Agent Structure Problem §

• is a Constructivism’s debate of how whether the agent shapes the structure its in or the opposite.

• Max Weber: actors are free individuals makes accumulative actions forming into a society

  • Bottom up approach: we look at individual level to understand the upper levels (state & int.)

• Emile Durkheim: how members of society is socialized into the social system

  • Actors are structured according to the social rules that exist
  • Up Down approach: social structure determines and shape actors in them

• The debate is hedged or solved by third ‘structuration’ approach: Anthony Giddens

  • Neither bottom-up or top-down
  • Actors are shaped by social structures
  • Actors also have some autonomy in shaping the social structures as well
  • It’s a continuous dynamic $\boxed{\text{Agent}\leftrightarrows \text{Structure}}$

graph TD
	subgraph Weber
		a(("Agent"))-->|shapes|b(("Struture"))
	end
	subgraph Durkheim
		c(("Struture"))-->|shapes|d(("Agent"))
	end
	subgraph Giddens
		e(("Struture"))-->|shapes|f(("Agent"))
		f(("Agent"))-->|shapes|e(("Struture"))
	end

References §

Reference:: 04 Social Constructivism YouTube