agency - structure

is a distinction from which one might step away to instead take a second-order position from which to observe the distinction's employment.

to overcome the essentialism of the agency/structure duality, it is necessary to allow for variation. One way to do this is, with luhmann, to switch to a second level of observation and observe when first-order observers use either 'agency' or 'structure' to account for social causes and outcomes. then, agency and structure turn into variable devices for sense making employed by different observers, the observers themselves located in different positions in the social structure. Instead of philosophizing about the nature of agency, we can now observe when agency and related concepts are being employed to explain some outcome and when an observer resorts to more structural explanations, possibly for the very same outcomes. Explanation and making sense are social activities, and, as such, they vary together with other social variables' (fuchs 'beyond')

agency structure, n.All

agency structure