This is a new and revised edition of a book which has established itself
as a basic text in social theory. The first section of the work provides
a concise critical analysis of some leading schools of thought in social
philosophy, giving particular attention to phenomenology,
ethnomethodology, and Wittgensteinian thought. Giddens concentrates
primarily upon the implications of these various perspectives for an
account of human action and its intelligibility. An 'action approach' on
its own, however, will not do; in human social life, action and
structure presuppose one another. The author therefore moves on to
provide a series of concepts relevant to understanding the production
and reproduction of society. The book concludes with a succinct
statement of some 'new rules of sociological method.'
Representing the first, and most trenchant, exposition of the principles
of structuration theory, this edition also contains a substantial new
Introduction in which Giddens replies to some of the more persistent
criticisms made of the original version and also addresses some
important issues originally discussed only in a cursory way.