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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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, the authors propose an attempt to reframe Giddens' work to describe the process of how emotions and social contexts interact and, as a result, modify each other.
Abstract: As the concept of emotion in organizations gains popularity in both research and practice, the danger of atheoretical application grows. Scholars of emotion in organizations have begun to refer to Giddens’ (1979) structuration theory as potentially relevant for the phenomenon of emotion. This article demonstrates how existing research on emotion can be framed in the context of emotion structuration that depicts how emotions both structure and are structured by social systems. Unlike Giddens’ structuration theory, which does not address the role of emotion in social systems and structures, emotion structuration explicitly focuses on emotion. Essentially, emotion structuration is an attempt to reframe Giddens’ work to describe the process of how emotions and social contexts interact and, as a result, modify each other.
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw upon the philosophy of critical realism to reflect upon issues concerning discovery processes and opportunity development, and propose that discovery processes have significance beyond discovery theory and can be considered revealing for theories of opportunity development more generally.
Abstract: In this article, we draw upon the philosophy of critical realism to reflect upon issues concerning discovery processes and opportunity development. First, paradoxes in the relationship between opportunity discovery and creativity are identified and explained. Second, the question of how to investigate opportunities is discussed and a solution informed by critical realism presented whereby three new types of discovery are identified and defined for empirical investigation. Using critical realism to augment entrepreneurial opportunity theory, we propose that discovery processes have significance beyond discovery theory and can be considered revealing for theories of opportunity development more generally. We conclude with conceptual and practical comment on the importance of ontological theorising for entrepreneurship.
49 citations
TL;DR: It is demonstrated how an activity system approach can be used to frame Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) intervention, and some theoretical basis is provided for understanding the emergence of activities and conceptualising the impact of development projects.
Abstract: This paper provides an analysis of a broadband implementation in the town of Slavutych, Ukraine. Slavutych was purposefully built 50km from Chernobyl shortly after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) disaster in 1986 to house personnel of ChNPP and their families evacuated from the city of Prip'yat. Drawing on activity theory, and in particular the notion of activity systems, we demonstrate how an activity system approach can be used to frame Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) intervention. We highlight the tools used to mediate the activity, the activity motivation and the relevant stakeholders and examine the role of 'contradictions'. Using the notion of connected activities, we also provide some theoretical basis for understanding the emergence of activities and conceptualising the impact of development projects, arguing that the outcome of an activity leads to/is consumed by other related activities. This paper contributes to scholarship in the field of ICTD using an empirical case in a complex setting and furthers theoretical development by advancing an activity system perspective for understanding and theorising ICTD interventions.
49 citations
TL;DR: The utility of Pierre Bourdieu's sociological framework for delving beyond the dichotomy of young people's drinking decisions as either a determination of their cultural environment or the singular result of a rational individual's independent decision-making is demonstrated.
49 citations
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the potential of social morphogenesis within late modernity and the potential for this process to reshape the social order, and the synergy intensifying between structure and culture, such that variety generates further variety.
Abstract: The book discusses ‘social morphogenesis’ within late modernity and the potential of this process to reshape the social order. Contributors are not signatories to a manifesto for a Morphogenic Society but are willing to consider this notion given rapid global change, the current crisis and perceived inadequacies in macroscopic social theory today. The introduction undertakes four tasks. (i) Clarifying the distinction between the Morphogenetic Approach as an explanatory framework and the idea of Morphogenic Society as an inchoate theory; yet to be articulated and not yet advocated. (ii) The synergy intensifying between structure and culture, such that ‘variety generates further variety’, is suggested to foster a new ‘situational logic of Opportunity’, as opposed to the ‘situational logic of Competition’ characterising modernity. (iii) The adequacy of modelling the global system as ‘self-governing’, ‘self-organizing’, or as a ‘relationally contested organization’ is assessed. (iv) Social networks are examined not only as communicative links but also as integrative bonds because the current deficit in social integration may produce social antagonism alone rather than social transformation.
49 citations