Morphogenetic Theory Research Articles

Empirical insights into the development of a service-oriented enterprise architecture

Organisations use Enterprise Architecture (EA) to reduce organisational complexity, improve communication, align business and information technology (IT), and drive organisational change. Due to the dynamic nature of environmental and organisational factors, EA descriptions need to change over time to keep providing value for its stakeholders. Emerging business and IT trends, such as Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), may impact EA frameworks, methodologies, governance and tools. However, the phenomenon of EA evolution is still poorly understood. Using Archer's morphogenetic theory as a foundation, this research conceptualises three analytical phases of EA evolution in organisations, namely conditioning, interaction and elaboration. Based on a case study with a government agency, this paper provides new empirically and theoretically grounded insights into EA evolution, in particular in relation to the introduction of SOA, and describes relevant generative mechanisms affecting EA evolution. By doing so, it builds a foundation to further examine the impact of other IT trends such as mobile or cloud-based solutions on EA evolution. At a practical level, the research delivers a model that can be used to guide professionals to manage EA and continually evolve it.

Explorations of the structure-agency dialectic as a tool for framing equity in science education

Explorations of the structure-agency dialectic as a tool for framing equity in science education

A social realist perspective on student learning in higher education: the morphogenesis of agency

Contemporary critiques of student learning research call for new theoretical and methodological approaches. This article proposes a social realist approach to this research, using the morphogenetic theory of sociologist Margaret Archer. The applicability of this approach is demonstrated by reference to an empirical study of engineering students at a South African university, using narrative analysis. In the article itself, two narratives are given in some detail, illustrating the key outlines of the analysis. Students’ emerging personal identities are shown to be highly dependent on their social backgrounds, yet when in the university the possibilities for the morphogenesis of student agency are very constrained. A critical interrogation of these findings proposes that a true higher education should facilitate the development of an enlarged sense of agency for students.

Transformative Capacity of Entrepreneurship Education in Two Different Cultural Settings — Morphogenetic Analysis of Egypt and Finland

In this paper we investigate the dynamics of the transformative capacity of entrepreneurship education by studying the interplay between structure (society and the education system) and agency (individuals — students) that takes place in two different cultural settings: Finland and Egypt. By adopting the morphogenetic theory and by combining the etic-emic approach we compare society and the education system in these countries, and analyse Finnish and Egyptian students' views on entrepreneurship. The results indicate that structural conditioning is strong in both societies and students' views tend to follow the national policy rather than show any tendency to transform it. Thus the national policy may be an efficient tool with which to advance entrepreneurship education. The findings lead to the anticipation that while in Egypt entrepreneurship education offers opportunities for morphogenesis within and by crossing the borders of the social classes, in Finland morphostasis is more likely to take place in the future.

A Critical Realist Perspective of Enterprise Architecture Evolution: Conditioning and Outcomes

This paper investigates how Enterprise Architecture (EA) evolves due to emerging trends. It specifically explores how EA integrates the Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). Archer’s Morphogenetic theory is used as an analytical approach to distinguish the architectural conditions under which SOA is introduced, to study the relationships between these conditions and SOA introduction, and to reflect on EA evolution (elaborations) that then take place. The paper focuses on reasons for why EA evolution could take place, or not and what architectural changes could happen due to SOA integration. The research builds on sound theoretical foundations to discuss EA evolution in a field that often lacks a solid theoretical groundwork. Specifically, it proposes that critical realism, using the morphogenetic theory, can provide a useful theoretical foundation to study enterprise architecture (EA) evolution. The initial results of a literature review (a-priori model) were extended using explorative interviews. The findings of this study are threefold. First, there are five different levels of EA-SOA integration outcomes. Second, a mature EA, flexible and well-defined EA framework and comprehensive objectives of EA improve the integration outcomes. Third, the analytical separation using Archer’s theory is helpful in order to understand how these different integration outcomes are generated.

For “Central Conflation”

Taking a side in the debate over ontological emergentism in social theory, this article defends an outlook that Margaret S. Archer has dubbed “central conflation”: an antidualistic position appreciating the interdependency of agency and structure, individuals and society. This has been a popular outlook in recent years, advocated broadly by such theorists as Pierre Bourdieu, Randall Collins, and Anthony Giddens. However, antidualism has been challenged by those who believe the key to success in social science lies in level-ontological emergentism. Archer’s own morphogenetic theory is an explicitly dualist version of that approach. I answer Archer’s arguments for emergentism, in so doing clearing a path for the even fuller acceptance of antidualism by theorists.

