Conflation of Society and

Individual
 Background of Giddens
 From the beginning sociology was concerned with the issues of society
and individuals:
 Comte, Durkheim, Marx highlighted the importance of society – Comte
talked of social order(eg, routine, process) Durkheim social fact or
collective conscience, Marx class structure
 Dilthey, Weber talked of subjectivity or individual acting subject.
Individual action is meaning oriented, it has to be understood to interpret
 Used speech and grammar to understand action and structure – through
speech, grammar is reproduced
 He analyzed Garfinkle’s ethnomethodology, particularly deep structure of
rules as well as phenomenology, hermeneutic, interactionist
 Giddens argues that the synthesis made by Parsons and Habermas not
accommodated all points.
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 Other side wanted to highlight the external constraint, that is society.
AGENCY
 An important aspect of agency is reflexivity. It is the monitoring
capacity of an individual. Can modify actions. Action is a continuous
process, evaluating consequences of action.
 Individual personality needed to understand agency : unconscious,
practical consciousness, discursive consciousness
 Practical consciousness : explaining action taken, complying with
norms, following routinized and taken for granted rules.
 Discursive consciousness : rational reconstruction of action
 Borrowed unintended consequences from functionalism and it also
builds the background for further action.
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 From action to interaction : interaction between two
persons, what ideas to social integration, carrying
out conversations, understanding taken for granted
rules etc.
 Dimensions of interactions based on rules : we carry
out social interaction following rules, what we do,
we communicate, issue sanction and exercise power.
 Communication in various ways : reaching
understanding or expressing ideology
 Description of Interaction
Dimension of Interaction Structural Rule

Communication Semantic

Sanction Moral

Power Resourceful
 Structure and System
 Structure is defined as rules and resources
 Rules are related to the procedures that guide our relationship
 Rules are comprised as grammar or grammar of society, there are

unwritten or written rules and all in combination comprise the rules

aspects of society.
 Resources are two types :

i. Authoritative resources : comes from the administrative power

ii. Allocative resources : comes from acquisition of property
 Structure is hidden premise, on the surface, system emerges, actual
society. It means society what exists in time and space constitute
the system
 Organizations and institutions constitute system. Institutions are
prolonged practices
 Dimension of System, Structural Rule
Dimension of System Structural Rule Dimension of Interaction

Signification Semantic Communication

Legitimation Moral Sanction

Domination Resourceful Power

 Giddens & Parsons – Cybernatic
Primary Secondary Institutional Parsonian
Structural Structural Forms Parallels
Dimension Dimension
Signification Domination Symbolic orders, L-Latency
Legitimation modes of discourse

Authoritative Legitimation Political institutions G-Goal attainment

domination Signification

Allocative Legitimation Economic A-Adaptation

domination Signification institutions

Legitimation Domination Law, modes of I-Integration

Signification regulation
 Structuration Theory
 Here agency produce and produce structure
and once structure can not avoid structure
 Structure is produced and reproduced
continuously – recursive and discursive
 Time and space are basis of structure that leads
to system
 Social and system integration