ABSTRACT

The problem of agency and structure is one of the central problems of social science. The problem has ontological, epistemological and methodological dimensions. At the ontological level, it concerns the units of social and individual being. Is society more than the individuals that compose it? Or is there ‘no such thing as society’ other than an aggregation of individuals? Related, often familiar, questions arise concerning epistemology (knowledge) and methodology (explanation). In the present essay we are most concerned with questions of ontology as well as methodological questions of explanation.