Location In Social Structure Research Articles

Reflexivity Contra Structuration

Abstract This paper argues that Giddens recent writings on reflexivity and modernity fundamentally contradict the underlying paradigm of agency and structure -- the duality of structure -- that he has developed since the 1970s. Whilst many critics of Giddens' writings on reflexivity have focused on his relative neglect of power, they have overlooked the emerging contradictions with his overall analysis of agency and structuration that I argue lie at the root of these problems in his recent writings. The arguments of dualist critics of Giddens' structuration theory such as Archer and Mouzelis are developed and applied to his recent writings on modernization. The analysis of late modernity and self-reflexivity requires recognition of the temporal non-correspondence of structure and agency that is not possible under the assumptions of structuration theory. Resume Cet article fait valoir le fait que les rdcents ecrits de Giddens sur la reflexivite et Ia modernite contredisent fondamentalement le paradigme sous-jacent d'agencement et de structure, soit la dualitd de la structure. qu'iI a developpee depuis les annees 1970. Alors que bon nombre de critiques de ses ecrits sur Ia reflexivite se sont penches sur la negligence relative du pouvoir, ils n'ont cependant pas tenu compte des contradictions emergentes de cette analyse globale d'agencement et de structure qui -- a mon avis -- se trouve a la base meme de ces problemes dans ses derniers ecrits. Les arguments des critiques dualistes de la theorie de structuration de Giddens tels que Archer et Mouzelis sont developpes et appliques a ses derniers ecrits sur la reflexive. Il est necessaire de reconnaitre la non correspondance temporelle de l'agencement et de la structure pour analyser la recente modernite et l'autoreflexivite, ce qui n'est pas possible dans le cas des hypotheses de la theorie de la s tructuration. The Freitsetzung of Agency and Structure? It is my contention in this paper that what Lash (1994) has described as the freisetzung of agency and structure is the key assumption of Giddens' modernization thesis, and that this assumption generates some significant and irresolvable conceptual problems for his broader social theory. These detraditionalizing processes of late modernity captured by the term reflexive modernisation are apparently freeing individuals, enabling them to create reflexive projects of the Instead of self-identity being by social structural locations, or traditional value systems, we are now able to construct it for ourselves from a range of range of available discursive resources (Beck et. al., 1994; Giddens, 1991). Giddens' work since 1990 has given us a distinctive and substantial contribution to these debates. One that signifies a new departure in his writings, although he sees it continuing the project that he has developed since the 1970s. In Giddens' work up to the 1990s there was a sense of a continuous intellectual project, that has often been compared to that of Parsons (Kilminster, 1991: 75; Mouzelis, 1995: 118). Firstly, Giddens' settled his accounts with the classical inheritance, then he dealt with various contemporary debates in class theory, followed by varieties of contemporary social theory (Giddens, 1971; Giddens, 1974; Giddens, 1975; Giddens, 1979). Subsequently he examined the institutional parameters and developmental tendencies of modernity and the nation-state (Giddens, 1981; Giddens, 1985). His most recent discussions have focussed more on the modern self (Beck, Lash and Giddens, 1994; Giddens, 1990; Giddens, 1991). His work in the 1970s outlined a workable social ontology and a unifying perspective for post-classical sociology (1975; 1979), followed in the 1980s by an application of this unifying perspective (1981; 1985). It is also possible to see his recent work as an attempt to apply the structuration approach to the dile mmas of the modern self. …

Rural Youth and Risk Society

Research on deciduous fruit farms in South Africa has consistently identified low levels of mobility among farm workers. The daughters of farm workers who do manage to find employment in urban centers often return to the farm, whereas others never leave the farm. Based on focus group interviews conducted with 32 girls between the ages of 15 and 17 years, the article explores teenage girls' views and experiences of farm life and their expectations of the future. In examining their expectations and assessing their life chances, the concepts of risk society, late or reflexive modernity, and the individualization thesis put forward by Beck and Giddens are utilized. Teenage girls appear to reject farm life and foresee a future far removed from their working-class background. In assessing their life chances, the article suggests that social divisions and structural location continue to play a critical role in the distribution of risk within contemporary South African society.

