Saturday, February 16, 2013

Structure/Agency as a dichotomy is rather confusing, please could someone give examples of both to show the clear difference in understanding?I'm...

I think it is also helpful to think of structure not just in contrast to agency, meaning that structure confines people's choices because of society, but to think through specifically what structure's exist in a given society.  So for example... in a western, highly industrialized democracy what society structures could potentially influence somebody's choices:


Economic structures--- economic infastructure, availability of jobs for example varies from region to region



Educational structures--- educational opportunity, being zoned to a school that has a reputation for excellence or being zoned to a school that has a "failing" reputation.



In both of these cases very real, tangible things (jobs, schools) make-up part of the structure; when you think about whether everyone one has equitable access to jobs and schools, it becomes easy to see that agency (the ability to make choices) can only explain a part of what happens to any one individual.

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