MonographDOI
Realist social theory : the morphogenetic approach
TLDR
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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
The changing nature of autonomy: Transformations of the late Swedish teaching profession
Wieland Wermke,Eva Forsberg +1 more
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Journal ArticleDOI
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Journal ArticleDOI
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TL;DR: In this article, a meta-theoretical framework of critical realism is proposed to address methodological issues of concern to social psychologists and social scientists, including issues relating to culture, context, and society raised in the indigenous psychology English literature.
Journal ArticleDOI
Robbins and Malthus on Scarcity, Abundance, and Sufficiency: The Missing Sociocultural Element
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Journal ArticleDOI
Inequality/difference in education: is a real explanation of primary and secondary effects possible?
TL;DR: In this paper, the persistence of social disparities in educational achievement in contemporary societies is a matter of concern to social theory and an approach informed by scientific realism is held to offer a more adequate explanation.