Structuration Theory

Similarities

Anthony Giddens focuses his ontology on exploring the relationship that the knowledgeable actor has with the structure. He also points out that the modalities of structure have two functions for the agency; facilitating resources and constraining rules. Pierre Bourdieu accomplishes a similar dichotomy between what he terms the habitus and field.

Similarities between the two theorists can also be made by their rejection of Karl Marx view that society can only be analyzed by the economic classes which one associates with.

Differences While Bourdieu has his focus on the existence and differences between personal tastes, Giddens is more interested in understanding how the structure and agency exist together.

Language is another point of departure for the two by the way they use it to understand the relationships between humans and their environment. For Giddens, language is used as a something that exist apart from humans in time and space but is drawn upon through system of interaction. In this respect language is seen as the structure that humans use to communicate.