3: Institutions, Practices, and Formational Structure

I have argued that social structure must be seen as comprising two distinct levels. There is, first, the surface structure of interactions and relations among actors. This I refer to as the figurational structure of an interaction order. Second, however, there is the deep structure of ‘underlying’ relations among categories of actors that I refer to as the formational structure. I have shown how an interaction order is sustained by the ongoing assembly work performed by actors as they produce, reproduce, and transform its figurational structure, and I have shown that this surface structure can usefully be analysed by mathematical methods that treat it as a social network of recurring relations among actors. In this chapter, I shall show that the formational structure underpinning an interaction order does not exist separately and apart from the figuration, but is integral to it. It is produced, reproduced, and transformed by the very same actions that constitute the interaction order. Like the figurational structure, it is both an outcome of and condition for that ongoing social action.