Abstract
The chapter addresses what is regarded as the main overarching issue in the morphogenic society, namely the complex mix of openness and closure. Some crucial social mechanisms amenable to the morphogenic condition of society are examined, with the aim of understanding how they tackled the question of openness and closure in various contexts. The text is organized as follows: In Sect. 4.2, I lay out a working definition, and explain how such a concept can serve to make my substantive points. In Sect. 4.3 I quickly point out a few forms of social and individual life that seem to be disappearing. But the main focus is on the flipside of this argument, that is the identification of social phenomena that can legitimately be called new. I place some of them along a ‘scale of emergence’, interweaving levels of emergence with the levels of social organization (interaction, organization, and society) to present a landscape of social emergents. Based on such a picture, in Sect. 4.4 I present the example of social acceleration, highlighting its connection with the generative mechanism of unbound morphogenesis. In Sect. 4.5 I turn to the social environments which are responding to the increase in social complexity in the context of unfettered morphogenesis. Correspondingly, I focus on the notions of enclave, vortex and seed-bed as particular types of social environment. Then in Sect. 4.6 I present some illustrations of those concepts. Finally, in Sect. 4.7 some provisional conclusions are drawn about the emerging societal formation.
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Notes
- 1.
The classical reference here is obviously Archer (1995). As I usually do, from now on I will call it M/M, in order to maintain the principled symmetry between morphogenesis and morphostasis as equally possible outcomes of social processes, whose likeliness depends on the situational logics prevailing at given moments in time.
- 2.
This thesis has no empiricist legacy. What I mean is simply that there is always a huge number of generative mechanisms at play within a given society, and although they may all be interesting—depending on one’s research question—not all of them bear the same importance for social change and morphogenesis.
- 3.
Following Archer’s word use, and skipping too committal ontological implications, here I take the term ‘entity’ to mean nothing more than ‘something that exists’, something that takes place in the world ‘out there’.
- 4.
See the chapters by Margaret Archer, Pierpaolo Donati and Philip S. Gorski in Archer (2015), which provide fresh perspectives on this theme in a way that is compatible with mine in most respects.
- 5.
I do not review all the relevant nuances in the literature on mechanisms. For a discussion of the main epistemological issues concerning the ‘mechanistic’ view see Bunge (2004); the same journal issue includes important essays on the same topic by Renate Mayntz and Colin Wight. See also Hsiang-Ke et al. (2013), Craver (2007), Machamer et al. (2000). The work of Roy Bhaskar is obviously relevant as the original critical realist position on this theme. For a useful summary see Hartwig (2007, 57–62).
- 6.
My discussion here draws mainly on the following sources: Hedström and Swedberg (1998), Hedström and Ylikoski (2010), Demeulenaere (2011). For a critical view of the ‘analytical’ take on mechanisms see: Abbott (2007), Norkus (2005). A theory of social mechanisms within historical sociology is laid out by Gorski (2009). For a pragmatist view cf. Gross (2009).
- 7.
- 8.
Abbott (2007, 3, where ‘HS’ stands for ‘Hedström and Swedberg’; see also Gorski, in this volume. This is also why deterministic accounts of social mechanism are inevitably self-defeating.
- 9.
Cf. Darden (2006, 281).
- 10.
- 11.
For a refined treatment of this issue, which cannot be followed up here, see Abbott (2001).
- 12.
- 13.
See Donati, in this volume, for a relational theory of social mechanisms.
- 14.
Contra, Demeulenaere (2011, 19).
- 15.
See, however, Ylikoski (2011), according to whom such a claim would only apply to what he calls ‘A-mechanisms’, namely regular processes, and not to ‘B-mechanisms’, i.e. to more abstract causal schemes.
- 16.
Hedström and Ylikoski (2010, 59).
- 17.
For those interested in the multifarious sources of scholarly imagination, this title comes from a 2007 film directed by Susanne Bier. However, the film does not treat any big civilizational problem. The fire in the title is the one that destroys a house, in which a family loses most material and symbolic memories of its past life. In our context, the ‘fire’ is that of unbound morphogenesis, in its creative-and-destructive dynamism—destroying past forms of life that were familiar.
- 18.
This explains the tendency of modernization theories to become ‘reconstructive’. As a witness to this awareness, let me quote Donati and Maccarini (1997). Among other things, this introductory essay drew attention to the ironic fact that the only theories of modernity and modernization that escaped the fate of becoming memory driven utopian thinking were those—like Eisenstadt’s—leaning upon historical sociology (p. 10). The field of modernization theory is quite extended, and references would be far too numerous to mention. A good synthesis of the more recent debate within the ‘new’ domain of modernization theory can be found in Knöbl (2007).
