STRUCTURE AND

AGENCY
STRUCTURE AND AGENCY

• Agency is the capacity of individuals to have the power and resources to fullfil their
potential .For instance, structure consists of those factors of influence(such as social
class, religion, gender, ethnicity, ability, customs,etc.)that determine or limit agents and
their
A METRO MANILA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
SIGNAGE
ANSWER

• Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side or above the roads to give
instructions or provide information to road users.
STRUCTURE AND AGENCY: THE NATURE OF
THEIR RELATIONSHIP
• Just like what you have seen in MMDA street signage and markers, rules and ordinances are
instruments of the stage/governing institution that control and regulate human behavior, action, and
consciousness in a given situation,say,in an urban area.In other words, the concern of these rules and
regulations is to provide a definite and concrete system for human behaviors, thoughts, and action so
that institutions,values, and societies themselves can be “reproduced” for posterity. This is what we
call “social reproduction”
• Moreover, people’s individual behaviors, actions, decisions, and attitudes toward those rules and
ordinances.This is what we call in social science theory as “agency”or the ability of individuals to
make choices, decisions, and actions for themselves to express their free will and independence from
structures.
• Without emphasizing the role of either structure and agency,”structuration” theoris aimed
at providing a more practical and inclusive picture of the process that shaped modern
society,stressing the equal role of interaction between the two major aspects of social life,
the objective and the subjective natures of social phenomenon.
• Earlier ideas of society have insufficiently looked into either the internal parameters of
“social reproduction”of institutions, values, and systems or “social transformation”.
PIERRE BOURDIEU (1930-2002)

• French intellectual (sociologists, anthropologist, and philosopher)of the late

20th century.A graduate of the prestigious Ecole Normale Superior (ENS)in
paris,he served in the French Army during the Second World War.He was
also critical of the dominant framework of existentialism and was attracted
to a more empirically based philosophy..He could also be considered a
leftwing or radical intellectual because of his ideas affinity with Marxism
and his very critical stance on class based perpetuation of power.He was
well known for a theoretical perspective known as the Theory of practice ,
which he developed and applied in his studies of education,art, and culture.
BOURDIEU:REVEALING HIDDEN MECHANISM OF
SOCIETY
• It has long been realized by the 20th century social theory that classical Marxism is
somewhat limited in the way it understands the workings of society,that is large
structures,such as the economy,are the sole and determining factors of all forms of social
institutions, frameworks and relations.
• Bourdieu saw that a major issue afflicting the lives of many people was the so called Status
Que,wich perpetuates, reproduces, and legitimizes the interest of the powerful sector:the
ruling elites.He called this situation the “neoliberal scourge”,in wich society is burdened
and afflicted with underlying structures of violence, injustice, and control from the powerful
minority.
WORL WATCH 👓

STATUS QUO
• From the latin phrase status quo; the “prevailing state”or the current, accepted, and
widely practiced system and pattern of doing and thinking in a given society.
• This phrase has long been popular in social science especially when characterizing
society from a critical standpoint.
GIDDENS: THE ROLE OF “AGENTS”IN THE
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIETY
• Much like Bourdieu, Anthony Giddens (1938) believes that
there should be no dichotomy between “structure”(role of
institutions)and agents (role of individual actions) in explaining
the nature and mechanisms of society.Like the analogy of a
coin ,two sides of life macrosocial institutions and structures as
well as microindividual actions and dispositions should be taken
into account in social analysis.In fact, Giddens has a more
purposive and conscious analysis of the relationship between
structure and agency,wich he calls the theory of “structuration”.
ANTHONY GIDDENS

• He critiqued previous ideas about society such as,

positivism,structural functionalism,rational choice theory, and
other interactionist ideas.
• He axamined canons such as the ideas of Durkheim,Marx, and
Weber.He written numerous of books and became very popular
figure in contemporary social science, especially, sociology. He
also served as a director at the London School of Economics.
• He was also known for the title of Baron by the state (thus,he is
oftentimes referred to as “Lord Giddens”)