Anthony Giddens, Baron Giddens (born 18 January 1938) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
sociologistSociology is the scientific or systematic study of human societies. It is a branch of social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, often with the goal of applying such...
who is renowned for his theory of structuration and his
holisticHolism is the idea that all the properties of a given system cannot be determined or explained by its component parts alone...
view of modern
societiesSociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
. He is considered to be one of the most prominent modern contributors in the field of sociology, the author of at least 34 books, published in at least 29 languages, issuing on average more than one book every year. Giddens is "the fifth most-referenced author of books in the humanities".
Three notable stages can be identified in his academic life. The first one involved outlining a new vision of what sociology is, presenting a theoretical and methodological understanding of that field, based on a critical reinterpretation of the classics. His major publications of that era include
Capitalism and Modern Social Theory (1971) and
New Rules of Sociological Method (1976). In the second stage Giddens developed the theory of structuration, an analysis of agency and
structureSocial structure is a term used in sociology and anthropology to refer to relationships or bonds between groups of individuals . Whereas 'structure' refers to "the macro", "agency" refers to "the micro"...
, in which primacy is granted to neither. His works of that period, such as
Central Problems in Social Theory (1979) and
The Constitution of Society (1984), brought him international fame on the sociological arena. The most recent stage concerns
modernityModernity is a term that is related to the modern era, but is distinct both from it and from modernism. In different contexts, the term refers to a condition associated with cultural and intellectual movements of a period beginning anywhere from 1436 to 1789 , and extending to the 1970s or later...
,
globalizationGlobalization describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and exchange....
and politics, especially the impact of modernity on
socialA Social relation is a concept in social science referring most generally to a relationship between two or more people, but that relationship can exist without those people actively and deliberately relating, communicating or associating with each other....
and
personal lifePersonal life, sometimes referred to as daily life or everyday life, is the course of an individual's life, especially when viewed as the sum of personal choices contributing to one's personal identity....
. This stage is reflected by his critique of
postmodernityPostmodernity is generally used to describe the economic and/or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity...
, and discussions of a new "
utopiaUtopia is a name for an ideal community or society, that is taken from Of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia, a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system...
n-realist"
third wayThe Third Way is a term that has been used to describe a political position which attempts to transcend left-wing and right-wing politics by advocating a mix of some left-wing and right-wing policies. Third Way approaches are commonly viewed as representing a centrist compromise between capitalism...
in politics, visible in the
Consequence of Modernity (1990),
Modernity and Self-Identity (1991),
The Transformation of Intimacy (1992),
Beyond Left and Right (1994) and
The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy (1998). Giddens' ambition is both to recast
social theorySocial theory is the use of theoretical frameworks to study and interpret social structures and phenomena within a particular school of thought....
and to re-examine our understanding of the development and trajectory of
modernityModernity is a term that is related to the modern era, but is distinct both from it and from modernism. In different contexts, the term refers to a condition associated with cultural and intellectual movements of a period beginning anywhere from 1436 to 1789 , and extending to the 1970s or later...
.
Currently Giddens serves as Emeritus Professor at the
London School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science, commonly referred to as the London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London in London, England....
.
Biography
Giddens was born and raised in
Edmonton, LondonEdmonton is an area in the east of the London Borough of Enfield, England, United Kingdom with a long history as a settlement distinct from Enfield...
, and grew up in a lower middle-class
familyFamily denotes a group of people or animals affiliated by a consanguinity, affinity or co-residence...
, son of a clerk with
London TransportThe London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport.It was...
. He was the first member of his family to go to
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. He got his first
academic degreeA degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study.- History :...
from Hull University in 1959, and later took a Master's degree from the
London School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science, commonly referred to as the London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London in London, England....
, followed by a PhD from
King's College, CambridgeKing's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.Founded in 1441, the college's formal name is "The King's College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge". It is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the university.- History :King's was founded in 1441 by...
in 1974. In 1961 he started working at the
University of LeicesterThe University of Leicester is a research led university based in Leicester, England, with approximately 20,000 registered students - about 13,000 of them full-time students and 7,000 part-time and/or distance learning...
where he taught
social psychologySocial psychology is a type of social science that is concerned with individuals' thoughts, feelings and behavior as they affect or are affected by other individuals...
. At Leicester, which was considered to be one of the seedbeds of British sociology, he met
Norbert EliasNorbert Elias was a German sociologist of Jewish descent, who later became a British citizen.His work focused on the relationship between power, behavior, emotion, and knowledge over time. He significantly shaped what is called process or figurational sociology...
and began to work out his own theoretical position. In 1969 he was appointed to a position at the
University of CambridgeThe University of Cambridge , located in the City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, is the second oldest university in the English-speaking world and the fourth oldest in Europe...
, where he later helped create the Social and Political Sciences Committee (SPS - now
PPSISThe Faculty of Politics, Psychology, Sociology and International Studies at the University of Cambridge was created in January 2009 out of a merger of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences and the Centre of International Studies....
), a sub-unit of the Faculty of Economics.
Giddens worked for many years at Cambridge as a fellow of
King's CollegeKing's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.Founded in 1441, the college's formal name is "The King's College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge". It is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the university.- History :King's was founded in 1441 by...
and was eventually promoted to a full professorship in 1987. He is cofounder of
Polity PressPolity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
(1985). From 1997 to 2003 he was director of the
London School of EconomicsThe London School of Economics and Political Science, commonly referred to as the London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London in London, England....
and a member of the Advisory Council of the
Institute for Public Policy ResearchThe Institute for Public Policy Research is a left-wing UK think-tank with strong ties to the Labour party that claims to produce progressive ideas committed to upholding values of social justice, democratic reform and environmental sustainability. IPPR is based in London and also has a branch in...
. He was also an adviser to former
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
Tony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
; it was Giddens whose "
third wayThe Third Way is a term that has been used to describe a political position which attempts to transcend left-wing and right-wing politics by advocating a mix of some left-wing and right-wing policies. Third Way approaches are commonly viewed as representing a centrist compromise between capitalism...
