Sociology With A Wide Angle Dave Elder-Vass, The Causal Power of Social Structures: Emergence, Structure and Agency (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010).

The articles in this collection are about the development, possibility, exercise and possible frustration of human agency within educational exchanges. They are also all based on ethnography, which is now a common approach to educational research. Ethnography is not a seamless, neutral observational practice but is instead variable in relation to theoretical perspectives and methodological application. However, central to all approaches is an emphasis on an active and creative citizen and an assumption that there is a dialectical relationship between human social practices, human consciousness and social structures. The similarities and differences within education ethnography are apparent even in the articles present here and in the ways in which they depict, define and describe agency in this special issue.

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Social Structures: A Network Approach. Edited by Barry Wellman and S. D. Berkowitz. Cambridge University Press. 513 pp. Cloth, $65.00; paper, $22.95

Social Forces ◽

10.1093/sf/68.2.643 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 643-645 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

P. V. Marsden

Keyword(s):

Social Structures ◽

Network Approach ◽

Cambridge University

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Charitable giving and reflexive individuals: How personal reflexivity mediates between structure and agency

Social Science Information ◽

10.1177/0539018416646486 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 56 (1) ◽

pp. 28-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Balihar Sanghera

Keyword(s):

Charitable Giving ◽

Social Practices ◽

Social Structures ◽

Structure And Agency ◽

The World

This article examines how individuals are reflexive beings who interpret the world in relation to things that matter to them, and how charitable acts are evaluated and embedded in their lives with different degrees of meaning and importance. Rather than framing the discussion of charitable practices in terms of an altruism/egoism binary or imputing motivations and values to social structures, the article explains how reflexivity is an important and neglected dimension of social practices, and how it interacts with sympathy, sentiments and discourses to shape giving. The study also shows that there are different modes of reflexivity, which have varied effects on charity and volunteering.

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Institutions and moral agency: the case of Scottish banking

Journal of Institutional Economics ◽

10.1017/s1744137419000092 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (5) ◽

pp. 845-859 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Angus Robson ◽

Ron Beadle

Keyword(s):

Moral Agency ◽

Institutional Economics ◽

Global Financial Crisis ◽

Critical Realism ◽

Causal Power ◽

Social Structures ◽

Different Types ◽

Corporate Goals ◽

Moral Choices ◽

The Global Financial Crisis

AbstractIt has been an enduring concern of institutional economics and critical realism to understand how individuals are able to exercise agency in the context of social structures, and to maintain appropriate connections, separations and balances between these two levels of causal power. This paper explores the contribution of Alasdair MacIntyre's neo-Aristotelian philosophy to the topic. Empirical data are provided from the career narratives of senior Scottish bankers recalled in the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2007/8. The method of the study is interpretive, using themes drawn from MacIntyre's writings. These bankers faced moral choices as tensions developed between their own professional standards and the new corporate goals of the banks. We discuss MacIntyre's understanding of individual moral agency as a narrative quest in the context of different types of institution with different and often conflicting ideas about what constitutes good or right action. Habituation and deliberation are important in enabling action, but fully developed moral agency also depends on individuals being able to make choices in the space opened up by tensions within and between institutions.

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