Margaret Archer

O presente trabalho consiste em  uma  reflexão sobre  a ontolo- gia do sujeito implícita à teoria  da agência de Margaret Archer. Com base  nas  vertentes mais individualistas do pragmatismo, Archer apropria-se da  noção  de  conversações interiores a fim de destacar o caráter reflexivo e privado do self, revelando uma concepção de  sujeito hiperreflexivo e autocentrado. A herme- nêutica de Gadamer é apresentada como uma  alternativa a esta ontologia. Argumento que  sua  teoria da  interpretação repousa sobre  uma  concepção dialógica de  sujeito cujas  conversações interiores sublinham a centralidade das práticas na construção da  subjetividade. Ao estabelecer que  a (auto)compreensão de- pende de um encontro com a diferença e a alteridade, Gadamer, ao mesmo tempo que nega a autotransparência e o fechamento do sujeito, abre  a possibilidade  de (auto)consciência e reflexi- vidade na agência humana.

What happens to foreign politics when actors, things or processes are presented as threats? This book explains state’s international behavior based on a reflexive framework of insecurity politics. It argues that governments act on knowledge of international danger available in their societies, and that such knowledge is organized by varying ideas of who threatens whom and how. The book develops this argument and illustrates it by means of various European case studies. Moving across European history and space, these show how securitization projected abroad evolving – and often contested – local ideas of the organization of international insecurity, and how such knowledges of world politics conditioned foreign policymaking on their own terms. With its focus on insecurity politics, the book provides new perspectives for the study of international security. Moving the discipline from systemic theorizing to a theory of international systematization, it shows how world politics is, in practice, often conceived in a different way than that assumed by IR theory. Depicting national insecurity as a matter of political construction, the book also raises the challenging question of whether certain projections of insecurity may be considered more warranted than others.

Drawing on the work of Charles Taylor, Alasdair MacIntyre and Margaret Archer, this paper argues that the social contract theories relied on by many liberal thinkers to justify the exercise of political authority presuppose an individualist account of human nature that fails to appreciate the importance of caring relationships for the development and maintenance of moral agency.  The problem with liberal theories is not primarily, as many ethics of care theorists contend, their emphasis on rationality over emotion, but rather an emaciated view of rationality that lacks an inherent connection to substantive conceptions of the good, conceptions which are formed and sustained within a social context.

This article conducts a critical appraisal of ultra-realist criminology, an ambitious theoretical perspective seeking to offer a new epistemological grounding for criminological research. Heavily indebted to Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Žižek, and Adrian Johnston's psychoanalytic theory, ultra-realism, its proponents argue, also builds upon the ontological and epistemological principles of critical realism. This article contests this central claim, asking: what is realist about ultra-realist criminology? Through excavating the real(ism) of ultra-realist criminology, I argue that the project is characterised by key shortcomings pertaining to the espousal of Lacanian/Žižekian theory in its 'transcendental materialist' framework. Drawing on the principles of critical realism, I critique ultra-realism on three key grounds: (a) its construction of a reductive totalizing discourse where all crime can be traced back to a political economic center; (b) its failure to offer a truly stratified account of the criminogenic conditions that produce crime; and (c) its inability to escape the epistemic subjectivism of its key theoretical influences.

Nowhere does the need to appreciate a diverse range of different intercultural
experiences appear more obvious than in the context of intercultural education.
Yet, in times of neoliberal hegemony over educational politics and policies, less socioculturally
dominant and often more colloquial funds of intercultural knowledge risk to
suffer continued institutional marginalization and curricular obliteration. To counter
such forms of symbolic violence and to create learning environments that value a
wide range of processes of intercultural capital realization, intercultural education
needs to overcome ideas of “bad habitus” and “good reflexivity”, for they prematurely
discredit the value of people’s practical sense, while failing to problematize
the sociocultural contingency of their reflexive capacities. In a critical appropriation
of Bourdieu’s conceptualization of human agency, the present article highlights the
reconcilability of reflexivity and habitus, with a particular interest in processes of intercultural
capital realization and the (unfulfilled) potential of intercultural education

