Action theories: Structure and action

Question 1

What does Giddens believe about structure?

Answer 1

• there is a duality of structure

Question 2

What does Giddens mean by a duality of structure?

Answer 2

• structure and action (or agency as he refers to it) are two sides of the same coin in that neither can exist without the other

Question 3

How does Giddens link action and structure? What does he call this?

Answer 3

• through our actions, we produce and reproduce structures over time and space
• he calls this structuration

Question 4

How does Giddens illustrate his concept of structuration?

Answer 4

• language

Question 5

Through the example of language, how does Giddens show that our action depends on the existence of a structure?

Answer 5

• language is a structure which seems to exist independently of any individual and constrains our behaviour
• if we wish to use a language to communicate, we must obey its rules to be understood
• our action of communication depends on the structure of language rules

Question 6

Through the example of language, how does Giddens show that our structure depends on the existence of actions?

Answer 6

• a language wouldn’t exist if no one used it, it is produced and reproduced over time through the actions of individuals speaking and writing it
• these actions can also change the new structure, people give words new meanings and create new rules

Question 7

What are the two elements that Giddens believes structure has?

Answer 7

• rules (the norms, customs and laws that govern action)

- resources (both economic and power over others)

Question 8

Give an example of how rules and resources can be reproduced or changed through human action

Answer 8

• obeying the law reproduces the existing structure, while inventing new technology may change it

Question 9

Although our action can change existing structure, what does Giddens suggests usually happens?

Answer 9

• our actions tend to reproduce them

Question 10

What are the two reasons Giddens identifies as the reasons that our actions tend to reproduce structures instead of changing them?

Answer 10

1. society’s rules contain a stock of knowledge about to live our lives and many tasks involve us applying this knowledge to everyday situations. Resultantly, as we go about daily tasks, we tend to reproduce the existing structures of society
2. we have a deep-seated need for ontological security which tends to maintain existing structures rather than changing them

Question 11

What are the two ways that we can change the structure of society?

Answer 11

1. after reflexively monitoring our own action and constantly reflecting on our actions and their results, we can deliberately choose a new course of action
2. our actions may have unintended consequences

Question 12

How does Archer criticise Giddens’ implication that actors can change structures simply by deciding to do so?

Answer 12

• he underestimates the capacity of structures to resist change

Question 13

What does Craib comment that structuration theory isn’t really a theory at all?

Answer 13

• just describes what we find when we study society ie. actions, rules, resources