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Agency and Social Structure by Peter J. Burke; Jan E. Stets is a book available to read on EtoBox.

What is Agency and Social Structure about?

## Abstract This introductory chapter outlines the main ideas in identity theory to orient the reader to what this book is about. It includes discussions of social structure, agency, and symbolic interaction. Identities are discussed as activated at the micro level of society, but embedded in meso-level and macro-level social structures and culture. Also discussed is the idea that while individuals enter situations at the micro level with agency as they are goal-oriented, this agency operates at the individual, interactive, and group levels. And, while people can bring about certain outcomes, social structure can constrain the actions of individuals. The scientific study of identities and the relationship between identities and the social structure emerges out of the structural version of symbolic interaction, and the latter part of the chapter reviews central concepts of this framework including the self, signs, symbols, language, and interaction.

Author

Peter J. Burke; Jan E. Stets

Publisher

Oxford University PressNew York

Published

2023

Language

EN

ISBN

9780197617212

Subjects

Science, Sociology, Psychology