Podvoyskiy D.G. Normative social morphogenesis and the opposition «agency – structure»: from individual to institutions and back

Abstract

Sociological theory at any stage of development requires permanent reflection and comprehension of its own conceptual basis including its terminological axiomatic, which incorporates both the antinomy of «subject (action, agency) and structure» and the concepts of order, norms and rules, standards, cultural patterns and values, institutions, social control, power, conformism, deviation etc. Conceptual descriptions of the opposition «agency ‑ structure», the problems of social order and mechanisms of normative and institutional «morphogenesis» traditionally act as one of the main axes of development of sociological theory, and their critical analysis and comparison serve to clarify the general methodological basis of social knowledge as a whole and to highlight the fundamental demarcation lines between different schools and trends of sociological thought. In this article we attempt to carry out preliminary reconstruction and revision of the general argument field which is used in social theory to explain how normative orders originate from the internal logic of processes of social interaction that take place at different levels, including the level of everyday life. In accordance with the author’s goal, the article aims to assist in producing a clear and prominent vision of the issues connected to the dualism of agency ‑ structure in social relations, as well as the normative, «rule-oriented» nature of the latter.