- 19.
While some of these references could claim widespread validity (e.g. unease at wild multitasking or degraded working environments), others are somewhat country and culture dependent. To mention only two examples, anxiety about the risk of a nuclear catastrophe during the cold war, on one hand, was never great enough to give rise to a significant social movement in Italy, unlike many other Western countries, whilst the notion of the ‘first affluent generation’, on the other hand, clearly applies to Italy’s post-war economic boom, but not—or in a quite different way—to countries with a longer industrial history. This, however, should not detract from the meaning the examples cited in the text have for my argument.
- 20.
This is the title of an interview with Robert Bellah conducted by Nathan Schneider, and published in the blog ‘The Immanent Frame’. See http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2011/09/14/nothing-is-ever-lost/.
- 21.
This is a taxonomic tool elaborated in Maccarini (2013), to which I refer for a fuller explanation of its rationale and theoretical underpinning. The version presented in Fig. 4.2 is a new and amended formulation. Some word choice and a few substantive details differ from the former scheme, and even from Fig. 4.1. My treatment of the category of ‘emergent events’, that was added in this new version, is reminiscent of the work by Sewell (1990). From an epistemological viewpoint, the scheme in question is ‘analogical-topological formalism’ in kind, with claims of similarities and principles of variation. For these notions see Tilly (2004a: 5).
- 22.
For this definition see Clayton (2004, pp. 4–6).
- 23.
The idea that the capacity to grasp this effect qualifies any social theory that wants to call itself ‘relational’, and a first formulation of such a theory, can be found in the seminal work by Donati (1991).
- 24.
For a quick overview about the use of the concept of ‘civilization’ as a category of macrosociological analysis see again Knöbl (2007, pp. 62–70).
- 25.
The literature on such a vast array of phenomena covers various disciplines, and clearly exceeds any reasonable limit. I will only quote a few works, which played a crucial role in the development of my own perspective on the topics in question. On the concept of boundary change cf. Tilly (2004b). On smart governance see Willke (2007). On experimentalist organization, cf. Sabel (2006), Sabel and Zeitlin (2010). About new forms of social exclusion see Woodward and Kohli (2001). The phenomenon of new land enclosures is well documented in The World Bank (2010); http://www.landcoaltion.org/cpl/CPL-synthesis-report. For case studies see http://www.landcoalition.org/cplstudies, http://www.future-agricultures.org/index.php?option=comdocman&Itemid=971 and http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/publications; Anseeuw et al. (2012). About the mechanisms that tend to produce the QISM and the links between family organization and macro-social change see Axinn and Yabiku (2001). The de-generating tendencies of some Western institutions are studied by Ferguson (2011). An application to Italy may be drawn from Censis (2013). On the notion of ‘governance by standards’ see Thévenot (1997), Busch (2010). The connected themes of new legal frameworks, processes of constitutionalisation, and post-democracy evoke the work of such authors as Gunther Teubner, Hauke Brunkhorst, and many more. For human rights see Goodman and Jinks (2013b). The concept of social subjectivities is treated by Prandini (2013), Donati and Archer (2015).
- 26.
Signifying an extreme state where morphogenesis is no longer restrained, stabilized or counter-balanced by morphostasis.
- 27.
It would be possible to counter that society has always been conceived of as a temporalized order—not just in the context of modernity. But what surely changed was the kind of temporal imaginary involved—e.g. the notion of a ‘golden age’ could look at the past versus the future, social time could be regarded as cyclical versus linear, etc.. However, to say temporality ‘lies at the core’ of social (self)representations responds to this possible objection, in that modern society even lacks a definition except for a self-projection in (future) time.
- 28.
- 29.
Once again, there is a vast literature on the subject. See for example Young and Schuller (1988).
- 30.
Within the vast literature on social acceleration, the following discussion refers mainly to the following texts: Rosa and Scheuerman (2009); this text provides a brilliant anthology, some serious scholarship and a very useful bibliography on the subject; Rosa (2013); see also Havelock (2011), which has a positive take on the driving forces of acceleration, but still looks at things through the monochromatic lens of ‘progress’. Wajcman and Dodd (2017). For an example of how the theme has attracted attention in popular culture, see James Gleick’s Faster (1999).
- 31.
Ibid., pp. 5, 7, and 10 for the ongoing confusion. But see pp. 5–6, where Nietzsche and his idea of the eternal repetition of the ever-same are brought up. In the latter quote Rosa and Scheuerman seem to acknowledge that speed and change do not necessarily coincide.
