ABSTRACT
In this way, Oliver Bakewell describes a perennial and enduring dilemma in the social
sciences, the relationship between structure and agency. As regards agency, John
Joseph (2006, p. 241) has termed it ‘a true paradox, not a problem that can ever be
solved once and for all’ while Donald Hall frames it as a ‘controversial topic that has
been at the centre of discussions of subjectivity for centuries, and one that will never
be put wholly to rest, even as it remains compelling’ (2004, p. 5). By contrast,
structure does not seem to draw as much attention and in a great deal of work in the
social sciences it seems that it is considered to be such an obvious backdrop to any
discussion of the social world that it merits no mention.
