Anthony Giddens

Anthony Giddens was born in 1938 in Edmonton, London. He continued his studies at the University of Hull and the London School of Economics and received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge. Giddens taught for many years at Cambridge and then served as director of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) from 1997 to 2003. He also played an important role as an intellectual adviser to Tony Blair and centre-left movements in shaping political priorities in Britain and Europe in the 1990s.

Giddens’s main intellectual achievement in social theory is the formulation of “structuration theory” in his important book The Constitution of Society (1984). In this theory he sought to overcome the traditional sociological dualism between “agency” (the human actor) and “structure” (social systems). Giddens argued that structures and human actions are two sides of the same coin: social structures are produced and reproduced by human actions while at the same time enabling those actions.

Another part of Giddens’s thought is devoted to the transformations of late modernity. In books such as The Consequences of Modernity and Modernity and Self-Identity he shows that contemporary society is a “reflexive” society in which individuals constantly review their information and beliefs. He also introduced the concept of the “Third Way,” a theoretical attempt to create a balanced reconnection between traditional social democracy and free-market liberalism. Giddens’s works have been translated into dozens of languages and rank among the principal references of modern sociology.