The Causal Power of Social Structures: Emergence, Structure and Agency (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521194457)

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.

Author: Dave Elder-Vass
ISBN-10: 0521194458
ISBN-13: 9780521194457
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 06/17/2010
Pages: 234
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.13lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 04/01/2011