The transformation of order in narrative as discordant concord: Using Paul Ricoeur to explore narrative realism as part of social morphogenesis

0553834 - SOÚ 2023 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Ďurďovič, Martin
The transformation of order in narrative as discordant concord: Using Paul Ricoeur to explore narrative realism as part of social morphogenesis.
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. Roč. 52, č. 2 (2022), s. 260-278. ISSN 0021-8308. E-ISSN 1468-5914
Institutional support: RVO:68378025
Keywords : critical realism * hermeneutics * morphogenetic approach * narrative * Ricoeur * social interaction
OECD category: Sociology
Impact factor: 1.4, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jtsb.12319

Social interaction as the middle phase of the morphogenetic sequence described by Margaret Archer presupposes that interpretative activities go on between individuals and collectivities. Novel meanings emerge in social interaction and spur the processes of structural elaboration. The hermeneutics of actors (or agents) should be part of the morphogenetic explanatory framework. Narratives as a distinctive species of interpretation will then become more susceptible to a mode of analysis based in realism. By adopting Paul Ricoeur’s concept of narrative figuration (or threefold mimesis) for use in sociology, it is possible to embark on this task at the rudimentary level of intersubjective communication. The stories and anecdotes in which we describe episodes, events, and processes to others articulate and give order to our experience of time. When we are searching for concord in narratives to cope with discordant elements, we are participating in morphogenesis via the transformation of meaning. The complementary nature of Archer’s and Ricoeur’s conceptualisations provides an alternative to one-sided social constructionist accounts of narrative.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0328511