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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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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01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the role of the leader as a facilitator of learning at work and aim to increase knowledge about leadership in relation to co-workers' learning and development.
Abstract: This thesis concerns the leader as a facilitator of learning at work. More specifically, the aim of the study is to increase knowledge about leadership in relation to co-workers’ learning and devel ...
51 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the results of a qualitative study of employees' sensemaking as a social, communicative process during a major organizational transformation, which describes a major transition in work mode, from traditional officing to nomadic work.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a qualitative study of employees' sensemaking as a social, communicative process during a major organizational transformation.Design/methodology/approach – This case study describes a major transition in work mode, from traditional officing to nomadic work. Nomadic work is a radical new mode of work that emphasizes: worker mobility both at and away from the company facility; a paperless operation; and integrated technological platforms that enable knowledge work and flexible, project‐based organizing. Relying on participant observation and interviews, employee accounts were gathered of their experiences as told during the change implementation.Findings – It was found that shocks noted in social interaction indicated that employee sensemaking was anchored by frames relying on identity, culture, or structure as the primary stabilizing discourse called into question. The findings suggest that employees used sensemaking to work out the tensions ...
51 citations
Book•
23 Feb 2017TL;DR: Debating Humanity as discussed by the authors explores sociological and philosophical efforts to delineate key features of humanity that identify us as members of the human species and defends a universalistic principle of humanity as vital to any adequate understanding of social life.
Abstract: Debating Humanity explores sociological and philosophical efforts to delineate key features of humanity that identify us as members of the human species. After challenging the normative contradictions of contemporary posthumanism, this book goes back to the foundational debate on humanism between Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger in the 1940s and then re-assesses the implicit and explicit anthropological arguments put forward by seven leading postwar theorists: self-transcendence (Hannah Arendt), adaptation (Talcott Parsons), responsibility (Hans Jonas), language (Jurgen Habermas), strong evaluations (Charles Taylor), reflexivity (Margaret Archer) and reproduction of life (Luc Boltanski). Genuinely interdisciplinary and boldly argued, Daniel Chernilo has crafted a novel philosophical sociology that defends a universalistic principle of humanity as vital to any adequate understanding of social life.
51 citations
TL;DR: It is illustrated that some women are able to draw on the resources available, and are engaged in activities that not only assist their own settlement in the host society but also assist the development of support structures for future arrivals of asylum seekers and refugees.
Abstract: This article is based on the findings of research undertaken towards a doctoral thesis funded by the University of Leeds. The research focuses upon the actions and experiences of women asylum seekers and refugees living inWest Yorkshire. While acknowledging that the context in which women find themselves can present a number of barriers, this paper looks at their actions and practices at the individual and collective levels. It illustrates that some women are able to draw on the resources available, and are engaged in activities
that not only assist their own settlement in the host society but also assist the development of support structures for future arrivals of asylum seekers and refugees.
51 citations