Morphogenetic Perspective Research Articles

Unfolding the contextual nature of enterprise social media use – a morphogenetic approach

ABSTRACT Previous research has identified various organisational factors that influence the use of Enterprise Social Media (ESM) applications in companies, as well as the outcomes of ESM use. However, these valuable contributions manifest themselves as isolated findings and sometimes provide conflicting results, for example, regarding the impact on organisational hierarchies. It appears that the context of ESM use, which may explain the diversity of results, is not yet sufficiently understood. Against this backdrop, we develop a theoretical framework that adopts a morphogenetic perspective and draws on organisational theory to conceptualise the interplay between four organisational context dimensions and ESM use. By applying this framework to an empirical analysis of a global organisation, we develop a systematic understanding of the contextual nature of ESM use. Our findings help to position and connect previous research on hierarchies, the role of management, and the transformative outcomes of ESM use.

Development and Natural Selection, the Historical Foundations of Mimesis in Animal and Plant Form


 
 
 In biology, mimesis includes imitation between individuals of the same species – the study object of behavioral sciences and neurophysiology – and mimicry between different species through traits or behaviours generally common to all individuals – to be analyzed from an evolutionary and morphogenetic perspective. Mimicry is widespread among representatives of many animal lineages, but has been also recorded among plants. Mimicry is very often adaptive, e.g. because of protection produced by the similarity of a harmless animal to a poisonous or otherwise dangerous one (Batesian mimicry, e.g., false vs. true coral snakes, or hoverflies vs. wasps), or by sharing of closely similar livery by animals protected by different weapons (Müllerian mimicry). Less conventional kinds of mimicry include the aggressive behaviour of some fireflies imitating the flashing of a different species on which they prey; the intraspecific Müllerian mimicry between larva and adult of some ladybirds; and the presence of identical compounds in the sexual pheromone produced by a female wasp and in the fragrance of the orchid species pollinated by the male. Morphological and biochemical similarity cannot be explained by selective advantage only. Even in cases of adaptive mimicry, shared developmental constraint may facilitate the evolution of similarity between model and mime.
 
 

A critical realist exploration of entrepreneurship as complex, reflexive and myriad

ABSTRACT This paper builds on previous studies that explore entrepreneurship from a critical realist morphogenetic perspective, and incorporates the neglected aspect of how agential reflexivity shapes entrepreneurship. Using the morphogenetic framework and its typology of reflexive modes, we analyse 78 work and life histories gathered from Sri Lanka with the aim of understanding reflexive entrepreneurial action. Our findings suggest that, while autonomous reflexives match the common understanding of entrepreneurship, i.e. that it is individualistic and wealth-driven, nevertheless the other reflexive modalities also exhibit entrepreneurship. For example, communicative reflexives may demonstrate entrepreneurship in achieving their aspiration to maintain a family firm or tradition, and meta-reflexives may demonstrate entrepreneurship in order to realize their value ideals. We conclude that the morphogenetic typology of reflexivity is a reliable guide to understanding subtleties associated with entrepreneurial action and resolving the ongoing debate about whether entrepreneurship is best understood as motivated by the individual or by society.

Systemic Intertextuality. A Morphogenetic Perspective

If late modern literary production is structured by any principles rendering order to the otherwise nebular character of the process, this is the idea of intertextuality that paves the way for the dissolution of well entrenched structures, literary conventions and institutionalized canons. By fostering and facilitating the erosion of boundaries between elite and popular culture, mechanisms of intertextuality show that literature is not only a fixed collection of texts, but also a dynamic social system including structured practices of production and reception together with their institutional, cultural and technological determinants. The paper aims to provide a sociologically-oriented model of intertextual relations taking place within the social system of literature. In this context, circulation, dissemination, and recycling of literary motifs is viewed from a perspective of morphogenetic processes which result in the structural elaboration and systemic change due to the mobilization of social, cultural, and economic capitals in an effort to alter pre-existent practices of signification. Consequently, literature is discussed as an intertextual system in statu nascendi, a sphere of social practices that knows no sense of institutional boundaries or structural constraints.

Social partners’ bargaining strategies in Germany and Spain after the introduction of the Euro: A morphogenetic perspective on corporate agency

This article addresses how far wage imbalances in the Eurozone can be imputable to intentional agency by collective bargaining organizations. Using Archer’s morphogenetic approach, we explain the agentic role of social partners in core (Germany) and periphery (Spain) cases, in relation with the respective collective bargaining regimes. We show that the capacity of macro- and meso-level organizations to effect wage-setting practices can be constrained inadvertently by contextual influences with morphostatic properties, generating constrained modes of corporate agency. Yet wage moderation is best understood as a form of agency itself, functioning ‘by being’ rather than ‘doing’, which over time can become more innovative. We contrast this finding with the less constrained capacity of more institutionalized corporate agents, such as transnational business corporations and central state agencies.

