The Notion of the Social as a Problem for Integrative Paradigms

This article presents a study on the problem of the social and the problem of the structure - agency. The main research question is related to the potential of integrative paradigms in solving the indicated problems. The relevance of the research is connected with the need to clarify the status of the concept of the social for modern sociology. One of the results of the second sociological crisis of the 1960s-70s was the emergence of theories that can be attributed to the integrative wing. N. Luhmann, A. Giddens, M. Archer, J. Habermas, P. Bourdieu, B. Latour proposed their original designs and, thus, opened a new stage in the development of sociology. However, their theories faced certain difficulties. The first was the problem of structure - agency, which was solved either by the author's position of holism or nominalism. The limitations of these polar approaches had to be solved in various ways, but with the help of a single idea of the interdependence of macro- and micro-levels. Another problem inherited from the predecessors was the absence of any concrete concept of the social. Each of the listed theorists described it in his own way. A comparative analysis was chosen as a method, since it allows to make a sufficiently detailed study of the problem of the research. Criteria for comparison were the attitude of the authors to the problem of structure - agency and the authors' characteristics of the social. As a result of the comparative analysis, both similarities and differences of the selected theories according to the relevant criteria have been identified. Not only the authors' final formulations on the issues of interest have been recorded, but also the processes of their generation. A number of restrictions the authors faced have been identified. The author of the article has found that the single premise of the interdependence of structure and agency, which all the authors share to one degree or another, was, in some cases, difficult to integrate into their theories. In some cases, e.g., with Latour or Bourdieu, there are clear concessions that the authors had to make in order to meet the requirements of the integrative paradigm. However, on the basis of the comparative analysis, four main trends in the definition of the social have been identified: (1) change of the focus from the question of what the social is to the question of how we can fix it; (2) the emergence/identity of the social in relation to social relations; (3) autonomy/dependence of the social from the rest of the elements of analysis; (4) stability/variability of the social in time (and space). These trends, in the author's opinion, are decisive in characterizing the concept of the social in modern sociology, since their comparison with the basic ideas of the theory and with the requirements of the integrative paradigm will allow to characterize the social in a dynamically developing society more effectively.

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