The Causal Power of Social Structures Emergence, Structure and Agency [Paperback]

This book provides a solution to the problem of social structure and individual agency, an intense debate in the social sciences.The problem of structure and agency has been debated in the social sciences for many years. This book offers a solution by examining the mechanisms that confer causal power on both individual agents and larger social structures, showing how social structural powers emerge from interactions between agents.The problem of structure and agency has been debated in the social sciences for many years. This book offers a solution by examining the mechanisms that confer causal power on both individual agents and larger social structures, showing how social structural powers emerge from interactions between agents.The problem of structure and agency has been the subject of intense debate in the social sciences for over a hundred years. This book offers a new solution. Using a critical realist version of the theory of emergence, Dave Elder-Vass argues that instead of ascribing causal significance to an abstract notion of social structure or a monolithic concept of society, we must recognise that it is specific groups of people that have social structural power. Some of these groups are entities with emergent causal powers, distinct from those of human individuals. Yet these powers also depend on the contributions of human individuals, and this book examines the mechanisms through which interactions between human individuals generate the causal powers of some types of social structures. The Causal Power of Social Structures makes particularly important contributions to the theory of human agency and to our understanding of normative institutions.1. Introduction; 2. Emergence; 3. Cause; 4. Social ontology and social structure; 5. Agency; 6. Normative institutions; 7. Organisations; 8. Social events; 9. Conclusion. Dave Elder-Vass has written a book of exceptionally clarity in defence of realist ontology with an unusual generosity of examples. His 'relalƒN