Abstract
This paper investigates how action, reflexivity and culture are interrelated in dynamic cultural processes. In what follows, I sketch out the background of the intense engagement with culture in some recent sociological literature.
Subsequently, I review Ann Swidler's conceptualization of culture and point to some limitations of her approach which, in my view, reside in the unclear status of agency. Next, Margaret Archer's work on culture and agency is discussed bringing to light both the strengths of her conception of agency and the deficiencies in her view of culture.
A revised understanding of the relation between culture and agency will then be used to propose an alternative model of "intermittently" reflexive cultural change that is suitable for studying the cultural dynamics of broad social processes in highly modern societies.