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.
Contents
1. The vexatious fact of society; Part I. The Problem of Structure and Agency: Four Alternative Solutions: 2. Individualism versus collectivism: querying the terms of the debate; 3. Taking time to link structure and agency; 4. Elision and central conflation; 5. Realism and morphogenesis; Part II. The Morphogenetic Cycle: 6. Analytical dualism: the basis of the morphogenetic approach; 7. Structural and cultural conditioning; 8. The morphogenesis of agency; 9. Social elaboration.
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