In this final book by renowned sociologist Margaret S. Archer, her groundbreaking morphogenetic approach is defended, refined and extended through a series of provocative 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 the intricate dynamics of social stability and transformation. She demonstrates how the morphogenetic approach can be deployed across disciplines to illuminate the complex interplay of structural conditions and human agency 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. It is a fitting capstone to Archer’s remarkable legacy.
Full details on the publisher’s website: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/morphogenesis-answers-its-critics/B25DF9F62EE552BB112940540E211485#
There will be an online launch event on March 28th at 3pm-4pm GMT. Please fill out this form if you’d like to join: https://markcarrigan.net/get-in-touch/
Margaret Archer has created the most original sociological framework combining structure, culture and agency to help us account for social change as morphogenesis – change generating further change without moving in a single predefined direction. In Morphogenesis Answers Its Critics, she provides a reflexive view of how she made her way through the world of contemporary social sciences, controversy after controversy. It is both challenging and helpful for all narrow specialists (myself included) who try to rethink their practice in the context of contemporary challenges and transitions.
Emmanuel Lazega
For over two decades now, Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic approach to social explanation has sparked great interest but also opposition from different quarters. In this spirited volume, Archer responds to each of her major critics, making for a lively engagement that advances the conversation for both critics and supporters of the morphogenetic approach. Thus, for all engaged in the approach, whether pro or con, this statement is must reading
Douglas Porpora
Mark Carrigan 