" political approach has been Tony Blair's (and
Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the third-youngest president; only Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy were younger when entering office...
's) guiding political idea. He has been a vocal participant in British political debates, supporting the center-left
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
with
mediaThe news media refers to the section of the mass media that focuses on presenting current news to the public.These include print media ; broadcast media , and increasingly Internet-based media .The term news trade refers to the concept of the news media as a business...
appearances and articles (many of which are published in
New StatesmanThe New Statesman is a British left-wing political magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
). Giddens is a regular contributor to the research and activities of progressive think-tank
Policy NetworkPolicy Network is a London-based international think tank which is dedicated to promoting progressive policies and the renewal of social democracy...
. He was given a life peerage in June 2004, as
Baron Giddens, of
SouthgateSouthgate is an area of north London, England, primarily within the London Borough of Enfield, although parts of its western fringes lie within the London Borough of Barnet. It is located about north of Charing Cross. The name is derived from being the south gate to Enfield Chase...
in the
London Borough of EnfieldThe London Borough of Enfield is the most northerly London borough and forms part of Outer London.- Etymology :Enfield was recorded in the Domesday Book 1086 as Enefelde, Einefeld 1214, Enfeld 1293, Enfild 1564, that is 'open land of a man called Ēana, or where lambs are reared', from the Old...
and sits in the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
for
LabourThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
.
Overview
Giddens, the author of over 34 books and 200 articles, essays and reviews has contributed and written about most notable developments in the area of
social sciencesThe social sciences are the fields of scientific knowledge and academic scholarship that study social groups and, more generally, human society. The social sciences initially were constituted of five fields: Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law; Education; Health; Economy and Trade; Art...
, with the exception of research design and methods. He has written commentaries on most leading schools and figures and has used most sociological paradigms in both
microMicrosociology is one of the main branches of sociology which concerns itself with the nature of everyday human social interactions on a small scale. It relates to agency and social action as components of the structure and agency debate...
and
macrosociologyMacrosociology is a sociological approach that analyzes societies, social systems or populations on a large scale or at a high level of abstraction. It is considered one of the main foundations of sociology, alongside microsociology and mesosociology. Microsociology focuses on the individual...
. His writings range from abstract, metatheoretical problems to very direct and 'down-to-earth'
textbookA textbook is a manual of instruction or a standard book in any branch of study. They are produced according to the demand of educational institutions...
s for students. Finally, he is also known for his interdisciplinary approach: he has commented not only on the developments in sociology, but also in
anthropologyAnthropology is the study of human beings, everywhere and throughout time....
,
archaeologyArchaeology or archeology is the science that studies human cultures through the recovery, documentation, analysis, and interpretation of material culture and environmental data, including architecture, artifacts, biofacts, and landscapes...
,
psychologyPsychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the systematic, and sometimes scientific, study of human or animal mental functions and behavior...
,
philosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned...
,
historyHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
,
linguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
,
economicsEconomics is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
,
social workSocial Work is both a profession and social science. It involves the application of social theory and research methods to study and improve the lives of people, groups, and societies...
and most recently,
political sciencePolitical science is a social science concerned with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behavior. It is often described as the pragmatic application of the art and science of politics defined as "who gets what, when and how",...
. In view of his knowledge and works, one may view much of his life's work as a form of 'grand synthesis' of sociological theory.
The nature of sociology
Before 1976, most of Giddens's writings offered critical commentary on a wide range of writers, schools and traditions. Giddens took a stance against the then-dominant
functionalism (represented by
Talcott ParsonsTalcott Parsons was an American sociologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1927–1973.Parsons developed a general theory for the study of society called action theory, based on the methodological principle of voluntarism and the epistemological principle of analytical...
, exponent of
Max WeberMaximilian Carl Emil Weber was a German lawyer, politician, historian, sociologist and political economist, who profoundly influenced social theory and the remit of sociology itself. His major works dealt with the rationalization, bureaucratization, and 'disenchantment' he associated with the...
), as well as criticizing
evolutionismEvolutionism refers to doctrines of evolution, specifically to a widely held 19th century belief that organisms are intrinsically bound to improve themselves, and that changes are progressive and arise through inheritance of acquired characters, as in Lamarckism. The belief was extended to include...
and
historical materialismHistorical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx...
. In
Capitalism and Modern Social Theory (1971), he examined the work of Weber,
DurkheimDavid Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist and pioneer in the development of modern sociology and anthropology. His work and editorship of the first journal of sociology, L'Année Sociologique, as well as his creation of the first European department of sociology, helped establish sociology...
and
MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
, arguing that despite their different approaches each was concerned with the link between
capitalismCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
and
social lifeA Social relation is a concept in social science referring most generally to a relationship between two or more people, but that relationship can exist without those people actively and deliberately relating, communicating or associating with each other....
. Giddens emphasised the social constructs of
powerPower is a measure of an entity's ability to control the environment around itself, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power, perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as...
,
modernityModernity is a term that is related to the modern era, but is distinct both from it and from modernism. In different contexts, the term refers to a condition associated with cultural and intellectual movements of a period beginning anywhere from 1436 to 1789 , and extending to the 1970s or later...
and
institutionInstitutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human collectivity. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and...
s, defining sociology as "the study of social institutions brought into being by the industrial transformation of the past two or three centuries."
In
New Rules of Sociological Method (1976) (the title of which alludes to Durkheim's
Rules of the Sociological Method of 1895) Giddens attempted to explain 'how sociology should be done' and addressed a long-standing divide between those theorists who prioritise '
macro levelMacrosociology is a sociological approach that analyzes societies, social systems or populations on a large scale or at a high level of abstraction. It is considered one of the main foundations of sociology, alongside microsociology and mesosociology. Microsociology focuses on the individual...
' studies of social life - looking at the 'big picture' of
societySociety or human society is the manner or condition in which the members of a community live together for their mutual benefit. By extension, society denotes the people of a region or country, sometimes even the world, taken as a whole....
