Structural analysis, societies, societal change

pp. 232-278

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

Abstract

While the present chapter sustains an interest in structural themes, the issues to be discussed are conceived from a point of view that departs considerably from the way structure was dealt with in Chapter 6. In the first instance this is because attention now shifts from the implication of structure in specific practices and position-practices to the structural properties of collectivities. But the more significant point is that in making this move there is a shift in perspective. Instead of viewing structure as the institutionalised properties of concrete activities and relations, these structural properties now will be analytically decomposed and reconceptualised. This analytical perspective was briefly introduced in Chapter 1, where it was indicated that structural properties of social praxis may be conceived in terms of rules and resources. The discussion of resources in Chapter 5 implicitly adopted this point of view. However, as will be evident in the first part of this chapter, there is a wide array of concepts pertaining to the structural analysis of systems that remains to be introduced.