Planning for Social Environments : Social Capital in the Context of Critical Realism and the Dynamics of Complex Systems
( Alexander , 2003b ; Steinmetz , 1998 ). Our experience suggests that individual humans have a degree of choice — what to wear or what to eat on a given day — but that choice is more limited than we might initially think . While we may choose to eat whatever we want , our location , resources , biological limits , and many other factors narrow what appears to be an open choice down to a very narrow range : e . g ., we may not walk to Australia however much we will it . Having limits is not equivalent , however , to an acceptance of determinism . Although we may exercise options within limits , we do have an ability to act on the phenomena and systems around us and to understand them to some degree . Progress in research , including social phenomena , is therefore possible and meaningful , and knowledge leading to action can be developed , examined , modified , and pursued further . Determinism is an important compliment to agency ( Caro , Sandoval-Hernandez , & Luedtke , 2014 ). The structures — natural , social , cultural — out of which the natural world , human life , and consciousness arise are in many instances highly regularized . We expect to find our apples beneath , not above , the trees . We very usefully speak of laws , principles , constants , and other causal terms . In the human sphere , our first language has a strong influence on how we see the world . — Our thought patterns and perception are shaped by the distinctive analytic features of a given human language ( Gilson , 1988 ). That shaping occurs in us long before we are conscious of its effects such that , while we may try and consciously reject it , we can never uninstall the linguistic frameworks we grew up in or fully undo its effect on us ( Chomsky , 1996 ; Martinich , 1996 ). Language requires individuals — without them there is no language , as evidenced by extinct languages , and there is no language if there is only one individual — verbal communication is a function of collective process in development , use , and modification ( Kripke , 1996 ). A language broken into pieces for analysis is no longer human language , however useful such a reductive process may be for other purposes ( Gilson , 1988 ). Social phenomena ( and language represents a cluster of social phenomena ) can be partially understood through pre-existing capabilities ( Chomsky , 1996 ) but only functioning wholes can provide robust explanation
Critical realism recognizes and holds in creative tensions the demands of both agency and determinism from the individual human to our wider societies and social structures , recognizing that society exists as something that profoundly structures who we are but also as something that we can study , learn about , and act on : “ Society may thus be conceived as an articulated ensemble of such relatively independent and enduring structures ; that is , as a complex totality subject to change both in its components and their interrelations ” ( Bhaskar , 1978 , p . 13 ).
3.4 . Emergence
Fourth , critical realism allows for emergence . One of the important results of the tensions of agency and determinism
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