Giddens's Structuration Theory Research Articles

A Framework for Transitioning to Virtual Classes During Life-Threatening Pandemics Like COVID-19

This research explains the benefits and challenges of virtual classes as experienced by university students during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The limited research on university students' experiences in virtual classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted physical classes and forced educational institutions to blindly switch from physical classes to virtual classes, served as the inspiration for this study. The absence of a framework for smoothly transitioning from physical classes to virtual classes challenged this process. Furthermore, relatively few studies have been done on the empirical context of a developing nation with distinct social and economic circumstances, concerning university students' experiences of virtual classrooms during COVID-19. Thus a quantitative study using a single case study of a university in Southern Africa was guided by the duality of structure in Giddens Structuration Theory, which explains students' experiences by highlighting both positive aspects—such as flexibility, collaboration, accessibility, and availability of course materials—and negative aspects—such as high costs, boredom, and a lack of resources and training. Analysis was done using Microsoft Excel and the findings also showed how, during the COVID-19 epidemic, structures of dominance, signification, and legitimacy formed as a result of behaviors related to leadership, resources, empowerment, and adoption, which both facilitated and hampered the smooth transition to virtual classrooms. The paper concluded by proposing a framework for transitioning to virtual classes during life-threatening situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. Although not generalizable across all university contexts, these findings provide a foundation for understanding the university students’ experiences in virtual classes during COVID-19. These findings have both practical and theoretical implications since they both provide an explanation of experiences in virtual classes as well as propose a framework for guiding the process of moving away from physical classes towards virtual classes during life-threatening situations.

Gender-related challenges of cash transfer beneficiaries involved in the informal economy in Johannesburg

ABSTRACT Although cash transfers primarily support beneficiaries’ consumption of goods for basic needs, there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that they can promote livelihood activities. Yet there has been limited understanding of the gender-related challenges of female beneficiaries who participate in such livelihood activities. This paper presents findings from an exploratory qualitative study conducted in a poor urban community of Johannesburg. Giddens's structuration theory provides an analytical lens to understand the gender-related challenges and responses of female beneficiaries in conducting livelihood activities. The findings show that even though female and male beneficiaries were found to engage in the same income-generating activities, the former were confronted with gender-related challenges that limit their economic progress. This study contributes to understanding the gender-related challenges and dynamics of female operators in the informal economy, who are overrepresented among those impoverished by COVID-19 pandemic and as such need special attention and effective economic support.

Nurse leader agency: Creating an environment conducive to support for graduate nurses.

AimThe aim of the study was to gain insight on how nurse leaders manage a culture of safety for graduate nurses.BackgroundCurrent theoretical approaches to safety culture tend towards a checklist approach that focuses on institutional characteristics, failing to examine the quality of interpersonal relationships. These interpersonal interactions are often seen as separate from the institutional realities of resource allocation, nurse–patient ratios, patient acuity or throughput. A theoretical approach is required to illuminate the dialectic between the structure of an organisation and the agency created by nurse leaders to promote patient safety.DesignQualitative exploratory descriptive study.MethodsSemi‐structured interviews were undertaken with 24 nurse leaders from hospital and aged care settings. Thematic analysis and Giddens structuration theory was used to describe the findings.ResultsNurse leaders identified a range of reciprocal communicative and cultural norms and values, decision‐making processes, personal nursing philosophies, strategies and operational procedures to foster patient safety and mentor graduate nurses. The mentoring of graduate nurses included fostering critical thinking, building and affirming formal structural practices such as handover, teamwork, medication protocols and care plans.ConclusionsThe study provides insight into how nurse leaders foster a culture of safety. Emphasis is placed on how agency in nurse leaders creates an environment conducive to learning and support for graduate nurses.Implications for Nursing ManagementNurse leadership functions and decision‐making capacity hinges on multiple factors including practicing agency and aspects of the social structure such as the rules for safe communication, and the various institutional protocols. Nurse leaders enforce these forms of engagement and practice through their legitimation as leaders. They have both allocative and authoritative resources; they can command resources, direct staff to attend to patients and/or clinical tasks, mentor, guide, assign, correct and encourage with the authority vested in them by the formal structure of the organisation. In doing so, they sustain the structure and reinforce it.