- and those who emphasise the '
micro levelMicrosociology is one of the main branches of sociology which concerns itself with the nature of everyday human social interactions on a small scale. It relates to agency and social action as components of the structure and agency debate...
' - what everyday life means to individuals. In
New Rules... he noted that the functionalist approach, invented by Durkheim, treated society as a reality unto itself, not reducible to
individualAs commonly used, individual refers to a person or to any specific object in a collection. In the 15th century and earlier, and also today within the fields of statistics and metaphysics, individual means "indivisible", typically describing any numerically singular thing, but sometimes meaning "a...
s. He rejected Durkheim's
sociological positivismIn sociology, anthropology, and other social sciences, the term positivism is closely connected to naturalism and can be traced back to the philosophical thinking of Auguste Comte in the 19th century...
paradigmThe word paradigm has been used in linguistics and science to describe distinct concepts....
, which attempted to identify laws which will predict how societies will operate, without looking at the meanings understood by individual actors in society. He contrasted Durkheim with Weber's approach - interpretative sociology - focused on understanding
agencyAgency is a concept used in philosophy and sociology to refer to the capacity of an agent to act in a world. In philosophy, the agency is considered as belonging to that agent even if that agent represents a fictitious character, or some other non-existent entity...
and
motivesMotivation is the activation or energization of goal-oriented behavior. Motivation may be internal or external. The term is generally used for humans but, theoretically, it can also be used to describe the causes for animal behavior as well. This article refers to human motivation...
of individuals. Giddens is closer to Weber than Durkheim, but in his analysis he rejects both of those approaches, stating that while society is not a collective reality, nor should the individual be treated as the central
unit of analysisThe unit of analysis is the major entity that is being analyzed in the study. It is the 'what' or 'whom' that is being studied. In social science research, the most typical units of analysis are individual people...
. "Society only has form, and that form only has effects on people, insofar as structure is produced and reproduced in what people do". Rather he uses the
logicLogic, from the Greek λογική is the art and science of reasoning. More specifically, it is defined by the Penguin Encyclopedia to be "The formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning". As a discipline, logic dates back to Aristotle, who established its...
of hermeneutic tradition (from interpretative sociology) to argue for the importance of
agencyAgency is a concept used in philosophy and sociology to refer to the capacity of an agent to act in a world. In philosophy, the agency is considered as belonging to that agent even if that agent represents a fictitious character, or some other non-existent entity...
in sociological theory, claiming that human social actors are always to some degree knowledgeable about what they are doing.
Social orderSocial order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving....
is therefore a result of some pre-planned social actions, not automatic evolutionary response. Sociologists, unlike
natural scientistsIn Science, the term natural science refers to a naturalistic approach to the study of the universe, which is understood as obeying rules or laws of natural origin...
, have to interpret a social world which is already interpreted by the actors that inhabit it. Thus, there is a "
Duality of structureDuality of structure is one of Anthony Giddens' coined phrases and main propositions in his explanation of structuration theory. The basis of the duality lies in the relationship the Agency has with the Structure. In the duality, the Agency has much more influence on its lived environment than...
", according to Giddens. With that he means that social practice, which is the principal unit of investigation, has both a structural and an agency-component: The structural environment constrains individual behaviour, but also makes it possible. He also notes the existence of a specific form of a social cycle: once sociological concepts are formed, they filter back into everyday world and change the way people think. Because social actors are reflexive and monitor the ongoing flow of activities and structural conditions, they adapt their actions to their evolving understandings. As a result, social scientific knowledge of society will actually change human activities. Giddens calls this two-tiered, interpretive and dialectical relationship between social scientific knowledge and human practices the "
double hermeneuticDouble hermeneutic is the theory, expounded by sociologist Anthony Giddens, that everyday "lay" concepts and those from the social sciences have a two-way relationship. A common example is the idea of social class, a social-scientific category that has entered into wide use in society...
".
Giddens also stressed the importance of power, which is means to ends, and hence is directly involved in the actions of every person. Power, the transformative capacity of people to change the social and material world, is closely shaped by
knowledgeKnowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained...
and space-time.
In
New Rules... Giddens specifically wrote that:
- Sociology is not about a 'pre-given' universe of objects, the universe is being constituted -or produced by- the active doings of subjects.
- The production and reproduction of society thus has to be treated as a skilled performance on the part of its members.
- The realm of human agency
Agency is a concept used in philosophy and sociology to refer to the capacity of an agent to act in a world. In philosophy, the agency is considered as belonging to that agent even if that agent represents a fictitious character, or some other non-existent entity...
is bounded. Individuals produce society, but they do so as historically located actors, and not under conditions of their own choosing.
- Structures must be conceptualized not only as constraints upon human agency, but also as enablers.
- Processes of structuration involve an interplay of meanings, norms and power.
- The sociological observer cannot make social life available as 'phenomenon' for observation independently of drawing upon his knowledge of it as a resource whereby he constitutes it as a 'topic for investigation'.
- Immersion in a form of life is the necessary and only means whereby an observer is able to generate such characterizations.
- Sociological concepts thus obey a double hermeneutic.
- In sum, the primary tasks of sociological analysis are the following: (1) The hermeneutic explication and mediation of divergent forms of life within descriptive metalanguage
In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another language which is called the object language. It can refer to any terminology or language used to discuss language itself—a written grammar, for example, or a discussion about language use...
s of social science; (2) Explication of the production and reproduction of society as the accomplished outcome of human agency.
Structuration
Giddens's theory of structuration explores the question of whether it is individuals or
social forcesSocial Forces is a social science academic journal published by University of North Carolina Press. It concentrates on sociology but also addresses related problems within the fields of social psychology, anthropology, political science, history, and economics...
that shape our
social realitySocial reality is distinct from biological reality or individual cognitive reality, and consists of the accepted social tenets of a community. Some scholars such as John Searle believe that the social reality can be established separately from that of any individual or the surrounding ecology...
