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Social theory

About: Social theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11421 publications have been published within this topic receiving 624898 citations.


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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a four-year ethnographic study of a public-sector organization and use narrative to describe its development in terms of four complexity theory concepts: sensitivity to initial conditions, negative and positive feedback processes, disequilibrium and emergent order.
Abstract: We present a four-year ethnographic study of a public-sector organization and use narrative to describe its development in terms of four complexity theory concepts: sensitivity to initial conditions, negative and positive feedback processes, disequilibrium and emergent order. Our study indicates that order emerges at the boundary between the organization's legitimate and shadow systems. We suggest that the underlying dynamic leading to the emergent order is the need to reduce anxiety. Our findings cause us to question the assertion that organizations are naturally complex adaptive systems producing novel forms of order. We propose an alternate view that in social systems, equilibrium-seeking behaviour is the norm; such systems can self-organize into hierarchy. We draw attention to some of the difficulties we found in applying complexity-theory concepts to a social system and conclude by advocating the development of complexity theory through the incorporation of insights from psychology and social theory.

143 citations

Book
26 Nov 2001
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide philosophical analyses of fundamental categories of human social action, including cooperative action, conventional action, social norm governed action, and the actions of occupants of organizational roles.
Abstract: Social action is central to social thought. This centrality reflects the overwhelming causal significance of action for social life, the centrality of action to any account of social phenomena, and the fact that conventions and normativity are features of human activity. This book provides philosophical analyses of fundamental categories of human social action, including cooperative action, conventional action, social norm governed action, and the actions of the occupants of organizational roles. A distinctive feature of the book is that it applies these theories of social action categories to some important moral issues that arise in social contexts such as the collective responsibility for environmental pollution, humanitarian intervention, and dealing with the rights of minority groups. Avoiding both the excessively atomistic individualism of rational choice theorists and implausible collectivist assumptions, this important book will be widely read by philosophers of the social sciences, political scientists and sociologists.

143 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the need for "design-level" theories, defining design in the broad sense of all the choices and decisions made by built environment professionals in creating and modifying the built environment.
Abstract: To foresee social outcomes from decisions about the physical and spatial form of the built environment, built environment professionals need to make use of theory-like propositions linking the two domains. In the absence of scientifically tested propositions, a shifting consensus of beliefs fills the need, and it can take decades of social costs to show the inadequacy of these beliefs. The problem of social theory and the built environment is then defined for the purposes of this paper in terms of the potential for testable propositions at the level at which one intervenes in the built environment. This is called the need for 'design-level' theories, defining design in the broad sense of all the choices and decisions made by built environment professionals in creating and modifying the built environment. Examining social theory under two broad headings, 'urban sociology' and 'society and space', it is noted that both approach the society-environment relation 'society first', in that the form of the environment is sought as the product of the spatial dimensions of social processes. This is called the 'spatiality' paradigm, and note that such approaches have never reached, and probably can never reach, the level of precision about the built environment which would be needed to found testable propositions at the design level. The alternative is to turn the question the other way round and through 'environment first' studies look for evidence of social processes in the spatial forms of the built environment. Recent work of this kind is outlined within the 'space syntax' paradigm and it is shown how the greater descriptive precision this brings to the built environment both permits linkages to mainline formulations in social theory and leads to testable design-level propositions.

143 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The teaching of critical social theories as an empowerment paradigm is relevant in nurse education today and it is suggested that the nurses in this study manifested signs of being oppressed and striving for liberation.
Abstract: This is the first study which describes British nurses' views on the concept of empowerment. Despite the frequent call for nurses to empower patients there was no evidence in the literature about British nurses' views. The study was carried out prior to a course exploring empowerment for practice. Focus groups were used to gather the data. Critical social theory and the work of Paulo Freire (1972) and Jurgen Habermas (1971, 1979) was used as a theoretical framework to underpin the enquiry. Taped interview transcripts were analysed thematically. Four categories emerged from the data to provide the framework for the themes: 'empowerment', 'having personal power', 'relationships within the multidisciplinary team', and 'feeling right about oneself'. It is suggested that the nurses in this study manifested signs of being oppressed and striving for liberation. The limitations of the study are identified, but the overall conclusion is that the teaching of critical social theories as an empowerment paradigm is relevant in nurse education today.

142 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that rational choice-inspired situational crime prevention initiatives are limited when it comes to offering protection against a growing number of so-called "expressive crimes".
Abstract: The rational choice theory of crime and its cognate field of study, situational crime prevention, have exerted a considerable influence in criminal justice policy and criminology. This article argues that, while undeniably useful as a means of reducing property or acquisitive crime, rational choice-inspired situational crime prevention initiatives are limited when it comes to offering protection against a growing number of so-called ‘expressive crimes’. Developing this critique, the article will criticize the sociologically hollow narrative associated with rational choice theories of crime by drawing on recent research in social theory and consumer studies. It argues that the growing tendency among many young individuals to engage in certain forms of criminal decision-making ‘strategies’ may simply be the by-product of a series of subjectivities and emotions that reflect the material values and cultural logic associated with late modern consumerism.

142 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202323
202241
2021232
2020308
2019305
2018326