Anthony Giddens Theory of Structuration - Essay Example

It is through this theory that the field of sociology can connect human behavior and it's influence on the rules of daily living, thinking and our view of the outside world. His introduction of 'third way' between voluntarism and determinism, is important to the notion of what defines strategic choice. Anthony Giddens' contribution to social theory is widely debated. Some argue that his thinking has been too eclectic, eschewing grand theoretical constructs for a collection of ideas with little more than descriptive value.

But this thinking is the result of not understanding Giddens' work. Indeed, his career over the years has contributed to sociology as he shifted from interpretations of classical social theory and the debunking of functionalism and positivism to the elaboration of a set of ideas that attempts to bridge the gap between agency and structure. Giddens' explains: "Structure enters into the explanation of action in a dual way: as the medium of its production and at the same time as its outcome in the reproduction of social forms.

Thus the study of social reproduction cannot be conceived as the aggregation of numerous 'productive acts', which tends to be the conclusion that voluntaristic forms of social theory lead to; nor, on the other hand, can the production of action, as a rationalized accomplishment, be treated as merely 'structurally determined'" (Giddens 1977) Giddens' theory, instead of looking for reasons to excuse or belie agency mistake, actually promotes respect for competent human agency. His work is indeed prominent for methodology and is multi-level, recognising the embeddedness of human actors in wider society, all of which speaks to the very foundations of sociology.

Moreover, he offers extensive and impressive coverage of theory to self-reflexivity, modernity and politics, placing them all within the illuminating framework of a historical context thus adding a new layer to the world of sociology. Giddens' writing has always embodied a political and ethical position, one that has changed considerably over the years and is best understood through the social context in which it was written. Giddens' work in the 1970s attempted to marry liberalism and socialism, but, following the collapse of Communism in the 1990 East-European revolutions, his worldview became liberal rather than socialist, and his later work on reflexivity and the 'Third Way' embodies this.

Much like the human condition embraced and ever changing in a sociological context, Gidden's works contribute by allowing us to note change, appreciate it and most importantly, adjust to it. Others, however, point to his very work of structuration as a major theoretical contribution to sociological thinking. In his book New Rules of Sociological Method (1976), Giddens argued that agency produces structure and that structure is constituted of rules and resources by which that self-same agency is recreated.

That is to say, Giddens wrote that the epistemology of sociological research was a "double hermeneutic" in which theory offered an explanation for the phenomena of everyday life and everyday life provided a means by which theory could be understood. In other words, the two acted in a dialectical relationship to each other. Early on in his