Efforts to Overcome Dualities in Social Theory: Giddens, Bourdieu, Layder

Sociology, which is the science of the modern world, has been shaped around two important questions (issues) from the moment it was institutionalized. The first of these is what the subject of sociology should be, and the second is what should be the method to be used to obtain information about this subject. The answers to these questions have been tried to be given by thinkers who have different understandings and in this way, the foundation of sociology as a science has been attempted to be established. The first answer came from naturalistic-positivists, who had a universal scientific understanding, and who advocated that sociology should be as a universal, factual and impartial science. Those who are opposed to them and who have proposed the second answer and who have defended the idiographic (singular) conception are hermeneutics / interpreters who argue that sociology should not be a science of what is “unique” and “particular” that cannot be repeated like social incidences. From the understandings of these sides seem to be distinct and uncompromising emerged two separate sociologies. These two separate sociologies look at the same research object and produce very different results and offer different theories about social reality. This situation leads to a theoretical and methodological “mess” and eventually a big and irresolvable problem which is called sociological dualities. This study examines sociological dualities as a controversial and still existing debate whose roots go back to old times in sociology. To this end, the study will first address the dispute of dualities which is based on theoretical and methodological distinctions in relation to historical and social events. Then, it will discuss the theory of “Duality of the Structure” proposed by Antony Giddens, the concept of “habitus” by Pierre Bourdieu and finally more recent theory of “Adaptive Theory” proposed by Derek Layder as attempts to overcome the problem of dualities in terms of their theoretical similarities and differences. The current study will be concluded with the discussion of the contributions of the efforts to overcome the dualities to sociolog