Towards a new methodological approach to social historiography of translation

AbstractIn an attempt to appreciate the contribution that social network analysis (SNA) might offer to translation historiography, two main approaches are presented and discussed in this study: explanatory SNA and exploratory SNA. The former is more concerned with SNA measures while the latter deals with three potential narratives of social networks. The aim is to employ SNA in diachronic and synchronic dimensions of literary translation publishing historiography in Iran from 1991 to 2010, a micro-macro framework that seamlessly integrates agents’ relationships, visualization and network analysis techniques to explore the impact of ideological-political shifts on the quantity as well as quality of major agents’ relations. Furthermore, the study attempts to explore how the synergy between Giddens’ Structuration Theory (GST) and SNA can support a deeper and more empirically grounded understanding of translation historiography. The goal of the study is both methodological and scientific. The results of SNA graphical outputs suggest that there is a significant relationship between the structure of relationships in fiction publishing field and the dominant political discourse in Iran.

How collective interactions and institutional logics influence permanency planning in child protection in Quebec

BackgroundIn the Canadian province of Quebec, placing children in foster care is an exceptional measure whose ultimate goal is family reunification. When child-protection workers decide that reunification is unlikely, they must design permanency plans that ensure continuity of care and stable relationships for the child. Most studies of this important decision-making process have focused on individual practitioners as if they acted alone. This process is collective, interactive, and influenced by various contextual elements. ObjectiveThe objective of this exploratory study was to examine the collective, interactive aspects of the decision-making process involved in permanency planning. Participants and settingThe participants were key players involved in child-protection decisions at an Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre (CIUSSS). MethodsThe theoretical approach of this study combines Giddens's structuration theory with ethnomethodology. Data were collected through interviews with 16 key players and nine months of observing advisory-committee meetings. ResultsIn making permanent placement decisions, the participants must engage in extensive interactions with one another. They must also apply various institutional (clinical, legal, and managerial) logics with differing goals and differing operational frameworks, the tensions among which make the process more complex and challenging. ConclusionsOur findings highlight the complexity of making permanent placement decisions and the importance of interaction and collaboration in this process. These findings suggest that management of this process should focus not on holding practitioners accountable and penalizing them for mistakes, but rather on providing adequate conditions for practice to facilitate thoughtful collective deliberation and learning and ethical decision-making.

Building Community in the HIV Online Intervention Space: Lessons From the HealthMPowerment Intervention.

Mobile health platforms can facilitate social support and address HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) stigma but pose challenges for intervention design and participant engagement. Giddens's structuration theory, that individuals are shaped by-and shape-their communities through rules and resources that give them power to operate within these environments, provides a useful analytic framework for exploring these dynamic intervention spaces. Data were drawn from an online randomized controlled trial intervention (HealthMpowerment) for young Black men who have sex with men to reduce condomless anal intercourse. We applied a conversational analysis informed by structuration theory to 65 user-generated conversations that included stigma content. We aimed to understand how the interdependent relationship between the intervention space and participants' contributions might contribute to behavior change. Thirty five intervention participants contributed to the analyzed conversations. Our analysis identified three types of conversational processes that may underlie behavior change: (1) Through intervention engagement, participants established norms and expectations that shaped their discussions; (2) participants used anecdotes and anonymity to reinforce norms; and (3) intervention staff members sought to improve engagement and build knowledge by initiating discussions and correcting misinformation, thus playing an integral role in the online community. The lens of structuration theory usefully reveals potential behavior change mechanisms within the social interactions of an online intervention. Future design of these interventions to address HIV stigma should explicitly characterize the context in which individuals (study staff and participants) engage with one another in order to assess whether these processes are associated with improved intervention outcomes.