. He eschews extreme positions, arguing that although people are not entirely free to choose their own actions, and their knowledge is limited, they nonetheless are the agency which reproduces the social structure and leads to
social changeSocial development redirects here. For the aspect of human biological development, see psychosocial developmentSocial change is a general term which refers to:...
. His ideas find an echo in the philosophy of the modernist poet
Wallace StevensWallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for an insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar," "Disillusionment of...
who suggests that we live in the tension between the shapes we take as the world acts upon us, and the ideas of order that our imagination imposes upon the world. Giddens writes that the connection between structure and action is a fundamental element of
social theorySocial theory is the use of theoretical frameworks to study and interpret social structures and phenomena within a particular school of thought....
,
structure and agencyThe debate surrounding the influence of structure and agency on human thought and behaviour is one of the central issues in sociology and other social sciences. In this context "agency" refers to the capacity of individual humans to act independently and to make their own free choices. "Structure"...
are a duality that cannot be conceived of apart from one another and his main argument is contained in his expression "
duality of structureDuality of structure is one of Anthony Giddens' coined phrases and main propositions in his explanation of structuration theory. The basis of the duality lies in the relationship the Agency has with the Structure. In the duality, the Agency has much more influence on its lived environment than...
". At a basic level, this means that people make society, but are at the same time constrained by it. Action and structure cannot be analysed separately, as structures are created, maintained and changed through actions, while actions are given meaningful form only through the background of the structure: the line of causality runs in both directions making it impossible to determine what is changing what. In Giddens own words (from
New rules...) : "social structures are both constituted by human agency, and yet at the same time are the very medium of this constitution." In this regard he defines structures as consisting of rules and resources involving human action: the rules constrain the actions, the resources make it possible. He also differentiates between systems and structures. Systems display structural properties but are not structures themselves. He notes in his article
Functionalism: après la lutte (1976) that "To examine the structuration of a social system is to examine the modes whereby that system, through the application of generative rules and resources is produced and reproduced in social interaction." This process of structures (re)producing systems is called structuration. Systems here mean to Giddens "the situated activities of human agents" (
The Constitution of Society.) and "the patterning of social relations across space-time"(
ibidIbid. is the term used to provide an endnote or footnote citation or reference for a source that was cited in the preceding endnote or footnote. It is similar in meaning to idem abbreviated "Id.," which is commonly used in legal citation.To find the ibid...
.). Structures are then "...sets of rules and resources that individual actors draw upon in the practices that reproduce social systems’" (
Politics, Sociology and Social Theory) and "systems of generative rules and sets, implicated in the articulation of social systems" (
The Constitution of Society.), existing virtually "out of time and out of space" (
New rules....). Structuration therefore means that relations that took shape in the structure, can exist "out of time and place": in other words, independent of the context in which they are created. An example is the relationship between a teacher and a student: when they come across each other in another context, say on the street, the hierarchy between them is still preserved.
Structure can act as a constraint on action, but it also enables action by providing common frames of meaning. Consider the example of
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
: structure of language is represented by the rules of
syntaxIn linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages...
that rule out certain combinations of
wordA word is the smallest free form in a language, in contrast to a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning. A word may consist of only one morpheme , but a single morpheme may not be able to exist as a free form A word is the smallest free form (an item that may be uttered in isolation with...
s. But the structure also provides rules that allow new actions to occur, enabling us to create new, meaningful
sentenceIn linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language—a grammatical and lexical unit consisting of one or more words, representing distinct and differentiated concepts, and combined to form a meaningful statement, question, request and command....
s. Structures should not be conceived as "simply placing constrains upon human agency, but as enabling." (
New rules....) Giddens suggests that structures (traditions, institutions, moral codes, and other sets of expectations - established ways of doing things) are generally quite stable, but can be changed, especially through the
unintended consequenceUnintended consequences are outcomes that are not the results originally intended by a particular action. The unintended results may be foreseen or unforeseen, but they should be the logical or likely results of the action...
s of action, when people start to ignore them, replace them, or reproduce them differently.
Thus, actors (agents) employ the social rules appropriate to their culture, ones that they have learned through socialisation and experience. These rules together with the resources at their disposal are used in social interactions. Rules and resources employed in this manner are not deterministic, but are applied reflexively by knowledgeable actors, albeit that actors’ awareness may be limited to the specifics of their activities at any given time. Thus, the outcome of action is not totally predictable.
Connections between micro and macro
Structuration is very useful in synthesizing
microMicrosociology is one of the main branches of sociology which concerns itself with the nature of everyday human social interactions on a small scale. It relates to agency and social action as components of the structure and agency debate...
and
macroMacrosociology is a sociological approach that analyzes societies, social systems or populations on a large scale or at a high level of abstraction. It is considered one of the main foundations of sociology, alongside microsociology and mesosociology. Microsociology focuses on the individual...
issues. On a micro scale, one of individuals' internal sense of self and
identityIdentity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. This term, though generic, can be further specified by the disciplines of psychology and sociology, including the two forms of social psychology...
, consider the example of a
familyFamily denotes a group of people or animals affiliated by a consanguinity, affinity or co-residence...
: we are increasingly free to choose our own mates and how to relate with them, which creates new opportunities but also more work, as the relationship becomes a reflexive project that has to be interpreted and maintained. Yet this micro-level change cannot be explained only by looking at the individual level as people did not spontaneously changed their minds about how to live; neither can we assume they were directed to do so by social institutions and the state. On a macro scale, one of the
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
and social organizations like a
multinationalA multinational corporation or transnational corporation , also called multinational enterprise , is a corporation or enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country...
capitalistCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
corporationA corporation is a legal entity separate from the shareholders and employees. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate...
s, consider the example of
globalizationGlobalization describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of communication and exchange....
, which offers vast new opportunities for investment and development, but crises - like the Asian financial crisis - can impact the entire world, spreading far outside the local setting in which they first developed, and last but not least directly influences individuals. A serious explanation of such issues must lie somewhere within the network of macro and micro forces. Thus these different levels, which have traditionally been treated quite separately by sociologists, are in fact revealed as having significant influence upon each other, and cannot really be understood if studied in isolation.
