Structures of Agency
Structures of Agency

Author: Michael E. Bratman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007-01-04

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0195345991

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is a collection of published and unpublished essays by distinguished philosopher Michael E. Bratman of Stanford University. They revolve around his influential theory, know as the "planning theory of intention and agency." Bratman's primary concern is with what he calls "strong" forms of human agency--including forms of human agency that are the target of our talk about self-determination, self-government, and autonomy. These essays are unified and cohesive in theme, and will be of interest to philosophers in ethics and metaphysics.

Theory Beyond Structure and Agency
Theory Beyond Structure and Agency

Author: Jean-Sébastien Guy

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Published: 2020-09-20

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 9783030189853

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book offers a solution for the problem of structure and agency in sociological theory by developing a new pair of fundamental concepts: metric and nonmetric. Nonmetric forms, arising in a crowd made out of innumerable individuals, correspond to social groups that divide the many individuals in the crowd into insiders and outsiders. Metric forms correspond to congested zones like traffic jams on a highway: individuals are constantly entering and leaving these zones so that they continue to exist, even though the individuals passing through them change. Building from these concepts, we can understand “agency” as a requirement for group identity and group membership, thus associating it with nonmetric forms, and “structure” as a building-up effect following the accumulation of metric forms. This reveals the contradiction between structure and agency to be a case of forced perspective, leaving us victim to an optical illusion.

The New American Cultural Sociology
The New American Cultural Sociology

Author: Philip Smith

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1998-06-28

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 9780521586344

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

American Cultural Sociology presents a serious challenge to British Cultural Studies and European grand theory alike. This exciting volume brings together sixteen seminal papers by leading figures in what is emerging as an important intellectual tradition. It places them in the context of related work in Sociology and other disciplines, exploring the connections between cultural sociology and different approaches, such as comparative and historical research, postmodernism, and symbolic interactionism. The book is divided into three sections: Culture as Text and Code, The Production and Reception of Culture, and Culture in Action. Each section contains edited contributions, both theoretical and empirical, addressing the key debates in cultural sociology, including the autonomy of culture, power and culture, structure and agency and how to conceptualise meaning.

The Causal Power of Social Structures
The Causal Power of Social Structures

Author: Dave Elder-Vass

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-06-17

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1139488198

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The problem of structure and agency has been the subject of intense debate in the social sciences for over 100 years. This book offers a solution. Using a critical realist version of the theory of emergence, Dave Elder-Vass argues that, instead of ascribing causal significance to an abstract notion of social structure or a monolithic concept of society, we must recognise that it is specific groups of people that have social structural power. Some of these groups are entities with emergent causal powers, distinct from those of human individuals. Yet these powers also depend on the contributions of human individuals, and this book examines the mechanisms through which interactions between human individuals generate the causal powers of some types of social structures. The Causal Power of Social Structures makes particularly important contributions to the theory of human agency and to our understanding of normative institutions.

Agents, Structures and International Relations
Agents, Structures and International Relations

Author: Colin Wight

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-10-12

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1139460269

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The agent-structure problem is a much discussed issue in the field of international relations. In his comprehensive 2006 analysis of this problem, Colin Wight deconstructs the accounts of structure and agency embedded within differing IR theories and, on the basis of this analysis, explores the implications of ontology - the metaphysical study of existence and reality. Wight argues that there are many gaps in IR theory that can only be understood by focusing on the ontological differences that construct the theoretical landscape. By integrating the treatment of the agent-structure problem in IR theory with that in social theory, Wight makes a positive contribution to the problem as an issue of concern to the wider human sciences. At the most fundamental level politics is concerned with competing visions of how the world is and how it should be, thus politics is ontology.

Encyclopedia of Social Theory
Encyclopedia of Social Theory

Author: Austin Harrington

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 752

ISBN-13: 0415290465

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Encyclopedia of Social Theory cuts across all relevant disciplines, theories, approaches, and schools to present the latest information and research.

Structure and Agency in Everyday Life
Structure and Agency in Everyday Life

Author: Gil Richard Musolf

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780742525283

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Structure and Agency in Everyday Life outlines the major concepts of interactionism through its leading theoreticians, from William James to Erving Goffman, to contemporary writers. The text underscores the dynamic relationship between the structures or social forces of constraint and humans' ability to act self-reflexively and constitute meaning in their lives through everyday action. The major foci of interactionism-emotions, deviance, childhood socialization, gender, the negotiated order, and the self are covered in-depth. The text presents a history of the interactionist perspective.

Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University
Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal University

Author: Joyce E. Canaan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-05

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 1135910162

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume brings together a set of largely ethnographic articles written from a critical perspective that consider how current transitions in post-secondary education are impacting on higher education (HE) institutions.

Exercising Agency
Exercising Agency

Author: Mark Mullaly

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-22

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1317138090

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Exercising Agency is a book about decision making. In particular, it looks in detail at how a very important type of organizational decision gets made: whether or not to initiate a project. Making strategic decisions of this kind can never be a wholly rational and scientific process. And Exercising Agency lifts the lid on many of the important behavioural factors that inform project decisions: power and politics, personality, the ’rules’ of an organization. Mark Mullaly draws on his research to provide practical guidance for decision makers; project shapers, approving executives and those responsible for how initiation decisions are made. By explaining the influence, value and risks associated with the elements that inform the way we make strategic decisions he will help you identify how individuals and organizations can best support the process to ensure project initiation decisions are effective and most closely underpin the priorities of the organization. If you are involved in framing or making decisions about the future of your organization; the projects that you do or don’t decide to initiate, then read this book. It won’t make the decisions any easier but it will help you improve the quality of the decisions you make and over time, the effectiveness of your organizational decision making.