Man in the world of institutions: On logics and mechanisms of social construction of reality

The author treats opposting subject - structure notions as a key problem of social science; descriptions of this opposition reveal in different manners competing conceptual and methodological strategies in sociological theorizing (metodological individualism vs. holism, sociological nominalism vs. realism, subjectivism vs. objectivism etc.). Attention is paid to attempts at synthetical resolution of subject - structure∗ problem, as reflected in some sociological theories of the second half of the 20th century (social contruction of reality by P. Berger and T. Luckman, A. Gidden's structuration theory e.a.). A possible convergence of contructivist m struturalist positions is argued for as demonstrated by theoretical interpretation of societal institutions emergence from inner logic of social interaction with their subsequent autonomization.