Wetland habitat stability assessment in hydro-geomorphological (HGM) and surface water availability (SWA) conditions in a lower Gangetic floodplain region of Eastern India

Floodplain wetlands in their optimum habitat condition act as the preventive mechanism from environmental degradation like pollution, lowering of groundwater table, flood, temperature control and others. Therefore, the protection and stability condition assessment of these wetlands are very much indispensable for the sake of the environment. In the present work, the habitat stability assessment of the wetlands of a floodplain region produced by River Ganga has been done considering the hydro-geomorphological (HGM) and surface water availability (SWA) parameters. The fuzzy classification (FC) and composite indexing (CI) method have been applied to perform the analysis. The result suggests that 16%–24% of wetland area is very highly prone to loss and 33%–36% area needs proper management whereas only 9%–11% wetlands are very highly stable. The wetlands have shown a rise in the average seasonal water level fluctuation from 2.18 m in 2014 to 3.38 m in 2018 which indicates more drying out condition during lean months. From morphogenetic perspective, nearly 43% of wetlands are riverine and in terms of HGM classification 77% of the wetlands are groundwater depressions (GWD). So, lack of water supply all throughout the year, seasonal water level fluctuation and absence of active river-wetland links are mainly responsible for the degradation of habitat stability condition of the wetlands. The results have been validated over different ground locations using kappa index and ROC curve method. It suggests that both these methods are very much accurate and between these two, FC method has given better result.

Differential heterogenesis and the emergence of semiotic function

AbstractIn this study, we analyse the notion of “differential heterogenesis” proposed by Deleuze and Guattari on a morphogenetic perspective. We propose a mathematical framework to envisage the emergence of singular forms from the assemblages of heterogeneous operators. In opposition to the kind of differential calculus that is usually adopted in mathematical-physical modelling, which tends to assume a homogeneous differential equation applied to an entire homogeneous region, heterogenesis allows differential constraints of qualitatively different kinds in different points of space and time. These constraints can then change in time, opening the possibility for new kinds of differential dynamics and the emergence of distinct entities and forms. Formally, we show that operators with different phase spaces can be assembled on the basis of a result of Rothschild & Stein (1976. Hypoelliptic differential operators and nilpotent groups. Acta Mathematica 137. 247–320). Furthermore, operators with different dynamics can be assembled by means of a partition of the unit.After stating the concept of differential heterogenesis in terms of contemporary mathematics, we show that this construction sheds light on the constitution of the semiotic function. In fact, both the Merleau-Pontian and the Deleuzian approaches share a common conceptualisation of the semiotic function and its emergence in terms of amorphodynamics of heterogeneous assemblages with a divergent actualisation. This divergent actualisation allows the co-constitution of various expression and content planes. Finally, we show that the divergent actualisation can be interpreted as the directions of principal eigenvectors of the actualized flow.

Morphological reconsideration of the araphid genus Pseudostaurosira (Bacillariophyceae), a revision of Gedaniella, Popovskayella and Serratifera, and a description of a new Nanofrustulum species

Background and aims – As a result of the description of many new species, reanalyses of type material, and information becoming available on valve morphogenesis in small araphid diatoms lacking a rimoportulae, the existing classification scheme at the genus level needs revision. Because morphological information has increased manyfold since the system provided by Williams & Round (1987), it may now be possible to find distinguishing characters in order to produce a more stable and useful framework, encompassing a morphogenetic perspective, which could then guide the placement of newly discovered taxa. This new framework could also be used to help assess the molecular information generated for the group, based on which many new genera are being erected, but perhaps without proper pondering of morphological data.
 Methods – A thorough review was made of available published information on the ultrastructure of small-celled araphid diatoms lacking rimoportulae. In addition, image databases were searched, and new light and scanning electron microscopical observations made of some hitherto undescribed species.
 Key results and conclusions – We provide a table of putative distinguishing features for nine genera (Nanofrustulum, Opephora, Pseudostaurosira, Pseudostaurosiropsis, Punctastriata, Sarcophagodes, Stauroforma, Staurosira and Staurosirella), together with a discussion on their value for discriminating these small diatoms using a morphogenetic perspective. Based on our findings, we amend the genus Pseudostaurosira, establishing wide and short vimines as its most characteristic feature. We use our system in describing a new species from Bolivia, which we place in Nanofrustulum based on its quasifract copulae, the distinguishing trait of the genus. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by its heteropolar valves, apical pore field features, and the multiseriate areolae. We also examine the three genera Popovskayella, Gedaniella, and Serratifera, the latter two recently erected based on molecular information. Since none of these latter genera pass the morphogenetic evaluation we think is essential, we place them in synonymy with other genera and provide the consequent nomenclatural changes. Finally, we make several new combinations in Nanofrustulum, Pseudostaurosira, Sarcophagodes and Staurosirella.

Habitus and reflexivity in tandem? Insights from postcolonial Sri Lanka

This article contributes to the unresolved concern about the relationship between habitus and reflexivity. Using Sri Lanka, a postcolonial social context, as the research ground, the article provides a contemporary interpretation of individuals’ reflexive and habitual behaviour that displaces Bourdieu’s concept of habitus as inappropriate for the representation of 21st-century social dynamics. While Sri Lanka is often labelled a traditional society, where habitual, routine, pre-reflexive action is thought to be more common, studies that question this generalised view appear to be largely absent. Therefore, based on a critical realist morphogenetic perspective that offers the analytical possibility of both routine and conscious action, this article investigates the role of habitus and reflexivity through 75 work and life histories gathered from Sri Lanka. The findings suggest that even the reproduction of traditional practices has increasingly become a reflexive task; thus, this work supports the position that habitus fails to provide reliable guidance to understand social action, even within a society labelled as traditional.

