Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach
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Approach not only rejects methodological individualism and holism, but argues that the debate between them has been replaced by a new one, between elisionary theorising and emergentist theories based on a realist ontology of the social world.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.
... Academics need to change their mindset from just inculcating knowledge to ensure this knowledge is transformative and sustainable. This paper's key focus areas are, University as a site for transformation; transformation and USR based on the Social Realism framework (Archer, 1995(Archer, , 1996(Archer, , 2000; and enabling/constraining forces for USR (critique of university documents (CUT & DUT). The researchers engaged in a review of institutional documents to ascertain commitment to USR. ...
... The notion of an "engaged" university has started to receive considerable attention in literature over the past two decades. According to Margaret Archer's Social Realism framework, the drive for transformation could promote the culture of social responsibility among staff and students (Archer, 1995(Archer, , 1996(Archer, , 2000. Archer's (1995Archer's ( , 1996Archer's ( , 2000 social realism framework refers to the nature of social contexts such as universities and is underpinned by Roy Bhaskar's notion of critical realism. ...
... According to Margaret Archer's Social Realism framework, the drive for transformation could promote the culture of social responsibility among staff and students (Archer, 1995(Archer, , 1996(Archer, , 2000. Archer's (1995Archer's ( , 1996Archer's ( , 2000 social realism framework refers to the nature of social contexts such as universities and is underpinned by Roy Bhaskar's notion of critical realism. Bhaskar explains that society consists of people and social relations: "the relations into which people enter pre-exist the individuals who enter them, and whose activity reproduces or transforms them" (1979: 4). ...
University social responsibility is an intrinsic discourse in South Africa. Universities grapple with their identities relating to learning, teaching, research and community engagement. This paper explores how the drive for transformation particularly at universities of technology has promoted a culture of social responsibility among student and staff agents. Two universities were considered in the analysis of existing norms and understanding how institutions integrate the culture of social responsibility while adhering to mandates of creating knowledge societies. This study provides recommendations that could be endorsed as policy to develop innovative developmental strategies and enact new social responsibility partnerships within university spaces.
... By employing a "realist evaluation" approach explicitly designed to relate context and processes to outcomes (Pawson & Tilley, 1997), we analyze the "Strategic Public Social Partnership" model in Scotland to explore whether and how the involvement of nonprofits in collaborative governance processes affects processes and outcomes. Underpinned by a realist ontology (Archer, 1995), realist evaluation conceptualizes programs as adding components to the complex array of relationships that make up the social world (Porter & O'Halloran, 2012). By connecting processes to outcomes via the appreciation of the context in which the processes take place, realist evaluation exploits empirical data to explain which components of a program can change the way the social world is patterned, how and why (Blackwood et al., 2010;Pawson & Manzano-Santaella, 2012). ...
... To unpack the role of nonprofits in collaborative governance processes and evidence what changes they bring and how these ultimately affect service outcomes, we grounded our study in a realist ontology (Archer, 1995). Realism represents a promising scientific paradigm to understand the complexity of social interventions (Fletcher et al., 2016). ...
... These circumstances are, in realist terms, responsible for the activation of the so-called generative mechanisms that explain why such outcome patterns occur (Archer, 2013;Bhaskar, 1975). In broad sociological terms, outcome patterns occur when the interplay between structure and agency experiences new social ingredients that can modify (or reproduce) the equilibrium between the two (Archer, 1995). ...
Nonprofits are increasingly involved in collaborative governance mechanisms, on the premise that their proximity to end-users and better understanding of the local contexts can lead to better policy outcomes. While government-nonprofit relations have been theorised and explored by several studies, few studies have examined specifically collaborative governance, instead focusing on other phases of policy development or service delivery. In this paper, we present a realist evaluation of data gathered from in-depth semi-structured interviews (n=41) and four focus groups with stakeholders involved in collaborative governance arrangements within ‘Strategic Public Social Partnerships’ in Scotland. Our findings indicate that collaborative governance processes involving nonprofits can potentially lead to improved services through mechanisms such as the development of trust and the establishment of new learning dynamics and when knowledgeable leadership and mutuality drive collaborations. However, this is only true if the long-term sustainability of these processes translates into the mainstreaming of the resulting services and their underlying collaborative principles.
... The hashtag as a relational social form is an "emerging property" generated by the interaction of users/citizens-inside and outside digital environments-behaving like "corporate agents" (Archer, 1995) who organize their actions in a formal or informal way (Karlsson, 2020) to reach their goals. The result of their actions is defined as a "corporate agency" and gradually manifests itself as a structural transformation or morphogenesis. ...
... In this opening, non-conflative theories can explain hashtags' change. The essential aspect of Archer (1995) analytical dualism, that is, the morphogenetic-morphostatic approach, offers the basis for observing the morphogenesis of hashtags. Archer proposed the morphogenetic-morphostatic approach based on the understanding that society is similar only to itself, and the fundamental task is to understand how social forms derive from human action exactly as social beings derive from social forms (Archer, 1995, p. 255). ...
... When proposing this approach, Archer analyses these issues as they have been tackled by social realists and institutionalists. We accept the morphogenetic approach that emergent properties are different from the evident and long-lasting patterns of social life because they are not observable characteristics of the structural domain as "institutional models", "social organizations" and the "socio-economic classes" (Archer, 1995). However, they are not observable characteristics of the cultural domain because of their heterogeneity, represented by a mix of aggregations, people and positions. ...
This study contributes to the international debate on the hashtag's nature and characteristics and attempts to define it as a relational social form affected by morphogenetic–morphostatic processes. To develop this interpretative proposal, this study uses the dimensions of time and agency, drawing on Twitter hashtag studies. Subsequently, the article recalls elements of cultural morphogenesis, traces the points of contact between hashtag studies and cultural morphogenesis, constructs an interpretative proposal of the hashtag as a relational social form, and arrives at the formalization of a model for analyzing the changing meaning of hashtags.
