...they govern. 2. Social structures, unlike natural structures, do not exist independent of people's conceptions of what they are doing in their activity. 3. Social structures, unlike natural structures, are usually only 'relatively enduring'. The tendencies which are incorporated within them are not universal...

...do not exist independently of the agents' conceptions of what they are doing in their activity; • social structures, unlike natural structures, may...ground may not be universal in the sense of space-time variant) (quoted in Outhwaite, 1987: 53). The upshot of this is that there is a very broad church of...