This article develops a distinctive critical realist analysis of structure and agency. It first describes Roy Bhaskar's account of critical realism; then discusses critical realism in general; next introduces Anthony Giddens's structuration theory and two particular applications of critical realism to structure and agency – those of Bhaskar and Margaret Archer; and, finally, presents a third such application based on the strategic-relational approach. The latter goes beyond conventional analyses of the duality, dualism, or dialectic of structure and agency by studying the recursive conditioning, mutual coupling, and complex co-evolution of structure and agency and, above all, by stressing the differential, spatio-temporal relationality of structure and agency. Its advantages over other approaches should emerge as we proceed. Critical Realism and Transcendental Naturalism Although 'critical realism' is a relatively recent term and the package of ideas linked with the Bhaskar 'school' is certainly distinctive and has its own logic, 2 many basic concepts and explanatory principles involved in critical realism have a longer history. A non-partisan, non-teleological genealogy has yet to be written. But Marx would figure as a major precursor both philosophically and in substantive theoretical terms; and others have independently 'discovered' several key themes articulated by Bhaskar and his associates. Moreover, while the initial revival of philosophical interest in the possibilities of critical realism in the social sciences in the last 30 years is strongly (and legitimately) associated with Bhaskar, his own work moved into a complex philosophical and methodological analysis of the dialectic as the pulse of 1 Andrew Sayer gave me valuable comments on this article; the usual disclaimers apply.

The objective of the master thesis presented here is to chart a concept of causality adequate for a historical materialism at pace with the times, uncircumventable for grasping complex social phenomena and relationships, their reproduction and transformation following Marx’s materialist notion of social reality. Thereby the main focus does not lie on Marx’s notion of causality, which is not closer explicated by himself as causality. Rather this in general (systematically) relatively little theorized notion within Marxist discourses will be discussed alongside theoretical approaches which seem to be most fruitful for this enquiry: Structural Marxism, Political Marxism and Critical Realism. By means of a brief outline of the Marxian preface of 1859, which is central to many Marxist approaches, it will be attempted to es-tablish the main field under discussion in terms of a history of theory. With respect to an immanently critical and comparative method, the thesis henceforth expounds the aforementioned theories while taking their respective notions of causality as well as, among other things, the interrelated understanding of social structure in relation to agency, the specific effectivities of the involved entities and the notions of lawfulness into account. What is hereby striven for, is to contour though the critical and comparative exposition of the said theories a non-empiricist, non-teleological and non-determinist notion of causality appropriate to the complexity of social reality, without taking a recourse to theoretically restricted positivist or historico-philosophical patterns of explanation and interpretation. In the end the critical impetus of this thesis is to accentuate the importance of causality in a critical theory of society after Marx.

In Europe welfare state provision has been subjected to 'market forces'. Over the last two decades, the framework of economic competitiveness has become the defining aim of education, to be achieved by new managerialist techniques and mechanisms. This book thoughtfully and persuasively argues against this new vision of education. This in-depth major study will be of great interest to researchers in the sociology of education, education policy, social theory, organization and management studies, and also to professionals concerned about the deleterious impact of current education policy on children's learning and welfare.

This article introduces Margaret Archer’s research on reflexivity to the power debate, alongside Pierre Bourdieu’s already influential concept of habitus. Both offer significant insights on social conditioning in late modernity. However, their tendency to the extreme of social determinism and voluntarism must be
avoided. To do so, this article adopts Haugaard’s family resemblance concept of power, describing habitus and reflexivity as an important new binary of power instead of a conceptual zero-sum game. This strengthens the explanatory role of agency, central to the three dimensions of power, without losing sight of constitutive, structural power. It also helps overcome the habitus–reflexivity dichotomy in social theory and provides a starting point to evaluate Archer’s work from a power perspective.

Since the 1980s microbreweries in Ontario have gained in popularity, winning over beer drinkers in the province and earning the support of the provincial government that funds the expansion of this creative industry. The Emergence of Ontario Microbreweries, adopting the theoretical perspectives of Margaret Archer and Michel Foucault, looks at the factors explaining the emergence of the craft beer industry. Through the morphogenetic approach, which sees enablements take shape through entrepreneurial pursuits, and disenablements through Foucauldian disciplinary processes, we observe that Ontario microbreweries were constrained by strict government laws. Enforced by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, these laws acted upon the individuals and their ability to consume alcohol both privately and publicly. Over time, the strict governmental regimes which constrained beer drinkers and micro-brewed beer producers gradually transformed to allow for the expansion of microbreweries that create unique, distinct and authentic products that have specific geographic links to community.

