Essay On The Relative Power Of Agency Vs Structure

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One of the most basic debates in sociology is that about the relative power of agency vs. structure. On the one hand, some people argue individual people have a great capacity for acting freely and without constraints by larger social structures. Indeed, some argue that "social systems" do not really exist at all - they are merely convenient abstractions which have no reality outside of our minds and language. If social systems do exist in some fashion, it is only as a result of the actions of free human agents. On the other side of this debate are those who argue that social systems greatly constrain, if not completely determine, the actions of individuals. What we think, feel and do cannot be realistically separated by networks of statuses and relative power which are complete external to and independent of us.…show more content…
Each member may have some freedom to exercise their own will to act, but their actions are nevertheless powerfully constrained by the accepted and traditional rules of behavior which characterize that particular sport. Pressure from authority figures and peers prevent people from doing just anything they want. Of course, the majority of sociologists do not follow either position to great extremes and instead attempt to find some sort of middle ground, recognizing that each position has something valid to say about how people experience their social communities. Some even deny that it makes any sense to consider human agency and social systems to be separate and opposed ideas. In point of fact, both exist because of each other. The social system helps create what the individual is while the individual helps create the social system. Thus, they exist in a dynamic interdependency and picking out one as being the "primary" while the other is an "illusion" does not make any
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