Structuralism: what is it and what are its key ideas?

This is one of the most influential theoretical currents in the social sciences of the 20th century.

Structuralism is a theoretical movement that began in France in the mid-1960s, especially in the human sciences. in the mid-1960s, especially in the area of human and social sciences. The works grouped under the name of "Structuralism" are characterized by the consideration that language has a key role in the development of human activity and its functions.

This movement has had important theoretical and practical repercussions in disciplines such as linguistics, sociology, anthropology and philosophy. The following is a review of the main ideas of Structuralism and how it has impacted the social sciences.

What is Structuralism?

Structuralism is a theoretical and methodological approach that states that in every sociocultural system there is a series of structures (forms of organization) that condition or determine everything that occurs within that system.

Thus, what Structuralism studies specifically are those structures, however, from this it becomes inevitable to analyze the connection between them, i.e., how they shape different sociocultural systems. how they shape different sociocultural systems and human activity..

Language as structure

Although Structuralism is a movement that has a more or less specific history, the term "structuralist" can be applied to any analysis that has as its emphasis the underlying structures of a phenomenon, and their relationships. That is, it can be considered as structuralist any school of the social sciences that has as its priority order rather than action (Theodore 2018).

Although many of his contributions are quite complex, we can summarize three ideas that help us to understand some key approaches to Structuralism as applied to the social sciences.

1. Every system is composed of structures

A structure is a way of organizing the parts of a whole, including all its relationships. For Structuralism, these modes of organization (the structures) are what produce meaning in the activity of social science. are what produce meaning in human, social and cultural activity.Thus, their properties are fundamentally linguistic.

In other words, structures are the set of symbols through which we create meaning. They are the set of signifiers with which we interpret the world and relate to it.

Hence, for Structuralism, all reality has a symbolic nature, that is to say, is determined by language understood as an "order of the symbolic".. He argues that different cultures, behaviors, myths and linguistic schemes that characterize them, reveal common patterns in human life.

2. That structure determines the position occupied by each element

From the previous point we derive the idea that all human activity, as well as its functions (including cognition, behavior and culture itself), are constructions, since they are are mediated by symbols. That is, they are not natural elements, and what is more: they do not have meanings by themselves, but only have meaning within the language system where they are found.

In other words, instead of us speaking a language, it is language that speaks to us (it determines how we will understand and act in the world). Therefore, Structuralism is related in an important way with semiotics (the study of signs, symbols, communication and the creation of meaning).

3. Structures are what lies beneath the apparent.

If through social science research we understand structures, then we will also understand why or how a given human and sociocultural activity occurs.

In other words, Structuralism as an interpretative method tries to pay attention to the internal structures of cultural elements, or rather, it tries to understand the internal structures of cultural elements.or rather, it tries to understand the structures that delimit or make possible the existence of such elements.

Society and culture are not simply a set of physical elements, nor are they events with their own meaning, but rather they are elements that acquire significance.

Thus, it is the process of acquiring meaning that we must understand when doing social science research. Thus, Structuralism marks an important methodological distinction between the natural sciences and the human and social sciences. an important methodological distinction between the natural sciences and the human and social sciences..

The latter was even transferred to the understanding of individual experience. Thus, structuralism also positioned itself as a reaction to phenomenology, since it considers that deep experiences are nothing but an effect of structures that are not themselves experiential.

Some key authors

One of the most important antecedents for the development of Structuralism is Ferdinand de Saussure, the father of semioticsAs we have seen, Structuralism takes up many of his postulates to understand human activity.

However, the work of French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, psychologist Jean Piaget, linguistic philosopher Noam Chomsky, linguist Roman Jakobson, Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, literary philosopher Roland Barthes, among others, are considered recent pioneers of Structuralism.

More recently, and on a thin line between structuralism and post-structuralism, and even after having denied their ascription to these movements, the philosophers Michel Foucault and Jacques Derridaas well as the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

Reductionist bias and other criticisms

Structuralism has been criticized because by considering that structures determine human life, it often leaves aside autonomy and the possibility of individual agency. In other words, it can fall into reductionist and deterministic positions on human activity or experience.

Related to the above, the Argentine epistemologist Mario Bunge, says that structures are in themselves sets of relationsThey do not exist without this, therefore, they cannot be studied as elements in themselves.

Being properties of objects, structures always belong to a system and cannot be studied separately from that system or the individual, as an entity with its own existence.

Bibliographical references:

• Culler, J. (2018). Structuralism. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Thematic. DOI 0.4324/9780415249126-N055-1.
• Theodore, S. (2018). Structuralism in social science. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Thematic. DOI 10.4324/9780415249126-R036-1.
• The Basics of Philosophy. (2008-2018). Structuralism. The Basics of Philosophy. Retrieved 11 May. Available at https://www.philosophybasics.com/movements_structuralism.html.
• Anda, C. (2004) Introducción a las ciencias sociales. Limusa: Mexico.
• Bunge, M. (1996). Searching for philosophy in the social sciences. Siglo XXI: Argentina.