A+Theory+of+Structure+Duality,+Agency,+and+Transformation

** William H. Sewell, Jr., “A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation,” //The American Journal of Sociology// 98:1 (July 1992): 1-29. **

Summary by deRaismes

__ Main Point __

Structure is an elusive term to define. Working off of Giddens and Bourdieu, Sewell attempts to develop a theory of structure that:
 * 1) Restores human agency to social actors
 * 2) Includes the possibility of change
 * 3) "Overcomes the divide between semiotic and materialist visions of structure"

__ The Duality of Structure: A Critique & Reformulation of Gidden's Theory __ Anthony Giddens:
 * Structures shape people's practices, but people's practices constitute and reproduce structures
 * Structures enable
 * "Theory of Structuration" = structure is a process
 * Structures = rules and resources

// Structures as Rules //
 * Sewell renames Giddens' rules as "schemas"
 * Schemas are generalizable in the sense that they can be applied in or extended to a variety of contexts of interactions (8)

// Structures as Resources //
 * Resources either human or nonhuman
 * Human = physical strength, dexterity, knowledge, and emotional commitments that can be used to enhance or maintain power
 * Non-human = objects, animate or inanimate, naturally occuring or man-made, that can be used to enhance or maintain power

// The Duality of Schemas and Resources //
 * Structure should be defined as composed simultaneously of schemas, which are virtual, and of resources, which are actual
 * Dual in that schemas are the effects of resources, and resources are the effects of schemas

__ Duality and Stasis: Bourdieu's //Habitus// __  o Multiplicity of Structures  o Transposability of Schemas  o Unpredictability of Resource Accumulation  o Polysemy (multiplicity of meanings) of Structures o Intersection of Structures // Agency //
 * Bourdieu's discussion of Habitus = the means by which mutually reinforcing rule-resource sets constitute human subjects with particular sorts of knowledge and dispositions (15)
 * Bourdieu does not address change
 * 5 reasons Sewell says change is possible:
 * Being an agent means being capable of exerting control over social relations -- which implies ability to transform those relations
 * Derives from actor's control of resources
 * All humans capable of agency, just not to the same degree
 * Agency = collective as well as individual

// Conclusion //
 * Structures have two components -- depth (schema) and power (resource)
 * Structures constituted by mutually sustaining cultural schemas and sets of resources that empower and constrain social action and tend to be reproduced by that action
 * Structure is dynamic -- constantly evolving
 * Agents are empowered by structures -- by knowledge of cultural schemes that enables them to mobilize resources, and by access to resources that enables them to enact social schemes

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