An Interpretation of Juvenile Parolees' Gender Constructions at School

Introduction This paper interprets marginalized youths' active constructions during school. (1) Past and recent sociological work examines the significance of construction for understanding juvenile delinquency and school experiences (Cohen, 1955; MacLeod, 1995; Messerschmidt, 1993,1994,1995; Miller, 1958; Miron and Lauria, 1995; Willis, 1977). This work illustrates that an individual's can be understood as a socially created concept, as an identity that arises through social interactions (Connell, 1987; West and Zimmerman, 1987). Gender theorists and researchers illuminate the importance of construction for understanding various state policies and individual behaviors, and the overall gendered nature of social life. Individuals' interactions with one another as men and women both create and are created by social structures (Giddens, 1981). Furthermore, individuals' structuralsocial locations provide particular resources for their active constructions of themselves as men or women (Connell, 1987; Messerschmidt, 1993, 1994, 1995; Newburn and Stanko, 1994; West and Zimmerman, 1987; Willis, 1977). Youths who occupy the social-structural margins of society, and thus lack adequate access to resources such as school success, may utilize crime and/or school resistance as resources to construct themselves as men or women. Importantly, when individuals are actively doing gender their actions sometimes function to reproduce existent gender-based social inequalities (Connell, 1987; MacLeod, 1995; Messerschmidt, 1993,1994, 1995; Smith, 1997; Willis, 1977). The paper focuses on inner-city juvenile parolees' gendered interactions at a community school in a large southwestern city. The analysis seeks to interpret the students' constructions within the contexts of cultural ideologies and social-structural locations. Drawing from a year of field research at the school and interviews with youths and teachers, I interpret youths' constructions with their peers and teachers as a reflection (and ultimately a creator) of these ideologies and locations. I conceptualize students' gendered identities relationally, as being created during social interactions (Miron and Lauria, 1995: 31). Students at the community school constructed their in a variety of ways; male students used both hegemonic cultural ideologies and locally available resources to construct their masculinities. They often created their identities as men through discussions of crime, physical toughness/violence, opposition to school, heterosexuality, and dominance of females. Female students sometimes created their gendered identities through opposition to male students, and via discussions of physical toughness/violence and heterosexuality. Importantly, students' constructions did not rely on ideologically dominant resources such as paid work and school success. In addition, their active constructions of functioned to reproduce certain harmful cultural ideologies (e.g., men as being superior to women). The analysis suggests the necessity of creating schools which students' value, where they will want to spend their time and energy on learning useful knowledge rather than on reproducing existent ideologies of inequality and criminal violence. When these students rejected schools and teachers and celebrate physical violence and crime they also helped reproduce their own marginalization. School, Structure, Crime, and Gender Constructions Theoretical and empirical work on schooling and delinquency recognizes the significance of gender. Miller (1958) argues that masculine attributes such as toughness and violence are important status criteria for lower-class males in delinquent peer groups. Cohen (1955) discusses the significance of social roles for understanding male delinquency; he notes that structural and cultural factors regulate an individual's appropriate sex role. …

Mobilizing Social Resources: Race, Ethnic, and Gender Differences in Social Capital and Persisting Wage Inequalities

Drawing on a social capital theoretical framework, I examine race, ethnic, and gender wage inequalities. Specifically, I extend past research by analyzing differences in the mobilization of different types of job contacts, what these types of contacts and their level of influence “buy” job seekers in the labor market, and the extent to which differences in social resources explain between-group variations in wages. Four aspects of job contacts are implicated: the race and gender of the job contact, the strength of the relationship between the job seeker and the job contact, and the job contact's influence. Employing the Multi-City Study of Urban Inequality, I find that white men are more likely to mobilize weak, white, male, and influential contacts, those contacts hypothesized to positively impact employment outcomes. Moreover, their greater mobilization of male and influential ties helps to explain a substantial part of their wage advantage over white women and Lations. However, in many ways, their overall social resource advantage seems somewhat overstated. They reap no advantages over blacks, Latinos, and white women in their use of weak and white ties. Furthermore, results indicate that the benefits of social resources appear largely contingent on the social structural location of job seekers mobilizing them, less on any benefits inherent in different “types” of job contacts.

Structural predictors of problematic friendship in later life

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine the constraining and facilitating effects of social structural position (age, sex, race, class, financial sufficiency, and number of friends) on opportunities for friendship. We hypothesized that the greater the number of people who share a given social structural location and the more access they have to situations where it is possible to meet new people, the less likely they are to have problematic friendships. The sample comprised 53 male and female community residents aged 55 to 84 years who enjoyed fairly good health. Logistic and multiple regression procedures revealed outcomes opposite to our predictions: those who were supposedly more social structurally advantaged actually reported greater numbers of problematic friendships. Potential interpretations include the possibility that these people are more critical than others of their friend relationships or more willing to acknowledge problems, that the norms regarding commitment to friends are weaker among these individuals, or that they learn to acquire friends but not to avoid and solve problems in their relationships. Apparently, people with more friends are not more likely than others to terminate problematic friendships or to redefine them as mere associations.

Structural Determinants of Men's and Women's Personal Networks

Men's and women's personal networks often differ in composition, with women's more focused on family and men's on nonkin, especially coworkers. Using data from the 1985 General Social Survey, I find that these gender differences arise in part from dissimilar social structural locations of men and women, which lead to distinct opportunities for and constraints on the formation of close personal ties. Most gender differences in network composition disappear or are considerably reduced when variables related to employment, family, and age are controlled. However, some gender differences remain. Women have a larger number, higher proportion, and greater diversity of kin ties in their personal networks than men, even when compared with men in similar social structural positions.

Situational Logic, Social Structure, and Highland Burma [and Comments and Reply

The theoretical gap between micro and macro levels of sociological analysis is handled by a concept set that integrates normative and transactional analyses of social phenomena. The concept set of situational logic-which refers to an actor's location in social structure and access to power and resources-when combined with equilibrium analysis, provides the necessary tools to comprehend how social systems operate. Political Systems of Highland Burma is analyzed to demonstrate that situational logic is (a) a sufficient analytic tool to reduce Leach's analysis to more lucid and parsimonious proportions, and (b) a basic conceptual tool in our understanding of social events.