Chemotaxis migration and morphogenesis of living colonies

Development of forms in living organisms is complex and fascinating. Morphogenetic theories that investigate these shapes range from discrete to continuous models, from the variational elasticity to time-dependent fluid approach. Here a mixture model is chosen to describe the mass transport in a morphogenetic gradient: it gives a mathematical description of a mixture involving several constituents in mechanical interactions. This model, which is highly flexible can incorporate many biological processes but also complex interactions between cells as well as between cells and their environment. We use this model to derive a free-boundary problem easier to handle analytically. We solve it in the simplest geometry: an infinite linear front advancing with a constant velocity. In all the cases investigated here as the 3 D diffusion, the increase of mitotic activity at the border, nonlinear laws for the uptake of morphogens or for the mobility coefficient, a planar front exists above a critical threshold for the mobility coefficient but it becomes unstable just above the threshold at long wavelengths due to the existence of a Goldstone mode. This explains why sparsely bacteria exhibit dendritic patterns experimentally in opposition to other colonies such as biofilms and epithelia which are more compact. In the most unstable situation, where all the laws: diffusion, chemotaxis driving and chemoattractant uptake are linear, we show also that the system can recover a dynamic stability. A second threshold for the mobility exists which has a lower value as the ratio between diffusion coefficients decreases. Within the framework of this model where the biomass is treated mainly as a viscous and diffusive fluid, we show that the multiplicity of independent parameters in real biologic experimental set-up may explain varieties of observed patterns.

Configurational forces for growth and shape regulations in morphogenesis

Abstract. Morphogenetic theories investigate the mechanisms of creation and regulation of definite biological forms in living organisms. The incredible diversity of shapes and sizes is generated through a barely unknown coordination of biochemical processes occurring at molecular levels. Such a crosstalk not only defines the rules of a robust scheme of matter differentiation, but it also has the capacity to adapt with respect to some variations of the environmental conditions. In this work, we propose a continuum model of growth and mass transport for biological materials during morphogenetic processes. Using the theory of configurational forces, we define the thermomechanical bases for understanding how both the mechanical and the biochemical states can orchestrate growth. The model is successfully applied to describe the morphogen-driven growth control in the imaginal wing disc of Drosophila melanogaster.

Free boundary morphogenesis in living matter

Morphogenetic theories investigate the creation and the emergence of form in living organisms. A novel approach for studying free boundary problems during morphogenesis is proposed in this work. The presence of mass fluxes inside a biological system is coupled with the local gradient of diffusing morphogens. The contour stability of a growing material is studied using a two-dimensional system model with a rectilinear free border inside a Hele-Shaw cell. Modeling mass transport during morphogenesis allows fixing the velocity at the traveling wave solution as a function of one-dimensionless parameter. Performing a perturbation of the free boundary, the dispersion relation is derived in an implicit form. Although both the velocity of the moving front and the surface tension act as stabilizing effects at small wavelengths, the dispersion diagrams show that the rectilinear border is always unstable at large wavelengths. Further applications of this model can help give insights into a number of free boundary problems in biological systems.

Relational Thinking: A Critique of Co-Deterministic Theories of Structure and Agency

This article presents a relational criticism of the “morphogenetic theory” of M. Archer. This theory is founded and representative of the most influential mode of perception of the social universe of the last few decades: co-determinism (structure ↔ agency). Co-determinism's influence can be explained by its integration of modern general presuppositions like freedom, individualism, and the quest for a new social order. By identifying five basic principles of relational sociology, we see that Archer's co-deterministic theory offers a complicated solution to avoid voluntarism and co-determinism, limits the potential of sociological imagination, cannot adequately see the fluidity of social processes, produces a certain reification of social structures and agency, and is based on an inconsistent use of egocentric and relational perspectives. These problems can be avoided if we use a relational approach (actor ↔ actor ⇒ structures) based on the study of complex and empirical trans-actions.

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

EnglishAfter 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.FrenchTout 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.

An Alternative Institutional Theory to Path Dependence: Evaluating the Greener Model

The popularity of path dependence theory is based on a swell of studies that have embraced a loose set of premises, many of which are unfalsifiable. Although scholars have devised some innovative means of broadening the theory, they have yet to develop a flexible model that is also systematic and theoretically elegant. This paper argues that layering morphogenetic social theory on top of a loose version of path dependence cannot resolve a number of critical difficulties that impair the explanatory and descriptive utility of non-economic specifications. However, morphogenetic social theory does promise an alternative and improved lens through which we can understand institutional development in the absence of path dependence theory.