Although the understanding of social ontology has been the subject of intense debate among constructivists in the discipline of International Relations the prevailing view drawn from these debates tends to equate social ontology with an intersubjective ontology. This stand, which is prominent among the constructivists adopting an interpretive epistemology, obstructs the conceptualization of the objective aspect of social ontology which is independent of intersubjective meanings. This article aims to rethink the social ontology understanding prevalent among the constructivists. This article argues that social ontology cannot be reduced to an intersubjective ontology. The article, based on the insights provided by scientific realism, suggests that the prevalent social ontology understanding in IR is derived from the interpretive epistemological concerns of constructivism and that the conceptualization of the objective aspect of social reality would remain inadequate in case we equate social ontology with intersubjective meanings. Specifically, it is argued that if we try to reduce social structure into the level of practices constituted by intersubjective meanings, we are forced to reduce the significance of social conditions into the significance of norms, rules or discourses. On the other hand, a proper conceptualization of social relations in international relations like hierarchy and dependency, which cannot be reduced to intersubjective meanings, requires considering the objective dimension of social reality.

A small proportion of people claim to live and consume in ways they consider more sustainable in social and environmental terms. As yet, we do not know how many exactly, but possibly no more than 5‐10% of the population. The thesis intentionally focuses on this minority finding there are at least three reasons why it is interesting to do so. First because they are all but ignored in sociologies of practice in the context of sustainable consumption which considers this minority an insignificance and focuses almost exclusively on a ‘mainstream’ majority which more closely maps onto the stereotype of ‘consumer society’. Second because we think we can learn much from juxtapositioning this group empirically against the spectrum of theories of practice to devise more robust and appropriate theoretical explanation of how these subjects, in the context of everyday practice, negotiate the many interpretations and contradictions involved in trying to put ‘sustainability’ into practice. Third because by understanding them better we can reflect on theoretical, empirical and policy implications for nudging this minority of the population to a higher percentage.

The thesis sits at one end of a spectrum of positions in theories of practice applied to consumption, and in particular with a normative interest in sustainable consumption. It aligns with those who seek to re‐insert the reflexive agent into accounts of practice, with particular reference to the conceptual construct of the ‘citizen‐consumer’ and the context of political consumption (Spaargaren & Oosterveer 2010). Referring to theories of consumption, the thesis adds perspectives on how people negotiate multiple domains of consumption simultaneously since everyday practice involves interactions across multiple domains (such as eating, mobility, householding); and yet typically in theories of practice these are artificially separated into single domains. The study therefore considers the implications which domains have on how particular practices are carried out, first separately (per domain) and then as they come together (in a cross‐cutting domain perspective). The study then takes theories of practice as a springboard to develop a theoretical position and framework which better fits the narrated accounts of the 37 subjects who participated in this study. In iteratively co‐developing a theoretical framework and multiple ‘stages’ of empirical research (using grounded theory methodology) the study seeks to explain theoretically how subjects justify their ‘doings’ (drawing on ‘conventions’ and ‘orders of worth’ (Boltanski & Thévenot 2006)); how they appear to muddle through as best they can (introducing ‘bricolage’ (Lévi‐Strauss 1972)); and how subjects appear to devise decision short‐cuts when approaching decisions characterised by the multiple contradictions of sustainable consumption and incomplete or ‘too much’ information (introducing heuristics (Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier 2011)).

In joining calls to re‐insert the reflexive agent to account for how, when and why subjects enact changes towards trajectories which they consider ‘more sustainable’ in their own terms, the study takes inspiration from Margaret Archer’s morphogenesis approach (1998) and explores her model of multiple modes of reflexivity, announcing certain modes as ‘better fitting’ conditions of late modernity. The study finally finds that contrary to a notion of the un‐reflexive agent, the citizen‐consumer is able to articulate visions of the ‘good life’. In addition she is able to fold these visions back onto everyday practices performed in the past, present and future, laying out normative guidelines and positive accounts of how to achieve personal or societal well‐being and happiness. The overarching positioning of the study is much inspired by Andrew Sayer’s (2011; 2000) ‘normative turn’ calling upon social sciences to re‐instate research into the things about which people care. The study is therefore guided by the overarching question of how people translate their environmental and/or social concerns into the ways in which they live and consume.

