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Une ontologie réaliste pour la sociologie: système, morphogenèse et collectifs

Frédéric Vandenberghe

Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas de Rio de Janeiro (IUPERJ), Brésil, frederic{at}iuperj.br, Université pour les études humanistes à Utrecht, Pays-Bas

English

After presenting French readers with the main ideas of Roy Bhaskar's critical realism and of Margaret Archer's morphogenetic theory, the article sets out a complex and stratified ontology for sociology that makes it possible to displace, if not surpass, the former opposition between individualism and collectivism, while avoiding the twin stumbling blocks of reification and reduction. The article next introduces collective actors into society and thus develops a realistic dialectical analysis of collective subjectivity. Symbolic identification, socio-technical mediation and political representation are identified as three stages of group structuration, which gradually transform categories into structured, mobilisable groups capable of action.

French

Tout en présentant les lignes de force du réalisme critique de Roy Bhaskar et de la théorie morphogénétique de Margaret Archer aux lecteurs francophones, l’article propose une ontologie complexe et stratifiée pour la sociologie qui permet de déplacer, si ce n’est de dépasser, l’ancienne opposition entre l’individualisme et le collectivisme en évitant le double écueil de la réification et de la réduction. En introduisant, ensuite, les acteurs collectifs dans la société, l’article développe une analyse réaliste et dialectique des subjectivités collectives. L’identification symbolique, la médiation sociotechnique et la représentation politique sont identifiées comme trois moments de la structuration des collectifs qui transforment progressivement les catégories en groupes structurés, mobilisables et capables d’action.

Key Words: Collective actors • Critical realism • Margaret Archer • Ontology • Roy Bhaskar

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Social Science Information, Vol. 46, No. 3, 487-542 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0539018407079728
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