Morphogenesis versus structuration: on combining structure and action1

The fundamental problem of linking human agency and social structure stalks through the history of sociological theory. Basically it concerns how to develop an adequate theoretical account which deals simultaneously with men constituting society and the social formation of human agents. For any theorist, except the holist, social structure is ultimately a human product, but for any theorist, except advocates of psychologism, this product in turn shapes individuals and influences their interaction. However successive theoretical developments have tilted either towards structure or towards action, a slippage which has gathered in momentum over time. Initially this meant that one element became dominant and the other subordinate: human agency had become pale and ghostly in mid-century functionalism, whilst structure betook an evanescent fragility in the re-flowering of phenomenology. Eventually certain schools of thought repressed the second element almost completely. On the one hand structuralist Marxism and normative functionalism virtually snuffed-out agency-the acting subject became increasingly lifeless whilst the structural or cultural components enjoyed a life of their own, self-propelling or self-maintaining. On the other hand interpretative sociology busily banished the structural to the realm of objectification and facticity-human agency became sovereign whilst social structure was reduced to supine plasticity because of its constructed nature. Although proponents of these divergent views were extremely vociferous, they were also extensively criticized and precisely on the grounds that both structure and action were indispensable in sociological explanation.2 Moreover serious efforts to re-address the problem and to re-unite structure and action had already begun from inside 'the two Sociologies',3 when they were characterized in this manichean way. These attempts emerged after the early sixties from 'general' functionalists,4 'humanistic' marxists5 and from interactionists confronting the existence of strongly patterned conduct.6 Furthermore they were joined in the same decade by a bold attempt

Wege in die Stadt oder das Lesen der Stadt als Zeichen

The town, its streets and buildings are analysed from a dynamic point of view, which is a multiple one. It may consider the factors which led to the birth, growth and complexification of the town (the morphogenetic perspective). In this case the »meaning« of the town is reduced to basic environmental and social factors (forces, attractors). In the heart of a town relevant concentrations of urban meanings occur and are made visible in the architecture of the cathedral, the town-hall and so on. These demonstrate personal and political intentions (the cultural perspective). These constellations and forces are exemplified by the semiotic analysis of the Hanseatic City of Bremen. In a final part the destruction of a historical quarter is analysed as a negative semiosis, which has strange side effects. One can observe a later renaissance of destroyed sign-structures and conflictual interpretations of more recent urban developments. In general it can be shown that beyond individual sign users a town has its own collective »meaning« space. It reflects the affordances that places, buildings, and streets have for human users (their potential for actions, reactions, and interpretations) and contains intended messages exchanged in different periods between social groups in the city.

The Maka femur and its bearing on the antiquity of human walking: applying contemporary concepts of morphogenesis to the human fossil record.

MAK-VP-1/1, a proximal femur recovered from the Maka Sands (ca. 3.4 mya) of the Middle Awash, Ethiopia, and attributed to Australopithecus afarensis, is described in detail. It represents the oldest skeletal evidence of locomotion in this species, and is analyzed from a morphogenetic perspective. X-ray, CT, and metric data are evaluated, using a variety of methods including discriminant function. The specimen indicates that the hip joint of A. afarensis was remarkably like that of modern humans, and that the dramatic muscle allocation shifts which distinguish living humans and African apes were already present in a highly derived form in this species. Its anatomy provides no indication of any form of locomotion save habitual terrestrial bipedality, which very probably differed only trivially from that of modern humans.

Understanding cancer as a formless phenomenon

Complex living organisms possess qualities that cannot be reduced to the simple addition of quantities. Among such qualities are a specific form and a specific organization. Thinking about morphological aspects is a prime example of the qualitative approach to biological matters. Such a morphogenetic perspective has been continuously developed, both theoretically and experimentally, along the past century, even though it is now rather marginal within a mainstream dominated by molecular biology. However, the morphogenetic outlook can be applied to the understanding of complex biological phenomena, such as cancer. This phenomenon is currently explained as a cellular problem caused by specific gene mutations and/or specific loss of gene regulation. Nevertheless, cancer is a problem that affects the whole organism. Contemporary research based on the genetic paradigm of cancer causation has led to paradoxes and anomalies that cannot be explained within such a reductionist paradigm. Here it is proposed that real, non-experimental, sporadic cancer may be understood as a conflict between an organized morphology (the organism) and a part of such a morphology that drifts towards an amorphous state (the tumour). Thus, rare, sporadic cancer in children can be the result of early disruption of the developmental constraints before the organism has achieved its morphological maturity. While common sporadic cancer in aged individuals may ensue as a result of the weakening or exhaustion of the developmental constraints that determine the morphological stability of the organism, once the organism is past its reproductive prime.