Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach / Edition 1

by Margaret S. Archer

Overview

Margaret Archer develops here her morphogenetic approach, heralded in Culture and Agency (CUP, 1988), and applies it to the problem of structure and agency, that is, how we both shape society and are shaped by it. Her aim is to capture the interplay between these two processes rather than collapse them into one, as has been the case with the traditional competing individualist and collectivist methodologies. The morphogenetic approach offers a new understanding of social change and poses a direct challenge to Giddens' structuration theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521484428
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/19/1995
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

1. The vexatious fact of society; Part I. The Problem of Structure and Agency: Four Alternative Solutions: 2. Individualism versus collectivism: querying the terms of the debate; 3. Taking time to link structure and agency; 4. Elision and central conflation; 5. Realism and morphogenesis; Part II. The Morphogenetic Cycle: 6. Analytical dualism: the basis of the morphogenetic approach; 7. Structural and cultural conditioning; 8. The morphogenesis of agency; 9. Social elaboration.