Essential Concepts in Sociology. Anthony Giddens

China. In this large-scale survey of urban planners across China, the researchers found that a mix of structural factors influenced planners’ attitudes, but they were also active agents in the planning process. Most planners expressed views in favour of gated communities, in line with the policy of their local government employers, but most of those surveyed actually lived within middle-class gated communities. Structured class position and professional status were important factors in shaping planners’ attitudes. However, the negative aspects of gating were acknowledged, and urban planners were able to amend some of the schemes with this in mind. This study illustrates how the relative influence of structure and agency can be evaluated through careful empirical research.

       References and Further Reading

      Archer, M. (2003) Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

      Bourdieu, P. (1986) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).

      Dawe, A. (1971) ‘The Two Sociologies’, British Journal of Sociology, 21(2): 207–18.

      Elias, N. ([1939] 2000) The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations (Oxford: Blackwell).

      Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society (Cambridge: Polity).

      Liao, K., Wehrhahn, W., and Breitung, W. (2019) ‘Urban Planners and the Production of Gated Communities in China: A Structure–Agency Approach’, Urban Studies, 56(13): 2635–53.

      Parker, J. (2005) Structuration (Buckingham: Open University Press).

      Swingewood, A. (2000) A Short History of Sociological Thought (3rd edn, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), esp. chapter 9.

      Van Krieken, R. (1998) Norbert Elias (London: Routledge), esp. chapter 3.

      Wrong, D. (1961) ‘The Over-Socialized Conception of Man in Modern Sociology’, American Sociological Review, 26: 183–93.