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a perennial puzzle for sociologists: What are the relative strengths of social structure and human agency? Is structure, with institutionalized power relationships, more influential in behavior than is human agency, the will and commitment to challenge injustices imposed by structure? Can structure crush agency? Can agency transform structure? Yes and yes.
And ultimately, the puzzle of structure and agency brings one back to the risk society and to democracy. A basic democratic right is that citizens participate in decision-making processes that affect their lives. But the risk society curtails that right by restricting access to information. Citizens can neither assess specific risks in order to make informed decisions about where they work and live nor protect themselves from the risks they cannot avoid.
Can democracy thrive in the risk society? Is this nation a democracy?
Ask the residents of Hickory Woods.
Sherry Cable,
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies,
Department of Sociology,
The University of Tennessee