... While in the past the far-reaching impact of the aforementioned structural and material constraints could be silenced and (arguably) avoided, the momentous events of recent times mean that they can no longer be ignored (Czerniewicz et al., 2020). In the section that follows, Archer's (1995Archer's ( , 2005 ...
... This article is underpinned by the work of social realist, Margaret Archer. Archer (1995Archer ( , 2005 builds on the work of Bhaskar (1975), and theorises about the interplay of structure, culture, and agency (autonomously and interconnectedly) across a stratified social reality to make meaning of complex social systems. The focus in this article is on the non-academic contextual social realities and structural constraints that affect the lives of South African higher education students and by association, the work of academic advisors that guide and support them. ...
... In this instance, the focus is on the effect structural (and material) constraints experienced by students have on the work of academic advisors. Correspondingly, Boughey and McKenna's (2016) work on the decontextualized learner aligns with Archer's (1995Archer's ( , 2005 social realist view of social reality and the discussion about structural and material constraints. Boughey and McKenna (2016) introduce the notion of the decontextualized learner in relation to academic literacy. ...
The structural and material factors affecting the lived realities and prospects of tertiary success for South African students are complex and manifold. Inexorably, these lived realities impact the work of academic advisors who guide and support students throughout their higher education journeys. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the growing body of literature about academic advising in and for South African higher education contexts, and in particular the daily work of academic advisors in the country. This is achieved by first drawing on literature to elucidate the various structural and material constraints affecting the lives of many South African students, before reconciling what emerges from the literature with quantitative data collected by an academic advisor working at a South African university about his engagements with students over a three-year period. This phenomenological study is underpinned by social realist principles as proposed by Margaret Archer and draws in particular on the notion of structure to advance its argument. Additionally, the work of Boughey and McKenna on the decontextualized learner is incorporated to demonstrate why students in this country cannot be decontextualized from their lived realities. The article concludes by highlighting how the complex structural and material constraints that influence students' higher education experiences manifest in the day-today work of academic advisors. The authors propose that these insights be used to enhance responsiveness to student needs, while informing how the sector makes meaning of advising for the South African higher education context.
... Baker 2019;Epstein 2015;Gilbert 1990;Searle 1995;Tuomela 2007; as well as in the social scientific tradition of critical realism (e.g. Archer 1995;Bhaskar, 1979;Elder-Vass 2010;Lawson 1997;. These traditions have remained largely separate despite partly overlapping concerns and similar underlying strategies of argumentation. ...
Social ontological inquiry has been pursued in analytic philosophy as well as in the social scientific tradition of critical realism. These traditions have remained largely separate despite partly overlapping concerns and similar underlying strategies of argumentation. They have also both been the subject of similar criticisms based on naturalistic approaches to the philosophy of science, which have addressed their apparent reliance on a transcendental mode of reasoning, their seeming distance from social scientific practice, and their (erroneous?) tendency to advocate global solutions to local and pragmatic problems. Two approaches aiming to naturalize these two traditions of social ontology have been proposed in recent years: one drawing on a Gierean, model-based approach to scientific practice, the other drawing on inference to the best explanation. In our paper, we compare and contrast these naturalistic approaches to social ontology in terms of their capacity to respond to the aforementioned challenges. We also defend a form of methodological pluralism, according to which there are multiple different naturalistically acceptable approaches to social ontology, which emphasize contrasting procedural continuities between social scientific research and philosophical practice.
... A number of scholars voiced concerns about a range of aspects of structuration theory including whether the duality is plausible (Stones, 2005;Parker, 2006), that rules represent an oversimplification of structures (Thompson, 1989), that there is inadequate consideration of external structures (Archer, 1995) and that the duality of structure and agency are seen to only exist for routine matters (Mouzelis, 1991 and2008). Other critiques developed around the very nature of agency and structure, such as Roberts (2014) who suggested that the notion of 'active agency' should be further studied to explore potential impacts on structures within the web of position practices, where both human and/ or non-human agents play a role, and to address the issue of ethics underlying the outcomes of social change and inclusion (see also Stones and Jack, 2016). ...
The extensive literature on sell-side analysts makes little reference to equity sales as a significant economic actor in the field. Drawing on a recent field study, our empirical evidence identified equity sales teams within brokers, who promote research to external clients, as a powerful agent cluster in close time-space proximity to analysts. This paper sheds light on analyst-sales interactions, which we contend represent an important field condition. The study employs concepts from strong structuration theory, in particular position-practice relations, to develop a narrative about sell-side analysts’ and sales team positional obligations, privileges, power relations and matters of trust. Our study makes three contributions. Firstly, we identify the symbiosis embedded in the relationship between sales and research - analysts need equity sales to market their product, to positively influence client perceptions of analysts and to provide access to prized fund managers. In turn, sales need analysts to provide content for them to market. Secondly, integral to sales-analyst interactions is the provision of feedback, which causes difficulties in the relationship, leaving analysts vulnerable to sales influence. Thirdly, regulatory tension has changed sales-analyst interactions, and this can enrich our understanding of why analysts continue to publish commoditised research into highly competitive markets.
... A major preoccupation in sociology has been the attempt to rethink the relationship between human agency and social structure and move beyond the approaches discussed so far. A basic premise common to a number of prominent scholars is that social structure is both the medium and outcome of human behaviour (Archer, 1995;Bhaskar, 1979;Giddens, 1984). That is, humans are not social dupes, they do have agency. ...
