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In Defence of Social Structure
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 19:28 authored by William OuthwaiteWho is attacking it, and why? I am not concerned here with the status of particular putative social structures, such as the class structures which are taken to be fundamental determinants of social processes in many versions of Marxism, but with a more abstract question: that of the possible existence and causal efficacy of anything that might be called a social structure. This question is therefore located on the borderline between social theory and metatheory, or in Roy Bhaskar’s terms (Bhaskar 1975) between a scientific ontology, which asserts the existence of a particular entity or class of entities (subatomic particles, memes, social classes or whatever) and a philosophical ontology (a general doctrine such as materialism or idealism).
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
Studies in Social and Political ThoughtPublisher
Centre for Social and Political Thought - University of SussexPublisher URL
Volume
4Page range
3-15Department affiliated with
- Sociology and Criminology Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes