Description
Book SynopsisThe rate of social change has speeded up in the last three decades, but how do we explain this? This volume ventures what the generative mechanism is that produces such rapid change and discusses how this differs from late Modernity. Contributors examine if an intensification of morphogenesis (positive feedback that results in a change in social form) and a corresponding reduction in morphostasis (negative feedback that restores or reproduces the form of the social order) best captures the process involved. This volume resists proclaiming a new social formation as so many books written by empiricists have done by extrapolating from empirical data. Until we can convincingly demonstrate that a new generative mechanism is at work, it is premature to argue what accounts for the global changes that are taking place and where they will lead. More concisely we seek to answer the question whether or not current social change can be regarded as social morphogenesis. Only then, in the next volumes will the same team of authors be able to remove the question mark.
Trade Review“Social Morphogenesis is the first volume in a series of books, edited by Margaret Archer, that seeks to develop an explanatory framework that can account for how the rate of social change has ‘speeded up’ in the last three decades. … I found each discussion incredibly valuable. The contributions made here have sharpened my understanding of morphogenesis as a meta-theory, which is providing the grounds for a sensible discussion on the future direction of society.” (Tom Brock, The Sociological Imagination, sociologicalimagination.org, March, 2015)
“Margaret Archer's contribution to critical realism has been an important part of the recent progress of the field, and her theory of morphogenesis is key to this progress. Her recent volume, Social Morphogenesis, represents a rigorous and serious step forward in the project of articulating this theory as both a meta-theory for the social sciences and a potential contribution to sociological theory.” (Understanding Society, understandingsociety.blogspot.de, May, 2014)
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: Social Morphogenesis and the Prospects of Morphogenic Society; Margaret S. Archer.-PART I. SOCIAL CHANGE AS MORPHOGENESIS.- Chapter 2. Morphogenesis and Social Change; Douglas V. Porpora.- Chapter 3. The Morphogenetic Approach and the Idea of Morphogenetic Society. The Role of Regularities; Andrea M. Maccarini.- Chapter 4. Emergence and Morphognesis: Causal Reduction and Downward Causation; Tony Lawson.- Chapter 5 Morphogenesis, Continuity and Change in the International Political System; Colin Wight.- PART II. SOCIAL FORMATIONS AND THEIR RE-FORMATION.- Chapter 6. Self-Organization: What is it, What isn't it and What's it Got to Do with Morphogenesis; Kate Forbes-Pitt.- Chapter 7. Self-Organization as the Mechanism of Development and Evolution in Social Systems; Wolfgang Hofkirchner.- Chapter 8. Morphogenetic Society: Self-Government and Self-Organization as Misleading Metaphors; Maragaret S. Archer.- PART III. SOCIAL NETWORKS: LINKAGES OR BONDS.- Chapter 9. Network Analysis and Morphogenesis: A Neo-Structural Exploration and Illustration; Emmanuel Lazega.- Chapter 10. Authority's Hidden Networks: Obligations, Roles and the Morphogenesis of Authority; Ismael Al-Amoudi.- Chapter 11. Morphogenesis and Social Networks: Relational Steering not Mechanical Feedback; Pierpaolo Donati.-