People’s livelihoods involve entering into relationships with others. These relationships typically establish themselves as relatively stable arrangements; rule-structured interactions that we inherit, adopt and adapt. Examples include the rules and norms for owning and accessing land, selling one’s produce in the market, or running a taxi service. These arrangements, durable across time and space but always subject to change, are institutions. Yet exactly what institutions are and how they function differs according to the theoretical lens through which you view them. This chapter begins by providing answers from the wider literature to three fundamental questions about institutions. It proceeds to outline two schools of thought – Mainstream and Critical Institutionalism – that draw variously on these answers to develop their own distinctive approach. The chapter then considers livelihoods and institutions from the perspectives of the two schools. The discussion throws up questions about the nature of power, meaning and human agency, pointing to the centrality of institutions for understanding livelihoods in the Global South.
... According to Wikgren (2005) critical realism is a concept in the philosophy of science that started with the British philosopher Bhaskar's (1989) use of the concept in social theory. Wikgren (2005) goes on say that critical realism has subsequently been used by others such as Archer (1995Archer ( , 1996Archer ( , 2000; Sayer (1992Sayer ( , 1999; Layder (1994) and Collier (1994Collier ( , 1998. ...
Conversion from livestock and/or crop farming to game farming has been a notable trend on privately owned land in South Africa over the last decades. This change has been characterised by the fast growth of wildlife ranching, reflected in the annual increase in land enclosed by game fences and the high demand for wildlife which is being traded privately and at wildlife auctions. Key environmental and agricultural legislation has been passed since 1994 that impacts the wildlife sector, for instance, legislation on property rights, (re)distribution of resources, and biodiversity conservation in South Africa. The study sought to investigate the extent to which the state can impose effective controls over land use activities related to wildlife conservation on private land, and to explore in detail how governance processes actually work on the ground in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The study explores how the private game farming industry positions itself with respect to existing agricultural and environmental regulations, as well as how the state is responding to the challenge of competing needs over land and wildlife resources that is posed by the game farming sector. The basis of the study was to unravel findings that show interactions, discourses, policy positions, and power relations of stakeholders in the governance of game farming. Realising the importance of the link between environmental governance and institutions, the thesis uses the idea of institutional bricolage by Frances Cleaver to explore the governance of private game farms through various institutional arrangements. Cleaver contends that formal institutions created through abstract principles are not the primary means through which tensions inherent in the use of natural resources are resolved. Greater focus was therefore placed on how rules, norms and shared strategies get stitched together through repetitive interactions by actors involved in game ranching. Critical realism was the guiding ontological philosophy for this study. Data was obtained through in-depth interviews with key informants from major stakeholder organisations and communities linked to the private wildlife sector in KwaZulu-Natal province. I also collected data through visits to game farms and private wildlife reserves, and acted as an observer at game auctions, workshops, and conferences. Documentary evidence collected also served as primary data. Critical discourse analysis (which in this study also incorporates political discourse analysis) was the major analytical framework. Evidence presented in this study points towards the fractured state in the governance of the private game farming sector. The state is not a homogeneous and monolithic entity uniformly applying itself to the regulation of the sector. There is no clear direction on the position of private game farming at the interface of environmental and agricultural regulations. The state lacks a clear vision for the South African countryside as shown by the outstanding land restitution and labour tenant claims on privately owned land earmarked for wildlife production. Instead, role players in the game farming sector are using the available governance arrangements to position themselves strategically for their own benefit, even though some of their activities cause tension. In that process, the private wildlife industry has completely changed the landscape of nature conservation in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal the long-standing cordial relations between conservation authorities and private landowners have worked to the advantage of the private landowners. The study argues that this transformation of the institutional processes mediating the governance of the private game farming sector has been a long and enduring arrangement emerging organically over time. Changes in the regulatory regime through new laws, amendment of existing laws and unbalanced implementation of existing laws creates an environment of considerable uncertainty for the game farmers who are the major role players in the wildlife sector, yet within this context private landowners do retain significant space for manoeuvre.
... According to Wikgren (2005) critical realism is a concept in the philosophy of science that started with the British philosopher Bhaskar's (1989) use of the concept in social theory. Wikgren (2005) goes on say that critical realism has subsequently been used by others such as Archer (1995Archer ( , 1996Archer ( , 2000; Sayer (1992Sayer ( , 1999; Layder (1994) and Collier (1994Collier ( , 1998. ...
Conversion from livestock and/or crop farming to game farming has been a notable trend on privately owned land in South Africa over the last decades. This change has been characterised by the fast growth of wildlife ranching, reflected in the annual increase in land enclosed by game fences and the high demand for wildlife which is being traded privately and at wildlife auctions. Key environmental and agricultural legislation has been passed since 1994 that impacts the wildlife sector, for instance, legislation on property rights, (re)distribution of resources, and biodiversity conservation in South Africa. The study sought to investigate the extent to which the state can impose effective controls over land use activities related to wildlife conservation on private land, and to explore in detail how governance processes actually work on the ground in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The study explores how the private game farming industry positions itself with respect to existing agricultural and environmental regulations, as well as how the state is responding to the challenge of competing needs over land and wildlife resources that is posed by the game farming sector. The basis of the study was to unravel findings that show interactions, discourses, policy positions, and power relations of stakeholders in the governance of game farming. Realising the importance of the link between environmental governance and institutions, the thesis uses the idea of institutional bricolage by Frances Cleaver to explore the governance of private game farms through various institutional arrangements. Cleaver contends that formal institutions created through abstract principles are not the primary means through which tensions inherent in the use of natural resources are resolved. Greater focus was therefore placed on how rules, norms and shared strategies get stitched together through repetitive interactions by actors involved in game ranching. Critical realism was the guiding ontological philosophy for this study. Data was obtained through in-depth interviews with key informants from major stakeholder organisations and communities linked to the private wildlife sector in KwaZulu-Natal province. I also collected data through visits to game farms and private wildlife reserves, and acted as an observer at game auctions, workshops, and conferences. Documentary evidence collected also served as primary data. Critical discourse analysis (which in this study also incorporates political discourse analysis) was the major analytical framework. Evidence presented in this study points towards the fractured state in the governance of the private game farming sector. The state is not a homogeneous and monolithic entity uniformly applying itself to the regulation of the sector. There is no clear direction on the position of private game farming at the interface of environmental and agricultural regulations. The state lacks a clear vision for the South African countryside as shown by the outstanding land restitution and labour tenant claims on privately owned land earmarked for wildlife production. Instead, role players in the game farming sector are using the available governance arrangements to position themselves strategically for their own benefit, even though some of their activities cause tension. In that process, the private wildlife industry has completely changed the landscape of nature conservation in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal the long-standing cordial relations between conservation authorities and private landowners have worked to the advantage of the private landowners. The study argues that this transformation of the institutional processes mediating the governance of the private game farming sector has been a long and enduring arrangement emerging organically over time. Changes in the regulatory regime through new laws, amendment of existing laws and unbalanced implementation of existing laws creates an environment of considerable uncertainty for the game farmers who are the major role players in the wildlife sector, yet within this context private landowners do retain significant space for manoeuvre.
