The Issue of Agent/Structure in Social Sciences

Theories that explain social phenomena can be categorized based on their stress onagent or structure as: agent-oriented theories, structure-oriented theories, orborderline theories that attempt to find a third way. Voluntarists (including rationalchoice theorists) stress on the role of the agent. On the other hand, structuralists andpost-structuralists stress on the role of the structure. However, the structuration andcritical realism theories try to find equilibrium of the past two views.The weak point of voluntarism is the reduction of complex issues to the role ofpeople in the society and history. The discourse theories well depict how the subjectturns into object in the heart of the discourse. On the other hand, the weak point ofstructuralism is ignoring the role of people. Instead, the borderline theories (thirdcategory) do not suffer from the limitations of the other mentioned theories andoverall seem more defendable.