Theorising the interplay of structure and agency is the quintessentialfocus of sociological endeavour. This paper aims to be part of that continuing endeavour, arguing for a stratfied social ontology, where structure and agency are held to be irreducible to each other and causally efficacious, yet necessarily interdependent. It thus aims not to be part of that ongoing journey in search of the 'ontological holy grail'. Instead, it offers a way of linking structure and agency which enables the practical education researcher concretely to examine their relative interplay over time. The methodological key to teasing out their relative interplay is held to be analytical dualism. It will be argued that such a methodological device is precluded by Giddens' structuration theory.

One of the arguments in the current debate on postmodern thinking goes around the cause of the crisis of modernity, because it is thought that once you know the source, it is possible to find a remedy. Although there are not a single cause but many, the author of this chapter suggests that the core of this crisis depends on the wrong way to understand subjectivity, or even better the relationship that each of us has with reality through consciousness. In fact, as he explains, consciousness allows us to enter into reality, whose three sides are: the own subject, the world and the others subjects. Therefore, to overcome the actual crisis is necessary to consider the subject not as a monad, but rather as a being who is essentially in relation, and that depends heavily on the structure and reflexivity of human consciousness.

Operating at the boundaries of philosophy of mind, cognitive science, politics and social theory, this thesis aims to develop an interdisciplinary model of the relationship between agency and structure. This thesis explores the question of why the agency/structure argument in the social sciences has not yet been resolved and argues for an interdisciplinary model of agency to be utilised by social theory. In the wake of poststructuralism there has been a gravitation back towards characterising the terms of this debate in more strongly dichotomous terms, arguing for the autonomy of agency in particular as a natural kind. This trend can be seen most clearly in Archer’s analytical dualism within the morphogenetic theory of social elaboration, where the desire for the clarity of dualist terms has become tangled with claims to ontology. I suggest that this tendency is not limited to social theory, but is characteristic of the neoliberal political environment from which such theory is being produced, understood and utilised.
Understanding the way in which our political and social context influences the ways in which we may understand or conceptualise a problem such as this, establishing the logical intuition and methods which we use to do this kind of deductive reasoning, is key for both performing the philosophical task of engaging in the agency-structure debate, but is thoroughly interrelated with how we need to conceptualise that relationship itself. It is both the method and the content, the ‘how’ and the ‘what’, of investigating the relationship between external social structures and the feeling of autonomous authorship and choice.
I argue that the political value system inherent to neoliberal and economic logics, which prioritise and naturalise individuality and autonomous, internal agentic capacity, works to make the experience of agency appear inevitable and universal. This thesis engages with the assumptions that underpin this illusion, looking to philosophy of mind in order to etch out a framework for understanding agency. This framework has two necessary components. Firstly, that it acknowledges the experience of agency as real, and that as a way-of-being-in- the-world it is necessary to continue to explore how individuals experience agency in their environments. Secondly, and most importantly, that this ‘realism’ about agency, does not inevitably indicate that agency has an ontological and epistemological reality that transcends the particular social and political contexts in which it makes sense. The thesis explores how the fundamental components of agency, intelligence and cognition are produced in the interrelationships between a subject and their physical, social and political environment. The argument presented is that deliberative consciousness and self-awareness emerge as a response to, and as an effect of, complex social interaction.
II
In contrast to Archer’s conception of the sui generis, causal efficacy of reflexive agency, this thesis argues that smooth, embodied, coping with the environment is the preferred mode of interacting with the world. By critically engaging with the idea that those studying social dynamics should conceptualize agency as internal and inherent the thesis explores and critiques the prevalent use of the term ‘agency’ within social theory, arguing that an explicit engagement with what agency is is an understudied but fundamental and necessary philosophical task within sociology. A strong position is proposed that social institutions not only precede the self-aware, experience of choice and autonomy, but actively produce it. This proposition stands in opposition to dualistic notions of agency and structure as they are conceived by critical realism. This has widespread political implications in a field that often assumes agency to be an intrinsic part of human nature that stands outside of socialisation. This goal of this thesis is to demonstrate that in order to understand the experience of agency within our particular contexts and how it manifests as a force for social change, social theory must engage critically with philosophy of consciousness.

