Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation [Paperback]

Explores the relationship between structure and agency through human reflexivity and the internal conversation.How do the objective features of society influence human agents? While conditioning accentuates the way the social context in which the individual operates is shaped, it neglects our capacity to establish a modus vivendi expressive of our concerns. Through inner dialogue, 'the internal conversation', individuals reflect upon their social situation in the light of current concerns and projects. On the basis of a series of in-depth interviews, Archer identifies three distinctive forms of internal conversation, the missing link between society and the individual, structure and agency.How do the objective features of society influence human agents? While conditioning accentuates the way the social context in which the individual operates is shaped, it neglects our capacity to establish a modus vivendi expressive of our concerns. Through inner dialogue, 'the internal conversation', individuals reflect upon their social situation in the light of current concerns and projects. On the basis of a series of in-depth interviews, Archer identifies three distinctive forms of internal conversation, the missing link between society and the individual, structure and agency.A central question of social theory is: How do society's objective features influence its members to reproduce or transform society through their actions? This volume examines how objective social conditioning is mediated by the subjective reflexivity of individuals. On the basis of a series of in-depth interviews, Margaret Archer identifies the mediatory mechanism as internal conversations that are expressed in forms governing agents' responses to social conditioning, their individual patterns of social mobility, and whether or not they contribute to social stability or change.Introduction: how does structure influence agency?; Part I. Solitude and Society: 1. The private life of the social subject;lÓÆ