Structuration theory, in anthropology, maintains that a repeated cultural practice builds social structure, and that practices are dictated by the social structure. This theory explains how culture endures, yet allows for cultural (that is, social) change. Instigators of social change are called generative actors, and promote cultural change by defying cultural normatives. Noted examples include Galileo and Rosa Parks. Cultural change can also occur gradually as people reinterpret their cultural ideology. Such change would probably best be explained through the approach of historical particularism, which attempts to explain the origin of cultural ideas.
Anthony Giddens formulated a sociological structuration theory.
The last of the action theory perspectives of Chapter 4 is structurationtheory – the theory developed by Anthony Giddens to explain and integrate agency and structure.
There is a duality of structures so that on one side it is composed of situated actors who undertake social action and interaction, and their knowledgable activities in various situations.
The basic domain of study of the social sciences, according to the theory of structuration, is neither the experience of the individual actor, nor the existence of any form of social totality, but social practices ordered across space and time.
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