Closing Remarks: Beyond Ontology

Abstract

In the introduction to this book I said that my efforts would be directed to the clarification and explication of the ontology of social life initiated in Giddens’s writings on structuration theory. That task is now complete. But it would be misleading to leave the impression that structuration theory itself should be regarded as a fully-developed project. Giddens has given no indication that the concepts and insights which presently are incorporated in the structurationist ontology are complete as they stand. Moreover, the reception of these concepts and insights by well-informed critics leaves many issues unaddressed and others on which much remains to be said. It should be noted that Giddens harbours no illusions that his ontological lines of thought somehow will be immune from criticism. Indeed, he regards persistent disagreement about the nature of human conduct as integral not only to social theory, but to social life at large (CPST, p. 239).