transformational model of social activity


transformational model of social activity

a model of social activity advanced by Bhaskar (1979) based on the Aristotelian view that any productive activity presupposes both an efficient cause and a material cause. In this model, the social forms pre-existing social action constitute the material cause, and social action the means by which this pre-existing reality is either reproduced or transformed (see also STRUCTURE AND AGENCY). It is on the basis of this model of ‘causal powers’ that Bhaskar bases his ‘realist’ argument concerning both the possibility and ontological limits of sociological naturalism (see also SCIENTIFIC REALISM). see also TRANSCENDENTAL ARGUMENT.