Analisa Pratik Formalitas Pelaporan Dana Kampanye Studi Eksploratif di Kota Batu

This study aimed to explain what factors drive the practice of reporting campaign finance formalities in Batu City, East Java. Rules for reporting campaign funds have been made by the Komisi Pemilihan Umum (KPU). However, the existence of political parties in the election that did not report campaign funds or reported the campaign funds in nothing, was a practice encountered in the campaign process. This problem was a manifestation of the lack of accountability and transparency in reporting campaign funds. To uncover the practice of reporting campaign finance formalities, this study used qualitative methods. This study used Giddens's structuration theory to uncover the causes of formality practice. The results of this study explained that the practice of reporting campaign finance formalities in Batu City was due to the weakness of agents and structures in the political process. This study found that the party chairperson and KPU were a form of agent's role in the low awareness of accountability of the campaign finance reports. In addition, low public attention and low enforcement of regulations weaken the social structure to realize accountability and transparency of campaign funds. Penelitian ini bertujuan unftuk menjelaskan faktor apa yang mendorong terjadinya praktik formalitas pelaporan dana kampanye dalam proses pemilu (pemilihan umum) di Kota Batu, Jawa Timur. Aturan pelaporan dana kampanye telah dibuat Komisi Pemeilihan Umum (KPU). Namun, adanya partai politik peserta pemilu yang tidak melaporkan dana kampanye atau adanya partai politik yang melaporkan dana kampanye dalam keadaan nihil, merupakan praktik yang ditemui dalam proses kampanye dalam pemilihan umum. Masalah ini merupakan wujud dari kurangnya akuntabilitas dan transparansi pelaporan dana kampanye. Untuk mengungkap praktik formalitas pelaporan dana kampanye, penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif. Penelitian ini menggunakan teori strukturisasi dari Giddens untuk mengungkap penyebab praktik formalitas. Hasil penelitian ini menjelaskan bahwa praktik formalitas pelaporan dana kampanye di Kota Batu adalah karena lemahnya agen dan struktur dalam proses politik. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa ketua umum partai yang tidak memperhatikan akuntabilitas dan peran KPU yang hanya bersifat administrasi merupakan bentuk peran agen dalam rendahnya kesadaran akuntabilitas laporan dana kampanye. Selain itu, perhatian publik yang rendah dan penegakan aturan yang rendah memperlemah struktur sosial dalam usaha terwujudnya akuntabilitas dan transparansi danakampanye.

Day-to-day routines of media platform use in the digital age: A structuration perspective

ABSTRACT Using Giddens's structuration theory, this study examines how the routinized use of traditional and new media platforms differently align with the structures of everyday life. We analyzed data from a quantitative diary study in Germany to find that new media platforms specifically affect societal structuration by blurring the lines between obligations and leisure time. The part played by routines in the use of new media platforms was less strongly connected to clock time compared to traditional media platforms. Consequently, the findings indicate both a vanishing potential for media platform use as a social zeitgeber and the relevance of rules as structuring elements.

KETIDAKADILAN GENDER PADA ACARA TV SINEMA INDOSIAR: TELAAH PERSPEKTIF STRUKTURASI GIDDENS

Tulisan ini menelaah permasalahan ketidakadilan gender dalam perspektif strukturasi Giddens. Melihat kasus ketidakadilan ini telah mengakar pada kehidupan, terutama pada pembagian kerja perempuan yang cenderung menempatkan kembali perempuan pada ranah domestik. Persoalan ini tentu tidak terlepas dari pengaruh media selaku agen yang memiliki kuasa terhadap pembentukan pemikiran khalayak, dan juga peran masyarakat yang memiliki kuasa dalam membentuk struktur sosial. Media memliki power dalam memproduksi dan mereproduksi sebuah wacana. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian dengan metode kualitatii deskriptif dan menggunakan teori Strukturasi Giddens dalam melihat peran agen dalam menggambarkan perempuan dalam media. Penelitian ini berfokus pada acara sinema Indosiar. Hasil dari penelitian menunjukan perempuan masih menjadi objek dari penindasan dan perempuan akan kembali pada ranah domestik, bahkan perempuan justru menanggung beban ganda (double burdon) apabila ia bekerja pada ranah publik, ia juga tetap berkerja di wilayah domestik. Media melanggengkan hal tersebut melalui kisah-kisah yang ditampilkan.

Exploring the Mediating Role of Technology Between Human Realms and Institutional Properties of Organizations with Special Reference to it Industry in India

With the growing technology influence in to organizations, the study explores the mediating role of technology in organizations. The research framework is based on Giddens Theory of Structuration (1982). The study focuses attention on recognizing the mediating role of information technology between the human realms and institutional properties within organizational contexts. The organizations taken into consideration are from IT Industry .The sample collected is from 100 employees from executive to middle managerial positions. The study reveals that vision collectivism, social collaboration, and functional expertise are the constructs that integrate technology with the social and institutional properties of the organization. The Giddens Structuration Theory for technology has been modified to incorporate the revelations from the study. The study proposes technology as a mediator for integrating independent entities in organization , thus sensitizing to the imperatives of designing a socio- technical systems in organizations for organizational developmental studies in future.