Uluslararası Politikanın Yapısal Teorisi adlı bu çalışma, Mayıs 2016’da Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi’nde Uluslararası Politikanın Yapısal Teorisi: Kenneth Waltz ve Alexander Wendt’in Uluslararası Yapı Kavramsallaştırmalarının Eleştirisinden Yeni Bir Senteze Doğru başlığı ile doktora tezi olarak sunulmuştur.
Uluslararası politikayı sosyal olarak inşa edilmiş bir alan olarak görmenin sıradanlaştığı günümüz akademik çalışmalarında, yapısal soruları ve açıklamaları artık kültürel veya dilsel betimlemelere indirgeme eğilimi öne çıkmıştır. Bu genel eğilim karşısında sosyal ontoloji ve uluslararası yapının nedenselliği arasındaki ilişkisine odaklanan elinizdeki bu çalışma, Uluslararası İlişkiler teorisinde yapısal yaklaşımlarda önde gelen iki yaklaşımı (Neorealizm ve İnşacılık) karşılaştırmalı bir yöntemle ele almış ve yeni bir senteze yönelmiştir.

Several scholars and organizations suggest that institutional policy is a key enabling factor for academics to contribute their teaching materials as open educational resources (OER). But given the diversity of institutions comprising the higher education sector—and the administrative and financial challenges facing many institutions in the Global South—it is not always clear which type of policy would work best in a given context. Some policies might act simply as a " hygienic " factor (a necessary but not sufficient variable in promoting OER activity) while others might act as a " motivating " factor (incentivizing OER activity either among individual academics or the institution as a whole). In this paper, we argue that the key determination in whether a policy acts as a hygienic or motivating factor depends on the type of institutional culture into which it is embedded. This means that the success of a proposed OER-related policy intervention is mediated by an institution's existing policy structure, its prevailing social culture and academics' own agency (the three components of what we're calling " institutional culture "). Thus, understanding how structure, culture, and agency interact at an institution offers insights into how OER policy development could proceed there, if at all. Based on our research at three South African universities, each with their distinct institutional cultures, we explore which type of interventions might actually work best for motivating OER activity in these differing institutional contexts.

This paper constitutes an extended response to Athanasia Chalari's paper The Causal Impact of Resistance, which suggests that one may derive from internal conversations a causal explanation of resistance. In the context of our engagements with critical realism and digital research into social movements, we review Chalari's main argument, before applying it to a concrete case: the student protests in London, 2010. Whilst our account is sympathetic to Chalari's focus on interiority, we critique the individualism that is implicit in her argument, arguing that it emerges because of an underlying neglect of the relational aspects of resistance. Instead, we offer a relational realist analysis that treats resistance as process within an ontologically stratified account of reality that is mindful of the contingency of political acts. Taking this route, we establish resistance as an emergent relation, generative of distinctive “relational goods” in the context of collective action, which we locate at different levels of reality, as we move from an analysis of individual to collective reflexivity. In doing so we offer a sympathetic critique of Chalari, building on the thought provoking arguments contained within it, whilst also making a contribution to the theorisation of social movements and the “relational turn” within realist social theory (Archer 2010, 2012).

This paper presents a scoping review and thematic analysis of literature on university teacher educators' professional agency between 2007 and 2019. Its aim is to map empirical studies to date and identify gaps in research to inform a future research agenda. 28 articles that met the inclusion criteria were subjected to thematic analysis, using line-by-line open and axial coding. Four main interrelated themes were identified: (i) education policies, (ii) professional development, (iii) identity, and (iv) social justice. This thematic intersection reflects intricated factors promoting and hindering the achievement of teacher educators' professional agency. Findings suggest that more research is needed to develop theoretical and empirical understandings of the multidimensional character of their professional agency, and the myriad of opportunities and constraints impacting on it.

In this paper, I compare Margaret Archer’s and Erich Fromm’s theories of emotion. I discuss Archer’s view of the emotions as consciously appraised “concerns” related to human interaction with the three orders of reality: the natural, the practical and the discursive. I then turn towards Fromm’s view of the emotions as part of character structures relating to assimilation and socialization. While Archer’s view of the emotions relies on reflexivity – social emotions in the discursive and practical orders only become motivations as they are modified by consciousness – Fromm shows that not all social emotions are conscious.

This is a provisional draft of the Introduction to my new book, which I will publish with Cambridge University Press.

I’ve posted it here to get feedback before I finish it, hopefully in the next few months.

