ABSTRACT
In this chapter I want to look at what could be called the two opposite ends of Giddens’s theory: its relevance and usefulness for empirical sociological research and its possibilities as a critical social theory. The fi rst might be seen as the bread-and-butter pay-off of structuration theory, and some commentators, in particular Alan Sica (1986), suggest that the theory stands or falls on this issue. The critical status of structuration theory is something that has been Giddens’s concern since the beginning, and in fact he argues that it is not the ‘opposite’ of empirical research at all: an important dimension of the critical impetus of social theory comes through its empirical content.
