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Late Modernity

Trajectories towards Morphogenic Society

  • Book
  • © 2014

Overview

Editors:
  1. Margaret S. Archer

    1. Collège des Humanités, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

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  • Advances generative mechanisms that produce social change rapidly in late modernity
  • Discusses the possibility of transition to Morphogenic Society
  • Investigates of what is requires in order to justify the claim that morphogenic society can supersede modernity
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Social Morphogenesis (SOCMOR)

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: ‘Stability’ or ‘Stabilization’ – On Which Would Morphogenic Society Depend?

    • Margaret S. Archer
    Pages 1-20

  3. A Speeding Up of the Rate of Social Change? Power, Technology, Resistance, Globalisation and the Good Society

    • Tony Lawson
    Pages 21-47

  4. The Emergent Social Qualities of a ‘Morphogenic’ Society: Cultures, Structures, and Forms of Reflexivity

    • Andrea Maccarini
    Pages 49-76

  5. Contemporary Mechanisms of Social Change

    • Douglas V. Porpora
    Pages 77-91

  6. The Generative Mechanism Re-configuring Late Modernity

    • Margaret S. Archer
    Pages 93-117

  7. On the Validity of Describing ‘Morphogenic Society’ as a System and Justifiability of Thinking About It as a Social Formation

    • Wolfgang Hofkirchner
    Pages 119-141

  8. Morphogenic Society and the Structure of Social Relations

    • Pierpaolo Donati
    Pages 143-172

  9. ‘Morphogenesis Unbound’ from the Dynamics of Multilevel Networks: A Neo-structural Perspective

    • Emmanuel Lazega
    Pages 173-191

  10. Morphogenesis and Normativity: Problems the Former Creates for the Latter

    • Ismaël Al-Amoudi
    Pages 193-219

  11. Morphogenesis and Cooperation in the International Political System

    • Colin Wight
    Pages 221-240
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Keywords

About this book

This volume examines the reasons for intensified social change after 1980; a peaceful process of a magnitude that is historically unprecedented. It examines the kinds of novelty that have come about through morphogenesis and the elements of stability that remain because of morphostasis. It is argued that this pattern cannot be explained simply by ‘acceleration’. Instead, we must specify the generative mechanism(s) involved that underlie and unify ordinary people’s experiences of different disjunctions in their lives. The book discusses the umbrella concept of ‘social morphogenesis’ and the possibility of transition to a ‘Morphogenic Society’. It examines possible ‘generative mechanisms’ accounting for the effects of ‘social morphogenesis’ in transforming previous and much more stable practices. Finally, it seeks to answer the question of what is required in order to justify the claim that Morphogenic society can supersede modernity.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Collège des Humanités, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Margaret S. Archer

About the editor

Margaret Archer heads the project at EPFL 'From Modernity to Morphogenesis'. She was elected as the first woman President of the International Sociological Association at the 12th World Congress of Sociology. She is a founder member of both the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences and is a trustee of the Centre for Critical Realism. She studied at the University of London, graduating B.Sc. in 1964 and Ph.D. in 1967 with a thesis on The Educational Aspirations of English Working Class Parents. She was a lecturer at the University of Reading from 1966 to 1973. She is one of the most influential theorists in the critical realist tradition. At the 12th World Congress of Sociology, she was elected as the first woman President of the International Sociological Association, is a founder member of both the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences. She is a Trustee of the Centre for Critical Realism.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Late Modernity

  • Book Subtitle: Trajectories towards Morphogenic Society

  • Editors: Margaret S. Archer

  • Series Title: Social Morphogenesis

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03266-5

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-03265-8Published: 26 March 2014

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-35045-5Published: 03 September 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-03266-5Published: 10 March 2014

  • Series ISSN: 2198-1604

  • Series E-ISSN: 2198-1612

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 240

  • Number of Illustrations: 19 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Sociology, general, International Relations

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