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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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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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01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a survey of the state of the art in the field of bioinformatics and biomedicine, including the following topics: http://www.biomedical-biology.
Abstract: .............................................................................................................. iii Foreword...............................................................................................................v

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between trust and professional power in the context of post-Foucauldian social theory is examined, and the findings illustrate that the concept of "trust" and relationship to health services can be understood through a post Foucauldiansian lens, which is a very theoretical paper with implications for epistemological development grounded in understanding trust and ethics of self.
Abstract: Purpose – This paper sets out to examine the relationship between trust and professional power in the context of post‐Foucauldian social theory. Understood in its micro‐political terms and conceived as impacting on individual identity and agency at a number of levels: intrapersonal, interpersonal, organisational and macro levels.Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual and theoretical approach.Findings – The findings illustrate that the concept of “trust” and relationship to health services can be understood through a post‐Foucauldian lens.Research limitations/implications – This is a very theoretical paper with implications for epistemological development grounded in understanding “trust” and ethics of self.Originality/value – This is an original paper on post‐Foucauldian analysis of trust and relationship to health policy and professional autonomy.

21 citations


Cites methods from "Realist social theory : the morphog..."

  • ...What is post-Foucauldian metatheory? We draw upon insights from the post-Foucauldian “return to” sociological theory and method associated with Layder (1997), Mouzelis (1991, 1995), Archer (1995), Sibeon (1999, 2004), (Owen, 2005, 2006 (forthcoming)) and Powell and Owen (2005)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: MAAD is applied to the implementation of Lotus Notes in the Alpha consulting organization as reported by Orlikowski 2000, showing that the differential success of the implementation efforts in the different organizations was due to the diverse cultures and possible experiences with technology found in those organizations.
Abstract: In researching IS phenomena, many different theoretical lenses have been advanced. This paper proposes the use of Margaret Archer's Morphogenetic Approach to Analytical Dualism MAAD as a social theoretic approach to explain why social phenomena may occur in a case study. This paper provides a brief overview to MAAD, providing a description of its tenets and methodology for use in an empirical study. As an example, the author applies MAAD to the implementation of Lotus Notes in the Alpha consulting organization as reported by Orlikowski 2000. This approach shows that the differential success of the implementation efforts in the different organizations was due to the diverse cultures and possible experiences with technology found in those organizations. This example shows that the use of this social theory can provide explanatory purchase where social phenomena are involved. For practitioners, it suggests that structural analysis at the beginning of a project may provide direction as to how to make the project more successful.

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the structure-agency problem in explaining civilian control of the military in new democracies and analyze four recent attempts to explicitly connect structure and agency in explaining civil-military relations.
Abstract: This article discusses the structure-agency problem in explaining civilian control of the military in new democracies. The authors first provide a systematic analysis of the core contents of the structure-agency problem and its implications for theory-building in civil-military research: the agential entities whose interactions are constitutive of civil-military relations, the relevant environmental factors, and the theoretical argument which links agents’ behaviour with the environment. Based on these meta-theoretical deliberations, the authors analyze four recent attempts to explicitly connect structure and agency in explaining civil-military relations in new democracies. The analysis shows that while being important contributions to theory development in the field, none of these theories have consistently dealt with the agency-structure problem in explaining civil-military relations in new democracies.

21 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the history of one particular organizational routine, that of the visitation of local organizational units by central church bodies, in three times and places: 15th century Italy, 18th century England and 18th-century Scotland, and show that similar routines can be found but these are given very different inflections by the broader social, cultural and political context.
Abstract: The focus on routines as ‘generative systems’ often portrays them as patterns of action relatively divorced from their context. History can help to supply a deeper and richer context, showing how routines are connected to broader structural and cultural factors. But it also shows that routines themselves have a history. This is explored using the illustration of the history of one particular organizational routine, that of the visitation of local organizational units by central church bodies, in three times and places: 15th century Italy, 18th century England and 18th century Scotland. This illustration shows that similar routines can be found but these are given very different inflections by the broader social, cultural and political context. Attention is drawn in particular to the differential involvement of lay actors and the implications for broader impacts. The case is made for analytical narratives of emergence of routines which can reconnect organizational routines both with their own history and w...

21 citations