Sociology is not about a 'pre-given' universe of objects, the universe is being constituted — or produced by — the active doings of subjects.
The production and reproduction of society thus has to be treated as a skilled performance on the part of its members.
The realm of human agency is bounded. Individuals produce society, but they do so as historically located actors, and not under conditions of their own choosing.
Structures must be conceptualised not only as constraints upon human agency, but also as enablers.
Processes of structuration involve an interplay of meanings, norms and power.
The sociological observer cannot make social life available as 'phenomenon' for observation independently of drawing upon his knowledge of it as a resource whereby he constitutes it as a 'topic for investigation'.
Immersion in a form of life is the necessary and only means whereby an observer is able to generate such characterisations.
Sociological concepts thus obey a double hermeneutic.
In sum, the primary tasks of sociological analysis are the following: (1) The hermeneutic explication and mediation of divergent forms of life within descriptive metalanguages of social science; (2) Explication of the production and reproduction of society as the accomplished outcome of human agency.