ABSTRACT
Of the sociological theories that have exercised influence in translation and interpreting studies, the work of Anthony. The development of structuration theory marks an attempt to address the gap between “action theory and institutional analysis”. Giddens proposes the concept of the duality of structure to bridge this gap by promoting agents in institutional analysis as capable and knowledgeable actors and by emphasizing temporal and spatial elements commonly encountered in structured social action. In making a distinction between Giddens and Bourdieu and their respective theoretical approaches to social reproduction, Wacquant asserts that Giddens chiefly focuses on “issues of social ontology and conceptualization”, whereas Bourdieu’s theoretical focus “has always been a desire to grapple with new empirical objects”. Van Rooyen is one of the few scholars in translation studies to have directly applied structuration theory in her study of the role of agents and agency in news translation.
