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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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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01 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, a dance session under the guidance of a dance pedagogue using an auto-ethnographical approach was conducted to consider how dance as creative movement works as a research method when studying the leader-follower relationship.
Abstract: In our experimental study we used dance as "a living and embodied interview", aiming to harness each participant's entire physical body to create knowledge about the leader-follower relationship. We conducted a dance session under the guidance of a dance pedagogue using an auto-ethnographical approach.
The aim of the study was to consider how dance as creative movement works as a research method when studying the leader-follower relationship. During the research process we found it relevant to consider more thoroughly the meta-theoretical assumptions embedded in this kind of arts-based method. At the beginning of the paper, we briefly describe four meta-theories: postmodern social constructionism, critical realism, pragmatism, and phenomenology.
As findings we present five "dance stories" describing how we as followers in an academic work setting perceived our leader-follower relationship through dance. Dance as a research method revealed to us knowledge and meanings beyond our rational and discursive-level understanding. Dance would be suitable for diversifying research on such phenomena as power relations, emotions, and identity, which are something we can feel, but which are not easily explicitly reached by words in conventional interviews.
22 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a novel interpretation and affirmation of the opening arguments of Capital, answering the fundamental but neglected question of why labour is the substance of value, is presented, which develops the materialist and dialectical philosophy of E.V. Ilyenkov.
Abstract: The paper offers a novel interpretation and affirmation of the opening arguments of Capital, answering the fundamental but neglected question of why labour is the substance of value. Marx's arguments require that two philosophical threads, often separated in the literature on value, be woven together. The argument that value is the intrinsic ‘content’ making commodities exchangeable employs the thread of realism. The argument that abstract labour is the emergent ‘social substance’ of value employs the thread of dialectics. This interpretation develops the materialist and dialectical philosophy of E.V. Ilyenkov and deepens the approach to value theory initiated by Ben Fine.
22 citations
TL;DR: This article calls into question the basing of intervention strategies on the notion of the “cancer survivor,” and the assumption that younger women favour the survivor identity.
Abstract: There has been a recent increase in research considering the perceptions of the term "cancer survivor" held by individuals who have or have had cancer. This article explores the meaning of the term to young women living with a history of breast cancer. Twenty women participated in semi-structured interviews about their experience of breast cancer. The methodology was informed by social constructionist grounded theory. Three of the women interviewed said they would use the term survivor to describe themselves, but most of the women felt it did not fit with their experiences. The accounts of those who accepted and rejected the survivor identity are explored, and subthemes in the latter are "survivor as somebody else" and "cancer's ongoing presence." This article calls into question the basing of intervention strategies on the notion of the "cancer survivor," and the assumption that younger women favour the survivor identity. Participants struggled with the demand to live up to the ideal of the survivor, which implied a high degree of agency where in reality, cancer was a disempowering experience. Being labelled a survivor obscured ongoing impacts of cancer on the young women's lives.
22 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that we should shift attention away from occupational roles and towards the behaviours, knowledge and skills that successful creatives and managers in the creative industries exhibit, and of the specific contexts in which they interact.
Abstract: Our ability to manage creativity is pivotal to future economic prosperity and social welfare. A fit-for-purpose education system that can enable this is then a ‘must-have’ for policy-makers and practitioners alike. However, the provision of appropriate learning is subject to a number of fundamental structural and cultural challenges. Drawing on empirical evidence from a master's programme in the Creative Industries & the Creative Economy in the United Kingdom, I outline some of the problems facing those involved. The article argues that we should shift attention away from occupational roles and towards the behaviours, knowledge and skills that successful creatives and managers in the creative industries exhibit, and of the specific contexts in which they interact. In particular, we need to provide the space and the environment in our educational institutions, as much as our cultural and creative industries organizations, which can enable interaction and (co)-creation to flourish.
22 citations