Different Sociological Perspectives on the Issue of Agent and Structure.

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Abstract

Generally, there are four approaches to social
phenomena in soial sciences: the agent-based approach,
the structural approach, the functional approach, and
the critical realistic approach. These approachs, with
respect to their specific interpretation of social
phenomena, concentrate on the behavior of agents or on
the structural charctristics or on both to arriv at
explanations. This article is to study the ontological basis
and the weak and strong points of these four
approaches.