ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to pursue my argument about Giddens’s conception of structures, in particular in relation to ontological depth and the ontologically variegated nature of the social world. I will do so in three ways: fi rst by looking at the ‘internal’ problems of conceiving of rules as structures and vice versa; secondly by collating a range of criticisms which seem to me to amount to saying that he should have a conception of structure separate from that of agency and action, re-introducing the dualism he is attempting to transcend; and fi nally by looking at his solution to what I will call, rather loosely, ‘the problem of order’, since it is often the case that theoretically the existence of social order is attached to the existence of systems or structures with emergent properties. In this last respect, I want to explore critically what he is doing with his conceptions of time and space.
