Structure, Agency and Ideology: A Response to Zeba Crook
Responding to Zeba Crook’s essay on ‘structure’ and ‘agency’, and his critical remarks on my Ethnography of the Gospel of Matthew, this article first addresses Crook’s criticisms of my work, arguing that it is not rightly characterized as an ‘all agency’ approach. It then discusses Crook’s own propo...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage
2007
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| In: |
Journal for the study of the New Testament
Year: 2007, Volume: 29, Issue: 3, Pages: 277-286 |
| Further subjects: | B
Agency
B Ideology B Models B Structure |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Responding to Zeba Crook’s essay on ‘structure’ and ‘agency’, and his critical remarks on my Ethnography of the Gospel of Matthew, this article first addresses Crook’s criticisms of my work, arguing that it is not rightly characterized as an ‘all agency’ approach. It then discusses Crook’s own proposals concerning the different ratios of agency and structure in different cultures. My response argues that all cultures involve agency, and all cultures involve agents acting in structured ways, and that a better focus might be on the importance of hierarchy, power and ideology within social structures, since the ability of individuals to exercise transformative agency depends on their position. Literature, as I argued in my Ethnography, provides a significant way in which the marginal or weak can exercise a form of agency, as is the case within Matthew’s specifically constructed literary world. |
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| ISSN: | 1745-5294 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of the New Testament
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/0142064X07076308 |