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

This movement has had important repercussions at a theoretical and practical level in disciplines such as linguistics, sociology, anthropology and philosophy. We will now review 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 socio-cultural system there is a series of structures (forms of organization) that condition or determine everything that happens within that system.

Thus, what Structuralism studies specifically are those structures, however, from this it becomes inevitable to analyze the connection between them, that is, the how they shape different socio-cultural 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 emphasizes the structures underlying a phenomenon, and their relationships. That is, any school of social science that has order rather than action as its priority can be considered structuralist (Theodore 2018).

Although many of its contributions are quite complex, we can summarize three ideas that help us understand some key approaches to Structuralism applied in 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 (structures) are what produce meaning in human, social and cultural activity ; with which, 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, is determined by language understood as an “order of the symbolic” . It argues that the different cultures, the behaviors, the myths and the linguistic schemes that characterize them, reveal patterns common to human life.

2. This structure determines the position of each element

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

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

3. Structures are what lies beneath the surface

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

That is to say, Structuralism as an interpretative method tries to pay attention to 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 they are elements that acquire significance.

So, it is the process of acquiring significance 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 .

The latter even moved towards understanding individual experience. For this reason, structuralism was also positioned as a reaction to phenomenology, since it considers that profound experiences are nothing more than an effect of structures that are not in themselves experiential.

Some key authors

One of the most important antecedents for the development of Structuralism is Ferdinand de Saussure, father of semiotics , since as we have seen, Structuralism takes up again a great part of its postulates to understand human activity.

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

More recently, and in a thin line between structuralism and poststructuralism, and even after having denied their attachment to these movements, the philosophers Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida , as well as the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, stand out.

Reductionist bias and other criticisms

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

In relation to the above, the Argentine epistemologist Mario Bunge, says that structures are in themselves sets of relationships , they do not exist without this, so, 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.

Bibliographic 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 May 11. Available at https://www.philosophybasics.com/movements_structuralism.html.
  • Anda, C. (2004) Introduction to the social sciences. Limusa: Mexico.
  • Bunge, M. (1996). Searching for philosophy in the social sciences. Siglo XXI: Argentina.