Structuration Theory (Giddens)

Overview

Structuration theory, developed by Anthony Giddens (1984), resolves the agency-structure dualism by proposing that structure has a "duality" — it is simultaneously the medium through which action occurs and the outcome that action produces. Structure does not exist independently of practice; it is instantiated in the moment of action and reproduced (or transformed) through ongoing practice.

When to Use

• Analyzing how organizational routines reproduce or transform institutional patterns
• Bridging micro-level action and macro-level structure in social analysis
• Explaining how agents exercise agency within constraining structures
• Understanding technology adoption as a structurational process (Orlikowski, DeSanctis & Poole)

When NOT to Use

• When a purely structural or purely agent-centered explanation suffices
• When quantitative modeling of structure as a fixed variable is required (structuration resists operationalization)
• When the analysis needs clear causal directionality (structuration is recursive, not linear)