Morphogenesis Answers Its Critics by Margaret S. Archer

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9781009405454
Published:
31 Jul 2025
Format:
Paperback
Number of pages:
231 pages
Weight:
0.000kgs
Margaret S. Archer was responsible for important conceptual developments in critical realism and the structure-agent problem, but her explanatory framework often opposed those of other influential theorists. In this book she provides a response to critics of her work in the form of a set of discussions of published articles.
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.

About the Author: Margaret S. Archer was Emeritus Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick. She founded the Centre of Social Ontology at the Swiss Federal University, Lausanne, was the first woman President of the International Sociological Association and was appointed by Pope Francis (2014) as President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Science. In April 2023, she was awarded the British Sociological Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. She has written or edited 40 books and 95 articles and chapters including The Social Origins of Educational Systems (1979), The Relational Subject (with Pierpaolo Donati, Cambridge, 2015), The Reflexive Imperative in Late Modernity (Cambridge, 2012), Making our Way through the World: Human Reflexivity and Social Mobility (Cambridge, 2007), Being Human: The Problem of Agency (Cambridge, 2000), Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory (Cambridge, 1996) and Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach (Cambridge, 1995).

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Number of pages 231

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