Social Structure argues for the importance of social structure to analysis within the discipline of sociology. This book provides a thorough introduction to the idea of social structure, laying out the range of difficult issues which arise in analysing social structure. It examines the meanings of the term, the history of its usage within sociology and looks at the more recent developments in thinking on social structure. It sketches a synoptic model for analysing social structures showing how its disparate elements might each be studied using a 'toolkit' of approaches and conceptual resources to analyse particular aspects of social structure.