For example, social action and its conditions is the very focus of critical
qualitative research (CQR) methodology and its derivates and extensions (e.g.,
the ethno-ecological approach). Core concepts of CQR include: activities
characteristic of the social site of interest; tacit understandings (i.e.,
shared norms assumed in every communicative action) reached between actors
concerning the type of interaction they will engage in; patterned activities
taking place in areas surrounding a social site that influence, and are
influenced by, the social sites they contain; social systems resulting from
external and internal influences on action that are very broadly distributed
throughout society and reproduced through patterns of activity stretching
across wide reaches of space and time; reproduction occurring when people act
consistently with respect to broadly distributed conditions; actors
conceptualized as always free, in principle, to act against such
conditions--to challenge them or transform them; social systems viewed as
human activities that have become patterned and that, in order to exist, must
be continuously reproduced.
These are all concepts borrowed from Giddens' theory of structuration (1979),
from his idea of "regionalized action" (1984), to his view of actors as
strongly "influenced" (in the case of cultural conditions) or
"enabled/constrained" (in the case of laws and economic conditions) to act in
broadly predictable ways. Conditions that enable and/or constrain action
operate externally to an actor's volition; conditions that influence action
operate internally to the actor's volition by helping to constitute his/her
values, beliefs, and personal identity. With every act, actors draw upon
cultural themes they are familiar with so that the act will support certain
values, be consistent with certain beliefs, and reclaim social identities.
There is always some degree of freedom for acting against conditions rather
than in conformity with them, but people generally make only very small
innovations when they act, and power relations are responsible for keeping
most social action within bounds.
It is indeed on this implicit sociocultural theory of human action that the
various stages of CQR rest. These stages are designed to study social action
taking place in one or more social sites, to explain this action through
examining patterned activities and social systems interrelated with the site
of interest. They also assess the subjective experiences of the site
participants and determine the significance of the activities discovered with
respect to the social system at large. Issues of power and inequality are of
paramount importance.
What do you think?
Doris.