The Causal Power of Social Structures: Emergence, Structure and Agency

by Dave Elder-Vass

The problem of structure and agency has been the subject of intense debate in the social sciences for over a hundred years. This book offers a new solution. Using a critical realist version of the theory of emergence, Dave Elder-Vass argues that instead of ascribing causal significance to an abstract notion of social structure or a monolithic concept of society, we must recognise that it is specific groups of people that have social structural power. Some of these groups are entities with emergent causal powers, distinct from those of human individuals. Yet these powers also depend on the contributions of human individuals, and this book examines the mechanisms through which interactions between human individuals generate the causal powers of some types of social structures. The Causal Power of Social Structures makes particularly important contributions to the theory of human agency and to our understanding of normative institutions.

Genres: Sociology, Philosophy, Social Science

234 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Bruce Lee Livingston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear writing, and clear thinking about emergence in social structures. "The person implements the structure's causal power.... human individuals, I will argue, both have causal powers of their own and implement causal powers that belong properly to higher social entities." (page 28)

Elder-Vass is still deepening the work of Roy Bhaskar and Margeret S. Archer, and in the thick of developing Critical Realism and Social Ontology. I wish American complexity theorists would pay attention to this burgeoning work.

[Solongo A]

Read Ch.1 and 2.