From structure and agency to structuring spheres

2021 ◽  
pp. 63-81
Author(s):  
David Block
Keyword(s):  
Structure And Agency

Continuity and Change in Patriarchal Structure: Recent Trends in Rural Bangladesh

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Main Ud-din
Keyword(s):  
Remarkable Change ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Traditional Gender Roles ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Patriarchal Ideology ◽  
Transnational Communication ◽  
To Come ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Traditional Pattern ◽  
Village Life

This paper is about the transformation in the patriarchal structure of Rashidpur village in Munshiganj district, Bangladesh following overseas migration of men leaving their women in the village. In doing so, the study explores the continuity and changes in the discourse and practices of traditional gender roles in a patriarchal Muslim society considering the perspective of both men and women. The study pays especial attention to transnational communication of the villagers, the changes in their gender based mobility and its contribution to the changes in patriarchal ideology. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork, which examines whether the changes are sustainable or temporal for a period when the husbands are abroad and what happens to the practices when the husbands permanently return. Though the findings of the study indicate the diversity and complexity of practices, migration of men increases the mobility of the left behind women. Again, the entrance of cell phone, TV and satellite channels and transnational communication of women have significantly changed their agency as individuals. Consequently, many young wives like to come out of the domination of their in-laws and live in separate households instead of previous joint arrangement. The overall findings of the study show a remarkable change in the traditional pattern of village life. The study contextualizes structure and agency to understand how patriarchal structure influences individuals and how individuals play a role to transform the structure in exchange through their mobility, activities and resistance when the migrants are abroad.

Founding Family Ownership and the Selection of Industry Specialist Auditors

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Kang
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Family Firms ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Founding Family ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Dual Class Shares ◽  
Dual Class ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Industry Specialist

SYNOPSIS This study examines how family firms' unique ownership structure and agency problems affect their selection of industry-specialist auditors. Using data from Standard & Poor's (S&P) 1500 firms, the results show that family firms are more likely to appoint industry-specialist auditors than non-family firms, which suggests that family firms have strong incentives to signal the quality of financial reporting. Additional analysis indicates that due to the potential entrenchment problems, family firms with family member CEOs or with dual-class shares have even a higher tendency to hire industry-specialist auditors to signal their disclosure quality.

Understanding Deviance in a World of Standards

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Resource Allocation ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Corporate Responsibility ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Organizational Conditions ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Single Person ◽  
Different Types

Standards have become widespread regulatory tools that promote global trade, innovation, efficiency, and quality. They contribute significantly to the creation of safe, reliable, and high-quality services and technologies to ensure human health, environmental protection, or information security. Yet intentional deviations from standards by organizations are often reported in many sectors, which can either contribute to or challenge the measures of safety and quality they are designed to safeguard. Why then, despite all potential consequences, do organizations choose to deviate from standards in one way or another? This book uses structuration theory—covering aspects of both structure and agency—to explore the organizational conditions and contradictions under which different types of deviance occur. It also provides empirical explanations for deviance in organizations that go beyond an understanding of individual misbehaviour where mainly a single person is held responsible. Case studies of software developing organizations illustrate insightful generalizations on standards as a mechanism of sensemaking, resource allocation, and sanctioning, and provide ground to rethink corporate responsibility when deviating from standards in the ‘audit society’.

A Motion of No Confidence: Leadership and Rebel Fragmentation

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin C Doctor
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Proportional Hazards ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards ◽  
Stage I ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Rebel Groups ◽  
Cox Proportional Hazards Models ◽  
War Experiences

Abstract Why do rebel organizations splinter into competing factions during civil war? To explain this outcome, I leverage variation in rebel leadership. I argue that rebel leaders draw on their pre-war experiences—i.e., their military and political experiences—to manage their organizations during conflict. These experiences bear unique patterns of rebel management and, thus, corresponding risks of fragmentation. Empirical evidence comes from a two-stage research design and original data featuring over 200 rebel leaders from 1989 to 2014. In the first stage, I estimate the probability of group fragmentation with a series of logistic regression models. In the second stage, I use Cox proportional-hazards models to estimate leadership effects on the rate of group fragmentation. Results indicate that variation in rebel leadership corresponds with unique risks of fragmentation. In particular, the results suggest that leaders with real military experience are best equipped to maintain group cohesion. This study offers insight into the processes by which rebel groups splinter into armed factions. In addition, it makes an important contribution to the broader discussion on the roles of structure and agency in shaping the dynamics of civil war.

scholarly journals Navigating an Uncertain Labor Market in the UK: The Role of Structure and Agency in the Transition from School to Work

2020 ◽  
Vol 688 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Ingrid Schoon
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
School To Work ◽  
Occupational Attainment ◽  
Employment Opportunities ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Career Options

This article reviews the evidence on young people in the UK making the transition from school to work in a changing socioeconomic climate. The review draws largely on evidence from national representative panels and follows the lives of different age cohorts. I show that there has been a trend toward increasingly uncertain and precarious employment opportunities for young people since the 1970s, as well as persisting inequalities in educational and occupational attainment. The joint role of social structure and human agency in shaping youth transitions is discussed. I argue that current UK policies have forgotten about half of the population of young people who do not go to university, by not providing viable pathways and leaving more and more young people excluded from good jobs and employment prospects. Recommendations are made for policies aimed at supporting the vulnerable and at provision of career options for those not engaged in higher education.

scholarly journals Making Sense of Our Working Lives: The concept of the career imagination

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 263178772110046
Author(s):  
Laurie Cohen ◽  
Joanne Duberley
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Concept ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Short Termism

This essay considers how the traditional concept of career retains its power in an age of contingency, short-termism and gig work. To answer this question, it introduces and explicates the concept of the ‘career imagination’. This concept has three key dimensions: perceptions of enablement and constraint, time and identity. Situated in the nexus of structure and agency, it is through our career imagination that we envisage and evaluate the progress of our working lives. Encapsulating continuity and change, our career imagination helps us to understand the enduring legitimacy of the traditional career as a yardstick by which to measure success, and the emergence of new possibilities.

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