Structure and Agency

Acknowledgement of Country

Acknowledgment is made of the Wadjuk Noongar people as the traditional owners of the land. Respect is paid to Elders, past, present, and emerging. This land was never ceded; it always was and always will be Aboriginal land.

Defining Social Structure

In sociology, social structures are defined as enduring patterns of interaction existing in society that shape human behaviors and interactions with others. Examples of these patterns include gender, ethnicity, class, age, and ability.

According to Van Krieken et al. ($2020$), social structures are characterized by the following:

• Patterned Organization: They are organized along patterned lines rather than being random.
• Temporal Endurance: They endure over time.
• Individual Constraint: They act as constraints on the individuals living within them, whether those individuals are consciously aware of these constraints or not.

Social structures precede the individual and exert a constraining influence on them.

Durkheim, Structure, and Society

Emile Durkheim posited that society shapes individuals. Humans are constrained by social facts, which are defined as phenomena external to the individual, endowed with the power of coercion and the ability to control individual behavior.

• The Function of Social Facts: Social facts are the primary reason people within a society appear to choose the same basic lifestyles, such as where they live, what they eat, and how they interact. The specific society a person belongs to shapes them to perform these actions, which in turn continues the cycle of social facts.
• Social Solidarity: Durkheim argued that societies have an inherent need to create social solidarity. This provides people with a sense of purpose and instructs them on appropriate behavior.
• Sources of Solidarity: Social solidarity is derived from particular structures in society, such as family and religion.
• Individual Action: Individuals do not act solely on an individual basis. Instead, they operate under obligations and duties, acting in ways strongly influenced by the structures of which they are part.
• Analytical Necessity: It is impossible to study individuals or human interactions effectively without understanding the forces that construct and constrain them (Jureidini \, & \, Poole, \, 2002, \, p. \, 31).

Levels of Interaction

Social interaction and professional intervention occur across three distinct levels, as outlined by Chenoweth and McAuliffe ($2019, \, p. \, 191$):

• Micro Level: Involves specialist casework, therapeutic counseling, and critical reflection.
• Meso Level: Involves therapeutic groups and self-help groups.
• Macro Level: Involves community action and political action groups.

Social Position, Status, and Life Chances

Social structures determine the social positions people occupy, which condition their life chances ($Young, \, 2002, \, p. \, 25$). Key components of this hierarchy include:

• Status: This refers to differences in social honor or prestige that form the basis of social hierarchy. Status can be categorized as:
  • Ascribed Status: Assigned by society regardless of individual action.
  • Achieved Status: Based on an individual's work, effort, or merit.
• Life Chances: These are the opportunities associated with social positions that result in different material, political, cultural, and social outcomes.
• Power: Defined as the capacity of an individual or a group of individuals to achieve their objectives, even when they face opposition from others.

Social Roles as a Form of Social Structure

Social roles are sets of expectations concerning the behavior and attitudes of people who occupy a particular social status.

• Role versus Status: A person occupies a status but plays a role ($Linton, \, as \, cited \, in \, Henslin \, et \, al., \, 2015$).
• Social Stability: Roles contribute to stability by enabling members of society to anticipate the behavior of others and pattern their own actions accordingly.
• Limiting Nature of Roles: Roles can also be problematic because they can limit the scope of people's interactions and relationships.

Categories of Social Structures

Social structures are categorized into social identities/individual factors and social institutions ($Crossman, \, 2024; \, Pearce, \, 2020$).

• Social Identities/Specific Structures:
  • Ability
  • Age
  • Class
  • Ethnicity
  • Faith
  • Gender
  • Sexuality
• Social Institutions:
  • Family
  • Religion
  • Education
  • Media
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Economy

Social Institutions and Socialization

Social institutions serve as agents of socialization. According to Berger and Luckmann ($1966$):

• Institutions provide individuals with important resources while simultaneously imposing specific rules of conduct.
• Institutions shape thoughts and behaviors.
• Institutions transmit shared meanings and provide the framework for individuals to learn and adopt the dominant social reality of their society.

Socialization is defined as the process through which individuals learn and internalize characteristics and behaviors that make them recognizably human ($Van \, Krieken \, et \, al., \, 2020, \, p. \, 22$):

• It involves the transmission or reproduction of socially patterned behaviors existing within a culture.
• It is a continuous process occurring from the moment of birth until death.
• Socialization is not a neutral process.

Deviance and Sanctions

Deviance is defined as norm or rule-breaking behavior that is usually subject to negative social sanctions ($Van \, Krieken \, et \, al., \, 2016, \, p. \, 1282$). Society uses sanctions to respond to deviant behavior:

• Formal Sanctions: Includes fines, probation, and imprisonment.
• Informal Sanctions: Includes a glance, ridicule, gossip, a reprimand, persuasion, and social ostracism.

While people can and do resist prescriptions about their behaviors and identity definitions, these expectations are ideologically reinforced by powerful social institutions (such as the home and workplace) and are therefore not easily ignored or resisted.

Human Agency

Agency refers to the thoughts, actions, choices, and responses taken by people that express their individual power ($Cole, \, 2025$). It involves how people interpret their situation and negotiate with those around them based on that interpretation and available opportunities ($Van \, Krieken \, et \, al., \, 2020, \, p. \, 21$).

Human behavior is guided by ideas, beliefs, and principles rather than automatic programmed responses. This agency is dependent on specific human abilities:

• Reasoning
• Reflection
• Conscious and self-conscious thinking
• Creativity

The Interconnectedness of Structure and Agency

There is a deep interconnection between social structures and individual agency. Anthony Giddens ($1993, \, p. \, 13$) suggests that human societies are like buildings that are at every moment being reconstructed by the very bricks that compose them. Rather than individuals being merely a product of social structures, social structures are the product of individuals.

• Active Reconstruction: People actively make and remake social structures during their everyday activities. Structure and action are related parts of a whole rather than opposites (Giddens \, & \, Sutton, \, 2019, \, p. \, 98).
• Predictability: Societies and groups have structure because people behave in regular, predictable ways.
• Dependency: Individual action is only possible because individuals possess an enormous amount of socially structured knowledge that pre-exists them.
• The Sociological Debate: There is ongoing debate regarding how much power social structures exert over people versus how much power individuals have to control their own lives (Yuill \, & \, Gibson, \, 2010, \, p. \, 4).

Interplay Summary:

• Agency: Focuses on interpretation and actions.
• Social Structure: Focuses on rules, resources, statuses, roles, groups, networks, and institutions.

Society is not just an environment established around us to set preconditions and limits; it is inside humans and fundamentally constitutes who we are.