Structure-agency debate
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Especially important among sociological social psychologists, the structure-agency debate (sometimes referred to by the terms "individualism" and "holism" or "Structure vs. Action") involves questions about the nature of social behavior: whether it is ultimately predictable in terms of the creative volition of the individual, or is largely a product of socialization, interaction, and greater social structures. (Bunnin and Tsui-James, 2003)
The book 'The Constitution of Society' by Anthony Giddens discusses these issues at length. He proposes the Theory of structuration to account for the influences of both aspects of the actions of an individual.
It is also used to contrat structural functionalist social paradigm with symbolic interactionism one.
[edit] References
Bunnin, Nicholas and E.P Tsui-James. (2003). The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy. Blackwell Publishers: Malden, MA. pp379-390.
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in this debate, an agency is perceived as having a sovereig authority to choose his/ her actions regardless of the pressure exerted by the environment. Where as the structure is perceived as exerting enoumous pressure on an individual in which the individual cannot not be held responsible of his/her actions that was due to the pressure exerted by environment to him /her.