... Training programs therefore need to be offered specifically to new supervisors, and these should include both process and pedagogical support [107]. Training aimed at resolving low retention and completion rates ignores the heart of the problem, i.e., that supervisors operate within a structured and process-orientated system [109] which inhibits their ability to personalize the experience to the needs of the individual doctoral student as much as they may wish to. Supervision needs to provide a personalized approach which acknowledges the different abilities of each individual doctoral student so that a bespoke package of support can be delivered within the constraints of the overall process [22], and methods need to be found to enable this within institutional constraints. ...
A “doctoral student” is the term for a student undertaking the highest level of university degree (a doctorate). “Supervisor” is the term for the academic, or academics, who act as their guide. Unlike taught classroom-based degree courses, doctoral degrees in the UK are normally only, or mainly, focused upon a single intensive research study into a specific topic. Such degree courses facilitate the development of students into highly specialist autonomous researchers capable of independent thought. Typically, a blend of support is provided to each doctoral student which consists of an elective development program of research methods learning opportunities alongside dedicated supervisor support from one or more academic members of staff called “supervisors”. It is the expectation that each supervisor will act as a guide and mentor for the doctoral student, thereby enabling them to successfully complete their program of research. This entry relates primarily to the UK model of supervising a doctoral student. Doctoral programs in other countries may differ.
... In this, Kymlicka (2012) argues that despite the expanded concept of citizenship, some sub-groups are still disadvantaged compared to the dominant majority. These theories and their application thereof impact how leaders, both political and corporate, implement multiculturalism in their areas of leadership (Archer, 1995). If a leader chooses to treat every culture equally, most of the time, the minority cultures within tend to feel sidelined and that their views and ideas are not respected. ...
... The cultures identified in this study are the beliefs about the role of English in higher education, as well as the value that students do, or do not, attach to the indigenous languages of South Africa. Finally, agency is a person's (i.e., an agent's) ability to set goals and attempt to achieve those goals (Archer 1995). There are several examples of the participants' sense of agency, or rather lack thereof, from our data, but a useful example of students acting out their agency (their corporate agency) were the #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall movements when students combined forces, and their voices, to ignite social change. ...
The current decolonial commitments in Higher Education necessitate a need to deepen our understanding of the relationship between English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) and students' sense of belonging, their identity, and epistemological access. This article investigates how EMI influences students' personal and academic identities as well as their sense of belonging to the higher education space. Using student focus groups, this study is exploratory in nature and informed by the voices of undergraduate and postgraduate Humanities students at a South African university in the Free State. The responses were mixed, but there was general consensus that although English does have a place in higher education and can contribute to their sense of belonging, it also has an adverse effect on their identity; the use of indigenous languages provides them with greater epistemological access. A differentiated approach to multilingualism is a possible way forward.
... In the case of Taiwan, the traditional Confucianism value, including interpersonal harmony, plays as a cultural system that would interact with the social system, including conservatism. Just as the social-cultural interaction covered in analytical dualism theory (Archer, 1995), this interaction may result in the conservatives' hypocritical tendency in our research. Future research should explore the contradiction between keeping internal cognition consistent and assuring interpersonal order systematically by cross-culture and cross-societies samples. ...
In the modern public sphere, ordinary people may display hypocrisy in political participation, showing contradictory attitudes across different social issues. But there still exists another type of hypocritical attitude within one single issue, such as agreeing with LGBT rights but refusing to amend the current Civil Code simultaneously in the case of Taiwan. In the same-sex marriage legalizing process, the hypocritical attitude could be observed in Taiwan’s conservative campus, together with the explicitly prejudiced attitude. In this article, we explored the existence of the hypocritical attitude on this issue and discovered its psychological foundations. We conducted an online questionnaire survey in 2018 (N = 544) to measure Taiwanese participants’ attitudes toward same-sex marriage and their psychological dispositions of Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). Our results showed that while attitudes toward LGBT rights and special-law were negatively correlated, several participants showed the hypocrisy of positive attitudes toward the two sets of questions simultaneously. The hypocritical people shared similar psychological dispositions with the explicitly prejudiced people as high in RWA and SDO while differentiated from the LGBT-friendly people. Attitudinal hypocrisy and explicit prejudice constitute two sides of the conservative camp in Taiwan, which is based on the Confucianism cultural value of interpersonal harmony. The cultural and societal implications were discussed.
Globally, adolescents and young adults are calling for action from governments on global humanitarian crises, taking on leadership roles that have contributed to redefining leadership in terms of behavior and action rather than qualities and status. However, there is a significant gap with regard to the conceptual and theoretical understanding of how adolescents and young adults experience leadership. In this paper, we present the results of two qualitative studies that examined the phenomenon of leadership among adolescents and young adults. Study 1 involved interviews with young adult leaders to analyze the fit between traditional leadership theories and their experience of leadership. Following this, Study 2 utilized the results from Study 1 to design a diary study of adolescents attending a leadership program. Both studies revealed that leadership is experienced as a pathway that involves three mechanisms of transferability: sensemaking, action and reflection. The findings of the studies are contrasted with traditional models of leadership that underrepresent the developmental nature of leadership and the transferability of leadership skills across different environments.
The emergence of a ‘cyber-physical world’, defined as the profound entrenchment of physical and digital processes, has revolutionised modalities of production and consumption of products and services, radically changing the landscape for individuals, firms and organisations. Embracing this paradigmatic change requires a creative leap as the behaviour of agents, aggregated structures and their relationships have been completely reshaped. Up-to-date innovation policies suffer from cognitive rigidities that impede escape from traditional instruments and concepts. With this paper, we aim to fill this gap, conceptualising the disruptive emergence of the cyber-physical world and its impact on innovation policies. We use a two-step methodology based on the critical realist approach. The first step concerns the application of the explanatory model of social science to infer the causes, properties and consequences of the cyber-physical world. The second step exploits the results of the first as a departure point, using congruence analysis to demonstrate mismatches between existing innovation policy frameworks and the emergent cyber-physical world, and to propose new driving principles to reframe theoretical, methodological and strategic elements.
The current crisis of unsustainability has renewed academic interest in sustainable global citizenship. Classical approaches to this type of citizenship have turned out to be quite abstract, utopian, and naive. This article is a theoretical reflection on sustainable global citizenship from a critical realist perspective, with the aim of bringing realism and pragmatism to the personal and social transformations necessary to achieve sustainability. The contribution of this work consists of the proposal of a conceptual framework that is structured by the following five key dimensions of citizenship: governance, status, social-ecological systems, social conscience, and engagement. These dimensions have been interpreted and described from two core ideas of critical realism: the position-practice system and the seven-scalar laminated system. The main conclusions are that agency-structure dualism requires more comprehensive approaches that integrate self-awareness of all the components that intervene in the autonomous decision to act, and that include personal capabilities, the desire and motivation to get engaged, and the real possibility of participating determined by the social context and the personal situation. It is also necessary to increase the number of types of agencies, especially with the recognition of the group as a key entity. The resolution of the dichotomy on state-global scale relationships can be articulated by differentiating between government and governance, and the role of social innovation in the latter.
This research is a case study that explores and compares two Croatian corruption scandals, the Agrokombinat scandal from the 1970s, and the Agrokor scandal from the 2010s. These two companies are linked to one another: Agrokombinat served as a model for Agrokor, and the main protagonists of the two scandals, the two top managers of the companies, were father and son. The research aims to answer the following: what differences and similarities can be observed in the alleged abuses committed by the two managers and in their relations to the political elites? Can we identify patterns of path dependence on the example of two related companies? We aim to answer these questions by analyzing both archival sources of internal Communist Party documents, from the Croatian State Archive, and the public corruption narrativizations of the scandals from the media. More generally, we also aim to show the importance of learning the lessons from (business) history when operating in societies afflicted by political instability and informal practices.
This paper reports an empirical study on moral reasoning. It seeks to answer two questions: in the moral framing of tourism matters, what does this reasoning consist of? How are these elements mobilized by actors to reach moral pronouncement(s)? Through the means of group interviews, abduction and retroduction, this study finds that moral muteness (i.e. silence to socially unacceptable conduct) seems to be the moral pronouncement that the participants are likely to conduct in a condition whereby the social and cultural systems being perceived insufficient to protect individuals who pursue a righteous action. The analysis reveals that (1) moral template, reflexivity, self-efficacy and emotions are constitutive elements of moral agency; (2) these agential properties permit the emergence of four moral reasoning processes, which explain moral muteness.
This chapter is inspired by the webinar I was invited to give earlier in 2020 as part of the project Fair Data Cultures in HE. My doctoral research looks into the interplay between structure, culture and students’ agency in the context of open educational practices in HE from a critical realist perspective. Thus, this chapter is being addressed from that standpoint. That is, looking into the deeper levels of social reality where young people are embedded, in particular, students’ relationship with open and participatory tools in HE. I will explore how educators can offer pedagogical opportunities for open educational practices that enable students’ explorative and critical mindset, so that they transcend the blind acceptance of the socio-political structures within which they are embedded. In so doing, they can question apparatuses and structures that perpetuate mechanisms of surveillance capitalism (Zuboff, S, The age of surveillance capitalism: the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power. Profile Books, 2019). Hopefully, students will be able to shape an alternative world in which they reflexively engage with alternative and more holistic digital practices.
The objective of this article is to carry out a review of the links between institutional and post-Keynesian economics, in order to raise the possible compatibility and even complementarity between the two branches of economic thought. To this end, we first review the question of compatibility from the perspective of institutional economics and then from the post-keynesian standpoint. Next, methodological issues are addressed by presenting the essential elements that characterize post-keynesian and institutional methodology (and internal debates in this regard) and then by describing the areas of compatibility between the two. The final section presents the main conclusions and summarizes the basic elements that could constitute a theoretical framework of synthesis between institutional and post-keynesian economics.
Dieses Kapitel gibt einen Überblick über die wichtigsten intellektuellen Debatten und Forschungsergebnisse seit 1979 und fasst sie zusammen. Es zeichnet die verschiedenen vorgeschlagenen neuen Richtungen und ihre Herausforderungen für die etablierten Ansätze nach und zeigt, dass insgesamt eine Kontinuität in der Vielfalt zu erkennen ist. Zu den behandelten Themen gehören die Vielfalt der theoretischen Positionen, die Auseinandersetzungen über quantitative Methoden und die Forschung zu Gesundheit, Körper und Sexualität, Gesellschaftsschichten, „Rasse“ und ethnischer Zugehörigkeit, Kriminalität sowie Wissenschaft und Technologie.
