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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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 relational approach to the question of animal agency is developed, which distinguishes between agency and action and, using three examples of non-human animal behaviour, explore how human-other animal interactions might be understood in terms of action, agency and resistance.
Abstract: In this paper we develop a relational approach to the question of animal agency. We distinguish between agency and action and, using three examples of non-human animal behaviour, explore how human-other animal interactions might be understood in terms of action, agency and resistance. In order to do this we draw on the distinction between primary and corporate agency found in the work of Margaret Archer, arguing that, while non-human animals are able to act and to exercise primary agency, they are unable to exercise corporate agency. Animals are therefore agents; they act and their actions have consequences, they also resist conditions which they do not like and, in some circumstances, are able to change the conditions of their agency. We discuss the place of animals in the social world and the political implications of this way of viewing animal agency.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it is argued that empirical research concerned with the study of politics and policy should employ an ontology and methodology that focuses on the dynamics of interaction between agency, structure and social chance.
Abstract: It is appropriate that social scientists should develop explicit conceptualisations of agency, structure and social chance, these being three major dimensions of social and political life. The agency–structure debate, which refers to theoretical and ontological issues that tend not to be explicitly discussed by political scientists, is an important interdisciplinary starting point for conceptual and empirical work involving collaboration between political scientists and sociologists. Following a theoretical review of agency, structure and chance, it is argued that empirical research concerned with the study of politics and policy – indeed, social scientific research on any topic – should employ an ontology and methodology that focuses on the dynamics of interaction between agency, structure and social chance.
57 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse factors that led to weakening in the structural power of financial interests in the City of London in the aftermath of the 2007/2008 crisis and illustrate this through an examination of the Independent Commission on Banking's proposals in relation to the ring fencing of investment and retail banks.
Abstract: We are increasingly learning more about the contingencies and independent variables that shape the structural power of business and financial interests. This paper contributes to this research by analysing factors that led to weakening in the structural power of financial interests in the City of London in the aftermath of the 2007/2008 crisis. We focus on under-researched mediators of structural power dynamics, especially the context of action and the agency and ideas of state leaders. Prior to the crisis, closed regulatory policy and a prevailing discourse premised upon the notion of market efficiency, helped to reinforce the structural power of the UK banking and financial sector. After the crisis heightened politicisation, more assertive state leadership, and especially ideational revision, has increasingly challenged the power of the City. We illustrate this through an examination of the Independent Commission on Banking's proposals in relation to the ‘ring fencing’ of investment and retail banks.
56 citations
Book•
24 Sep 2008
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a survey of the works of Marx, Simmel, Weber, Lukacs, Horkheimer, Adorno, 6. Habermas, 7. Adorno and 9.
Abstract: 1. Marx, 2. Simmel, 3. Weber, 4. Lukacs, 5. Horkheimer, 6. Adorno, 7. Habermas, 8. Habermas II, 9. Habermas III
56 citations
TL;DR: The article presents an illustrative example of an e-government comparative case study, focusing on the concept of trust, which follows these ontological assumptions of critical realism, and discusses the nature and process of theory and hypothesis development.
Abstract: Theory testing within small-N research designs is problematic Developments in the philosophy of social science have opened up new methodological possibilities through, among other things, a novel notion of contingent causality that allows for contextualized hypothesis generation, hypothesis testing and refinement, and generalization This article contributes to the literature by providing an example of critical realist one such new development in the philosophy of social science theory development for a small-N comparative case study that includes hypothesis testing The article begins with the key ontological assumptions of critical realism and its relation to theory and explanation Then, the article presents an illustrative example of an e-government comparative case study, focusing on the concept of trust, which follows these ontological assumptions The focus of the example is on the nature and process of theory and hypothesis development, rather than the actual testing that occurred Essential to developing testable hypotheses is the generation of tightly linked middle-range and case-specific theories that provide propositions that can be tested and refined The link provides a pathway to feed back the concrete empirical data to the higher level more abstract and generalizable middle-range theories
56 citations