Social Morphogenesis, 2013

The rate of social change has speeded up in the last three decades, but how do we explain this? This volume ventures what the generative mechanism is that produces such rapid change and discusses how this differs from late Modernity. Contributors examine if an intensification of morphogenesis (positive feedback that results in a change in social form) and a corresponding reduction in morphostasis (negative feedback that restores or reproduces the form of the social order) best captures the process involved.  This volume resists proclaiming a new social formation as so many books written by empiricists have done by extrapolating from empirical data.  Until we can convincingly demonstrate that a new generative mechanism is at work, it is premature to argue what accounts for the global changes that are taking place and where they will lead. More concisely we seek to answer the question whether or not current social change can be regarded as social morphogenesis. Only then, in the nextvolumes will the same team of authors be able to remove the question mark.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Social Morphogenesis and the Prospects of Morphogenic Society; Margaret S. Archer.- PART I. SOCIAL CHANGE AS MORPHOGENESIS.- Chapter 2. Morphogenesis and Social Change; Douglas V. Porpora.- Chapter 3. The Morphogenetic Approach and the Idea  of Morphogenetic Society. The Role of Regularities; Andrea M. Maccarini.- Chapter 4. Emergence and Morphognesis: Causal Reduction and Downward Causation; Tony Lawson.- Chapter 5 Morphogenesis, Continuity and Change in the International Political System; Colin Wight.- PART II. SOCIAL FORMATIONS AND THEIR RE-FORMATION.- Chapter 6. Self-Organization: What is it, What isn't it and What's it Got to Do with Morphogenesis; Kate Forbes-Pitt.- Chapter 7. Self-Organization as the Mechanism of Development and Evolution in Social Systems; Wolfgang Hofkirchner.- Chapter 8. Morphogenetic Society: Self-Government and Self-Organization as Misleading Metaphors; Maragaret S. Archer.- PART III. SOCIAL NETWORKS: LINKAGES OR BONDS.- Chapter9. Network Analysis and Morphogenesis: A Neo-Structural Exploration and Illustration; Emmanuel Lazega.- Chapter 10. Authority's Hidden Networks: Obligations, Roles and the Morphogenesis of Authority; Ismael Al-Amoudi.- Chapter 11. Morphogenesis and Social Networks: Relational Steering not Mechanical Feedback; Pierpaolo Donati.