In order to illustrate this relationship, Giddens discusses changing attitudes towards marriage in developed countries. He claims that any effort to explain this phenomenon solely in terms of micro or macro level causes will result in a
circular cause and consequenceCircular cause and consequence is a logical fallacy where the consequence of the phenomenon is claimed to be its root cause. It is exemplified in the question, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"- Examples :...
logical fallacy. Social relationships and visible
sexualityHuman sexuality is how people experience the erotic and express themselves as sexual beings. Frequently driven by the desire for sexual pleasure, human sexuality has biological, physical and emotional aspects...
(micro-level change) are associated with the decline of
religionA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
and the rise of
rationalityIn philosophy, rationality and reason are the key methods used to analyze the data gathered through systematically gathered observations. In economics, sociology, and political science, a decision or situation is often called rational if it is in some sense optimal, and individuals or organizations...
(macro-level change), but also with changes in the laws relating to marriage and sexuality (macro), demand for which came from the level of everyday lives (micro). These, in turn, had been affected by the
social movementSocial movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
s of women's liberation and
egalitarianismEgalitarianism has two distinct definitions in modern English. It is defined either as a political doctrine that holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social, and civil rights or as a social philosophy advocating the removal of economic...
(macro); which themselves had grown out of dis-satisfactions within everyday life (micro).
All of this is increasingly tied in with
mass mediaMass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such...
, one of our main providers of information. Yet information and ideas from the media do not merely reflect the social world, then, but contribute to its shape, and are central to modern reflexivity.
David GauntlettDavid Gauntlett is a British sociologist and media theorist. He specialises in the study of contemporary media audiences, the everyday making and sharing of digital media, and the role of such media in self-identity and self-expression.-Career:...
writes in
Media, Gender and Identity that: "The importance of the media in propagating many modern lifestyles should be obvious. [...] The range of lifestyles - or lifestyle ideals - offered by the media may be limited, but at the same time it is usually broader than those we would expect to just 'bump into' in everyday life. So the media in modernity offers possibilities and celebrates diversity, but also offers narrow interpretations of certain roles or lifestyles - depending where you look.".
Another example explored by Giddens is the emergence of
romantic loveRomance is a general term that refers to the attempt to express love with words or deeds. It also refers to a feeling of excitement associated with love....
, which Giddens (
The Transformation of Intimacy) links with the rise of the 'narrative of the self' type of self-identity: "Romantic love introduced the idea of a narrative into an individual's life." Although history of sex clearly demonstrates that passion and
sexIn biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...
are not modern phenomena, the
discourseDiscourse means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion of debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis....
of romantic love is said to have developed from the late eighteenth century.
RomanticismRomanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
, the 18th and 19th century European macro-level
cultural movementA cultural movement is a change in the way a number of different disciplines approach their work. This embodies all art forms, the sciences, and philosophies. Historically, different nations or regions of the world have gone through their own independent sequence of movements in culture, but as...
is responsible for the emergence of the
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
- a relatively early form of mass media. The growing
literacyLiteracy is a concept claimed and defined by a range of different theoretical fields. In everyday terms, "literacy" is typically described as the ability to read and write...
and popularity of novels fed back into the mainstream lifestyle and the
romance novelThe romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...
proliferated the stories of ideal romantic life narratives on a micro-level, giving the romantic love an important and recognised role in the marriage-type relationship.
Consider also the transformation of
intimacyIntimacy generally refers to the feeling of being in a close personal association and belonging together. It is a familiar and very close affective connection with another as a result of entering deeply or closely into relationship through knowledge and experience of the other. Genuine intimacy in...
. Giddens asserts that intimate social relationships have become '
democratisedDemocratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system...
', so that the bond between partners – even within a
marriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
– has little to do with external laws, regulations or social expectations, but is based on the internal understanding between two people – a
trustingSome philosophers argue that trust is more than a relationship of reliance. Philosophers such as Annette Baier have made a difference between trust and reliance by saying that trust can be betrayed, while reliance can only be disappointed...
bond based on
emotionAn emotion is a mental and physiological state associated with a wide variety of feelings, thoughts, and behavior. Emotions are subjective experiences, often associated with mood, temperament, personality, and disposition. The English word 'emotion' is derived from the French word émouvoir...
al communication. Where such a bond ceases to exist, modern society is generally happy for the relationship to be dissolved. Thus we have 'a democracy of the emotions in everyday life' (Runaway World, 1999).
Inevitably, Giddens concludes that all
social changeSocial development redirects here. For the aspect of human biological development, see psychosocial developmentSocial change is a general term which refers to:...
stems from a mixture of micro- and macro-level forces.
Self-identity
Giddens says that in the post-traditional order, self-identity is not inherited or static; rather, it becomes a reflexive project – an endeavour that we continuously work and reflect on. It is not a set of observable characteristics of a moment, but becomes an account of a person's life. Giddens writes (Modernity and Self-Identity: 54) that "A person's identity is not to be found in behaviour, nor - important though this is - in the reactions of others, but in the capacity to keep a particular narrative going. The individual's biography, if she is to maintain regular interaction with others in the day-to-day world, cannot be wholly fictive. It must continually integrate events which occur in the external world, and sort them into the ongoing 'story' about the self.".
