The Concept of Social Structure

by Douglas Porpora

Overview

Porpora is concerned with the concept of social structure and with the relationship between social structure and the individual. He focuses on two different conceptions of social structure, the Durkheimian conception, which is the dominant way in which social structure is conceptualized by sociologists, and an alternative conception, based on a reading of Marx. The author discusses in depth the various aspects of these two divergent theories and shows how the Marxian conception of social structure underlies even the newer structural analyses of racism, sexism, and power that go beyond Marxian theory. He offers a sustained critique of Structural Sociology's theoretical elimination of the individual actor, which results in a corresponding elimination of any form of agency from the explanation of social structural processes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313256462
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/16/1987
Series:	Controversies in Science , #68
Pages:	172
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)
Lexile:	1360L (what's this?)

About the Author

DOUGLAS V. PORPORA is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Drexel University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Structural Sociology and the Durkheimian Conception of Social Structure
On the Prospects for a Nomothetic Theory of Social Structure
The Concept of Purposive Action
Purposive versus Mechanistic Explanations of Action
Narrative and the Realist Philosophy of Science: Toward a New Model of Explanation
The Durkheimian and Marxian Conceptions of Social Structure
Carrying the Marxian Concept of Social Structure Beyond Marx
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index