Berard2005a

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Berard2005a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Berard2005a
Author(s) Tim J. Berard
Title Rethinking practices and structures
Editor(s)
Tag(s) Social Theory, Ethnomethodology, EMCA
Publisher
Year 2005
Language
City
Month
Journal Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Volume 35
Number 2
Pages 196–230
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/0048393105275290
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Social theory remains puzzled by the relation between practices and structures, or the link between ‘micro’ and ‘macro’. Grand theorists including Giddens and Bourdieu have gained distinction for their writings on these questions, trying to marry insights and concerns of a ‘micro’ sociological nature with traditional ‘macro’ structural questions including inequality, power relations, and social reproduction. These theorists arguably fail, however, in their attempts to move social theory beyond traditional dualisms. Relevant but neglected contributions from ethnomethodology are introduced and compared to the work of Giddens and Bourdieu in an attempt to identify and outline an approach to practices and structures that more reliably avoids problems of dualism and reification, and at the same time offers an understanding of structures and their relations to practices that can be much more closely grounded in empirical studies.

Notes