Abstract
This chapter examines four distinct but interrelated mechanisms of social change operative today: Capitalist relations of competition; information and networks; global warming; and developments in international relations. Although it does not account for them completely, capitalist relations of competition, it is argued, play a large role in the emergence of the other mechanisms. These, however, are not simply effects but, it is shown, effects with their own causal powers for morphogenesis.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Appadurai, A. (2001). Globalization. Durham: Duke University Press.
Appiah, A. K. (2007). Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers. New York: Norton.
Archer, M. (1982). Morphogenesis versus structuration: On combining structure and action. British Journal of Sociology, 33(4), 455–483.
Archer, M. (1995). Realist social theory: The morphogenetic approach. New York: Cambridge.
Archer, M. (2012). The reflexive imperative in late modernity. New York: Cambridge.
Barber, B. (1996). Jihad vs. Mcworld: Terrorism’s challenge to democracy. New York: Ballantine Books.
Bhaskar, R. (1975). A realist theory of science. London: Leeds Books.
Bhaskar, R. (1998). The possibility of naturalism: A philosophical critique of the contemporary human sciences. New York: Routledge.
Blackburn, B. (2011). Clothing ‘Made in America’: Should U.S. manufacture more clothes? ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/MadeInAmerica/made-america-clothes-clothing-made-usa/story?id=13108258#.UB7HBEI1aFJ
Braverman, H. (1998). Labor and monopoly capital: The degradation of work in the twentieth century. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Castells, M. (1988). The rise of the network society. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.
CNA Corporation. (2007). National security and the thread of climate change. Alexandra, Va: CNA Corporation.
Coser, L. (1964). The functions of social conflict: An examination of the concept of social conflict and its use in empirical sociological research. New York: The Free Press.
Dahrendorf, R. (1959). Class and class conflict in industrial society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Drucker, P. (1969). The age of discontinuity. London: Heinemann.
Ehrlich, P., & Ehrlich, H. (1991). The population explosion. New York: Touchstone.
Foster, J. B., & Magdoff, F. (2009). The great financial crisis: Causes and consequences. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Gergen, K. (2000). The saturated self: Dilemmas of identity in contemporary life. New York: Basic Books.
Giddens, A. (1979). Central problems in social theory. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Giddens, A. (1981). A contemporary critique of historical materialism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gorski, P. (2004). The poverty of deductivism: A constructive realist model of sociological explanation. Sociological Methodology, 34(1), 1–33.
Gorski, P. (2009). Social ‘mechanisms’ and comparative historical sociology: A critical realist proposal. In P. Hedstrom & B. Wittrock (Eds.), Frontiers of sociology (pp. 147–196). Boston: Brill.
Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2001). Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Harré, R., & Madden, E. (1975). Causal powers. Totowa: Rowman & Littlefield.
Jessop, B., & Sum, N.-L. (2006). Beyond the regulationist approach: Putting capitalist economies in their place. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publications.
Lash, S., & Urry, J. (1987). The end of organized capitalism. Madison: University of Wisconsin.
Lim, M. M.-H., & Lim, C. (2010). Nowhere to hide: The great financial crisis and challenges for Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Marx, K. (2000). The eighteenth brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. In D. McClellan (Ed.), Karl Marx: Selected writings. New York: Oxford.
Porpora, D. (1983). On the prospects for a nomothetic theory of social structure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 13, 243–264.
Porpora, D. (1989). Four concepts of social structure. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 19, 195–212.
Porpora, D. (1993). Cultural rules and material relations. Sociological Theory, 11, 212–229.
Porpora, D. (2012). Social change as morphogenesis. In M. Archer (Ed.), Social morphogenesis. New York: Springer.
Reich, R. (1992). The work of nations: Preparing ourselves for twenty-first century capitalism. New York: Vintage.
Ritzer, G. (2010). The McDonaldization of society. New York: Sage.
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social theory and global culture. New York: Sage.
Sheller, M., & Urry, J. (2006). The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning, 38(2), 207–226.
Steinmetz, G. (2005). The politics of method in the human sciences: Positivism and its epistemological others. Durham: Duke University Press.
Strange, S. (1997). Casino capitalism. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Toffler, A. (1980). The third wave. New York: Bantam.
Touraine, A. (1971). The post-industrial society: Tomorrow's social history: Classes, conflicts and culture in the programmed society. New York: Random House.
Touraine, A. (1977). The self-production of society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Van Dijk, J. (1999). The network society: Social aspects of new media. New York: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Porpora, D.V. (2014). Contemporary Mechanisms of Social Change. In: Archer, M. (eds) Late Modernity. Social Morphogenesis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03266-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03266-5_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-03265-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-03266-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)