considers issues involved in institutionalised activities and relations as conceived from a structural point of view, while the following chapter considers the analysis of structure and conditions that foster structural change with special attention to the structural properties of societal systems. Giddens's account of structure has drawn considerably more critical attention than any other aspect of structuration theory. So much is this the case that I have organised much of the discussion in the present chapter so as to take fundamental criticisms into account, and in several instances I shall propose conceptual means to deal with problems to which these criticisms refer. In developing these lines of thought I shall set aside references to the bearings of the French structural tradition upon structural concepts in structuration theory. This omission, however, requires a brief explanation.