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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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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: In this article, the authors evaluate Archer's reflexive modalities in relation to FE students' higher education decision-making and choices, and evaluate the effect of these modalities on their higher education decisions.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate Archer’s reflexive modalities in relation to Further Education (FE) students’ higher education (HE) decision-making and choices. To do this, it d...

23 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the catchphrase of lifelong learning and its enactment in higher education is discussed and the case is made for the integral role of higher education teachers in developing students' capacities for reflective thinking and reflexive approaches to learning as a life project.
Abstract: In our complex and incongruous world, where variety produces more variety, and there is no blueprint for dealing with unprecedented change, it is imperative that individuals develop reflexive approaches to life and learning. Higher education has a role to play in guiding students to be self-analysts, with the ability to examine and mediate self and context for improved outcomes. This chapter elucidates the catchphrase of lifelong learning and its enactment in higher education. Theories of reflexivity and personal epistemology are utilised to provide the conceptual tools to understand the ways in which individuals manage competing influences and deliberate about action in their learning journey. The case is made for the integral role of higher education teachers in developing students’ capacities for reflective thinking and reflexive approaches to learning as a life project.

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Parker's misinterpretation of our contribution to writing on the labour process over the last decade, and our involvement with the International Labour Process Conference held in the UK for the last 17 years, requires that we try and set the record straight as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In OS Volume 20/1 Martin Parker contributed an article, `Capitalism, Subjectivity and Ethics: Debating Labour Process Analysis', in which he examined two camps within the UK labour process debate, and suggested the differences within both camps could be overcome by moving the debate on the labour process into the realm of moral philosophy. The two camps he identified broadly fall into materialists and post-structuralists. We have been identified as the principle exponents of the former group, and David Knights and Hugh Willmott the latter. Parker's misinterpretation of our contribution to writing on the labour process over the last decade, and our involvement with the International Labour Process Conference held in the UK over the last 17 years, requires that we try and set the record straight. The editor of OS has kindly allowed this to happen. We have tried to elucidate Parker's position as clearly as possible before indicating our objections, but readers may wish to read our reply alongside the origina...

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the relationship between social institutions and human agency and, more specifically, the question of whether social institutions should be treated as possessing the sui generis causal power to influence people's actions.
Abstract: I Introduction THE YEARS SINCE 1985 have seen a resurgence of interest in economic sociology, that is, in the analysis of economic life using concepts, theories, and methods drawn from sociology. The first decade or so since the inception of the "New Economic Sociology," as it has become known, saw the application of sociological theory to economic issues justified by reference to the narrow and distorted conception of human motivation characteristic of homo economicus (Granovetter 1985, 1999; Swedberg 2003: 32-52). However, recent years have seen economic sociologists shift focus, devoting less attention to the issue of motivation per se and emphasizing instead the question of whether people have the information required to act in the instrumentally rational way presupposed by economic theory (Beckert 1996, 1999; DiMaggio 2002). The crux of the matter lies in the nature and significance of the phenomenon of uncertainty, that is to say, in situations in which people are unable to assign sharp numerical probabilities to the consequences of their actions. (1) The existence of such situations is significant for economic sociologists because the standard economic model of people as expected utility-maximizers is inapplicable to those large swathes of economic life characterized by uncertainty. For if people are unable to assign numerical probabilities to the consequences of their actions, then they will be incapable of the instrumentally rational, expected utility-maximizing behavior that lies at the heart of orthodox economic theory (Beckert 1996: 806-814, 819; Kiser and Bauldry 2005: conclusion). The question to which this line of reasoning naturally gives rise is: How is purposeful human action possible in the face of such uncertainty? Economic sociologists contend that the answer is to be found in the existence of social institutions (including social rules and conventions). The latter are said to make people's actions more predictable, reducing the extent of the uncertainty with which people have to cope and thereby facilitating purposeful human action. And it is in order to understand how social institutions enable people to deal with uncertainty that sociological theories of such institutions are employed. The issue of uncertainty thus provides a rationale for sociological reasoning in the analysis of the economy (Beckert 1996: 804-809, 823-830). (2) However, if it is indeed the case that a satisfactory analysis of how people deal with uncertainty demands the application to economic phenomena of explanatory models drawn from sociology, the question arises of which social theory ought to form the basis for the sociological perspective on the economy. In particular, the issue of how to conceptualize social structure and its relation to human agency must be addressed (Hollis 1991: 233-234). This brings us to the present article, the focus of which is the relationship between social institutions and human agency and, more specifically, the question of whether social institutions should be treated as possessing the sui generis causal power to influence people's actions. In what follows, an attempt is made to shed light on this issue by means of a case study of the work one insightful (though, at least so far as the current generation of economic sociologists are concerned, sadly neglected) advocate of a sociological approach to the study of economic affairs, namely, Ludwig Lachmann. Lachmann (1906-1990) was a member of the so-called Austrian school of economics and spent a lifetime examining the implications of uncertainty for economic behavior. He argued, in similar vein to the current generation of economic sociologists, that people are able to deal with uncertainty only by relying on the reassurance and guidance provided by social institutions (Section II). However, Lachmann's account of how social institutions facilitate intentional human agency in the face of uncertainty contains significant ambiguities and tensions, stemming from his reluctance to acknowledge the causal efficacy of social institutions (Section III). …

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative ethnographic approach is used to observe shifts in the discussions of four fledgling activist groups, and implicit discursive rules, often set off by minor comments and events, authorize some options and silence others.
Abstract: This study advances recent theorizing on causality and emergence by analyzing how new activist groups create a collective sense of plausible tactics. A comparative ethnographic approach is used to observe shifts in the discussions of four fledgling activist groups. In each group, implicit discursive rules, often set off by minor comments and events, authorize some options and silence others. Although such rules emerge without deliberation or explicit decision making, they shape the group’s sense of possibility into the future. This study contributes both a new understanding of the role of contingency in collective activism and a method for using ethnographic observation to locate subtle causal mechanisms in social life.

23 citations