Structuration theory is applied to produce a typology of rules and resources that community representatives could use in their activism to keep open a facility slated for closure. This typology is compared with the rules and the resources that the community representatives used during a school-closure review in Essex County, Ontario, Canada, as inferred from a computerized content analysis of 138 letters published in the local daily newspaper. The community representatives' primary authoritative resource was their knowledge about the students' education and their communities. Their primary rules were the political ones for influencing the local and the provincial politicians. This structurationist interpretation clarifies the point that their community activism with these resources and rules did not solely explain the reprieve of the schools from closure.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdlerMBondiL, 1988, “Delegation and community participation: An alternative approach to the problems created by falling primary school rolls”, in Education and Society: Studies in the Politics, Sociology and Geography of Education Eds BondiLMathewsM H, (Routledge, Chapman and Hall, London) pp 52–82
2.
BeckerF W, 1993, “The politics of closing state mental hospitals”Community Mental Health Journal29103–115
3.
BergerM A, 1983, “Why communities protest school closings”Education and Urban Society15(2) 149–163
4.
BondiL, 1987, “School closures and local politics: The negotiation of primary school rationalization in Manchester”Political Geography Quarterly6203–224
5.
BondiL, 1988, “Political participation and school closures: An investigation of bias in local authority decision making”Policy and Politics1641–54
6.
BoydW LWheatonD R, 1983, “Conflict management in declining school districts”Peabody Journal of Education60(2) 25–36
7.
BrowningJ D, 1994, “The reproduction of racial differences in educational achievement: A structurationist analysis”, in Marginalized Places and Populations: A Structurationist Agenda Eds WilsonDHuffJ O, (Praeger, New York) pp 165–176
8.
Bureau of Municipal Research, 1980School Closures: Are They the Solution?Bureau of Municipal Research, 73 Richmond Street West, #404, Toronto M5H 2A1
9.
BurnettA, 1988, “Consulting for change: The political geography of school reorganization in Portsmouth”, in Education and Society: Studies in the Politics, Sociology and Geography of Education Eds BondiLMathewsM H, (Routledge, Chapman and Hall, London) pp 19–51
10.
CarrollA B, 1987, “Management's social responsibilities”, in Deindustrialisation and Plant Closure Eds StaudoharP DBrownH E, (D C Heath, Lexington, MA) pp 167–182
11.
CohenI J, 1989Structuration Theory: Anthony Giddens and the Constitution of Social Life (Macmillan, London)
12.
CoxK R, 1988, “Urban social movements and neighborhood conflicts: Mobilization and structuration”Urban Geography8416–428
13.
CraibI, 1992Anthony Giddens (Routledge, London)
14.
EvansD, 1988, “Social interaction and conflict over residential growth: A structuration approach”, in Qualitative Methods in Human Geography Eds EylesJSmithD M, (Polity Press, Cambridge) pp 118–135
15.
FerreeM M, 1992, “The political context of rationality: Rational choice theory and resource mobilization”, in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory Eds MorrisA DMuellerC M, (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT) pp 29–52
16.
FincherRMcQuillenJ, 1989, “Women in urban social movements”Urban Geography10604–613
17.
FitzgeraldJ, 1991, “Class as community: The new dynamics of social change”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space9117–128
18.
FriedmanDMcAdamD, 1992, “Collective identity and activism: Networks, choices, and the life of a social movement”, in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory Eds MorrisA DMuellerC M, (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT) pp 156–173
19.
GiddensA, 1976New Rules of Sociological Method: A Positive Critique of Interpretive Sociologies (Harper and Row, New York)
20.
GiddensA, 1979Central Problems in Social Theory (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
21.
GiddensA, 1984The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
22.
GiddensA, 1987The Nation-state and Violence (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
23.
GiddensA, 1989, “A reply to my critics”, in Social Theory of Modern Societies: Anthony Giddens and His Critics Eds HeldDThompsonJ B, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 249–301
24.
GraysonJ P, 1986, “Plant closures and political despair”Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology23331–349
25.
GregsonN, 1986, “On duality and dualism: The case of structuration and time geography”Progress in Human Geography10184–205
26.
GregsonN, 1987, “Structuration theory: Some thoughts on the possibilities for empirical research”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space573–91
27.
