 Dear students, in this module, we are going to discuss Anthony Giddens, a postmodern theorist. Postmodern theory proposes a critical departure from the modern scientific rationality, emphasizing the subjective interpretation of reality, the fluidity of truth, and the instability of social structures. Anthony Giddens, a key contributor to this theory, challenges the binary nature of structure and agency. Giddens introduces the concept of structuring, referring to the notion that social structures are both constituted by the human agency and are the medium through which this agency is expressed. In Pakistan, the shift from traditional norms and practices towards embracing the global trends, for example, in technology adaptation can be viewed through this lens. So, basically this contestation of structure and agency has been age old, it was traditional. However, Giddens posits that the connection between the structure and agency is not of the contestation, but at the same time it has that the agency, the human agency is the medium through which this can be expressed. So, the structure and agency are simultaneously interlinked. So, Giddens' structuration theory contends that we create and recreate our social systems continuously. This idea can be seen in the evolution of various societies globally, where traditions are reinterpreted and identities reformed in response to new cultural, political, and social contexts. So, they are not in the fixity, it is not that the structure is a kind of fixity in which or through which an individual is contended or individual is limited by that structure in its affairs or in its practices or in its actions. So, according to Giddens, these are basically the fluid structures where the structure is having one identity at one time, but as the context changes the structure also changes. So, in postmodernism, Giddens emphasizes the concept of disembedding, where social systems are lifted from their local context and restructured across time and space. For example, Pakistan's democratic model contrasts with that of the Western society, although democratic models are not inborn in the Pakistani society. So, you can see that how much variation lies within that democratic process. So, Giddens also underlines the reflexivity in the postmodern society, explaining how societies self-monitor and continuously revise their structures based on new knowledge or new understanding. For instance, the global climate change movement has triggered the shifts in policies and social behaviors across various societies. So, he also talks about the concept of risk and trust in postmodern society. He contends that the increased reflexivity and disembedding in our complex modern world result in an evolution of existential risks. The example could be the risk societies took during the COVID-19 pandemic by trusting the rapidly developed vaccines. As you know, in the COVID-19, there was a rapid response required against this newly emerged disease. So, the modern societies took that risk in order to minimize the risk of COVID-19. So, as a sociological theorization, Giddens' work in postmodern theory represents a crucial departure from the classical sociological paradigms. His emphasis on dynamic co-constitutive relationship between the individual and social structures opens up a new avenue for understanding the societal change and development.