Feel free to use it for conventional academic purposes but please don’t misuse it. I’d be more than happy to receive criticism but am only interested in those of a constructive kind

Short introductions to the project as a whole are available in various papers on academia

https://lboro.academia.edu/DanielChernilo

Also, the following links may be of interest:

http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/18039

http://www.thesociologicalreview.com/information/blog/towards-a-philosophical-sociology.html

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.12077/abstract

You can reach me via email  D.Chernilo@lboro.ac.uk or twitter @danielchernilo

This article provides a critique of the concept of reflexivity in social theory today and argues against the tendency to define agency exclusively in terms of reflexivity. Margaret Archer, in particular, is highlighted as a key proponent of this thesis. Archer argues that late modernity is characterised by reflexivity but, in our view, this position neglects the impact of more enduring aspects of agency, such as the routinisation of social life and the role of the taken-for-granted. These concepts were pivotal to Bourdieu and Giddens’ theorisation of everyday life and action and to Foucault’s understanding of technologies of the self. We offer Bourdieu’s habitus as a more nuanced approach to theorising agency, and provide an alternative account of reflexivity. Whilst accepting that reflexivity is a core aspect of agency, we argue that it operates to a backdrop of the routinisation of social life and operates from within and not outside of habitus. We highlight the role of the breach in reflexivity, suggesting that it opens up a critical window for agents to initiate change. The article suggests caution in over-ascribing reflexivity to agency, instead arguing that achieving reflexivity and change is a difficult and fraught process, which has emotional and moral consequences. The effect of this is that people often prefer the status quo, rather than to risk change and uncertainty.

Este trabajo reconstruye la crítica general del conflacionismo hecha por Margaret Archer. En su programa de morfogénesis social la autora británica realizó un agudo diagnóstico acerca de los déficits fundamentales de las diversas construcciones del objeto sociológico y las cuestionó teórica y epistemológicamente a través de la figura crítica de conflacionismo, en la que distinguió tres modalidades (descendente, ascendente y central). Aquí las reconstruiremos por separado y analizaremos en esa crítica general la formulación in nuce de las bases teóricas o fundamento operativo del programa de realismo crítico morfogenético, que impulsará la autora con el ariete alternativo de establecer una sociología no-conflacionista, informada ontológica y epistemológicamente por el realismo crítico y metodológicamente por el dualismo analítico. Para llevar a cabo esta tarea asumimos la perspectiva sistemática de programas multinivelados y la categoría de estrategia de metateorización de tipo preludio de Ritzer.

Although attempts to complement the concept of reflexivity with social embeddedness have been made by many sociologists, theoretical tools for coming to grips with ‘temporally embedded’ aspects of reflexive activity have yet to make an entrance in the sociological arena. This paper intends to rectify this deficiency by spelling out how laypeople’s reflexive orientations draw on past lived experiences in the social world. Margaret Archer’s celebrated approach to reflexivity struggles to accommodate this dimension of reflexive agents since its clear ‘subjective–objective distinction’ is hostile to any talk of reflexivity as being historically constituted. A complementary account that allows us to map out and systematize temporal processes concerning reflexivity is therefore apt, an account that must address the fact that: reflexive activity does not start from scratch, in a vacuum, each time it operates; and, effects of previous lived experiences are at the heart of the mediatory process of reflexivity. By drawing on phenomenologically inspired sociology, and borrowing Schütz’s notion of ‘stock of knowledge,’ I intend to flesh out how my account of reflexivity can be reconciled with the durable effects of sociotemporal embeddedness without sacrificing the subjective and agentic qualities of reflexive activity. One immediate upshot of this ‘reconciliation’ is an empirical project that links a variety of reflexive orientations to multiple ‘time points’ (relevant lived experiences) and offers the prospect of penetrating deep into how socialization processes, identity formation and life trajectories actually transpire through temporality and reflexivity.