- 32.
A classic locus for the critique of ‘the myth of cultural integration’ is in the well-known pages by Archer (1988).
- 33.
Rosa (Ivi) rightly quotes Goethe’s Faust as an example of this attitude. What is new about it today is that with Faust the search for fulfilment still took place through time (more precisely, always wanting more time, or never getting satisfied with the time one had), while the currently emergent ‘bulimic self’ wants to translate temporal sequence into co-existing simultaneity, and a linear, unique life course into full reversibility.
- 34.
In fact, many of our contemporaries experience their accelerated life course with profound discomfort, even though they could surely be said to share a secular view of their own fulfillment. In other words, the various steps from exclusive humanism, to the idea of flourishing, down to acceleration, are hardly semi-automatic mechanisms, and cannot be understood without (i) an adequate theory of culture, (ii) of personal reflexivity and (iii) of human fulfillment. On the possible link between exclusive humanism and acceleration, see Blumenberg 1986.
- 35.
Here ‘types’ are clearly different from Archer’s ‘modes’ of reflexivity, indicating a possible, wholly alternative form of reflexivity. One of them is what I call the ‘bulimic self’ (Maccarini 2018).
- 36.
Friedman (2006).
- 37.
This approach is consistent with Archer’s claim that social realism always respects the fact that such potentials may remain unrealized because of (a) countervailing mechanisms at work and also (b) unforeseen contingencies that cannot be excluded from the open system of society.
- 38.
To put it bluntly, although expert systems may well work synchronically and predictably when checking flights or e-finance operations, this does not mean that social morphogenesis will also display such a smooth and standardized process. More commonly, globalized systems are often ‘out of sync’.
- 39.
This statement is meant to include downward causation.
- 40.
This point needs clarification as regards the concept of social mechanism, and the notion of mechanism-related levels of (social) reality. See Sect. 4.3.
- 41.
My use of the term ‘conjuncture’ is similar to its common usage in critical realism. See Bhaskar (19983, 2008); Hartwig (2007, 76). With reference to the latter, I take the meaning of conjuncture to be a combination of events and circumstances that is critical or betokens a crisis, with some abstraction and generalization, namely as a set of mechanisms that are critical to generate particular social outcomes. See also Porpora (2015: 185–187), Steinmetz (1998).
- 42.
- 43.
Cf. Maccarini (2013).
- 44.
It remains a matter for future speculation whether or not there are inherent ‘limits’ to morphogenesis, after which collapses or catastrophes become necessary to rebuild capacity and to start a new morphogenetic cycle—e.g. a new civilization. The ‘society without an outside’ is precisely a society that has lost a quite specific (kind of) asset, namely the ‘space’ in which to expand and grow—the material social morphogenesis can burn, or the place where it can develop. But on this point metaphors still have to give way to sound conceptualization.
- 45.
For example, the 10th conference of the European Sociological Association, ‘Social relations in turbulent times’, Geneva, September, 2011, which obviously prompted a bunch of papers that took up such a metaphor in their titles.
- 46.
For an interesting literature review on this topic cf. Baburoglu (1988).
- 47.
The rate and extent of enclave formation depends on: (a) the abilities of members to differentiate among their functional and dysfunctional relations; (b) the speed at which they can break off undesired relations by becoming self-sufficient or minimally dependent on others with needed capacity; and (c) their ability to create and enforce boundaries. (McCann and Selsky 1984: 466)
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
The term ‘disemergence’ can be found in Jamie Morgan’s treatment of emergence, in Hartwig (2007: 166–167).
- 50.
But not exclusively. The same rationale seems to apply to political stability, institutional efficiency, and the respect of human rights as well as of a growing set of rules and procedures on the part of members—concerning issues as different as immigration, food safety, patent rights, criminal justice, waste processing, etc.
- 51.
This possibility is explored by Mann (2013, especially Chap. 12).
- 52.
Australia versus Indonesia and Pakistan versus India are only two of the most evident examples. In the cultural domain, the diffusion of values is suffering serious setbacks, while rapidly growing non-Western countries like Russia, India, and China become increasingly vocal in asserting their difference on many sensible issues connecting deep identity dimensions with concrete policy choices. The definition of the ‘family’ is a blatant example, although others may be brought up.
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Maccarini, A.M. (2019). Openness and Closure in Turbulent Times: Adaptive Responses to Unbound Morphogenesis. In: Deep Change and Emergent Structures in Global Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13624-6_4
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