More than ever before we have access to
informationInformation as a concept has many meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. The concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and representation.The English...
that allows us to reflect on the causes and
consequenceConsequence, or a consequence is the concept of a resulting effect Consequence, or a consequence is the concept of a resulting effect Consequence, or a consequence is the concept of a resulting effect (cf. cause and effect, arising from another action. In general terms, it is used to indicate that...
s of our actions. At the same time we are faced with dangers related to unintended consequences of our actions and by our reliance on the knowledge of experts. We create, maintain and revise a set of
biographicalA biography is a description or account of someone's life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography is a biography of a person's life written or told by that same person...
narrativeA narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events...
s, social roles and
lifestyleLifestyle was originally coined by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929. The current broader sense of the word dates from 1961.In sociology, a lifestyle is the way a person lives. A lifestyle is a characteristic bundle of behaviors that makes sense to both others and oneself in a given time...
s – the story of who we are, and how we came to be where we are now. We are increasingly free to choose what we want to do and who we want to be (although Giddens contends that
wealthWealth is an abundance of valuable resources or material possessions. The word is derived from the old English wela, which is from an Indo-European word stem...
gives access to more options). But increased choice can be both liberating and troubling. Liberating in the sense of increasing the likelihood of one's self-fulfilment, and troubling in form of increased emotional stress and time needed to analyse the available choices and minimise
riskRisk is a concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities. Technically, the notion of risk is independent from the notion of value and, as such, eventualities may have both beneficial and adverse consequences...
of which we are increasingly aware (what Giddens sums up as "manufacturing uncertainty"). While in earlier, traditional societies we would be provided with that narrative and social role, in the post-traditional society we are usually forced to create one ourselves. As Giddens (Modernity and Self-Identity: 70) puts it: "What to do? How to act? Who to be? These are focal questions for everyone living in circumstances of late modernity - and ones which, on some level or another, all of us answer, either discursively or through day-to-day social behaviour."
Modernity
Giddens' recent work has been concerned with the question of what is characteristic about social institutions in various points of history. Giddens agrees that there are very specific changes that mark our current era, but argues that it is not a "post-modern era", but just a "radicalised modernity era" (similar to
Zygmunt BaumanZygmunt Bauman is a Polish sociologist who, since 1971, has resided in England after being driven out of Poland by an anti-Semitic campaign, engineered by the Communist government which he had previously supported...
's concept of liquid modernity), produced by the extension of the same social forces that shaped the previous age. Giddens nonetheless differentiates between pre-modern, modern and late (high) modern societies and doesn't dispute that important changes have occurred but takes a neutral stance towards those changes, saying that it offers both unprecedented opportunities and unparalleled dangers. He also stresses that we haven't really gone beyond modernity. It's just a developed, detraditionalized, radicalised, 'late' modernity. Thus the phenomena that some have called 'postmodern' are to Giddens nothing more than the most extreme instances of a developed modernity.
Giddens concentrates on a contrast between traditional (pre-modern)
cultureCulture is a term that has different meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
and post-traditional (modern) culture. In traditional societies, individual actions are not matters that have to be extensively considered and thought about, because available choices are already predetermined (by the customs, traditions, etc.). In contrast, in post-traditional society people (actors, agents) are much less concerned with the precedents set by previous generations, and options are at least as open as the
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
and
public opinionPublic opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views...
will allow. Therefore individual actions now require much more analysis and thought before they are taken. Society becomes much more
reflexiveIn sociology, reflexivity is an act of self-reference where examination or action 'bends back on', refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination. In brief, reflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect...
and aware, something Giddens is fascinated with, illustrating it with examples ranging from formal government at one end of the scale to intimate sexual relationships at the other. Giddens examines three realms in particular: the experience of
identityIdentity is an umbrella term used throughout the social sciences to describe an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity. This term, though generic, can be further specified by the disciplines of psychology and sociology, including the two forms of social psychology...
, connections of
intimacyIntimacy generally refers to the feeling of being in a close personal association and belonging together. It is a familiar and very close affective connection with another as a result of entering deeply or closely into relationship through knowledge and experience of the other. Genuine intimacy in...
and political institutions.
The most defining property of modernity, according to Giddens, is that we are disembedded from
timeTime is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects...
and
spaceSpace is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of the boundless four-dimensional...
. In pre-modern societies, space was the area in which one moved, time was the experience one had while moving. In modern societies, however, the social space is no longer confined by the boundaries set by the space in which one moves. One can now imagine what other spaces look like, even if he has never been there. In this regard, Giddens talks about virtual space and virtual time.
Another distinctive property of modernity lies in the field of
knowledgeKnowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or awareness or familiarity gained...
. In pre-modern societies, it was the elders who possessed the knowledge: they were definable in time and space. In modern societies we must rely on expert systems. These are not present in time and space, but we must trust them. Even if we trust them, we know that something could go wrong: there's always a risk we have to take. Also the technologies which we use, and which transform constraints into means, hold risks. Consequently, there is always a heightened sense of uncertainty in contemporary societies. It is also in this regard that Giddens uses the image of a '
juggernautA juggernaut is a term used to describe a literal or metaphorical force regarded as unstoppable. It is often applied to a large machine or collectively to a team or group of people working together, and often bears association with crushing or being physically destructive.-Etymology:The word is...
': modernity is said to be like an unsteerable juggernaut traveling through space.
Humanity tries to steer it, but as long as the modern institutions, with all their uncertainty, endure, we will never be able to influence its course. The uncertainty can however be managed, by 'reembedding' the expert-systems into the structures which we are accustomed to.
Another characteristic is enhanced reflexivity, both at the level of individuals and at the level of institutions. The latter requires an explanation: in modern institutions there is always a component which studies the institutions themselves for the purpose of enhancing its effectiveness. This enhanced reflexivity was enabled as
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
became increasingly abstract with the transition from pre-modern to modern societies, becoming institutionalised into
universitiesA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. It is also in this regard that Giddens talks about "double hermeneutica": every action has two interpretations. The one is from the actor himself, the other of the investigator who tries to give meaning to the action he is observing. The actor who performs the action, however, can get to know the interpretation of the investigator, and therefore change his own interpretation, or his further line of action. This is the reason that positive science, according to Giddens, is never possible in the social sciences: every time an investigator tries to identify causal sequences of action, the actors can change their further line of action. The problem is, however, that conflicting viewpoints in social science result in a disinterest of the people. For example, when scientist don't agree about the greenhouse-effect, people will withdraw from that arena, and negate that there is a problem. Therefore, the more the sciences expand, the more incertitude there is in the modern society. In this regard, the juggernaut even gets more steerless.
