Can contingency be ‘internalized’ into the bounds of theory? Critical realism, the philosophy of internal relations and the solution of ‘uneven and combined development’

Cooper, Luke

doi:10.1080/09557571.2013.814045

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…163-5) but, for continuity, we refer to 'roles' throughout. 7 A similar approach to critical realism and contingency has recently been provided by Cooper (2013), who argues that the failure of critical realism to take seriously the question of contingency derives from the analytic distinction drawn by critical realists between internal and external relations-with contingency characterised as an outcome of external causal factors acting upon internally related structures or processes. While the question of internal/external relations is too broad to adequately address here (see Ollman, 2003), it must be noted that critical realists do not ascribe contingency to external relations alone.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Using Critical Realism to Explain Indeterminacy in Role Behaviour Systematically

Luke

Bates

2014

J Theory Soc Behav

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We demonstrate in this article how critical realism can be used to explain indeterminacy in role behaviour systematically. In so doing, we both rebut various criticisms of critical realism made recently by Kemp and Holmwood and attempt to illustrate the weaknesses and absences of approaches that concentrate unduly on the collection of expectations of (different groups of) actors concerning roles and the behaviour of incumbents. Within a framework that recognises that structure and agency are ontologically distinct but necessarily empirically related entities, we argue that structures should be seen as sources of indeterminacy within role behaviour for at least four reasons: the co-determination of roles through the intersection of structures; conflicting role expectations caused by contradictions inhering within structures; asymmetries of power within social relations; and asymmetric repetition within structural reproduction/transformation. In light of this discussion of structural sources of indeterminacy, we then go on to demonstrate how critical realism is also able to analyse systematically the agential sources of indeterminacy within role behaviour and expectations through theories of psychobiography and reflexivity. We thus conclude that critical realism contains the conceptual tools required to illuminate the point(s) of intersection between structure, culture and agency which is central to understanding both role behaviour and the plurality of expectations concerning such behaviour.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Using Critical Realism to Explain Indeterminacy in Role Behaviour Systematically

Luke

Bates

2014

J Theory Soc Behav

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…6. U&CD is compatible with a research methodology based on path dependency and historical contingency; see Cooper (2013). 7.…”

Section: Conclusion "mentioning

confidence: 99%

Uneven Development and Non-Western Modernities: A Historical Sociology Guide to the New Turkey

Göksel¹

2018

NMES

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The term “New Turkey” refers to the ongoing formation of a new socio-political system by the incumbent AKP (Justice and Development Party) administration. A neglected issue within the existing literature is the study of New Turkey in the broad context of social theory beyond Turkish studies. Deterministic narratives of globalization have long presented Turkey as a “beacon of hope” in the Muslim world, a westernizing society that would supposedly combine liberal democracy, Islamic values, secularism and free-market capitalism. In contrast to these expectations, today the New Turkey constitutes an illiberal polity, a neoliberal economy based on clientelism and an increasingly Islamized social environment. How and why the Turkish modernization experience has gradually culminated in an authoritarian non-Western variant of modernity? This article utilizes a historical sociology approach based on the Uneven and Combined Development Theory (U&CD) to locate the origins of the unexpected rise of New Turkey in our age. It is argued that complex interactions between elements of Western modernity (e.g. secularization and democratization), various social engineering programs launched since the late Ottoman era and Turkey’s own path dependent trajectory have gradually produced a socio-economic and political model that radically diverges from the Western experience.

show abstract

“…The most striking recent recovery of the concept of U&CD has occurred in the field of international relations where it serves as a foundation stone of geopolitical economy, non-realist accounts of the existence of a multiplicity of states and socially-grounded interpretations of state Uneven and combined development 7 systems, contemporary imperialism and geopolitical and geo-economic conflict/co-operation (see Allinson & Anievas, 2009;Callinicos, 2009;Cooper, 2013;Desai, 2015;Harvey, 2003;Kiely, 2012;J. Rosenberg, 2010) This research is important in that it draws attention to the causal role of state actions and inter-state relations and counters the exaggerations of 1990s theories of globalization which suggested that increasing interconnectedness was leading to the replacement of the sovereign state system by a multi-layered, multilateral system of 'global governance'.…”

Section: Uneven and Combined Development (Uandcd)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These differing combinations of 'native ' and 'foreign', 'advanced' and 'backward', 'new' and 'old', 'modern' and 'traditional' relate to economics, politics and culture, and make development interactively multi-linear and geographically differentiated. Methodologically therefore U&CD theorizes not Uneven and combined development 9 just general mechanisms governing social life (necessity) but also the necessity of multiple outcomes (contingency) and the openness of processes of development (Cooper, 2013).…”

Section: Uneven and Combined Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uneven and combined development

Dunford

Liu

2016

Regional Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The concept of uneven and combined development (U&CD) interprets dynamic historical change and comparative geographical differentiation in terms of the coexistence of tendencies towards differentiation and equalization of the conditions of production, consumption, distribution and exchange, deriving from capital accumulation and political multiplicity. U&CD entails a conception of the global system as a constellation of interdependent, national institutional configurations and interests that shape international/national/regional trends. To explain geographies of industrialization and urbanization and current trends towards a pluricentric world, U&CD requires however a specification of the underlying causal mechanisms, examined in economic geography, international relations and developmental state theories.

show abstract

Can contingency be ‘internalized’ into the bounds of theory? Critical realism, the philosophy of internal relations and the solution of ‘uneven and combined development’

Cited by 18 publications

References 25 publications

Using Critical Realism to Explain Indeterminacy in Role Behaviour Systematically

Using Critical Realism to Explain Indeterminacy in Role Behaviour Systematically

Uneven Development and Non-Western Modernities: A Historical Sociology Guide to the New Turkey

Uneven and combined development

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About