Sinthome Law: Theoretical Constructions upon Lacan’s Concept of the Sinthome

Lacan’s psychoanalytical theory is of interest to legal theorists for a number of reasons. In particular, the concept of the Name of the Father allows a sophisticated theorisation of law and legal institutions. However, the Name of the Father was not Lacan’s only theory of law. In his final Seminars, Lacan developed a second and fundamentally different theory of law: the sinthome. By drawing upon Roberto Harari’s commentary on Lacan’s concept of the sinthome, the sinthome can be investigated in terms of topology, chaos, and morphogenetic theories. This can allow a complex theory of the sinthome to be put forward as real, immanent, emergent ordering through the de-limiting of singularities. From this a concept of Sinthome Law can be developed as a novel concept of law, and as a potential way to understand some contemporary problematics in law. The example of the emerging law on electronic signatures is introduced to indicate this.

Floral Developmental Studies: Some Old and New Questions

The study of floral development made its entrance into plant science about the middle of the nineteenth century, mainly through the works of Payer and Hofmeister. Such studies were, and will also be in the future, using modern methods, of fundamental importance to a better understanding of floral morphology, morphogenesis, phylogeny, and function. This is to be shown by the following examples: (1) support of morphogenetic theories by comparison of early developmental stages (inhibition of primordium initiation. "Hemmfeld-Theorie," or inhibitory field theory); (2) similar flower structures with different developmental patterns (androecium, corolla tube); (3) developmental patterns as markers for systematic and phylogenetic considerations, projection of developmental character states upon systems based on molecular data; and (4) events in late floral development concerning the function of secondary pollen presentation mechanisms.

Form and transformation: generative and relational principles in biology

Preface Acknowledgements Part I. The Problem of Form: 1. Introduction: forms and kinds 2. The old dialectic: empirical classification and Darwinian theory 3. The ontological status of Taxa: material practice 4. The ontological status of Taxa: theoretical practice 5. Rational systematics and morphogenetic theory: a new dialectic? 6. Putting the organism together again Part II. Fields and Forms: 7. Segments, symmetries, and epigenetic maps 8. The unitary morphogenetic field 9. A generative biology References Index.

On the origin of ammonite sutures

The origin of ammonite sutures is one of the most interesting open problems in paleontology. Present theories of suture formation deal with function rather than morphogenesis. Here we present a study showing that sutures are scale-invariant. In each of ten different ammonite genera, the ontogenetic sequence of the suture can be characterized by the same fractal dimension. We propose a morphogenetic theory for ammonite sutures that is based on the similarity between sutures and the Saffman-Taylor instability in both fractal characters and physical mechanism.

Branching growth of ribbing patterns and the significance of concealed signals

Extending the analysis of the ribbing patterns of Recent branchiopods, pattern transformation with the progression of growth is discussed. In ribbing patterns of brachiopods, each rib grows wider and higher, and sometimes branches off. It is proposed that median patterns appear as predictable outcomes of a simple space-filling process with stochastic properties, as shown by some investigators. From the analysis by the modified Fly method, it is found that branching points are determined by deterministic long range waves (breather-like solitons) which strongly interact with one another. For these patterns, all possible Interactive Lindenmayer systems with two sided inputs of most neighbouring cells were simulated, and all patterns were classified, compared to solutions with non-linear wave equations. It is concluded that ribbing patterns with deterministic signals are realized by coupling automata between I-L system developing kinks, and cell automata developing solitons. The importance of a morphogenetic control theory involving coupling and long range signals is emphasized.

Theory and experiment in morphogenetic modelling: an examination of MacWilliams' data on hydra

A simple mathematical treatment is provided for H. K. MacWilliams' computer model for hydra regeneration (1982. J. Theor. Biol. 99: 681–703) as a practical demonstration of the value of mathematical analysis in tests of morphogenetic theory. MacWilliams uses a modified version of the Gierer–Meinhardt model, analysed here in terms of Turing's conditions on the linearized rate constants and n, the ratio of morphogen diffusivities, using a method previously described by T. C. Lacalli and L. G. Harrison (1979. J. Theor. Biol. 76: 419–436). The analysis justifies MacWilliams' reliance on "intuitive parameters" in testing his model, and the experimental values he obtains for these satisfy Turing's conditions. For the experiments, it is clear that n for hydra must be large, and this has interesting consequences. In particular, there is decreasing dependence on the autocatalytic features of the model with increasing n so that morphogen distributions approach the limit of exponential decay with distance from a fixed source. Examining the expression for λm, the chemical wavelength, shows explicitly how this happens. MacWiliams' work also gives an approximately correct value for the size limit below which regeneration cannot occur, which is related to λm in a well defined way.