Funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation

The Centre for Social Ontology is grateful to receive funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation. This funding supports our annual writing workshops, which have produced two book series to date: Morphogenetic society and Post-human society and the future of humanity.

The Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize, 2017

We are delighted that our book Morphogenesis and Human Flourishing, the final volume in our Social Morphogenesis series, was awarded the Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize for 2017. Here is what the prize committee had to say about the book:

This is an edited collection on the nature of morphogenic society, the ethics of flourishing, and the relationship between social change and ethics. It is a rich dialogue which can stimulate further debate about flourishing under modern social conditions. While there is some unevenness in the 13 chapters, the book is worthy of the Cheryl Frank prize for how it pulls together and focuses a strong group of critical realists writing about ethical issues. Its approach differs from other critical realist work in the field by Christian Smith and Andrew Sayer. It is the final volume in a series of five that includes volumes on social morphogenesis, late modernity, generative mechanisms, and the crisis of normativity. Recognised as the culmination of this broader achievement, Morphogenesis and Human Flourishing is nonetheless judged on its own merits for the prize.

Joint Winners of The Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize, 2015

The 2015 Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize was jointly awarded to three members of the Centre for Social Ontology. The Relational Subject, by Pierpaolo Donati and Margaret Archer, and Reconstructing Sociology by Douglas Porpora. The committee said the following of these two books:

The Relational Subject draws upon Donati’s relational sociology and Archer’s account of the morphogenetic society to produce a work that combines theoretical sophistication with reflection upon more practical political and social issues. The outcome is an important contribution to social theory and to the world that social theory helps constitute and comprehend. The award is also an opportunity to reflect on Margaret Archer’s outstanding contribution to critical realism and sociological theory over many years.

Porpora’s Reconstructing Sociology combines thoughtfulness, acuity and wit to explain and elaborate how central debates in the social sciences are illuminated and effectively addressed by critical realism. Its clarity and self-conscious humanism will make it an important intervention for critical realism in sociology, particularly in North America.