Abstract
Structuralist theories and methods have gained momentum since the late 19th century, largely owing to the exchange theory of the French anthropologist Marcel Mauss, the linguistic theories of Roman Jakobson at the Prague school of structural linguistics, and the contribution of Ferdinand de Saussure. Nonetheless, structural explanation became an integral part of analytical approaches in the social sciences only in the second half of this century, largely as a result of the contributions of the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, and the Marxism of Louis Althusser. Today, there are published studies in fields including archaeology (Clarke, 1977; Hodder, 1982), architecture (Eco, 1972, 1973, 1976; Glassie, 1975; LÜchinger, 1981), linguistics (Macksey & Donato, 1972; Sturrock, 1979), social anthropology (Leach, 1976; Lévi-Strauss, 1968), and urban sociology (Castells, 1977, 1978). This complex range of contributions cannot be considered a unified set that suggests a shared perspective and a linear development of structure theory and method. For example, although the interpretation of Lévi-Strauss owes much to Mauss and Jakobson (Badcock, 1975; Chiari, 1975), the advocates of structural Marxism reject the overriding importance which his cognitive structuralism attributes to symbolic dimensions and a synchronic perspective.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abel, C. (1980). The language analogy. Architectural Association Quarterly, 12(3), 39–47.
Badcock, C. (1975). Lévi-Strauss: Structuralism and sociological theory. London: Hutchinson.
Barthes, R. (1967). Elements of semiology. London: Jonathan Cape. (Translated from Eléments de sémiologie by A. Lavers & C. Smith. Paris: Éditions Gonthier, 1965.)
Bontà, J. (1979). Architecture and its interpretation. London: Lund Humphries.
Boudon, R. (1971). The uses of structuralism. London: Heinemann. (Translated from A quoi sert la notion de structure by M. Vaughan. Paris: Gallimard, 1968.)
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Translated from Esquisse d’une théorie de la pratique by R. Nice. Genève: Libraire Droz, 1977.)
Broadbent, G. (1980). Architectural objects and their design as a subject for semiotic studies. Design Studies, 1(4), 207–216.
Broadbent, G., Bunt, R., & Jencks, C. (Eds.) (1980a). Signs, symbols and architecture. Chichester: Wiley.
Broadbent, G., Bunt, R., & Llorens, T. (Eds.). (1980b). Meaning and behaviour in the built environment. Chichester: Wiley.
Castells, M. (1977). The urban question: A marxist approach. London: Edward Arnold. (Translated from La question urbaineby A. Sheridan. Paris: Maspero, 1972.)
Castells, M. (1978). City, class and power. London: Macmillan.
Chiari, J. (1975). Twentieth-century French thought: From Bergson to Lévi-Strauss. London: Paul Elek.
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton.
Chomsky, N. (1968). Language and mind. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Clarke, D. (Ed.) (1977). Spatial archaeology. London: Academic.
Colquhoun, A. (1981). Essays in architectural criticism: Modern architecture and historical change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Culler, J. (1973). The linguistic basis of structuralism. In D. Robey (Ed.), Structuralism: An introduction. Oxford: Clarendon.
Doxtater, D. (1984). Spadai opposition in non-discursive expression: architecture as ritual process. Canadian Journal of Anthropology, 4(1), 1–17.
Eco, U. (1972). The componential analysis of the architectural sign/column. Semiotica,5(2), 97–117.
Eco, U. (1973). Function and sign: Semiotics of architecture. In J. Bryan & R. Sauer (Eds.), Structures implicit and explicit. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Eco, U. (1976). A theory of semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Flemming, U. (1981). The secret of the case Giuliani Frigerio. Environment and Planing B, 8(1), 87–96.
Giddens, A. (1976). New rules for sociological method: A positive critique of interpretative sociologies. London: Hutchinson.
Giddens, A. (1979). Central problems in social theory: Action, structure and contradiction in social analysis. London: Macmillan.
Glassie, H. (1975). Folk housing in middle Virginia. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Gregory, D. (1978). Ideology, science and human geography. London: Hutchinson.
Gregory, D., & Urry, J. (Eds.). (1985). Social relations and spatial structures. London: Macmillan.
Groat, L. (1981). Meaning in architecture: New directions and sources. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 1(1), 73–85.
Groat, L. (1987). Recent developments in architectural theory: Implications for empirical research. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 7(1), 65–76.
Gutman, R. (Ed.). (1972). People and buildings. New York: Basic.
Harloe, M. (Ed.). (1976). Captive cities. London: Wiley.
Harvey, D. (1973). Social justice and the city. London: Edward Arnold.
Hawthorn, G. (1976). Enlightenment and despair: A history of sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hillier, B., & Hanson, J. (1984). The social logic of space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hillier, B., & Leaman, A. (1973). The man-environment paradigm and its paradoxes. Architectural Design, 63(8), 507–511.
Hillier, B., Leaman, A. Stanstall, P., & Bedford, M. (1976). Space syntax. Environment and Planning B, 3(2), 147–185.