This article provides a historical analysis of Norwegian Pentecostal and charismatic movements and their distinct character. The paper offers an overview of social, cultural, and theological factors that have influenced its historical development, and explores how key Pentecostal protagonists have responded to this context. The analysis shows how charismatic leaders, like Thomas Ball Barratt, exercise agency, but also how movements depend on systems of institutional practices that transcend the individual. This includes the evangelistic and prophetic practices that are associated with Pentecostalism. Nevertheless, the historical analysis also shows that these need to be balanced over time by doctrinal and pastoral practices, and vice versa. Finally, it is argued that a particular kind of charismatic, entrepreneurial, and missional spirituality has given classic Norwegian Pentecostalism its most distinctive shape.
This article investigates students' post-secondary education transition processes in Cameroon through the lens of agency. Situated in a country where the higher education participation rate is fairly low, our article explores how students agentically negotiate access to higher education within structural constraints of socioeconomic status and gender. Semi-structured interviews with 25 students from two secondary schools in Yaoundé, Cameroon were conducted. The findings reveal that students enacted the four modes of reflexives (Archer, 2003) dynamically and discursively, with specific manifestations of agency relevant to gendered and classed structures in Cameroonian society. In this paper, we propose a person-centred, empowering approach to supporting students in higher education participation. We further confirm the importance of non-universal, contextually-situated employment of Archer's (2003) typology of four reflexive modes.
Voices from gang-affected communities, Paul Andell observes that although, as the Children’s Society Look Closer campaign, (2021) notes, everyone has a role to play in protecting children and vulnerable young people from abuse and exploitation, statutory partnerships like Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hubs and Crime and Disorder Partnerships have been slow to implement relevant interventions. Sometimes, he writes, their efforts are not helped by the growing numbers of ‘gang experts ’who frame interventions on the basis of dated understandings of the additional risks faced by socially vulnerable young people in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The chapter presents several case studies to illustrate the realities faced by young people who become associated with drug-dealing gangs.
This paper explores the paradigm shift in social science research from positivism to the contemporary approach of indigenous research paradigms. The paper is based on relevant literature on paradigm shift reviewed. It begins with a discussion of Kuhn’s notion of paradigm and paradigm shift from its historical perspectives towards the contemporary advancements of alternate paradigms such as interpretivism, criticalism, post modernism and indigenous research paradigm. Every paradigm follows certain stages from normal science, crisis and revolution or a shift into a new paradigm. The contemporary literature on social science research reveals how decolonization occurs through indigenous research paradigms. The paper then delves into the concept of decolonization and the emergence of indigenous research paradigms. The paper also examines the implications and challenges of indigenous research paradigms, including issues of decolonization among the indigenous communities of the global south. The paper concludes by emphasising the significance of decolonizing research methodologies and identifying the perspectives of marginalized communities. The existing positivist paradigm has been challenged by the critical, interpretive, and post-modern paradigms for a better understanding of social phenomena. Although there has been a positive development in the paradigm shift in social science research, challenges such as the problem of representation and the critique of power and knowledge still exist to be addressed.
All nations are continuously learning how best to live with the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing organizational moral learning and Islamic spirituality perspectives, this paper proposes a learning framework called the whole-of-nation moral learning by spiritual hearts to understand the dynamics of learning and change in a nation tackling the pandemic. It proposes that to overcome the pandemic or any other crises, governance requires the combination of moral leadership and followership by spiritual hearts as agents for moral learning and change, supported by realigned and reconfigured systems for holistic growth. Brunei's journey in tackling the pandemic illustrates the framework.
There have been many criminals in human society, committing different crimes for different purposes. Their presence worries and frightens people and makes criminologists have an unusual interest in themselves. This article examines the specific causes of those areas that may induce and contribute to crime and to what extent they affect crime. Biology discusses their relationship from a physiological and pathological point of view and the relationship between biological factors and crime. Society discusses the relationship between social factors and crime from many aspects, such as social structure and education. This article does not promote social or biological determinism, preferring a holistic view of how crime occurs. At the same time, several examples will be given to illustrate whether the theory is still valid when applied to reality. After studying cases and analyzing factors, it is concluded that multidimensional factors such as hormones, brain damage, and genes lead to the possibility of a person's biological crime, and social structure, education, and other aspects determine whether a person will commit a crime.
We begin our discussion of social science by quickly reviewing our argument so far. We have introduced, as necessary conceptual tools for social explanation, five basic concepts — individuals, nature, culture, action and social structure. We have shown that each has its own relatively autonomous causal power, so explanations must show how they interrelate in particular instances. Our examples have shown that the explanatory power of each concept varies between cases. All five are necessary, but even where a concept is on its most favourable ground, it is never sufficient to carry the whole weight of explanation. We have argued for the importance of these basic concepts by illustrating their strengths and weaknesses as they are put to work. In this chapter we have to shift gear, from demonstrating the usefulness of the concepts, to enlarge on the social theory which informs our choosing them for our tool kit and lies behind our claim that they are all fundamental for scientific, social explanations. This will involve returning to matters briefly considered in the Introduction and becoming a little more abstract, but we hope that what you have read so far will now enable you to follow our argument.KeywordsEncapsulationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Psychology has become connected to the “memory boom” in research, that highlights the concept of social representations, defined as a shared system of knowledge and belief that facilitates communication about social objects where culture is conceptualized as a meta-system of social representations mediated by language, symbols, and their institutional carriers. Six articles on collective remembering, including survey results, text analysis, and experiments, are summarized in this introduction. All rely on content-rich meanings, embedded in sociocultural contexts that influence the results of the surveys and experiments. In the cases of Germany and China, the “historical charter” of the states in the late 19th century was ruptured, resulting in substantially different expressions of nationalism and national identity (in Germany) and filial piety and nationalism (in China) today. Surveys on the organization of living historical memory in Hungary and Finland found that the European Union formed an enduring social context for the formation of memory groups regarding recent history. Finally, in experiments, historical reminders are likely to be anchored in existing networks of meaning, and prime people about what they already believe, rather than exert independent causal effects. This anchoring of historical memory in communicating societies explains why the experimental results in this area are so inconsistent.
