6: Structure, Agency and Transactionalism 'Practice Theory' Fredrik Barth this week, Bourdieu next week. Reaction against structuralism (Weberian and Durkheimian) · Agency and actor-oriented approaches . Firth's 'social organisation' Barth · Swat Pathan politics (now northern Pakistan) · Game Theory - later taken up by Bailey Transactional analysis - Barth advocates this as a way of looking at society as a process rather than an object · Predictive modelling · Roles & impression management - herring boats Ethnic groups and cultural entrepreneurs Durkheim/ Weber's traditions · Durkheim's Suicide 1897 - advocated making analysis at general level (first time). The pattern of suicides. ? 'Social facts' · Weber's verstehen = understanding/interpreting the social actor's point of view o Any account of social action is not complete if you have no included the actor's PoV · From these two came 'structure' (Durkheim) and 'agency' (Weber) ? Structure = patterns of social actions that re-create social order o Agency = ability of individuals to choose and act within the social order · Structuralist perspectives posit a whole social system ? Functionalist - understanding the structure with its function. Analysis becomes trained on this bigger system (which is in a sense produced by studying it) o Marxist ? Structural-functionalist ? Structuralist (Levi-Strauss) These explanations are at the level of systems, leading to a reaction against it Reactions: · Symbolic Interactionism (Mead and Blumer) o Humans generate meaning in interaction (i.e individual interactions can create many different meanings, or flags can mean different things to different people) Meaning not fixed but modified through life . Firth's social organisation - pattern created by choice and decision (rather than predetermined social ordering) ? 'Maximising man' may seek intangible benefits such as status Potlatch 'giving away' ceremony northern Canada - The Gift - benefit of status over wealth, intangible over tangible
· Barth's 'transactional analysis' O Transactions - flows of objects/actions that have meanings o Society as process not object o The Swat Pathans Pakhtun hold the land (nobility) Land disputes = land owners had to reinforce good relations and keep loyalty of tenants . Built men's houses and hospitality to retain the followings o Theory of Games Modelling the way people behave by looking at cost-benefit analysis each person is faced with . Uses this for Swat valley . Each faction follows one of two leaders . The structure remains stable because of relative benefits of defection (later proven wrong) · Bailey also took up Games Theory o Pursuit of power governed by culturally-specific rules and aims o Politics analogous to a rule-governed game o Analysis can reveal the strategies rational actors employ · Barth's 'transactional analysis' o Patterns of choice within constraints - 'rules of the game' o Society as process o One analytical model to unite: Culture v society · Meaning v instrumentality · Saying v doing ? Aside: is it enough to model it? Does that explain it? · Impression management - Goffman o Status = position someone inhabits o Notion that we are