Mediating Ontological Stances in Social Sciences: Bridging the Dilemma Between Agency and Structure on Studying Social Phenomena

Abstract

With a critical consideration of Giddens’ theory of structuration, this paper set out to bridge the agency-structure dilemma by illustrating how to apply Giddens’ theory of structuration in studying crime and criminal behaviors in Ethiopia. Accordingly, the author come up with the argument that both agency and structures are the two sides of a coin that we could not separately attribute to a given social phenomena.

Keywords: Ontological Stance, Agency, Structure, Structuration, Contemporary Sociological Theory, Crime.

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-19-04

Publication date:October 31^st 2020