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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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: In this paper, a critical realist perspective is used to understand the research-practice gap in the field of business and management. But the critical nature of management studies also helps to explain why at least certain research practice gaps can be treated as natural because of divergent preferences of scholars and practitioners.
Abstract: This article takes a critical realist perspective to understand the research–practice gap in the field of business and management. To investigate issues surrounding the rigour versus relevance debate, we examine how the
divergent perspectives of scholars and practitioners can be bridged by a critical realist approach in relation
to: (1) the research paradigm: instead of confining their research within methodological purism, scholars may
need to deploy any research paradigm to investigate a phenomenon in its context, (2) context and causality:
critical realism provides an ontological grounding for interpretivist research reaffirming the importance of a
focus on context, meaning and interpretation as causal influences, (3) methodological rigidity: multiple research
methods will be more important when addressing research–practice gaps since they are more receptive to
interdisciplinary functions and contexts in time and space than traditional methodologies, and (4) ethical aspects
of business research highlighting the need to engage with the knowledge agenda of not only the university but also
society overall. The critical nature of management studies we contend also helps to explain why at least certain
research–practice gaps can be treated as natural because of divergent preferences of scholars and practitioners.
71 citations
Cites background from "Realist social theory : the morphog..."
...In open systems, an object has powers and capabilities that are causally efficacious (Archer, 1995; Bhaskar, 1993)....
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...The concept of social structure was further developed by Archer (1995) to emphasise more strongly the dualism of action and structure as two equally real, interacting systems (Mingers, 2004b)....
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TL;DR: This article explored the relationship between critical realism and qualitative research methods and demonstrated how dialectical critical realism can begin to provide answers to three common criticisms made against original critical realist methodology: that the qualitative theory of causal powers and structures developed by critical realists is problematic; that critical realism contains values which prove damaging to empirical research; and that critical realism often has difficulties in researching everyday qualitative dilemmas that people face in their daily lives.
Abstract: Critical realism has been an important advance in social science methodology because it develops a qualitative theory of causality which avoids some of the pitfalls of empiricist theories of causality. But while there has been ample work exploring the relationship between critical realism and qualitative research methods there has been noticeably less work exploring the relationship between dialectical critical realism and qualitative research methods. This seems strange especially since the founder of the philosophy of critical realism, Roy Bhaskar, employs and develops a range of dialectical concepts in his later work in order to extend the main tenets of critical realism. The aim of this paper is to draw on Bhaskar's later work, as well as Marxism, to reorient a critical realist methodology towards a dialectical approach for qualitative research. In particular, the paper demonstrates how dialectical critical realism can begin to provide answers to three common criticisms made against original critical realist methodology: that the qualitative theory of causal powers and structures developed by critical realists is problematic; that critical realist methodology contains values which prove damaging to empirical research; and that critical realists often have difficulties in researching everyday qualitative dilemmas that people face in their daily lives.
70 citations
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TL;DR: The theoretical tension between structure and agency, a tension often mentioned but seldom explored in depth, was explored in this paper, where the authors examined how identity, structure, and agency might be defined by key thinkers in the social sciences.
Abstract: Against a backdrop of rapid global transformations, the ever-increasing migration of people across nation-state borders and a wide array of language practices, applied linguists, and language and intercultural communication researchers in particular, often include identity as a key construct in their work. Most adopt a broadly poststructuralist approach, drawing on the work of social theorists working in a wide range of areas such as cultural studies, gender studies and critical theory. However, the complexity of these sources poses challenges for these researchers and the aim of this paper is to discuss one such challenge: the theoretical tension between structure and agency, a tension often mentioned but seldom explored in depth. First, I examine how identity, structure and agency might be defined. Second, I then embark on a selective discussion of how structure and agency have been framed by key thinkers in the social sciences, ranging from Karl Marx to Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Pierre ...
70 citations
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21 Mar 2019TL;DR: In this article, an evolutionary-constructivist social and normative theory of change and stability of international social orders is proposed, where practices and their background knowledge survive preferentially, communities of practice serve as their vehicle, and social orders evolve.
Abstract: Drawing on evolutionary epistemology, process ontology, and a social-cognition approach, this book suggests cognitive evolution, an evolutionary-constructivist social and normative theory of change and stability of international social orders. It argues that practices and their background knowledge survive preferentially, communities of practice serve as their vehicle, and social orders evolve. As an evolutionary theory of world ordering, which does not borrow from the natural sciences, it explains why certain configurations of practices organize and govern social orders epistemically and normatively, and why and how these configurations evolve from one social order to another. Suggesting a multiple and overlapping international social orders' approach, the book uses three running cases of contested orders - Europe's contemporary social order, the cyberspace order, and the corporate order - to illustrate the theory. Based on the concepts of common humanity and epistemological security, the author also submits a normative theory of better practices and of bounded progress.
70 citations