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13 August 2010: Dr Dave Elder-Vass' new book 'The Causal Power of Social Structures' published

Published by Cambridge University Press Dr Dave Elder-Vass' The Causal Power of Social Structures makes particularly important contributions to the theory of human agency and to our understanding of normative institutions.

The problem of structure and agency has been the subject of intense debate in the social sciences for over 100 years. This book offers a new solution. Using a critical realist version of the theory of emergence, Dave Elder-Vass argues that, instead of ascribing causal significance to an abstract notion of social structure or a monolithic concept of society, we must recognise that it is specific groups of people that have social structural power. Some of these groups are entities with emergent causal powers, distinct from those of human individuals. Yet these powers also depend on the contributions of human individuals, and this book examines the mechanisms through which interactions between human individuals generate the causal powers of some types of social structures.

'Dave Elder-Vass has written a book of exceptional clarity in defence of realist ontology with an unusual generosity of examples. His 'relational theory of emergence' is so restrained that philosophical opponents will find it hard to rebutt; whether his notion of 'relationality' is sufficiently rich may provoke more debate amongst sociologists.' Margaret S. Archer, University of Warwick