A Reciprocidade entre Estrutura (organizacional) e os Agentes (líderes e liderados): um estudo sobre liderança relacional a partir da teoria da estruturação de Giddens

Este artigo analisa as influências recíprocas da estrutura organizacional nos líderes e nos liderados e destes enquanto agentes na estrutura organizacional, levando em consideração os construtos das Teorias da Estruturação de Giddens e da Liderança Relacional. O referencial teórico destaca os construtos da teoria da estruturação (ações não/premeditadas; recursividade entre ação humana e estrutura social; dualidade da estrutura; rotinas e regras) e da liderança relacional (que mais se aproxima da teoria da estruturação). Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa que realizou entrevistas semiestruturadas com todos os 32 empregados de empresa do setor de infraestrutura. Os resultados indicam que a organização mudou devido à influência recíproca entre agente (líder-liderado) – estrutura (organização), como em Giddens e também de acordo com os pressupostos da liderança relacional, resultante das capacidades de: provocar mudanças; utilizar regras e recursos disponíveis; enfrentar consequências não premeditadas. Este artigo contribui com lacuna na literatura de liderança ao recorrer à teoria da estruturação.

How careers change: understanding the role of structure and agency in career change. The case of the humanitarian sector

This paper examines how agency and structure interact to influence the changing nature of careers in the French Humanitarian Sector – a sector that is undergoing a significant shift towards increased professionalization. Drawing on Giddens structuration theory, the study uses the concept of career script as a dynamic framework to understand both career stability and change. Data was collected at both an individual and organizational level to identify three careers scripts in operation in the field and examine the ways in which they evolve over time. The paper provides an analysis of the power relations involved in the development of career scripts and the professionalization of the humanitarian sector, suggesting a potentially greater role for agency than is typically acknowledged. Finally the paper concludes with a consideration of the wider implications for the study of career change in the future.

Clinical users' perspective on telemonitoring of patients with long term conditions: understood through concepts of Giddens's structuration theory & consequence of modernity.

This study involves conducting focus group discussions with clinical users (nurses and technicians) prior to the launch of telehealth service in Nottingham, UK, to elicit their initial perceptions about the service. It describes the findings from preliminary phase of otherwise a larger longitudinal study. Using Giddens's concepts from structuration theory and consequence of modernity, we were able to acknowledge trust and sense of security as two very salient aspects that govern adoption of new technological innovation. Unattended, these aspects contribute to arousal of conflict and contradiction within a system. In order for successful telehealth implementations in health care setting, providers of the service, need to focus on ways in which clinical users' trust can be gained and sense of security can be promoted while using the telehealth service and technology.

From Arturo Escobar's development theory to Antony Giddens's structuration theory: a social constructionist analysis of rural entrepreneurship and multifunctional agriculture

Many research papers in the field of entrepreneurship have gained from a positivistic analytical approach, both in epistemology and methodology. Also there are very limited enquires concerning entrepreneurship in rural areas, or rural entrepreneurship in a new way. Through this paper, using social constructionism as a big paradigm, Antony Giddens's Structuration Theory and Arturo Escobar's Three Component Theory in development deployment, we try to present an explanation of rural entrepreneurship and multifunctional agriculture, as two main discourses in rural regions. The main claim is that it is necessary to shift from positivistic and hegemonic discourse of rural entrepreneurship to socially constructed discourse of agriculture's multifunctionality, through an analytical reversion of Escobar's theory, and using Structuration Theory as a theoretical context.

From Arturo Escobar's development theory to Antony Giddens's structuration theory: a social constructionist analysis of rural entrepreneurship and multifunctional agriculture

Many research papers in the field of entrepreneurship have gained from a positivistic analytical approach, both in epistemology and methodology. Also there are very limited enquires concerning entrepreneurship in rural areas, or rural entrepreneurship in a new way. Through this paper, using social constructionism as a big paradigm, Antony Giddens's Structuration Theory and Arturo Escobar's Three Component Theory in development deployment, we try to present an explanation of rural entrepreneurship and multifunctional agriculture, as two main discourses in rural regions. The main claim is that it is necessary to shift from positivistic and hegemonic discourse of rural entrepreneurship to socially constructed discourse of agriculture's multifunctionality, through an analytical reversion of Escobar's theory, and using Structuration Theory as a theoretical context.

The Relationship Between Organizational Leaders and Advertising Ethics: An Organizational Ethnography

Understanding the complexity of advertising ethics mandates an organizational approach to empirical research. Through the lens of Giddens's structuration theory, this ethnography examines the relationship between organizational leadership, one aspect of Schein's concept of organizational culture, and advertising ethics. Fieldwork at a full-service advertising agency and 45 one-on-one interviews were conducted regarding perceptions of organizational leadership as well as ethics in advertising. Findings suggest that characteristics of leaders, such as virtuous character, and espousing organizational values enable ethical awareness, while amoral intentions for starting the advertising agency simultaneously constrain ethical awareness. A discussion regarding the dynamic relationship between organizational leadership and advertising ethics begins.

