Theorizing social change

Abstract

We outline primary features of a theoretical perspective on processes of social change in human systems that deals with broadly defined kinds of process, the nature of variants that are expressed and consolidate as change occurs, and, with specific reference to agency, the ways in which intentional actors are implicated in the changes that befall them. Our aim is to contribute to a general theory of process that is not prejudiced by the possible misrepresentation of outcomes arising in particular contexts (e.g. modernity), or the contexts themselves, as being causal processes. We direct attention to four problems of a methodological and ethical nature that may arise when analysts strive for generality. Résumé Les auteurs ébauchent les premières grandes lignes d'une approche théorique des processus de changement social dans les systèmes humains, abordant des types de processus définis largement, la nature de variantes qui s'expriment et se consolident au fil des changements et, en faisant spécifiquement référence àl'agency, la manière dont les acteurs intentionnels sont impliqués dans les changements qui les affectent. Notre but est de contribuer à une théorie générale du processus qui n'est pas biaisée d'emblée par une possible erreur de représentation des résultats qui surviennent dans des contextes donnés (par exemple la modernité) ou des contextes eux‐mêmes, en tant que processus causaux. Nous consacrons notre attention à quatre problèmes de nature méthodologique et éthique qui peuvent se poser quand les analystes tentent de généraliser.

Where all the rivers flow west: Maps, abstraction and change in the Papua New Guinea lowlands

“…In the years from 1986 to 1999 we observed a gradual shift from a relational to a categorical epistemology such that women, pigs and land were, increasingly, spoken of in categorical terms (Minnegal and Dwyer ; Dwyer and Minnegal , ). This shift emerged not in response to direct engagement with outsiders but, rather, in response to rumours about what the outside world offered and expected.…”

“…Social change is often represented, either explicitly or by implication, as entailing a shift from more concrete to more abstract representations and understandings of the lived world. Wilden (), for example, writes of shifts from analogical to digital logical types; Wagner () of shifts from figurative to literal symbolic expressions, Dwyer and Minnegal () of shifts from relational to categorical epistemologies, Giddens () of a process of disembedding and Hornborg (: 45) emphasizes the role of ‘abstract, totalising systems such as science or the market’. There is often a sense in such analyses that less abstracted social relations are being replaced by more abstracted ones, an implication that loses sight of the fact that the supposedly concrete and the supposedly abstract are ‘entangled in a dynamic coexistence’ (Stead : 233).…”

“…Both maps were drawn as assertions of rights to land and of rights to imagined benefits that would flow when, one day, exploitable resources—oil, gas, minerals or timber—were discovered on Kubo land. They were, however, underlain by very different understandings of land and ownership and each of them, though in different ways, gave material expression to the subtleties of thought and agency that underwrote the desire for, and the process of, change (Bell ; Dwyer and Minnegal ).…”

Empowerment or a double burden? Work, family, and agency among Albanian migrant women in Greece

“…While agency is understood as 'the capacity for autonomous action in the face of often overwhelming cultural sanctions and structural inequalities' (McNay 2000, 10), empowerment is viewed as the expansion of agency, power, or freedom of choice to shape one's life for the better (Narayan 2005). Moreover, Dwyer and Minnegal (2010) have offered important insights into the relationship between agency and empowerment, and into how agency triggers empowerment. Their approach has highlighted the importance of the social and cultural context in which choices are made.…”

Émergence

“…J'adopterai donc une approche pragmatique qui traite l'émergence comme un processus. Cette approche peut révéler les aspects instables et désta bilisants, mais aussi originaux, innovateurs et constructifs, de changements sociaux donnés (Dwyer et Minnegal 2010 (Speck 1915).…”