In
A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism Giddens concludes that:
- There exists no necessary overall mechanism of social change
Social development redirects here. For the aspect of human biological development, see psychosocial developmentSocial change is a general term which refers to:...
, no universal motor of history such as class conflictClass conflict refers to the underlying tensions or antagonisms which exist in society due to conflicting interests that arise from different social positions...
;
- There are no universal stages, or periodization, of social development
Social development is a process which results in the transformation of social structures in a manner which improves the capacity of the society to fulfill its aspirations. Society develops by consciousness and social consciousness develops by organization. The process that is subconscious in the...
, these being ruled out by intersocietal systems and "time-space edges" (the ever-presence of exogenousExogenous refers to an action or object coming from outside a system. It is the opposite of endogenous, something generated from within the system....
variables), as well as by human agency and the inherent "historicityHistoricity may mean:*the quality of being part of recorded history, as opposed to prehistory*the quality of being part of history as opposed to being ahistorical myth or legend** Historicity of the Iliad**Historicity *** Historicity of Jesus...
" of societies;
- Societies do not have need
A need is something that is necessary for humans to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants because a deficiency would cause a clear negative outcome, such as dysfunction or death. Needs can be objective and physical, such as food and water, or they can be subjective and...
s other than those of individuals, so notions such as adaptationAdaptation is the process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat. This process takes place over many generations, and is one of the basic phenomena of biology....
cannot properly be applied to them;
- Pre-capitalism
Capitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
societies are class-dividedSocial classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...
, but only with capitalism are there class societies in which there is endemicEndemism is the ecological state of being unique to a particular geographic location, such as a specific island, habitat type, nation, or other defined zone. To be endemic to a place or area means that it is found only in that part of the world and nowhere else. For example, many species of lemur...
class conflictClass conflict refers to the underlying tensions or antagonisms which exist in society due to conflicting interests that arise from different social positions...
, the separation of the political and economic spheres, property freely alienable as capitalIn economics, capital or capital goods or real capital are factors of production used to create goods or services that are not themselves significantly consumed in the production process. Capital goods may be acquired with money or financial capital...
, and "free" labour and labour markets;
- While class conflict is integral to capitalist society, there is no teleology
Teleology is the philosophical study of design and purpose. A teleological school of thought is one that holds all things to be designed for or directed toward a final result, that there is an inherent purpose or final cause for all that exists.As a school of thought it can be contrasted with...
that guarantees the emergence of the working classWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
as the universal classUniversal class is a category derived from the philosophy of Hegel, redefined and popularized by Karl Marx. In Marxism it denotes that class of people within a stratified society for which, at a given point in history, self interested action coincides with the needs of humanity as a...
and no ontologyOntology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality in general, as well as of the basic categories of being and their relations...
that justifies denial of the multiple bases of modern society represented by capitalism, industrialism, bureaucratisation, surveillanceSurveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people and often in a surreptitious manner...
and industrialization of warfare;
- Sociology, as a subject concerned pre-eminently with modernity, addresses a reflexive
In sociology, reflexivity is an act of self-reference where examination or action 'bends back on', refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination. In brief, reflexivity refers to circular relationships between cause and effect...
reality.
The Third Way
In the age of late and reflexive modernity and
post scarcityPost scarcity or post-scarcity describes a hypothetical form of economy or society, often explored in science fiction, in which things such as goods, services and information are free, or practically free...
economy the
political sciencePolitics is a process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic and religious institutions...
is being transformed. Giddens notes that there is a possibility that "life politics" (the politics of self-actualisation) may become more visible than "emancipatory politics" (the politics of
inequalityIn mathematics, an inequality is a statement about the relative size or order of two objects, or about whether they are the same or not .*The notation a < b means that a is less than b....
); that new
social movementSocial movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals and/or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
s may lead to more social change than
political partiesA political party is a political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns...
; and that the reflexive project of the self and changes in gender and sexual relations may lead the way, via the "democratisation of democracy", to a new era of
HabermasianJürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and American pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his work on the concept of the public sphere, the topic of his first book entitled The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere...
"dialogic democracy" in which differences are settled, and practices ordered, through
discourseDiscourse means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion of debate." The term is often used in semantics and discourse analysis....
rather than violence or the commands of authority.
Giddens, relying on his past familiar themes of reflexivity and system integration, which places people into new relations of trust and dependency with each other and their governments, argues that the political concepts of 'left' and 'right' are now breaking down, as a result of many factors, most centrally the absence of a clear alternative to
capitalismCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
and the eclipse of political opportunities based on the
social classSocial classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...
in favour of those based on
lifestyleLifestyle was originally coined by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929. The current broader sense of the word dates from 1961.In sociology, a lifestyle is the way a person lives. A lifestyle is a characteristic bundle of behaviors that makes sense to both others and oneself in a given time...
choices.
In his most recent works Giddens moves away from explaining how things are to the more demanding attempt of advocacy about how they ought to be. In "Beyond Left and Right" (1994) Giddens criticizes the
market socialismMarket socialism refers to various economic systems where the means of production are publicly owned, but the market is utilized. In a traditional market socialist economy, prices would be determined by a government planning ministry, and enterprises would either be state-owned or...
, and constructs a six point framework for a reconstituted
radical politicsRadicalisation or Radicalization is the transformation from passiveness or activism to more revolutionary, militant or extreme postures...
:
- repair damaged solidarities
Social solidarity refers to the integration, and degree and type of integration, shown by a society or group with people and their neighbors. It refers to the ties in a society - social relations - that bind people to one another. Solidarity is commonly associated with political socialism, being...
- recognize the centrality of life politics
- accept that active trust implies generative politics
- embrace dialogic democracy
- rethink the welfare state
There are two main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state:* A model in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens...
