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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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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 2009
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a table of contents and a list of FIGURE FIGURES, ACRONYMS, and APPENDICIES for each of them.
Abstract: .......................................... .................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................... ...................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................. ......................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES..................................... ................................................................................. x LIST OF ACRONYMS................................... ........................................................................... xi LIST OF APPENDICES ................................. ......................................................................... xii 1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY ............................ ........................................................ 1 1.

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a case study of the protected area in designation features stakeholder analysis as a tool in defining the salience of the stakeholders' involvement in the designation and the operations of the Kamnisko-Savinjske Alps Regional Park in Slovenia.
Abstract: Stakeholder analysis is the key step towards a successful participatory spatial planning. The case study of the protected area in designation features stakeholder analysis as a tool in defining the salience of the stakeholders' involvement in the designation and the operations of the Kamnisko-Savinjske Alps Regional Park in Slovenia. The salience of a stakeholder was determined using a flexible method using numerical evaluations of three stakeholder attributes: power, legitimacy and interest. Local farmers and residents are the key stakeholders in the research area. The survey explored which stakeholders they believe are necessary in individual phases of the protected area and how they would participate. The salience of different stakeholder groups varies during various project stages. Consequently, the perception of how and to what extent those stakeholders should participate also varies.

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employ critical realist theories to explore transformative agency in different types of temporary service development groups in professional service organizations, and suggest how individuals' transformative agency emerges from their reflexivity and bargaining power conditioned by resource distributions, and how collective agency subsequently emerges from different combinations of these individual properties.
Abstract: Even though transformative agency is widely discussed in organization studies, recent conceptualizations provide little information about the dynamics through which transformative agency emerges at the individual and collective levels, or how these levels influence one another in a particular context. We employ critical realist theories to explore transformative agency in different types of temporary service development groups in professional service organizations. Our study suggests how individuals’ transformative agency emerges from their reflexivity and bargaining power conditioned by resource distributions, and how collective agency subsequently emerges from different combinations of these individual properties in temporary agentic groups. The study clarifies the interplay between the individual and collective levels of agency, and supports further multilevel studies on transformative agency in organizational change.

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a review of work practices in organizational science is presented, focusing on three central questions: (a) what are work practices, (b) what role do work practices play in the process of organizing, and (c) how scholars build theory from empirical studies of work practice.
Abstract: A recent practice turn in the communication and organizational sciences has led many researchers to study work in practice. In this chapter I suggest that studies of work practices in organizations would benefit from conceptual clarification. To do so, I organize this review around three central questions: (a) what are work practices? (b) what role do work practices play in the process of organizing? and (c) how can scholars build theory from empirical studies of work practices? I suggest several ways in which the concept of work practice can be clarified to provide coherence for communication researchers.

19 citations