Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Margaret S. Archer was a leading social theorist who was highly influential in the development of critical realism. Her work covered many strands of realist social theory including what has become known as the M/M (morphostatic/morphogenetic) approach. Morphogenesis refers to social processes that amplify deviations from a given social form or state (positive feedback) and morphostasis to ones that restore or reproduce these characteristics through negative feedback. The M/M approach is intended to be of practical and interdisciplinary use in the analysis of stability and change at all levels of the social order. It differs from approaches by popular theorists such as Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck and Pierre Bourdieu, who conflated 'structure and agency' by conceptualizing them as 'mutually constitutive'. In this book Professor Archer defends her explanatory framework through a series of responses to critics of her work and presents her reflections on debates surrounding it.