Archer, Margaret Scotford. (2008) Can explanation and understanding be linked? Sociologicky Casopis, Vol.44 (No.1). pp. 7-22. ISSN 0038-0288

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The problem of linking 'explanation' and 'understanding' remains unresolved - as Weber left it. This paper challenges the view that their reconciliation is impossible, as some theorists have maintained. Their case is that the entities involved - subjective meanings and objective relationships - are too ontologically different to be combined. From the stratified ontology of Social Realism, which acknowledges that different properties and powers pertain to different components and levels of social reality, this is no barrier in principle to their combination. However, in practice Realists have not given an adequate account of how 'subjectivity' and 'objectivity' are linked, which also weakens Realism's solution to the 'problem of structure and agency'. This paper offers a refinement: the human power of reflexivity is viewed as mediating between our subjective concerns and our objective social contexts. Reflexive deliberations account for what agents actually do - and they do not all do the same thing - under very similar social circumstances. The introduction of reflexivity enables the (socially) objective and the (personally) subjective to be combined into a single account of socially structured and structuring action.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Sociology, Social realism, Social structure, Explanation
Journal or Publication Title:	Sociologicky Casopis
Publisher:	Akademie Ved Ceske Republiky * Sociologicky Ustav
ISSN:	0038-0288
Date:	February 2008
Volume:	Vol.44
Number:	No.1
Number of Pages:	16
Page Range:	pp. 7-22
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Version or Related Resource:	An earlier version of this article appeared as ‘The Long March with a Key Problem: Can explanation and understanding be linked?’ pp. 61–76 in T. Abbas and F. Reeves (eds.). Race Relations, Immigration and Sociological Theory: Essays in Honour of Professor John Rex. London: I. B. Tauris 2007.
References:	Archer, Margaret S. 1979. Social Origins of Educational Systems. London, Beverly Hills: Sage. Archer, Margaret S. 1982. „Morphogenesis versus Structuration: On Combining Structure and Action.“ British Journal of Sociology 33 (3): 455–83. Archer, Margaret S. 1988. Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Archer, Margaret S. 1995. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Archer, Margaret S. 2000. Being Human: The Problem of Agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Archer, Margaret S. 2003. Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Archer, Margaret S. 2004. „Emotions as Commentaries on Human Concerns.“ Pp. 327–356 in Jonathan H. Turner (ed.). Theory and Research on Human Emotions. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Archer, Margaret S. 2007. Making our Way Through the World: Human Refl exivity and Social Mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Archer, Margaret S., Roy Bhaskar, Andrew Collier, Tony Lawson, Alan Norrie (eds.). 1998. Critical Realism: Essential Readings. London, New York: Routledge. Archer, Margaret S., Jonathan Q. Tritter (eds.). 2001. Rational Choice Theory: Resisting Colonisation. London: Routledge/Taylor and Francis. Bhaskar, Roy. 1989a. The Possibility of Naturalism. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Bhaskar, Roy. 1989b. Reclaiming Reality. London: Verso. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Oxford: Polity Press. Bourdieu, Pierre et al. 1993. La Misère du Monde. Paris: Seuil. Buckley, Walter. 1967. Sociology and Modern Systems Theory. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Campbell, Colin. 1996. The Myth of Social Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Collier, Andrew. 1994. Critical Realism. London: Verso. Frankfurter, Harry G. 1988. The Importance of What We Care About. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hollis, Martin. 1977. Models of Man; Philosophical Thoughts on Social Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hollis, Martin. 1989. „Honour Among Thieves.“ Proceedings of the British Academy LXXV: 163–180. Hollis, Martin, Steve Smith. 1990. Explaining and Understanding International Relations. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Hollis, Martin, Steve Smith. 1994. „Two Stories about Structure and Agency.“ Review of International Studies 20 (3): 241–251. James, William. 1890. The Principles of Psychology. Vol. 1. New York: Henry Holt. Porpora, Douglas V. 1989. „Four concepts of social structure.“ Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 19 (2): 195–212. Searle, John. 1999. Mind, Language and Society. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/30009

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item