The agent-structure problem: from social theory to IR theory

The agent-structure problem: from social theory to IR theory

2views of society - society is people
- society is the circumstances within which people are formed
- opposition between those 2 views - influence on structuring all forms of social inquiry
→ ontological question of the nature of the object - agent-structure problem (what are its consitutent elements and how they are related?)

Weber≠Durkheim

Weber - Individualist, Dur. - structuralist
Weber - human beings and their relationship in social institutions were distinctively different from facts of nature, cose human beings directed their actions to each other in terms of meanings (seek to achieve an end, make choices….)
Sociology should be concerned with the actions of the individuals towards each other (social action..) : subjective understanding (understand in terms of the meaning that individuals give to it) → distinguishing feature of sociology

Societal or associetal systems formed a distinctive level of phenomena -
Collectivies - solely the resultants and modes of organization of the specific acts of individual men - they are the agents who carry out subjectively understandable action

Social collectivies - are only a certain kind of development of individuals (have no possession + explanation within the subjective understanding)
- inference that this delusion about the nature of collectives is not only a theoretical problem but also one that occurs when any reference is made to collectives in a social context