The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration

Citation

Giddens, A. (1986). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Polity. (First published 1984.)

Chapter Summary

The book has a preface, a list of abbreviations, an introduction, six chapters, a glossary, a bibliography and an index, and runs to roughly 400 pages. It is Giddens's full statement of structuration theory. The University of California Press describes it as a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in earlier work, presented for the first time in an integrated form, with a particular concern to connect abstract theoretical problems to an interpretation of the nature of empirical method in the social sciences. Several chapters end with "critical notes" on other writers' work.

Introduction

The introduction opens the book. According to the publisher, Giddens sets out his own position while mounting a critical attack on some of the more orthodox sociological views.

Chapter 1: Elements of the Theory of Structuration

The core statement of the theory. The section headings take up the agent and agency, agency and power, structure and structuration, the duality of structure, forms of institution, and time, the body and encounters. This chapter supplies most of the vocabulary used in the rest of the book, so it is the place to start.

Chapter 2: Consciousness, Self and Social Encounters

Chapter 2 looks at the individual and everyday interaction. Its sections run through reflexivity and discursive and practical consciousness, the unconscious, time and memory, Erikson on anxiety and trust, routinization and motivation, presence and co-presence in social integration, Goffman on encounters and routines, seriality, talk, positioning, and a critical note on Freud and slips of the tongue.

Chapter 3: Time, Space and Regionalization

Chapter 3 brings the dimensions of time and space into social theory. Its sections include time-geography, with critical comments, and modes of regionalization.

Chapter 4: Structure, System, Social Reproduction

The title names three concepts, structure, system and social reproduction, and comes after the chapters on the agent, on interaction and on time and space.

Chapter 5: Change, Evolution and Power

As its title says, the chapter takes up change and evolution together with power.

Chapter 6: Structuration Theory, Empirical Research and Social Critique

The title of the last chapter names the relation between the theory, empirical research and social critique, which fits the publisher's remark on Giddens's concern with the nature of empirical method. A glossary follows.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–3

• Agency and power: two topics treated in adjacent sections of Chapter 1.
• Duality of structure: structures as both the medium and the outcome of the practices they organise.
• Discursive and practical consciousness: a pair of terms in Chapter 2's section on reflexivity.
• Routinization: the repetition of everyday practices, discussed with motivation, trust and encounters.
• Time-geography and regionalization: the topics of Chapter 3, which brings time and space into the theory.

Chapters 4–6

• Structure, system and social reproduction: the three terms in the title of Chapter 4.
• Change, evolution and power: the topics of Chapter 5.
• Empirical research and social critique: the relation between theory, research and criticism in Chapter 6.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A full statement by the author. The publisher stresses that this is the integrated and comprehensive presentation of a position previously scattered across other writings, and calls it a valuable reference for the basic issues of contemporary social theory.
• Reviewers' judgments. Mark Poster expected it to be regarded as the most important piece of grand sociological theory in English of the decade; Richard Bernstein wrote that it would stand beside the major statements of Parsons and Habermas; Dennis Wrong, in the Times Higher Education Supplement, praised its lean, craftsmanlike qualities and called it a pleasure to read.
• Theory tied to research. The publisher singles out Giddens's attempt to link abstract problems to the nature of empirical method, and Chapter 6 is devoted to research and critique.
• Aids to study. The book provides a glossary, and in the early chapters the section headings subdivide the argument finely, so a reader can find the treatment of a particular topic quickly.

Limitations

• Few chapters, dense ones. Six chapters carry the whole argument, and the section lists show how much each contains; readers coming from introductory texts will find it demanding.
• Theoretical background expected. Chapter 2 alone works through Erikson, Goffman and Freud, so the book moves quickly between sources that a reader new to social theory may not know.
• Outline, not case study. The title calls it an outline of a theory, and the contents show no chapter given over to an extended empirical study; for applications, other sources are needed.

Where It Fits in the Course

Of the books on the contemporary theory list, this is a primary text by one of the theorists the others survey. Elliott's Contemporary Social Theory, Baert and da Silva's Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond and Stones's Key Sociological Thinkers are surveys of recent theory and theorists, and are good first reads before a primary text; Contemporary Sociological Theory is an edited collection of selections.

Bourdieu's Distinction is the other primary text on the list and a useful contrast: it builds theory out of a large empirical study of taste in France, whereas Giddens offers a general outline and discusses its relation to research in Chapter 6. Read an overview of structuration in one of the surveys before this book, then Chapter 1, then the rest.

How to Use This Book

It is for graduate students and advanced undergraduates who know classical theory and the mid-century debates among functionalism, interactionism and structuralism. A survey of contemporary theory is enough preparation.

A workable plan: read the introduction and Chapter 1 slowly and use the glossary as you go. Then read Chapter 2 if your interest is the individual and interaction, Chapter 3 if it is space and time, and Chapters 4–5 for institutions, reproduction and change. Chapter 6 matters most for students planning empirical work, since it relates the theory to research and critique. Keep notes of how each term is defined, because later chapters rely on the early definitions.