• For him, activities are not produced by consciousness.
• It is rather through practices that both consciousness and structure are produced.
• Giddens is interested in practical consciousness and it is more important in
structuration theory.
• Practical consciousness involves actions that the actors take for granted, without being
able to express in words what they are doing.
• When we focus on practical consciousness, we can transit our attention from actor
(agent) to agency: The things that actors actually do.
• With the concept of agency, people became an active (not passive) character. They can
make a decision, or they are different with each other.
• People (actors) are active. But there are also constraints.
• Giddens is interested in the fact that actions often end up being different from what
was intended. He called it “unintended consequences.”
Modernity and Postmodernity
Modernity
• Modernity is the term to distinguish the “modern” society from early formation.
• There are some debates on when we enter the modern era.
• The characteristics of modernity are: industrial capitalist economies, democratic
political organization and a flexible social structure based on class.
• The implied contrasts is with agrarian feudal economies, despotic politics
(dictatorship) and rigid social structure based on lands.
• Modernity also involves the commodification and rationalization of many spheres of
life.
• Commodification indicates that people produce goods and services (commodities) to
be sold in a market rather than to satisfy their own needs.
• (cf.) It does NOT mean that people’s relationships in the modern era have become
dominated by the cash relation.
• Yet, even in modern era, unpaid voluntary and charity work still remains.