Human Agents and Social Structures.

HUMAN AGENTS and SOCIAL STRUCTURES -- Half Title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Notes on contributors -- PART ONE: General issues -- 1. Introduction: the opposition of structure and agency: Peter J. Martin and Alex Dennis -- 2. The structure problem in the context of structure and agency controversies: Wes Sharrock and Graham Button -- 3. On the retreat from collective concepts in sociology: Peter J. Martin -- 4. Structure and agency as the products of dynamic social processes: Marx and modern social theory: Alex Dennis -- PART TWO: Recent social theorists -- 5. The two Habermases: Anthony King -- 6. Pierre Bourdieu: from the model of reality to the reality of the model: Richard Jenkins -- 7. The production and reproduction of social order: is structuration a solution?: Wes Sharrock -- 8. On the reception of Foucault: Allison Cavanagh and Alex Dennis -- PART THREE: After the debate -- 9. Beyond social structure: Richard Jenkins -- 10. Two kinds of social theory: the myth and reality of social existence: Anthony King -- Bibliography -- Index.

This is a deliberately polemical intervention into the structure/agency debate in the social sciences. It argues that central concepts in this debate - such as 'society' and the 'individual' - have been widely misconceived, and that progress in the social sciences will only occur if the real nature of the social world is respected.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.