The „Theory of Structuration”

An Interview with Anthony Giddens

Anthony Giddens’ “Theory of Structuration” aims to overcome the still dominant abstract opposition of the subjective oriented theories of action and the objective oriented structural approaches. According to him, social reality cannot be understood merely as a contingency of agency neither as an objective structure, but much more as a dynamic process of an agency forming “structuration”. The central point of the “Theory of Structuration” is to reshape the notion of structure as the “duality of agency and structure”. Giddens fully elaborated this approach in numerous publications – the most important can be found in the bibliography of this interview. In addition to that he dealt with the historical features of modern societies. In doing so, premises of the Marxist tradition were presented in a pointedly critical manner. The interview covers both topics: at first questions to the “Theory of Structuration” were raised, then the actual topics of social theories were discussed.

Released: Replika 82, 11–24.
Fordította:
Viktor Berger