ABSTRACT
Giddens argues that a comprehensive explanation must include three dimensions: action (what the people being studied believe they are doing and why they are doing it), unintended consequences of action (consequences that ‘escaped’ the knowledge of goals of the people [agents]), and unacknowledged conditions (resources that made the action possible but were not acknowledged in the actors’ accounts).A terminological note is in order – I am using people, agents and actors as synonymous terms that presuppose linguistically competent human beings.