Hindess, B., & Hirst, P. (1975). Pre-capitalist modes of production. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Hindess, B., & Hirst, P. (1977). Mode of production and social formation. London: Macmillan.
Hodder, I. (Ed.). (1982). Symbolic and structural anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jackson, P., & Smith, S. (1984). Exploring social geography. London: George Allen & Unwin.
Jencks, C., & Baird, G. (Eds.). (1969). Meaning in architecture. London: Barrie & Rockcliff.
Knox, P. (1984). Symbolism, styles, and settings: The built environment and the imperatives of urbanized capitalism. Architecture and Behaviour, 2(2), 107–122.
Krampen, M. (1979). Meaning in the urban environment. London: Pion.
Lane, M. (Ed.). (1970). Structuralism: A reader. London: Jonathon Cape.
Lavin, M. (1981). Boundaries in the built environment: Concepts and examples. Man-Environment Systems, 11(5/6), 195–206.
Lawrence, R. (1982). Domestic space and society: A cross-cultural study. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 24(1), 104–130.
Lawrence, R. (1986). Le seuil franchi: Logement populaire et vie quotidienne en Suisse romande, 1860–1960. Geneva: Georg Editeur.
Lawrence, R. (1987). Housing, dwellings and homes: Design theory, research, and practice. Chichester: Wiley.
Leach, E. (1970). Lévi-Strauss. London: Fontana.
Leach, E. (1976). Culture and communication: The logic by which symbols are connected. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leach, E. (1978). Does space syntax really "constitute the sodar’? In D. Green, C. Haselgrove, & M. Spriggs (Eds.), Social organisation and settlement: Contributions from anthropology, archaeology and geography. Oxford: BAR International Series (Supplementary No. 47).
Lebas, E. (1982). Urban and regional sociology in advanced industrial societies: A decade of Marxist and critical perspectives. Current Sociology, 30 (Whole No. 1).
Lefebvre, H. (1972). La pensée marxiste et la ville. Paris: Casterman.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1968). Structural anthropology. London: Allen Lane. (Translated from Anthropologie structurale by C. Jacobsen and B. Schoepf. Paris: Plön, 1958.)
Lüchinger, A. (1981). Structuralism in architecture and urban planning.Stuttgart: Karl Krämer Verlag. (Three-langauge edition.)
Lyons, J. (1973). Structuralism and linguistics. In D. Robey (Ed.), Structuralism: An introduction. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Macksey, R., & Donato, E. (Eds.). (1972). The structuralist controversy: The languages of criticism and the sciences of man. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Malinowski, B. (1929). The sexual life of savages in northwestern Melanesia: An ethnographic account of courtship, marriage, and family life among the natives of the Trobriand Islands, British New Guinea. London: Routledge.
Markus, T. (1987). Buildings as classifying devices. Environment and Planning B, 14(4), 467–484.
Necipoglu, G. (1981). Book review of G. Broadbent et al. Signs, symbols and architecture. (Chichester: Wiley, 1980).
Necipoglu, G. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 40(3), 259–260.
Piaget, J. (1971). Structuralism. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Translated from Le Structuralisme by C. Maschler. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1968.)
Preziosi, D. (1979). The semiotics of the built environment: An introduction to architectonic analysis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Rapoport, A. (1977). Human aspects of urban form: Towards a man-environment approach to urban form and design. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Rapoport, A. (1982). The meaning of the built environment: A nonverbal communication approach. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications.
Robey, D. (Ed.). (1973). Structuralism: An introduction. Oxford: Clarendon.
Sanders, D. (1986). Behavioral conventions and archaeology: Methods for the analysis of ancient architecture. Unpublished manuscript.
Saussure, F. de (1974). Course in general linguistics. Glasgow: William Collins. (Translated from Cours de linguistique générale by W. Baskin. Lausanne: Payot, 1916.)
Soja, E. (1980).The socio-spatial dialectic Annals of the Association of American Geographers’, 70(2), 207–225.
Soja, E. (1985). The spatiality of social life: Towards a transformative retheorisation. In D. Gregory & J. Urry (Eds.), Social relations and spatial structures. London: Macmillan.
Stiny, G., & Mitchell, W. (1978a). Counting Palladian plans. Environment and Planning B, 5(2), 189–198.
Stiny, G., & Mitchell, W. (1978b). The Palladian grammar. Environment and Planning B, 5(1), 5–18.
Sturrock, J. (Ed.). (1979). Structuralism and since: From Lévi-Strauss to Derrida. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tilley, C. (1982). Social formation, social structures and social change. In I. Hodder (Ed.), Symbolic and structural archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1989 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lawrence, R.J. (1989). Structuralist Theories in Environment — Behavior — Design Research. In: Zube, E.H., Moore, G.T. (eds) Advance in Environment, Behavior, and Design. Advances in Environment, Behavior, and Design, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0717-4_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0717-4_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8047-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-0717-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive