Social Management Using the Structurationist Lens
Keywords:
Gestão Social, Teoria da Estruturação, Práticas sociais, Sistema Deliberativo, Dualidade da estruturaAbstract
Social Management, as a field of study and as a social practice, has sought to be consolidated as a type of non-governmental public management in which society is the protagonist. Most studies in the field are based on critical perspective, particularly in Habermas’s theory of communicative action. It is our goal to indicate a new avenue for theoretical analysis of Social Management, based on Structuration Theory, proposed by British sociologist Anthony Giddens. Having among its main assumptions the duality of structure (the structure is, at the same time, the means and the result of the action) and the recognition of human action as intentional, reflexive and cognitive, it is understood that the structurationist perspective provides consistent support for the understanding of Social Management practices, especially with regard to the process of structuraction of deliberative system and conformation of the public sphere, the theoretical bases that support Social Management. In order to enable this new approach, this paper proposes a theoretical framework that incorporates Mansbridge’s (1999) deliberative system in Whittington’s (1992) structurationist multidimensional model of social systems. Within this framework, and similar to what has been established by Whittington (1992) for the other social systems, basic rules and resources (the structural properties in Giddens' perspective) for the deliberative system have been defined – argumentative deliberation and dialogic participation, respectively. The framework also suggests that these properties are both means and outcomes of social management practices (understood as dialogic managerial action), configuring the central idea of the Structuration Theory: the concept of duality of structure. With his framework, Whittington (1992) believes that he is “putting Giddens into action,” contributing to the use of the Structuration Theory in empirical research, and not restricting it to ontological discussions of a broader scope. With the addition of a deliberative system to this model, we expect to be contributing to the consolidation of Social Management, establishing a fruitful theoretical interface with the Structuration Theory.
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