Mutual redundancies in interhuman communication systems: Steps toward a calculus of processing meaning

The study of interhuman communication requires a more complex framework than Claude E. Shannon's (1948) mathematical theory of communication because “information” is defined in the latter case as meaningless uncertainty. Assuming that meaning cannot be communicated, we extend Shannon's theory by defining mutual redundancy as a positional counterpart of the relational communication of information. Mutual redundancy indicates the surplus of meanings that can be provided to the exchanges in reflexive communications. The information is redundant because it is based on “pure sets” (i.e., without subtraction of mutual information in the overlaps). We show that in the three‐dimensional case (e.g., of a triple helix of university–industry–government relations), mutual redundancy is equal to mutual information (Rxyz = Txyz); but when the dimensionality is even, the sign is different. We generalize to the measurement in N dimensions and proceed to the interpretation. Using Niklas Luhmann's (1984–1995) social systems theory and/or Anthony Giddens's (1979, 1984) structuration theory, mutual redundancy can be provided with an interpretation in the sociological case: Different meaning‐processing structures code and decode with other algorithms. A surplus of (“absent”) options can then be generated that add to the redundancy. Luhmann's “functional (sub)systems” of expectations or Giddens's “rule‐resource sets” are positioned mutually, but coupled operationally in events or “instantiated” in actions. Shannon‐type information is generated by the mediation, but the “structures” are (re‐)positioned toward one another as sets of (potentially counterfactual) expectations. The structural differences among the coding and decoding algorithms provide a source of additional options in reflexive and anticipatory communications.

Identification Elements of Optimal Organisational Model of Tourism Education in Slovenia

The main aim of the research was to identify the elements of a suitable organisational educational model for tourism in Slovenia. Our research was based on the need of inner circular reflexive performance of the individual in the tourism education model, institutionalised concept of education, which is viewed by outer reflexive model of tourism educational institutions performance and functional practical interaction of individuals and tourism institutions at the development of innovative potentials in the field of tourism. Tendencies to develop complex and qualitative services coming from permanent strengthening of innovative potential of tourism services are common in this field. It is necessary to develop a suitable model in the field of tourism education that places an individual in the educational process taking into account his/her conscious reflection, rational reflection and acquired motivation for solving complex projects in various levels of tourism. Suitable tourism education model, which is level-structured, is expanded in two ways. It includes the active role of an individual in rationalising practical knowledge and strengthening the innovative potential in developing his/her competences, and the role of tourism education institutions. The organisational cultural dimension can be observed as dual activity structure distinguishing between conscious reflection of the external environment on the level of educational institution and internal practical consciousness on the level of individual development of competences. Giddens structuration theory is used as a conceptual frame explaining the organisational-cultural dimensions of suitably structured educational model for tourism in Slovenia. The conclusion is based on the fact that an individual does not acknowledge the multilevel structure of study at higher education where there is an absence of conscious, practical and motivational reflection. Organisational cultural environment in the field of tourism education in Slovenia prefers practical and functional ways of acquiring competences on a higher and postgraduate (Master’s) level of study. Due to the structured changes implemented by the Bologna process, competences are not realised on the higher education level but on the postgraduate (Master’s) level, which demands a systematic review and a suitable education model change.

Structuring Information Work: Ferranti and Martins Bank, 1952-1968

The adoption of large-scale computers by the British retail banks in the 1960s required a first-time dislocation of customer accounting from its confines in the branches—where it had been dealt with by paper-based and mechanized information systems—to a new collective space: the bank computer center. While historians have rightly stressed the continuities between centralized office work, punch-card tabulation, and computerization, the shift from decentralized to centralized information work by means of a computer has received little attention. In this article I examine the case of Ferranti and Martins Bank and employ elements of Anthony Giddens's structuration theory to highlight the difficulties of transposing old information practices directly onto new computerized information work.

Taking time to understand theory

Purpose of the paper and literature addressedThe purpose of this paper is to examine how one of the most cited theories in sociology, structuration theory, might help inform our understanding of time in business networks. Structuration theory deals with the creation and maintenance of ideas and structures as well as with change and continuity processes. It defines a social system as any set of practices, patterns of interaction and social relationships that are relatively enduring. Research methodThis is a conceptual paper. Main contributionThis paper outlines improved theoretical and methodological bases in industrial marketing research, which specifically takes into consideration time. This new understanding draws upon Giddens structuration theory, and more recent critiques of his work.