Structuration Theory as an Ontology for Communication Research

A persistent complaint by communication scholars points to the fragmentation of the field and the lack of dominant theoretical paradigms. In response to this call, structuration theory as developed by Anthony Giddens is advocated as a foundational set of ontological principles for the grounding of communication research and theorizing. An interpretation of Giddens’s work and a review of communication research programs that have used structuration theory yield two major difficulties— the en passant problem and the metatheory fallacy. These issues are addressed as problematics, and the corrective of treating structuration as an ontology of potentials is then illustrated by a brief description of the authors’ ongoing project to study talk and power in institutional settings.

[1]  W. M. Purcell,et al.  Are there so few communication theories , 1992 .

[2]  B. Burleson.  Taking communication seriously , 1992 .

[3]  C. Berger.  Curiouser and curiouser curios , 1992 .

[4]  C. Berger.  Communication theories and other curios , 1991 .

[5]  A. Palloni,et al.  The Social Reproduction of a Criminal Class in Working-Class London, Circa 1950-1980 , 1990, American Journal of Sociology.

[6]  Dennis K. Mumby,et al.  Communication and Power in Organizations: Discourse, Ideology, and Domination , 1990 .

[7]  N. Mouzelis.  Restructuring Structuration Theory , 1989 .

[8]  A. Robben.  Habits of the Home: Spatial Hegemony and the Structuration of House and Society in Brazil , 1989 .

[9]  M. Edelman.  Constructing the political spectacle , 1989 .

[10]  T. Peterson.  The Rhetorical Construction of Institutional Authority in a Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Wilderness Legislation. , 1988 .

[11]  C. Lundberg.  On the Structuration of Multiactivity Task-Environments , 1988 .

[12]  Charles R. Berger,et al.  On Bridging the Communication Gap , 1988 .

[13]  Anthony Giddens,et al.  Social theory and modern sociology , 1988 .

[14]  K. Cox.  URBAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND NEIGHBORHOOD CONFLICTS: MOBILIZATION AND STRUCTURATION , 1988 .

[15]  Valerie A. Haines,et al.  Social network analysis, structuration theory and the holism-individualism debate , 1988 .

[16]  F. Jones,et al.  Class Structuration and Patterns of Social Closure in Australia and New Zealand , 1988 .

[17]  David R. Seibold,et al.  Argument structures in decision‐making groups , 1987 .

[18]  A. Kellerman.  STRUCTURATION THEORY AND ATTEMPTS AT INTEGRATION IN HUMAN GEOGRAPHY , 1987 .

[19]  D. Mumby.  The political function of narrative in organizations , 1987 .

[20]  C. Rose.  The Problem of Reference and Geographic Structuration , 1987 .

[21]  J. Coleman.  Social Theory, Social Research, and a Theory of Action , 1986, American Journal of Sociology.

[22]  I. Cohen.  The Status of Structuration Theory: A Reply to McLennan , 1986 .

[23]  Nigel Thrift,et al.  Bear and Mouse or Bear and Tree? Anthony Giddens`s Reconstitution of Social Theory , 1985 .

[24]  A. Giddens,et al.  The Constitution Of Society , 1985 .

[25]  A. Callinicos.  Anthony Giddens , 1985 .

[26]  G. Mclennan.  Critical or Positive Theory? A Comment on the Status of Anthony Giddens' Social Theory , 1984 .

[27]  D. Gregory,et al.  Space, Time, and Politics in Social Theory: An Interview with Anthony Giddens , 1984 .

[28]  M. S. Poole.  Decision development in small groups: III. A multiple sequence model of group decision development. , 1983 .

[29]  E. Soja.  Redoubling the Helix: Space—Time and the Critical Social Theory of Anthony Giddens (Review Essay) , 1983 .

[30]  Marshall Scott Poole,et al.  Decision development in small groups II: A study of multiple sequences in decision making 1 , 1983 .

[31]  N. Thrift,et al.  On the Determination of Social Action in Space and Time , 1983 .

[32]  Peter K. Manning,et al.  Organizational Work: Structuration of Environments , 1982 .

[33]  Marshall Scott Poole,et al.  A comparison of normative and interactional explanations of group decision‐making: Social decision schemes versus valence distributions , 1982 .

[34]  A. Athos,et al.  The Art of Japanese Management , 1982 .

[35]  M. Scott Poole,et al.  The Valence Model Unveiled: Critique and Alternative Formulation , 1981 .

[36]  Marshall Scott Poole,et al.  Decision development in small groups I: A comparison of two models , 1981 .

[37]  R. Rorty,et al.  Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. , 1980 .

[38]  A. Giddens.  NEW RULES OF SOCIOLOGICAL METHOD , 1980 .

[39]  C. Lévi-Strauss.  The Savage Mind , 1967 .

[40]  P. Bourdieu,et al.  Language and Symbolic Power , 1991 .

[41]  Dennis S. Gouran.  Exploiting the Predictive Potential of Structuration Theory , 1990 .

[42]  A. Giddens.  The consequences of modernity , 1990 .

[43]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Understanding the use of Group Decision Support Systems: The Theory of Adaptive Structuration , 1990 .

[44]  S. Toulmin.  Cosmopolis: The Hidden Agenda of Modernity , 1990 .

[45]  D. Seibold,et al.  Perspectives on Group Argument: A Critical Review of Persuasive Arguments Theory and an Alternative Structurational View , 1990 .

[46]  I. Cohen,et al.  Structuration Theory: Anthony Giddens and the Constitution of Social Life. , 1990 .

[47]  Ira J. Cohen,et al.  Structuration Theory and Social Praxis , 1989 .

[48]  David Held,et al.  Social theory of modern societies : Anthony Giddens and his critics , 1989 .

[49]  Derek Gregory,et al.  Social theory of modern societies: Presences and absences: time–space relations and structuration theory , 1989 .

[50]  J. Thompson,et al.  Social theory of modern societies: The theory of structuration , 1989 .

[51]  A. Giddens.  Social theory of modern societies: A reply to my critics , 1989 .

[52]  T. Conley,et al.  The Writing of History , 1988 .

[53]  B. Langer,et al.  The Practice of Everyday Life , 2019, Forms of Thinking in Leopardi’s Zibaldone.

[54]  Robert Dmcphee.  On the Facts of the “Facts of the ‘Text’” , 1988 .

[55]  Ted J. Smith.  Diversity and order in communication theory: The uses of philosophical analysis , 1988 .

[56]  Anthony Giddens,et al.  Social Theory Today , 1987 .

[57]  Robert D. McPhee,et al.  Group decision‐making as a structurational process , 1985 .

[58]  A. Giddens.  Time, Space and Regionalisation , 1985 .

[59]  Anthony Giddens,et al.  Profiles And Critiques In Social Theory , 1982 .

[60]  Anthony Giddens,et al.  A contemporary critique of historical materialism , 1981 .

[61]  R. Bhaskar,et al.  The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences , 1981 .

[62]  B. Massumi,et al.  The postmodern condition : a report on knowledge , 1979 .

[63]  A. Giddens.  Central Problems In Social Theory , 1979 .

[64]  Leonard C. Hawes.  Alternative theoretical bases: Toward a presuppositional critique , 1977 .

[65]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[66]  W. Lippmann.  Essays in the public philosophy , 1955 .