RESUMEN El artículo sostiene que en la teoría sociológica contemporánea es posible reconocer un conjunto de teorías operativas para las cuales el mecanismo generativo de lo social reside en el centro de su arquitectura teórica. Para estas teorías el concepto de operación juega un rol central en la descripción de la emergencia de la sociedad, mientras que el concepto de estructura funciona como un dispositivo limitacional y reflexivo que informa a la operación acerca de las posibilidades contingentes de la dinámica social. El artículo argumenta que la lógica de la práctica de Pierre Bourdieu, la dislocación temporal entre agencia y estructura, así como el rol intermediario de la interacción en Margaret Archer, y el concepto de comunicación de Niklas Luhmann como un evento de selección tripartito, representan opciones alternativas en la explicación operativa de la emergencia de lo social. Las conclusiones examinan los rasgos de las teorías operativas en la perspectiva de extraer las consecuencias para conceptos básicos de las ciencias sociales tales como tiempo, espacio, la distinción micro/macro y la posición de las normas en la teorización sociológica. ABSTRACT The article argues that in contemporary sociological theory it is possible to recognize a set of operational theories for which the generative mechanism of the social lies at the center of their theoretical architecture. For these theories, the concept of operation plays a pivotal role in describing the emergence of society, while the concept of structure functions as a limitative, reflexive device that informs the operation about the contingent possibilities of social dynamics. The article contends that Pierre Bourdieu's logic of practice, Margaret Archer's temporal dislocation between agency and structure as well as the intermediary role of interaction, and Niklas Luhmann's concept of communication as a threefold selection event represent alternative options in operatively explaining social emergence. Conclusions examine the features of operational theories with a view to drawing the theoretical consequences for basic concepts of social sciences such as time, space, the distinction micro/macro, and the position of norms in sociological theorizing.

Drawing on recent scholarship by Margaret Archer, Ulrich Beck, and Peter Berger, I summarize a core dynamic of modern experience through the concept of “religious reflexivity.” Religious reflexivity points to a deliberative and problem-solving dynamic that is a distinctive and unavoidable element of contemporary religious selves. Rather than rely on conventional processes of socialization, Archer, Beck, and Berger argue that we must acknowledge that segmented and pluralistic societies contain new sources for self-formation, self-promotion, and legitimization for new forms of self-construction. Religiously, there arise new religiosities, new imperatives for proper or desired religiosity, and new ways of legitimizing religious thoughts, practices, and even larger orientations. Religious reflexivity is so constant and inevitable that a crucial quality of future religious virtuosi will be this: Those who are most able to accommodate the varied pressures of modern society and craft a sustained—even elegant—capacity for consistent, legitimated, and reflexively responsive religious behavior will most readily attain the highest levels of religious prestige and influence.

Śledząc rozwój teorii w naukach społecznych widzimy dominację podejść jednostronnych, skupiających się na poziomie strukturalnym i ignorujących znaczenie podmiotowości lub przeciwnie, eksponujących rolę podmiotowego sprawstwa przy jednoczesnym pomijaniu wpływów strukturalnych. O ile obecnie możemy zaobserwować rosnące zrozumienie dla potrzeby równorzędnego uwzględnienia zarówno poziomu strukturalnego jak i podmiotowego, nadal nie udało się osiągnąć konsensusu co do tego, jakie relacje istnieją pomiędzy tymi poziomami. Wielu teoretyków podejmowało do tej pory nie do końca udane próby połączenia struktur z praktykami generując jedne z drugich, redukując je lub sprowadzając do siebie nawzajem. Dwa dominujące do chwili obecnej sposoby połączenia wpływów strukturalnych i podmiotowych mogą być opisane jako dualność i dualizm. Pierwszy z nich polega na konceptualnym zespoleniu struktury i podmiotowego sprawstwa; drugi zaś na ich konceptualnym rozdzieleniu.

Addressing university-based teacher educators’ complex work in current higher education contexts requires identifying the variables influencing their professional agency. However, limited related literature mostly falls within boundaries of the global North, while the specifics from those in the global South remain under-researched. Thus, focusing on Chile, a country with a highly marketised education, this study explores how teacher educators agentically navigate contextual and personal factors by drawing on Archer’s theory of reflexivity. Qualitative analysis reveals how participants’ reflexivity mediates factors (i.e. collegiality, precarity) and yields diverse forms of agency (i.e. weak, progressive), reflecting their professional identities, concerns and professionalism. The findings suggest that participants’ dominant communicative reflexivity relates to managerialism in education and Chilean society’s collectivist nature. Implications are presented for future research on broader structural and cultural factors influencing teacher educators’ reflexivity and agency and the role of policy implementation and institutional cultures in supporting their professionalism and careers.