On the Determination of Social Action in Space and Time

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary attempt to work out what a nonfunctionalist social theory which still retains the crucial element of determination would look like. The paper is therefore arranged in the following way. A general synoptic overview of modern social theory leads to a consideration of the four major concerns of what I will call the structurationist ‘school’. I will argue that these four concerns are crucial to any nonfunctionalist Marxist social theory which must take into account not only ‘compositional’ determinations but also the ‘contextual’ determinations involved in the constitution of subjectivity. In the final section of the paper I outline a programme which is intended to show what this social theory might look like when extended to the smaller scale and to the consideration of unique events. The concerns of human geographers are integral to this programme, and this programme is integral to the concerns of human geography.