Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach

by Margaret S. Archer

Margaret Archer develops here her morphogenetic approach, heralded in Culture and Agency (CUP, 1988), and applies it to the problem of structure and agency, that is, how we both shape society and are shaped by it. Her aim is to capture the interplay between these two processes rather than collapse them into one, as has been the case with the traditional competing individualist and collectivist methodologies. The morphogenetic approach offers a new understanding of social change and poses a direct challenge to Giddens' structuration theory.

Genres: Philosophy, Sociology

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 1995

About the author

Margaret Scotford Archer was an English sociologist, who spent most of her academic career at the University of Warwick.