In sustainability science, the research is expected to go beyond disciplinary thinking and incorporate different concepts, methods, and data to explore nature–society interactions at different levels and scales. In realizing these expectations, reflexivity is often noted as an influential factor in inter- and transdisciplinary research processes in sustainability science, wherein researchers reflect on their assumptions, judgments, roles, and positions in the research processes, rethink their ways of knowing and doing, and open up new possibilities for actions. Despite the growing literature on the notion of reflexivity in sustainability science and how it emerges during the research processes, the debates and discussions are often based on lessons learned from sustainability research projects, drawing on individuals’ experiences and motivations. This paper aims to grapple with the notion of reflexivity from a structural point of view, which is less discussed in sustainability research, by drawing on critical realist literature. The paper first presents how reflexivity is understood and analyzed in inter- and transdisciplinary research processes by reviewing the recent studies of reflexivity in sustainability science research. Second, it highlights the knowledge gaps and the need to engage with an alternative view on reflexivity offered by Margaret Archer, one of the leading critical realist scholars. Third, it takes Archer’s framework on reflexivity into sustainability research to explain the causal mechanisms impeding the emergence of meta-reflexivity in the process of knowledge integration and production in contemporary marketized and managerialized universities. Finally, the paper argues that in establishing practices (modus vivendi) that could address the structural barriers (not observable challenges), we need collective agency. To this end, it discusses different collective initiatives and courses of action that could lead to the emergence of collective agency, capable of tackling the cultural and material barriers to reflexivity.
The dominant meta-theories in contemporary sociolinguistics include interactionism, social constructivism, poststructuralism and similarly relativist, anti-realist approaches (hereby grouped within the broader category of interpretivism). This paper argues that anti-scientific, anti-realist tendencies in contemporary sociolinguistics are ill-justified, confuse science with positivism, and weaken sociolinguists' necessary commitment to objectivity (hereby understood as commitment by scientists to explain the ontological order, or what exists regardless of whether it is known by people). The anti-realism in interpretivist sociolinguistics also considerably diminishes the ability of sociolinguists to, for example, make ontological claims about language and its users, study phenomena including linguistic hierarchies and linguistic/social oppression as systems, and develop robust and effective strategies for critical engagement and social emancipation. By reaffirming sociolinguistics as part of the scientific project, and by reframing sociolinguistics within critical realism (CR), this paper offers conceptual alternatives to the dominant interpretivist tendencies in contemporary sociolinguistics.
Emergentism is the view that there are certain real-world entities necessarily generated from and constituted by other entities but not fully reducible to them ontologically and/or epistemically. Emergence is thus a relation in which an entity (the “emergent”) is partially dependent on and partially independent of the entities with respect to which it is said to be emergent (the “emergence base”). The emergence bases provide the necessary but not sufficient conditions for the emergents’ existence or identity. Ontological emergence occurs when some real-world entity, such as an object, process, property, causal power, or law, is not fully (pre)determined or generated by its respective base entities. Epistemological emergence occurs when some real-world entity cannot be represented, predicted from, or explained by concepts, theories, law-statements, or models referring to its respective base entities. The emergence relation can be further conceived diachronically, as a process, and synchronically, as a distinctive ontic status. In the first case, emergence refers to the relation between a newly formed entity and its original emergence base, or to the relative independence of certain macro-properties of a system relative to many changes in its parts’ properties. In the second case, emergence refers to the emergent status of a system in virtue of its qualitative difference and relative causal autonomy, at any time of its development, vis-à-vis the properties and causal profiles of its contemporary parts. Finally, some emergentists also claim that ontologically emergent systems causally affect, constrain, control, or condition their own parts’ identities or behaviors.
This study explores the development of a cross-cultural primary ontological model that can help self-cultivation practitioners illuminate their path and help researchers identify the complex implications, context, and progression of self-cultivation in diverse cultures, especially those associated with Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Integrating self-cultivation traditions into social science research from the perspective of subject-object dichotomy is difficult. However, the assimilation of the mutual implication of subject and object in the Avataṃsaka worldview helps resolve this issue. This study employs the Buddhist tetralemmic dialectic (catuṣkoṭi), which goes beyond the limitations of dualistic and reductionist logic, to construct the Dialectical Mandala Model of Self-cultivation as the first of a two-step epistemological strategy. The model provides a universal framework for the multifaceted and systemic analysis of self-cultivation traditions so that future research can further develop additional culturally specific ontologies and psychological models in the second step of the strategy. As in a research map, this model could help researchers make ontological commitments, understand self-cultivation more comprehensively, and determine whether they have overlooked any research domain.
The Universal Credit reforms of the 2010s were a crucial turning point in the UK’s social security system. The reforms have been widely criticized in the literature for placing too much responsibility on welfare recipients, for using cultural explanations of poverty, and for prioritizing incentive-based solutions. This article argues that these common points of criticism actually point to demonstrable contradictions in the formation of Universal Credit, contradictions that are problematic regardless of the strength of the aforementioned criticisms. The focus is on “ontological contradictions”, which derive from fundamental assumptions about how individual agents relate to their material and ideational contexts. To make this argument, a critical realist framework is developed in a dialogue with existing poststructuralist approaches.
More than half of Australia’s prison population have experienced prior incarceration. Factors such as homelessness, mental illness, and poverty compound the challenges of reentry. Reentry support in Victoria, Australia is state funded, yet delivered via three non-governmental organizations. In this article we explore practitioners’ experiences of working with people who were incarcerated in the liminal phase of reentry—where one is neither prisoner nor citizen but in-between. Practitioners reported trust and rapport are the central pillars of practice and choose to utilize strengths-based approaches instead of risk-based approaches, but felt that service brokerage is impeded by associated professionals’ concerns around risk.