GregsonN, 1989, “On the (ir)relevance of structuration theory to empirical research”, in Social Theory of Modern Societies: Anthony Giddens and His Critics Eds HeldDThompsonJ B, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 235–248
28.
HanniganJ A, 1991, “Social movement theory and the sociology of religion: Toward a new synthesis”Sociological Analysis52311–332
29.
HartS, 1996, “The cultural dimension of social movements: A theoretical reassessment and literature review”Sociology of Religion57(1) 87–100
30.
HassonSLeyD, 1994Neighbourhood Organizations and the Welfare State (University of Toronto Press, Toronto)
31.
HendersonG, 1991, “Time for lesson in democracy”The Windsor Star 9 February, page A10
32.
HoneyRSorensonD, 1984, “Jurisdictional benefits and local costs; the politics of school closings”, in Public Service Provision and Urban Development Eds KirbyAKnoxPPinchS, (Croom Helm, London) pp 114–130
33.
ILR1993, “United Kingdom: Pit closures: The death rattle of the industrial revolution”International Labour Review132299–303
34.
LawrenceA T, 1987, “Union responses to plant closure”, in Deindustrialisation and Plant Closure Eds StaudoharP DBrownH E, (D C Heath, Lexington, MA) pp 201–216
35.
LoC Y H, 1992, “Communities of challengers”, in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory Eds MorrisA DMuellerC M, (Yale University Press, New Haven, CT) pp 230–240
36.
McAdamDRuchtD, 1993, “The cross-national diffusion of movement ideas”Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science52856–74
37.
MacKayA W, 1984Education Law in Canada (Emond-Montgomery, Toronto)
38.
MartinW B WMacdonellA J, 1982Canadian Education: A Sociological Analysis2nd edition (Prentice-Hall Canada, Scarborough, Ontario)
39.
MatonK IWellsE A, 1995, “Religion as a community resource for well-being: Prevention, healing, and empowerment pathways”The Journal of Social Issues51177–193
40.
MayerJ DKohlenbergE RSiefermanG E, 1987, “Patterns of rural hospital closure in the United States”Social Science and Medicine24327–334
41.
MestrovicS G, 1998Anthony Giddens: The Last Modernist (Routledge, London)
42.
OropesaS R, 1992, “Social structure, social solidarity and involvement in neighbourhood improvement associations”Sociological Inquiry62107–118
43.
PhippsA G, 1993, “An institutional analysis of school closures in Saskatoon and Windsor”Environment and Planning A251607–1626
44.
PhippsA GAnglinP M, 1993, “A rational economic analysis of public-school closings in Saskatoon”Environment and Planning A25339–355
45.
PinchS P, 1989, “The restructuring thesis and the study of public services”Environment and Planning A21905–926
46.
PortzJ, 1990The Politics of Plant Closings (University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KA)
47.
QSR, 1997QSR NUD IST Software for Qualitative Data Analysis, Revision 4, User GuideQuantitative Solutions and Research Pty Ltd, distributed by SCOLARI, Sage Publications Software, 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
48.
RuefM, 1997, “Computational social grammar: Metatheory and methodology for exploring structurational dynamics”Current Perspectives in Social Theory17129–157
49.
SewellW H, 1992, “A theory of structure: Duality, agency and transformation”American Journal of Sociology981–29
50.
SpeerP WHugheyJGensheimerL KAdams-LeavittW, 1995, “Organizing for power: A comparative case study”Journal of Community Psychology2357–73
51.
StaehehL A, 1994, “Gender relations in urban growth policies”, in Marginalized Places and Populations: A Structurationist Agenda Eds WilsonDHuffJ O, (Praeger, Westport, CT) p 129–148
52.
StubbsJ GBarnettJ R, 1992, “The geographically uneven development of privatisation: Towards a theoretical approach”Environment and Planning A241117–1135
The Windsor Star1991, “Teachers threaten to block school transfer”, 30 January, page A1
55.
ThompsonJ B, 1989, “The theory of structuration”, in Social Theory of Modern Societies: Anthony Giddens and His Critics Eds HeldDThompsonJ B, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 56–76
56.
ThriftN, 1993, “The arts of the living, the beauty of the dead: Anxieties of being in the work of Anthony Giddens”Progress in Human Geography17111–121
57.
ZerchykovS R, 1983, “Closing schools and managing conflict: What works?”Education and Urban Society15(2) 175–188
