Structuration Theory: Some Thoughts on the Possibilities for Empirical Research

Abstract

This paper is concerned with developing the current critical engagement in the social sciences with the structurationist writings of Anthony Giddens. Of particular concern here is the hitherto relatively neglected question of the relationship between structuration theory and empirical research projects. For reasons to do with (1) Giddens's arguments about the overall purpose of social theory, (2) the importance of the theory–empirical research question generally in social science, (3) the need to expand Giddens's audience, and (4) the necessity of assessing the degree to which structuration theory helps in the understanding of the social life, this issue is considered to be of the first importance. Several key questions of direct relevance to this concern are explored, notably, Giddens's comments on this score; the relationship of these comments to wider debate on the connections between theoretical and empirical work; and the possibility of locating structuration theory within the concept of hierarchies of abstraction.