THE MORPHOGENETIC APPROACHMargaret S. Archer

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

The Structure of Social Theories

SO → → → EP → → → PST

Social Ontology Explanatory Practical

Programme Social Theory

Necessary Morphogenetic Research

(Bhaskar’s CR) Framework Question

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The role of Social Ontology in Explanation• All theories have a social ontology – implicit or explicit –

defining the constituents of the social world. • The S.O. performs a role of conceptual regulation

because it governs those concepts that are deemed admissible in description as in explanation (an atheist cannot attribute his well-being to divine providence)

• In itself, a social ontology explains nothing, although it may exclude certain explanations, cast in ‘improper’ terms.

• In itself, an SO tells no-one how to go about explaining anything. For this, need an E.P. It also explains nothing

• Explanations are the job of P.S.Ts.

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People on fixed incomes

The effects of inflation on those with fixed incomes.

Objective constraints are undeniable, despite their (mis)understanding

But their subjectivity explains what they actually do

Analytical Dualism & the Morphogenetic Approach

• Through analytical dualism we can separate ‘structure’ and ‘agency’ and examine their interplay to account for the structuring and re-structuring of the social order.

• Possible because ‘structure’ and ‘agency’ are different kinds of emergent entities, with different properties and powers, despite the fact that they are crucial for each other’s formation, continuation and development

• Secondly, ‘structure’ and ‘agency’ operate diachronically over different time periods because:-

- (i) structure necessarily pre-dates the action(s) that transform it and,

- (ii) structural elaboration necessarily post-dates those actions

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The basic Morphogenetic sequenceStructural Conditioning______________________________T 1

Social Interaction________________________

T 2 T 3

Structural Elaboration_____________________

T 4

[Analytical dualism because project all lines forward and backwards and they join up: we have broken the flow]

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How we work with a Research Question

Generally at T4 with something problematic

Usually move backwards to T2 –T3, asking ‘who did what’, ‘why’, ‘against what opposition’? Often not possible to find les responsables (MI) because compromise & concession involved (T4 change not exactly what anyone wanted)

Then have to backtrack further to T1 to the structural context of action - there is no contextless action – i.e. the source of motives, of positions prises, of ideological commitments, of strategies adopted and what was wanted (and not wanted), which moved agents to interaction. That cannot be understood without the prior structural context conditioning interaction between T1 and T2.

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Structural and cultural factors shape the social context for agents (T1)

‘These results of past actions are deposited in the form of current situations. They account for what there is (structurally and culturally) to be distributed and also for the shape of such distributions; for the nature of the extant role array, the proportion of positions available at any time and the advantages/disadvantages associated with them; for the institutional configuration present and for those second order emergent properties of compatibility and incompatibility …In these ways, situations are objectively defined for their subsequent occupants or incumbents’. Archer, 1995. Realist Social Theory, p. 201.’

Interaction T2 – T3

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At T4 • Morphogenesis/stasis at T4 is not just the

eradication/modification of previous structural/cultural properties and powers

• But, the ELABORATION of:-

- a new ‘relational organization’ with powers of downward causation

- of new constraints and enablements for different groups/ new opportunity costs

- new ‘generative mechanisms governing how things work

• Also, the double morphogenesis of agency, through re-grouping, even if these are the same people.

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Educational Interaction in Decentralized Systems

CentralGovernment

TeachingProfession

External InterestGroups

Educationalchange

Politydirected

PoliticalManipulation

PoliticalManipulation

ExternalTransactions

InternalInitiation

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Educational interaction in the Centralized System

CentralGovernment

TeachingProfession

External InterestGroups

Educationalchange

Aggregation of demands

Politydirected

PoliticalManipulation

PoliticalManipulation

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Working with Morphogenetic Cycles

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The Riddle of Society• What is it that depends on human intentionality but never

conforms to anyone’s intentions?• What is it that relies upon people’s concepts but which

they never fully know?• What is it that depends upon human activity but never

corresponds to the actions of even the most powerful?• What is it that has no form without us, yet which forms us

as we seek its transformation?• What is it that never satisfies the precise designs of

anyone yet because of this always motivates its reconstitution?

THUS, MORPHOGENESIS CONTINUES ……

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