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MonographDOI

Realist social theory : the morphogenetic approach

01 Sep 1997-Social Forces (Cambridge University Press)-Vol. 22, Iss: 1, pp 335
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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors compare and contrast critical realism with grounded theory, extended case method and the pragmatist method of abduction and argue that critical realism makes a significant contribution to causal explanation in ethnographic research in three ways: 1) linking structure to agency; 2) by accounting for the contingent, conjunctural nature of causality; and 3) by using surprising empirical findings to generate new theory.
Abstract: Critical realism is a philosophy of science, which has made significant contributions to epistemic debates within sociology. And yet, its contributions to ethnographic explanation have yet to be fully elaborated. Drawing on ethnographic data on the health-seeking behavior of HIV-infected South Africans, the paper compares and contrasts critical realism with grounded theory, extended case method and the pragmatist method of abduction. In so doing, it argues that critical realism makes a significant contribution to causal explanation in ethnographic research in three ways: 1) by linking structure to agency; 2) by accounting for the contingent, conjunctural nature of causality; and 3) by using surprising empirical findings to generate new theory. The paper develops the AART (abduction, abstraction, retroduction, testing) research schema and illustrates its strengths by employing a Bourdieusian field analysis as a model for morphogenetic explanation.

28 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a modified Penrosian framework, combined with a qualified application of critical realist practices, is proposed to contribute to more coherent and insightful theorizing in this area.
Abstract: This article examines the challenge of modifying orthodox ‘case study’ approaches to the growth of firms and interorganizational networks in the light of recent work on the evolution of business knowledge.We suggest that a modified Penrosian framework, combined with a qualified application of critical realist practices, could contribute to more coherent and insightful theorizing in this area.We begin with a critique of Edith Penrose’s legacy, including her efforts to initiate a historically informed tradition of social scientific research on the growth of the firm.We go on to consider the explanatory potential of critical realism, when adopted as a methodological adjunct to neo-Penrosian theorizing. Our main proposition is illustrated through a superfactual reinterpretation of certain aspects of the historical case study of the Rover Company (1896–1982) conducted by Richard Whipp and Peter Clark (1986).

27 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The study develops a mechanism-based explanation of the digitalization process drawing on Archer's morphogenetic approach, and identifies four generative mechanisms of HMIS digitalization: projectification, informatization, embedded inscription and scaling.

27 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the experiences of women school principals in their mid-career stage and explores what happens to women principals' managerial styles after several years in the career, and whether the managerial styles change or stay consistent throughout the career.
Abstract: The current article outlines the experiences of women school principals in their mid-career stage and explores what happens to women principals' managerial styles after several years in the career, and whether the managerial styles change or stay consistent throughout the career. Through the inductive analysis of life stories data, the study revealed that 13 women principals experienced cross-gender transition in relation to their managerial styles, whereas 12 did not change their managerial styles at all. The results show that women principals may undergo a change from 'masculine' to 'feminine' managerial styles or vice versa in their mid-career change. The practical implications of our results are discussed in the article.

27 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors evaluate whether the theory of effectuation provides a powerful causal explanation of the process of new venture creation and conclude that effectuation's contribution to entrepreneurship scholarship is more limited than its advocates claim.
Abstract: We evaluate whether the theory of effectuation provides – or could provide – a powerful causal explanation of the process of new venture creation. We do this by conducting an analysis of the principal concepts introduced by effectuation theory. Effectuation theory has become a highly influential cognitive science-based approach to understanding how nascent entrepreneurs start businesses under conditions of uncertainty. But by reducing the process of venture creation to a decision-making logic, effectuation theory pays insufficient regard to the substantial, pervasive and enduring influence of social-structural and cultural contexts on venture creation. Powerful explanations should conceive of venture creation as a sociohistorical process emergent from the interaction of structural, cultural and agential causal powers and must be able to theorise, fallibly, how nascent entrepreneurs form particular firms in particular times and places. We conclude that effectuation’s contribution to entrepreneurship scholarship is more limited than its advocates claim because it can offer only an under-socialised, ahistorical account of venture creation. Failure to theorise adequately the influence of structural and cultural contexts on venture creation implicitly grants nascent entrepreneurs excessive powers of agency.

27 citations