18 Structuration Theory
Structuration
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The theory of structuration is a social theory of the creation and reproduction of social systems that is based in the analysis of both social structures and agency, without giving primacy to either. Structuration proposes that structures (i.e., norms, rules, roles) interaction with agency (i.e., free will) to reproduce in groups, teams, and organizations.
Duality of structure
Structure refers generally to “rules and resources” and more specifically to “the structuring properties allowing the ‘binding’ of time-space in social systems”. These properties make it possible for similar social practices to exist across time and space and that lend them “systemic” form. Agents—groups or individuals—draw upon these structures to perform social actions through embedded memory, called mental models. Mental models are the vehicle through which guide everyday social action.
However, structure and agency are mutually influential. Structure is the result of these social practices. Thus, Giddens (1979) conceives of the duality of structure as being:
…the essential recursiveness of social life, as constituted in social practices: structure is both medium and outcome of reproduction of practices. Structure enters simultaneously into the constitution of the agent and social practices, and ‘exists’ in the generating moments of this constitution. (p. 5).
Giddens uses “the duality of structure” (i.e. material/ideational, micro/macro) to emphasize structure’s nature as both medium and outcome. Structures exist both internally within agents as mental models that are the product of socialization and externally as the manifestation of social actions. Similarly, social structures contain agents and/or are the product of past actions of agents. Giddens (1984) holds this duality, alongside “structure” and “system,” in addition to the concept of recursiveness, as the core of structuration theory.
Cycle of structuration
The duality of structure is essentially a feedback–feedforward process whereby agents and structures mutually enact social systems, and social systems in turn become part of that duality. Structuration thus recognizes a social cycle. In examining social systems, structuration theory examines structure, modality, and interaction. The structural modality (discussed below) of a structural system is the means by which structures are translated into actions.
Interaction
Interaction is the agent’s activity within the social system, space, and time. “It can be understood as the fitful yet routinized occurrence of encounters, fading away in time and space, yet constantly reconstituted within different areas of time-space” (Giddens, 1984, p. 86). Rules and norms can affect interaction. Frames are “clusters of rules which help to constitute and regulate activities, defining them as activities of a certain sort and as subject to a given range of sanctions” (Giddens, 1984, p. 87). Frames are neces