Full Description
In this final book by renowned sociologist Margaret S. Archer, her groundbreaking morphogenetic approach is defended, refined and extended through a series of engagements with her critics. Archer, a pioneer of critical realism, addresses key debates surrounding her work on structure, agency, and social change. Each chapter responds to critiques from a different scholar, using these exchanges as springboards to further develop her powerful explanatory framework. Through these lively dialogues, Archer elaborates her tools for analysing social and cultural dynamics. This book offers readers a unique window into Archer's thought as she clarifies, sharpens and expands her theoretical contributions in response to constructive criticism. It will be an essential read for scholars and students across the social sciences, and for anyone seeking to understand the forces that shape our social world and how we can reshape it.
Contents
1. The morphogenetic approach and its trajectory: a first-person account by the author; Part I. Culture: 2. When culture is marginalized; 3. Critical realists do debate culture; 4. Should concepts of culture give more prominence to critical discourse analysis; Part II. Structure: 5. Misrepresenting S.A.C. as dualism; 6. The majority of agents are the dead: implications for central conflation; 7. Can structuration and morphogenesis be compatible?; Part III. Agency: 8. Enter the passive agent; 9. Agents as individuals and dispositions as plural; 10. Two types of agency, but are they not related?
