Realist social theory : the morphogenetic approach
TL;DR: The Morphogenetic Cycle: the basis of the morphogenetic approach 7. Structural and cultural conditioning 8. The morphogenesis of agency 9. Social elaboration.
Abstract: Building on her seminal contribution to social theory in Culture and Agency, in this 1995 book Margaret Archer develops her morphogenetic approach, applying it to the problem of structure and agency. Since structure and agency constitute different levels of stratified social reality, each possesses distinctive emergent properties which are real and causally efficacious but irreducible to one another. The problem, therefore, is shown to be how to link the two rather than conflate them, as has been common theoretical practice. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world. The morphogenetic approach is the sociological complement of transcendental realism, and together they provide a basis for non-conflationary theorizing which is also of direct utility to the practising social analyst.
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TL;DR: In this paper, a review and classification of entrepreneurial social capital studies according to the following approaches is presented: objectivist (positivist-realist, structuralist) and subjectivist (social constructionist).
Abstract: Purpose
– While there is a large volume of entrepreneurial social capital research, the philosophical assumptions have received limited attention. The purpose of this paper is to review and classify entrepreneurial social capital studies according to the following approaches – objectivist (positivist-realist, structuralist) and subjectivist (social constructionist). There is a neglect of structure and agency, and the authors encourage a critical realist approach that permits an understanding of observable network structure, constraint-order and human agency as a dynamic system.
Design/methodology/approach
– The ontological and epistemological assumptions, and associated strengths and weaknesses of objectivist (positivist-realist, structuralist) and subjectivist (social constructionist) entrepreneurial social capital studies are discussed. The case for a more progressive critical realist approach is developed.
Findings
– The authors demonstrate that objectivist (positivist-realist, structuralist) research with findings bereft of situated meaning and agency dominates. The emergence of subjectivist research – narratively examining different network situations from the perspective of those embedded in networks – is an emerging and competing approach. This dualism is unlikely to comprehensively understand the complex system-level properties of social capital. Future research should adopt critical realism and fuse: objective data to demonstrate the material aspects of network structures and what structural social capital exists in particular settings; and subjective data that enhances an understanding of situated meaning, agency and intention in a network.
Originality/value
– This paper contributes a review of entrepreneurial social capital research and philosophical foundations. The development of a critical realist approach to understanding social capital gestation permits a system-level analysis of network structure influencing conduct, and agency.
41 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop and test the social mapping hypothesis that the neurophysiology of dreaming may have been a preadaptation for the evolution of hominid con- sciousness.
Abstract: This article develops and tests the social mapping hypothesis, namely, that the neurophysiology of dreaming may have been a preadaptation for the evolution of hominid con- sciousness. Dreaming locates the dreamer in emotionally salient social space, a trait possibly derivedfrom hippocampal spatial mapping. This skill in self-imaging and location can be corre- lated with the broader social brain hypothesis. Dreaming is thus expected to share significantfeatures with consciousness, sym- bolization, and cognitive mechanisms pertaining to culture; and it is shown to do so. Rival models of consciousness and dream function are compared and assessed, and Flanagan's as- sertion that dreaming is epiphenomenal is challenged.
41 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse how grand strategy-makers operate within given social contexts, which they define in terms of, on the one hand, elite networks within which these actors are embedded, and on the other hand, the international structural context in which the US is positioned.
Abstract: This article seeks to explain both the continuity and the changes in US grand strategy since the end of the Cold War by adopting a critical political economy approach that focuses on the social origins of grand strategy-making. Systematically seeking to link agency and structure, we analyse how grand strategy-makers operate within given social contexts, which we define in terms of, on the one hand, elite networks within which these actors are embedded, and, on the other hand, the international structural context in which the US is positioned. After reviewing the grand strategies as pursued by the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, and relating them to the structural context in which they evolved, we proceed by offering a Social Network Analysis in which we compare the networks of key officials of the three administrations in terms of: (1) their corporate affiliations, and (2) their affiliations to so-called policy-planning institutions. On this basis we argue that the continuities of post-Cold War US grand strategy � which we interpret as reproducing America�s long-standing �Open Door� imperialism � can be explained in terms of the continuing dominance of the most transnationally oriented sections of US capital. Second, we show that, this continuity notwithstanding, there is significant variation in terms of the means by which this grand strategy is reproduced, and argue that we must explain these variations not only in terms of the continuously changing global context, but also as related to some significant differences in affiliation with the policy-planning network.
41 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it is shown that change is central to critical realism yet there has been little theoretical explication on the temporal dimension and that this oversight results in Archer's morphogenetic approach employi
Abstract: Change is central to critical realism yet there has been little theoretical explication on the temporal dimension It is shown that this oversight results in Archer's morphogenetic approach employi
41 citations
TL;DR: The normative configuration as discussed by the authors is an arrangement of ongoing, interacting practices establishing action-specific regulation, value-orientation, and avenues of contestation in relational social life, and it can be seen as a way of conceptualizing and analyzing normativity consistent with these alternative approaches.
Abstract: Normativity matters in international politics, but IR scholarship will benefit from de-reifying ‘norms’ as units into a relational, configurational alternative. The alternative I propose here is the ‘normative configuration’: an arrangement of ongoing, interacting practices establishing action-specific regulation, value-orientation, and avenues of contestation. This responds to recent constructivist scholarship, particularly from relational sociology and practice theory, that implies the need for ontological and analytical alternatives to ‘norms’ as central concepts responsible for establishing rules, institutions, and values in social life. I offer a way of conceptualizing and analyzing normativity consistent with these alternative approaches. Namely, I have brought together a pragmatist theory of action with the social theories of a number of key relational social theorists and philosophers, oriented around a reading of what norms-talk actually does for social enquiry. I then outline a three stage process – de-reification, attributing agency, and tracing transactions – that allows scholars to study transformations in normative configurations. Finally, I discuss what this contributes to the recent turns toward practices and relations, as the latest direction in constructivist scholarship within the discipline.
41 citations