structure v action

Question 1

structural approaches

Answer 1

feminism - conflict

functionalism - consensus

marxism - conflict

Question 2

combination of structure and action

Answer 2

neo-marxism - humanistic Gramsi, structural Althusser

social action theory - weber

structuration theory - giddens

Question 3

action theory

Answer 3

symbolic

interactionism

postmodernism

ethonomethodology

Question 4

structural theories

Answer 4

argue individuals are constrained by social structures

structures are external to use - they exist before us and continue on after us

makes behaviour patterned and predictable at a macro level

social structure heavily influences and directs human behaviour and opportunities

Question 5

structural theories eval

Answer 5

reification - assume society is an actual thing that exists independently of human action

seen as deterministic providing people with little free will

Question 6

social action theories

Answer 6

micro-level, bottom-up approaches that focus on the actions and interactions of individuals

individuals are seen as having free will and choice

individuals shape society through their choices, meanings and actions

shared symbols help people to negotiate and interact with one another

Question 7

social action evaluations

Answer 7

struggles to properly explain conflict and power differentials in society

fails to explain the origins of inequality - origin of labels

at times focuses too much on individual and fails to explain the connections between social structure and individual behaviour

Question 8

bridging the divide

Answer 8

Max Weber

• first to develop a strong social approach - Max Weber regularly utilised structural arguments alongside social action
• sociological explanations need to take both structure and action into account

structure - because objective structural factors shape people’s behaviour
action - because individuals attach subjective meanings to actions

show ideas and values also shaped human development

protestant values created a form of behaviour then shaped the economic system which proceeds to shape culture behaviours

Question 9

bridging the divide evaluation

Answer 9

Weber himself acknowledged that he had not quite succeeded in solving the debate - sometimes he wrote in terms of structure, other in terms of social action and verstehen

Question 10

structuration theory

Answer 10

Giddens

• attempted to recast and solve debate
• no social laws in social life - people are knowledgeable about world and people create and reproduce existing social structures
• not separate - duality of structure
• we draw upon various resources and that we use these to work alongside and subvert rules
• however, we can also change how we use language thus altering the structure and rules of language

Question 11

structuration theory evolution

Answer 11

• criticised for merely repeating Weber’s theory and has done little but changed the language used
• accused of redefining the question as rules and resources are arguably very distinct from structure and action - rather than answering the dilemma set, he merely answered a different question
• defined with theoretical rigour how social action works rather than structure and action as his model has little to say about how constraining social structures work and operate