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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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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Dissertation•
01 Jan 2003
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the social origins, values orientations, moral beliefs, and behavioural strategies of a small sample of successful post-Soviet firm founders, and argued that entrepreneurial individuals such as those who are the subjects of research, have effected a transformation of the informal institutional framework of Ukraine's nascent market sphere.
Abstract: This dissertation examines the social origins, values orientations, moral beliefs, and behavioural strategies of a small sample of successful post-Soviet ‘de novo’ firm founders, and argues that entrepreneurial individuals such as those who are the subjects of research, have effected a transformation of the informal institutional framework of Ukraine’s nascent market sphere. In contrast to the prevailing approach of the literature on post-Soviet transitions, instead of focusing exclusively on the effects of elite-led formal institutional change and reform policy implementation (or its lack), this dissertation presents an alternative ‘bottom-up’ perspective on Ukraine’s development during the past decade.
Framed within the paradigm of institutionalist sociology, analysis of the qualitative data - collected through a combination of in-depth interviewing and structured questionnaire inquiry - points to a need to re-evaluate the widely accepted portrayal of new firm start-ups as playing a largely peripheral role in the transition from state socialism. Firstly, the literature’s universal equation of ‘de novo’ with ‘small’ with respect to post-Soviet firms is found to be outdated in the Ukrainian case. Furthermore, instead of reflecting a ‘homo sovieticus’ or ‘neo-patrimonial’ mentality, the moral beliefs and resultant strategic postures of a significant number of the interviewed Ukrainian firm-owners are found to be focused on accumulation through reinvestment, and a goal-orientation that may legitimately be called ‘entrepreneurial’.
Secondly, the widely accepted contention regarding the ‘nomenklatura’ origins of successful post-Soviet business owners in the FSU is found to require refinement. Private enterprise owners appear to have initially followed path dependent behavioural strategies that were conditioned by their socialisation according to a particular normative system (including the ethic of ‘blat’), but as Ukraine’s transition progressed, ‘de novo’ entrepreneurs seem to have independently and successfully converted what were once believed to be informal institutional liabilities into assets that both facilitated their personal successes and resulted in an evolution of the cultural environment in which they are embedded.
On a meta-theoretical level, it is argued in this dissertation that in Ukraine, individual entrepreneurs have effected an evolutionary change in the informal institutional arrangements that govern behaviour in the country’s nascent market sphere. The result I contend, has been a morphogenetic re-evaluation of social conventions, moral beliefs, and norms of interaction ingrained during decades of Soviet rule.
27 citations
01 May 2018
27 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the plagiarism needs to be addressed to maintain academic standards and to safeguard the integrity of the academic project, and conventional methods of addressing plagiarism need to be reviewed.
Abstract: Plagiarism needs to be addressed to maintain academic standards and to safeguard the integrity of the academic project. With the evolving digital world, conventional methods of addressing plagiaris...
27 citations
DOI•
20 Sep 2012TL;DR: In this paper, the genesis and development of grounded theory method (GTM) is evaluated with reference to sociology's attempt to demarcate exclusive referents of inquiry, and the links of objectivist GTM to positivistic terminology and to the natural scientific distinction from "common sense" are explored.
Abstract: The genesis and development of grounded theory method (GTM) is evaluated with reference to sociology's attempt to demarcate exclusive referents of inquiry. The links of objectivist GTM to positivistic terminology and to the natural scientific distinction from "common sense" are explored. It is then considered how the biological sciences have prompted reorientation towards constructivist GTM, underpinned by the metaphysics of social constructionism. GTM has been shaped by the endeavor to attain the sense of exactitude associated with positivism, whilst also seeking exclusive referents of inquiry that are distinct from the empirical realm of the natural sciences. This has generated complex research techniques underpinned by tortuous methodological debate: eschewing the perceived requirement to define and defend an academic niche could help to facilitate the development of a more useful and pragmatic orientation to qualitative social research. URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1203261
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a philosophical position called "realism" is proposed as a foundation for social work knowledge, which is a phenomenon consisting of three parts: research, education and professional practise.
Abstract: Could a philosophical position called ‘realism’ act as a foundation for social work knowledge? Social work is a phenomenon consisting of three parts: research, education and professional practise. The aim of social work is to alleviate social problems – and this task can be fulfilled through all the three parts of social work. Research must help not only the professional practise, but also the teaching of social work methods. When speaking of research methodology, social work research should overcome the pitfalls of empiricism, inductivism and relativism, and take into consideration of the powers of societal structures, history and nature. The ideas of realism can help in the realization of this task.
26 citations