Syftet med artikeln är att belysa hur abduktion kan vara särskilt förtjänstfullt när forskningsintresset är didaktiskt. En av den didaktiska forskningens utmaningar är förutsättningar för vetenskaplig kunskapsproduktion som skapas i relationen mellan teori och praktikens skeenden. En särskild utmaning handlar om att tillgängliggöra didaktisk forskning för verksamma inom skolan och i den undervisning som bedrivs. Abduktion bidrar designmässigt till att reflektion över relationen mellan teori och praktik får en given plats i kunskapsproduktionen och att kunskapsbidraget kan formuleras som didaktiska modeller och begrepp som kan bidra i planering och analys av undervisning. I ett snabbt föränderligt samhälle ställs stora krav på att också utbildning och undervisning ständigt kan omprövas. De företeelser som studeras i undervisning är komplexa vilket skapar särskilda förutsättningar för hur de kan förstås och förklaras. Abduktion kan motverka entydiga förståelser och snäva förklaringsgrunder i forskning om undervisning genom att öppna för kontinuerlig utvärdering och utveckling. Ovanstående samband belyses genom illustrationer från två avhandlingar avseende forsknings-bakgrundens roll, urval och empiri, analysprocess, framställan i text och frågan om hur kunskapsbidrag kan gestalta sig. Diskussionen ägnas framför allt åt forskningens giltighet och tillgänglighet, och hur nyttiggörande av didaktisk forskning kan stärkas metodologiskt med hjälp av abduktion.
This special issue explores how philosophy of science matters for both research and social action in community psychology. It explores the complex issue of what might be appropriate philosophical bases for community psychology theory, research, and practice. In particular, it focuses on critical realism, a relatively new approach to the philosophy of science. In this introductory article, we start by discussing the importance of philosophy of science for community psychologists. We then situate our subject by exploring the history of paradigms in community psychology. We next offer a brief description of critical realism by describing its assumptions on ontology (nature of the world), epistemology (theory of knowledge), axiology (theory of values), and methodology (theory of action).
Przedmiotem artykułu jest zagadnienie cyklicznej zmiany społecznej zawartej w koncepcjach dwudziestowiecznych badaczy. Zmiana społeczna może być ujęta w formie powtarzającego się cyklu lub w sposób linearny. W pierwszym przypadku przebiega ona w taki sposób, że bieg wydarzeń powraca po jakimś czasie do punktu początkowego. Koncepcja cyklicznej zmiany społecznej ma długie tradycje sięgające antyku, jednak na przestrzeni stuleci podejście to nie znalazło wielu kontynuatorów. Celem niniejszej pracy jest nie tylko zaprezentowanie współczesnych teorii cyklicznych, ale także analiza mechanizmów podziału cykli. Zostaną w niej zbadane teorie Oswalda Spenglera oraz Arnolda Toynbee opisujące mechanizmy zmiany w odniesieniu do cyklu rozwoju oraz upadku cywilizacji oraz najbardziej uznane socjologiczne koncepcje cykliczne autorstwa Vilfredo Pareto oraz Pitirima Sorokina. W artykule zostaną także przeanalizowane dwie teorie cykliczne z przełomu XX i XX I w. Koncepcja cyklu pokoleniowego Neila Howe’a i Williama Straussa oraz koncepcja cykli sekularnych Piotra Turchina. Istotne jest także porównanie wskazanych teorii z dwudziestowiecznymi uznanymi w socjologii koncepcjami cyklicznymi.
The study of the future is a growing field of research transcending almost all research topics. Despite this rising interest, this field often seems fragmented into different approaches, as though the common object of study were vague or inconsistent. This article proposes a framework analytically distinguishing the three key dimensions of the future embedded in the course of action: expectations, imaginaries and narratives of the future. For each, a definition and a short introduction to their use in the social sciences are provided, together with a description of their capacity to shape the course of action and examples. Then, the scope condition of this influencing capacity is discussed, in particular considering its situational origin and the intergenerational links of the future, with climate change as a case in point. The conclusion highlights research perspectives and methods that can be employed.
The autonomous global system of science, grounded in collegial networks of scientists, publishing, and cross-border papers, is expanding rapidly and spreading to a growing number of countries. Strong national science systems have emerged outside Euro-America. Yet the multipolarization of economic capacity and scientific output plays out within a continuing Euro-American science world regulated by an inside/outside binary. Global science remains primarily Anglo-American in language, leading institutions, disciplinary and publishing regimes, agendas, and topics. Non-English and endogenous knowledges are excluded. The article critiques the world-systems theory interpretation of relations of power in science. The determinist center-periphery model fails to grasp the growth and pluralization of global science and its relation with national science systems. It normalizes the Eurocentrism it opposes, radically underestimating agency outside the “center” countries. The article argues for a more ontologically open theorization of global power in science, in terms of cultural hegemony, and for an ecology-of-knowledges approach.
Professionals and crafsmen are of great importance for the quality of work and in society. Together they realise good work - meaningful work of high quality. Furthermore, they play a paramount role in the search for for answers to big societal and ecological questions and challenges. Nothwithstanding this importance, professionals and craftsmen are under pressure in many organisations. Systems and processes aimed at control and efficiency often seem to take priority over organising the work from a professional logic. Cooperation between professionals or craftsmen does not bear fruit in many organisations and a dialogue about good work and what that entails often gets shunted to the bottom of an overfull to-do list.
This inaugural lecture is a plea for a revaluing of craftsmanship, professionalism and good work. This revaluing asks for the right conditions for good work, but starts with professionals and craftsmen themselves.
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