Elder-Vass on the Causal Power of Social Structures
(2014) In Philosophy of the Social Sciences 44(6). p.774-791- Abstract
- In this review essay I examine the central tenets of sociologist Dave Elder-Vass’s recent contribution to social ontology, as put forth in his book The Causal Power of Social Structures: Emergence, Structure and Agency (2010). Elder-Vass takes issue with ontological individualists and maintains that social structures exist and have causal powers in their own right. I argue that he fails to establish his main theses: he shows neither that social structures have causal powers “in their own right” (in any sense of this expression) nor that they exist.
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4006495
- author
- Hansson Wahlberg, Tobias LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- causal power, critical realism, emergence, mereology, ontological individualism, social ontology, structure
- in
- Philosophy of the Social Sciences
- volume
- 44
- issue
- 6
- pages
- 774 - 791
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000344683900004
- scopus:84908512562
- ISSN
- 0048-3931
- DOI
- 10.1177/0048393113500213
- project
- Social Ontology and Theories of Persistence
- Metaphysics and Collectivity
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a1e1894d-3dd1-4cd1-868d-8b956a41a5a2 (old id 4006495)
- alternative location
- http://pos.sagepub.com/content/44/6/774.full.pdf+html
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 09:50:25
- date last changed
- 2022-01-25 17:13:02
@article{a1e1894d-3dd1-4cd1-868d-8b956a41a5a2, abstract = {{In this review essay I examine the central tenets of sociologist Dave Elder-Vass’s recent contribution to social ontology, as put forth in his book The Causal Power of Social Structures: Emergence, Structure and Agency (2010). Elder-Vass takes issue with ontological individualists and maintains that social structures exist and have causal powers in their own right. I argue that he fails to establish his main theses: he shows neither that social structures have causal powers “in their own right” (in any sense of this expression) nor that they exist.}}, author = {{Hansson Wahlberg, Tobias}}, issn = {{0048-3931}}, keywords = {{causal power; critical realism; emergence; mereology; ontological individualism; social ontology; structure}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{6}}, pages = {{774--791}}, publisher = {{SAGE Publications}}, series = {{Philosophy of the Social Sciences}}, title = {{Elder-Vass on the Causal Power of Social Structures}}, url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/1304165/4612198.pdf}}, doi = {{10.1177/0048393113500213}}, volume = {{44}}, year = {{2014}}, }