Social constraints

From Geography

Anthony Giddens is a socialist who argues that structure and agency goes hand in hand. The duality of structure. In other words Giddens is saying that we act both free with a certain level of consciousness and through structure. Our actions and structures go hand in hand with each other. They are dependent to each other and can’t be separated. Actions create structures and structures can only exist if we act according the structure.

Giddens is also addressing that we have constraints in our actions. We have physical constraints and social constraints who both influence our acting and make specific activities even prohibited or impossible.

Example

An example of a social constraint can be the political system of a country. For instance a dictatorship. This system constraint agency. People have no choice when it comes to voting and can’t, for example, leave the country to travel.

References

• Lippuner, R. & Werlen, B. (2009) Structuration Theory. In: International Encyclopedia for Human Geography. Elsevier.

• Dale Southerton in Sociology (2006) 40: 435 Analysing the Temporal Organization of Daily Life: Social Constraints,Practices and their Allocation

Contributors

• Page published by Jesper Remmen--JesperRemmen 23:24, 21 October 2012 (CEST)