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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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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TL;DR: Path constitution analysis (PCA) as mentioned in this paper integrates multi-actor constellations on multiple levels of analysis within a process perspective, based on a longitudinal case study in the field of semiconductors.
Abstract: Although an increasing number of studies of technological, institutional and organizational change refer to the concepts of path dependence and path creation, few attempts have been made to consider these concepts explicitly in their methodological accounts. This paper addresses this gap and contributes to the literature by developing a comprehensive methodology that originates from the concepts of path dependence and path creation — path constitution analysis (PCA) — and allows for the integration of multi-actor constellations on multiple levels of analysis within a process perspective. Based upon a longitudinal case study in the field of semiconductors, we illustrate PCA ‘in action’ as a template for other researchers and critically examine its adequacy. We conclude with implications for further path-oriented inquiries.
103 citations
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31 Aug 2015TL;DR: The Seven myths of American sociology as discussed by the authors are: 1. Do realists run regressions? 2. What is truth? 3. Whatever happened to social structure? 4. Are we not men - or rather persons? 6. What and where is culture? 7. Do we need critical realism? 8. So what do we do with it?
Abstract: 1. Seven myths of American sociology 2. Do realists run regressions? 3. What is truth? 4. Whatever happened to social structure? 5. Are we not men - or, rather, persons? 6. What and where is culture? 7. Do we need critical realism? 8. So what do we do with it?
102 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors defend interpretivism against its critics and revisit the nature of entrepreneurship through this lens, and show that process theories of entrepreneurship are aligned with interpretivist meta-theory, and that their explicit adoption of an interpretivist foundation may better facilitate theoretical progress.
101 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors make comparisons between John Lewis Partnership and its Spanish equivalent Eroski, the supermarket group which is part of the Mondragon cooperatives, and explore the ways in which two large, employee-owned, enterprises reconcile apparently conflicting principles and objectives.
Abstract: Employee-owned businesses have recently enjoyed a resurgence of interest as possible �alternatives� to the somewhat tarnished image of conventional investor-owned capitalist firms. Within the context of global economic crisis, such alternatives seem newly attractive. This is somewhat ironic because, for more than a century, academic literature on employee-owned businesses has been dominated by the �degeneration thesis�. This suggested that these businesses tend towards failure�they either fail commercially, or they relinquish their democratic characters. Bucking this trend and offering a beacon�especially in the United Kingdom �has been the commercially successful, co-owned enterprise of the John Lewis Partnership whose virtues have seemingly been rewarded with favourable and sustainable outcomes. This article makes comparisons between John Lewis Partnership and its Spanish equivalent Eroski�the supermarket group which is part of the Mondragon cooperatives. The contribution of this article is to examine in a comparative way how the managers in John Lewis Partnership and Eroski have constructed and accomplished their alternative scenarios. Using longitudinal data and detailed interviews with senior managers in both enterprises, it explores the ways in which two large, employee-owned, enterprises reconcile apparently conflicting principles and objectives. The article thus puts some new flesh on the �regeneration thesis�.
101 citations
TL;DR: The authors examines forms of emergence that account for the presence of humans in an ecosystem and shows that explicit attention to emergence serves very well in unifying the following requirements for social-ecological analysis: coherent and observable definitions of sustainability, ways to link ecological and social phenomena; ways to understand cultural reasons for stability and instability in dynamic social ecological systems; and ways to include human self-evaluation and culture within dynamic models of socialecological systems.
Abstract: The effort to combine analysis of ecosystems and social systems requires a firm theoretical basis When humans are present in an ecosystem, their actions affect emergent structures; this paper examines forms of emergence that account for the presence of humans Humans monitor and regulate ecosystems based on their cultural systems Cultural systems consist of concepts linked in complicated ways that can form consistent world views, can contain inconsistencies, and may or may not accurately model the properties of a social-ecological system Consequently, human monitoring and regulating processes will differ, depending on cultural systems Humans, as agents, change or maintain pre-existing material and cultural emergent structures The presentation is illustrated with a case study of fire-prone forests The paper shows that explicit attention to emergence serves very well in unifying the following requirements for social-ecological analysis: coherent and observable definitions of sustainability; ways to link ecological and social phenomena; ways to understand cultural reasons for stability and instability in dynamic social-ecological systems; and ways to include human self-evaluation and culture within dynamic models of social-ecological systems Analysis of cultural emergent structures clarifies many differences in assumptions among the fields of economics, sociology, political science, ecology, and ecological economics Because it can be readily applied to empirical questions, the framework provides a good way to organize policy analysis that is not dominated by one or another discipline
101 citations