- confront violence
The "The Third Way" (1998) provides not only the framework within which the 'third way' is justified, but a broad set of policy proposals aimed at what Giddens refers to as the 'progressive centre-left' in British politics. According to Giddens himself, "the overall aim of third way politics should be to help citizens pilot their way through the major revolutions of our time: globalisation, transformations in personal life and our relationship to
natureNature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
".
Giddens remains fairly optimistic about the future of humanity. "There is no single agent, group or movement that, as
MarxKarl Heinrich Marx was a Germanphilosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism...
's
proletariatThe proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons...
was supposed to do, can carry the hopes of humanity, but there are many points of political engagement which offer good cause for optimism". (
Beyond Left and Right) Giddens discards the possibility of a single, comprehensive, all-connecting
ideologyAn ideology is a set of aims and ideas that directs one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a...
or political programme. Instead he advocates going after the 'small pictures', ones people can directly affect at their home, workplace or local community. This, to Giddens, is a difference between pointless utopianism and useful utopian realism, which he defines as envisaging "alternative futures whose very propagation might help them be realised". (
The Consequences of Modernity). By 'utopian' he means that this is something new and extraordinary, and by 'realistic' he stresses that this idea is rooted in the existing social processes and can be viewed as their simple extrapolation. Such a future has at its centre a more
socializedThe term socialization is used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, politicians and educationalists to refer to the process of inheriting norms, customs and ideologies...
, demilitarised and planetary-caring global
world orderWorld order can refer to:* The international system composed of international law, the United Nations, World Trade Organization, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, other international organizations and non-governmental organizations, as well as traditional international relations between...
variously articulated within
greenGreen Movement refers to a series of actions after the Iranian presidential election, 2009, in which protesters demand removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office...
, women's and
peace movementA peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
s, and within the wider
democratic movementDemocratic Movement is the name of several different political parties:There is the Democratic Movement in India, Democratic Movement in Israel, Democratic Movement in France, Democratic Movement in Nepal, Democratic Movement in San Marino, Movement for Democracy – The Net in Italy...
.
Select Bibliography
Anthony Giddens is the author of over 34 books and 200 articles. This is a selection of some of the most important of his works:
- Giddens, Anthony (1971) Capitalism and Modern Social Theory. An Analysis of the writings of Marx, Durkheim and Max Weber. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
- Giddens, Anthony (1973) The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies. London : Hutchinson.
- Giddens, Anthony (1976) Functionalism: apres la lutte, Social Research
For the research conducted by social scientists, see Social research.Social Research is a quarterly academic journal of the social sciences, published by The New School for Social Research, the graduate social science division of The New School. The journal has been published continuously since 1934...
, 43, 325-66
- Giddens, Anthony (1976) New Rules of Sociological Method: a Positive Critique of interpretative Sociologies. London : Hutchinson.
- Giddens, Anthony (1977) Studies in Social and Political Theory. London : Hutchinson.
- Giddens, Anthony (1979) Central problems in Social Theory : Action, Structure and Contradiction in Social Analysis. London : Macmillan.
- Giddens, Anthony (1981) A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. Vol. 1. Power, Property and the State. London : Macmillan.
- Giddens, Anthony (1982) Sociology: a Brief but Critical Introduction. London : Macmillan.
- Giddens, Anthony (1982) Profiles and Critiques in Social Theory. London : Macmillan.
- Giddens, Anthony & Mackenzie, Gavin (Eds.) (1982) Social Class and the Division of Labour. Essays in Honour of Ilya Neustadt. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
- Giddens, Anthony (1984) The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
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- Giddens, Anthony (1985) A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism. Vol. 2. The Nation State and Violence. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
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- Giddens, Anthony (1986) Durkheim. London : Fontana Modern Masters.
- Giddens, Anthony (1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (1992) The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Cambridge: Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Beck, Ulrich & Giddens, Anthony & Lash, Scott (1994) Reflexive Modernization. Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (1994) Beyond Left and Right — the Future of Radical Politics. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (1995) Politics, Sociology and Social Theory: Encounters with Classical and Contemporary Social Thought. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (1996) In Defence of Sociology. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (1996) Durkheim on Politics and the State. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (1998) The Third Way. The Renewal of Social Democracy. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (1999) Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives. London : Profile.
- Hutton, Will & Giddens, Anthony (Eds.) (2000) On The Edge. Living with Global Capitalism. London : Vintage.
- Giddens, Anthony (2000) The Third Way and Its Critics. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (2000) Runaway World. London : Routledge.
- Giddens, Anthony (Ed.) (2001) The Global Third Way Debate. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (2002) Where Now for New Labour? Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (Ed.) (2003) The Progressive Manifesto. New Ideas for the Centre-Left. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (Ed.) (2005) The New Egalitarianism Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (2006) Sociology (Fifth Edition). Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (2007) Europe In The Global Age. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
- Giddens, Anthony (2007) Over to You, Mr Brown - How Labour Can Win Again. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
.
- Giddens, Anthony (2009) The Politics of Climate Change. Cambridge : Polity (publisher)
Polity is an international publisher in the social sciences and humanities. It publishes around 100 books a year in sociology, politics, philosophy, media and cultural studies, health studies, literary studies, history, anthropology and related subjects. Its books range from core textbooks for...
Further reading
- Christopher G. A. Bryant, David Jary ,The Contemporary Giddens : Social Theory in a Globalizing Age, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001, ISBN 0-333-77904-5
- David Held
David Held is a British political theorist and a prominent figure within the field of international relations. Together with Daniele Archibugi, he has been a key figure in the development of cosmopolitanism, and of cosmopolitan democracy in particular...
, John B. ThompsonJohn B. Thompson may refer to:*John Burton Thompson, American politician from Kentucky*Jack Thompson , American attorney and activist from Florida*John Thompson , Cambridge sociologist...
, Social Theory of Modern Societies : Anthony Giddens and his Critics, Cambridge University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-521-27855-4
- Anthony Giddens, Christopher Pierson, Conversations with Anthony Giddens, Stanford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8047-3569-7. A starting-point in which Giddens explains his work and the sociological principles which underpin it in clear, elegant language.
External links