Editing Structuration theory (section)

=== Cycle of structuration ===
The duality of structure is essentially a [[feedback]]–[[Feed forward (control)|feedforward]]{{clarify|date=May 2012}} process whereby agents and structures mutually enact social systems, and social systems in turn become part of that duality.{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} Structuration thus recognizes a social cycle. In examining social systems, structuration theory examines ''structure'', ''[[Modalities (sociology)|modality]]'', and ''interaction''. The "modality" (discussed below) of a structural system is the means by which structures are translated into actions.

==== Interaction ====
Interaction is the agent's activity within the social system, space and time. "It can be understood as the fitful yet routinized occurrence of encounters, fading away in time and space, yet constantly reconstituted within different areas of time-space."<ref name="The constitution of society" />{{rp|86}} [[Unspoken rule|Rule]]s can affect interaction, as originally suggested by [[Goffman]]. "Frames" are "clusters of rules which help to constitute and regulate activities, defining them as activities of a certain sort and as subject to a given range of sanctions."<ref name="The constitution of society" />{{rp|87}} Frames are necessary for agents to feel "ontological security, the trust that everyday actions have some degree of predictability. Whenever individuals interact in a specific context they address—without any difficulty and in many cases without conscious acknowledgement—the question: "What is going on here?" Framing is the practice by which agents make sense of what they are doing.<ref name="The constitution of society" />

==== Routinization ====
Structuration theory is centrally concerned with ''order'' as "the transcending of time and space in human social relationships".<ref name="The constitution of society"/> ''[[Institutionalization#Institutionalization|Institutionalized]] action'' and ''routinization'' are foundational in the establishment of social order and the reproduction of social systems. Routine persists in society, even during social and political revolutions, where daily life is greatly deformed, "as Bettelheim demonstrates so well, routines, including those of an obnoxious sort, are re-established."<ref name="The constitution of society" />{{rp|87}} Routine interactions become institutionalized features of social systems via tradition, custom and/or habit, but this is no easy societal task and it "is a major error to suppose that these phenomena need no explanation. On the contrary, as [[Goffman]] (together with [[ethnomethodology]]) has helped to demonstrate, the routinized character of most social activity is something that has to be 'worked at' continually by those who sustain it in their day-to-day conduct."<ref name="The constitution of society" /> Therefore, routinized social practices do not stem from coincidence, "but the skilled accomplishments of knowledgeable agents."<ref name="Structuration theory" />{{rp|26}}<!--this reads as though Bettelheim (routines are durable) contradicts Goffman (routines have to be "worked at"-->

''Trust'' and ''tact'' are essential for the existence of a "basic security system, the sustaining (in ''praxis'') of a sense of ontological security, and [thus] the routine nature of social reproduction which agents skilfully organize. The monitoring of the body, the control and use of face in '[[facework|face work]]'—these are fundamental to social integration in time and space."<ref name="The constitution of society" />{{rp|86}}

==== Explanation ====
{{Blockquote|When I utter a sentence I draw upon various syntactical rules (sedimented in my practical consciousness of the language) in order to do so. These structural features of the language are the medium whereby I generate the utterance. But in producing a syntactically correct utterance I simultaneously contribute to the reproduction of the language as a whole. ...The relation between moment and totality for social theory... [involves] a dialectic of presence and absence which ties the most minor or trivial forms of social action to structural properties of the overall society, and to the coalescence of institutions over long stretches of historical time.<ref name="The constitution of society" />{{rp|24}}}}
Thus, even the smallest social actions contribute to the alteration or reproduction of social systems. Social stability and order is not permanent; agents always possess a ''[[dialectic]] of control'' (discussed below) which allows them to break away from normative actions. Depending on the social factors present, agents may cause shifts in social structure.

The cycle of structuration is not a defined sequence; it is rarely a direct succession of causal events. Structures and agents are both internal and external to each other, mingling, interrupting, and continually changing each other as feedbacks and feedforwards occur. Giddens stated, "The degree of "[[systemness]]" is very variable. ...I take it to be one of the main features of structuration theory that the extension and 'closure' of societies across space and time is regarded as problematic."<ref name="The constitution of society" />{{rp|165}}

The use of "patriot" in political speech reflects this mingling, borrowing from and contributing to nationalistic norms and supports structures such as a [[police state]], from which it in turn gains impact.