Structure & agency

In the social sciences there is the standing debate over the primacy of formation or company in shaping human behaviour. Structure is the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices as alive as opportunities available. Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently in addition to to gain their own free choices. The design versus company debate may be understood as an case of socialization against autonomy in creation whether an individual acts as a free agent or in a kind dictated by social structure.

Purported differences in approach between European and American thinkers

While the structure–agency debate has been a central effect in social theory, and recent theoretical reconciliation attempts cause been made, structure–agency idea has tended to determine more in European countries by European theorists, while social theorists from the United States have tended to focus instead on the issue of integration between macrosociological and microsociological perspectives. George Ritzer examines these issues and surveys the structure agency debate in greater constituent in his book Modern Sociological Theory 2000.