Structuralism

Wikipedia Aricle

Here is the top section:

"For the use of structuralism in biology, see Structuralism (biology)

Structuralism is an approach in academic disciplines that explores the relationships between fundamental elements of some kind, upon which some higher mental, linguistic, social, cultural etc. "structures" are built, through which then meaning is produced within a particular person, system, or culture.

Structuralism appeared in academic psychology for the first time in the 19th century and then reappeared in the second half of the 20th century.....The term of "structuralism" itself appeared in relation to French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss' works, and gave rise, in France, to the "structuralist movement,"..... Post-structuralism attempted to distinguish itself from the use of the structural method. Structuralism has had varying degrees of influence in the social sciences: a great deal in the field of sociology, hardly any in economics."

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I don't think the definition of structuralism here is broad enough. After all, at the very top there is a link to structuralism in biology.

"Biological or process structuralism is a school of biological thought that deals with the law-like behaviour of the structure of organisms and how it can change.

Structuralists tend to emphasise that organisms are wholes, and therefore that change in one part must necessarily take into account the inter-connected nature of the entire organism. Whilst structuralists are not necessarily anti-Darwinian, the laws of biological structure are viewed as independent and ahistorical accounts that are not necessarily tied to any particular mechanism of change. A structuralist might thus hold that Darwinian natural selection might be the driving force behind how structures change, but nevertheless be committed to an extra layer of explanation of how particular structures come into being and are maintained.

Typical structuralist concerns might be self-organisation, the idea that complex structure emerges out of the dynamic interaction of molecules, without the resultant structure having necessarily been selected for in all its details. For example, the patterning of fingerprints or the stripes of zebras might emerge through simple rules of diffusion, and the resulting unique structure need not have been selected for in its finest details. Structuralists look for very general rules that goven organisms as a whole, and not just particular narratives that explain the origin or maintenance of particular structures. The interplay between structural laws and adaptation thus govern the degree to which an adaptationist account can fully explain why a particular organism looks as it does."

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Understand that those who take a structuralist approach to biology aren't anti-darwinian one little bit, its just that natural selection isn't the only game in town. It is all interconnected. One way to look at biology is to see biology as the study of the structures of life. There is microbiology, biochemistry, ethology, sociobiology, etc.

And the same holds true for the study of matter. All of the various disciplines, the different levels, they are all interconnected. And at the extremes there are fields of study that branch out into new worlds of study- biochemistry- chains of self-replicating molecules giving rise to life as we know it. And then there is string-theory on the other extreme.

A great book which gets into all of this is called Lila: An Iquiry into Morals by Robert Pirsig, who is more well known for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.