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Journal of Classical Sociology

http://jcs.sagepub.com Metaphors as Principles of 'Visuality': 'Seeing' Marx Differently


Jose Lopez Journal of Classical Sociology 2001; 1; 69 DOI: 10.1177/14687950122232459 The online version of this article can be found at: http://jcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/1/1/69

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Journal of Classical Sociology


Copyright 2001 SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi Vol 1(1): 6993 [1468795X(200105)1:1;6993;016582]

Metaphors as Principles of Visuality


Seeing Marx Differently

JOSE LOPEZ University of Nottingham

ABSTRACT This article argues that, in contemporary sociological debates, ques-

tions about social structure are too frequently posed within the structure and agency problematic. Some of the limitations of this problematic are briey discussed, and it is argued that it is necessary to open up new theoretical and conceptual spaces where more productive questions can be posed. One possible avenue is contained in the recognition that since social theory is a language-borne practice, then the attempt to develop concepts, of social structure in this case, simultaneously presupposes the deployment of a variety of discursive and narrative strategies. Thus the potentialities and limitations contained in these strategies should be put at the very centre of discussions over, and about, social structure. This point is developed by examining the constitutive role of metaphorical strategies in conceptual and theoretical innovation. The point is further illustrated through the development of an analysis of some of the metaphorical strategies found in Marxs attempt to develop a concept of social structure that is capable of capturing the complexity of capitalism as a social system. It is argued that Marxs attempt to conceptualize social structure cannot be reduced to the base/ superstructure model; Marxs Capital contains another model that is predicated on a conception of labour grounded in an energeticist metaphor. The article concludes by briey exploring some of the implications of this wider reading of Marxs attempt to develop a concept of social structure.
KEYWORDS base/superstructure, Capital, labour, social structure, social theory,

theoretical language

It is no doubt the case that the concept of social structure is both a core concern of sociological theory and a term whose denition is highly contested. Curiously, however, although there is no consensus regarding the term itself, there is an

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implicit contemporary consensus regarding how sociologists, and other social theorists, should argue over it: the debate over, and about, social structure is seemingly always a structure and agency debate. Structure and agency are seen as mutually implicated with one another, both logically and substantively, and the tension between the two is seen as providing one of the crucial nodal points around which sociological theory develops, and has developed in the past. Ironically, however, from the very beginning it is recognized that the tension between the two terms is insurmountable: The problem of the relation between the individual and society, or between action and social structure lies at the heart of social theory and the philosophy of the social sciences. In the writings of most major theorists . . . this problem is raised and allegedly resolved in one way or another. Such resolutions generally amount to the accentuation of one term at the expense of the other . . . the problem is not so much resolved as dissolved. (Thompson, 1989: 56)1 Moreover, if one examines the debate more closely, it is hard to miss the fact that the structure/agency problem is, more often than not, a proxy for a long-standing philosophical debate regarding the relationship between freedom and determination. Thus the concept of agency, in its myriad embodiments, is used in order to capture the element of indeterminacy or contingency in social life, the processual moment wherein the potential for transformation, and not merely reproduction, lies.2 Now, I do not want to suggest that the philosophical problem of the relationship between freedom and determination is unimportant. However, I do think that it is important to recognize that the questions one can pose regarding the concept of social structure are not exhausted by this philosophical problematic. Holmwood and Stewart (1991) have quite persuasively argued that one of the consequences of opposing structure to agency in terms of determination and freedom is that it allows for explanatory and conceptual inadequacy to be reproduced. Whenever the behaviour of agents deviates from what we would structurally expect them to do, this can be explained away by the freedom to choose otherwise connoted by the concept of agency.3 In this case, the predictive adequacy of the structural accounts of theories does not need to be revised: error becomes a virtue! Said differently, assertions of agency have the negative function of denying structural determination (Barnes, 2000: 27), thus the status of structure vis-` -vis agency remains theoretically, conceptually and causally una resolved, or dissolved. Consequently, it would seem that if debates over social structure are to advance, then it is necessary to attempt to open up new theoretical spaces where

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different types of questions can be posed.4 For instance, we can begin by recognizing that social theory as a language-borne practice (Woodiwiss, 1990, 2001) has historically grounded discursive conditions of possibility. Thus, instead of subsuming all past attempts to develop a concept of social structure into the structure/agency problematic, we can begin to explore the specicity of the different conceptual networks and the narrative and metaphorical strategies in which they were embedded.5 If one examines the historical introduction of notions of structure into sociological discourses, it becomes clear that the concept of structure was not primarily organized around the opposition between freedom and determination. Conceptions of natural organization were metaphorically deployed in an attempt to identify and conceptually formulate the distinctiveness of social organization, or, to use the Durkheimian term, the sui generis quality of social life. In this article, I do not want to summarize the arguments that John Scott and I have developed elsewhere on this issue (Lopez and Scott, 2000). Instead, I want to highlight the conceptual gains that can be made from not approaching the concept of social structure merely in terms of the structure/agency debate. I want to argue that owing to the language-borne nature of social theory, any attempt to formulate, or enunciate, concepts of social structure is going to contain limitations and opportunities that are discursive in nature; and that these need to be put at the very centre of our debates over social structure. I will do this by examining the deployment of two different conceptions of social structure, or social organization, found in the writings of Marx. I want to argue that although there can be no doubt that Marxs writing does include what we would now call the structure/agency linkage, his development of the concept of structure cannot be understood exclusively in terms of this now hegemonic opposition. Marx also attempted to develop concepts that would allow him to represent the complexity and systematicity of social life. As we will see below, this facet of Marxs work can be better appreciated by examining some of the metaphorical operations that constitute his theoretical discourse. A second reason for returning to Marx is to show that if we do not focus narrowly on the development of the concept of structure in terms of the agency/ structure (determination versus freedom) debate, then it is possible to discover other possible candidates for the concept of social structure, even though they might not be explicitly named as such. In other words, one can use Marxs conceptual and empirical work to think about social structure without committing oneself to the questionable formulation of social structure in terms of the base/ superstructure dichotomy. The import of this, I hope to show, is not yet another reading, let alone a denitive reading, of Marx, but to demonstrate that by taking seriously the discursive and conceptual networks in which the theoretical concepts we use are embedded, it is possible to expand theoretical and substantive debates regarding the concept of social structure.

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Language and Social Theory


It is by no means the case that sociology has understood its use of concepts, or the language-borne nature of theory, in a nave way; classical sociology was very much aware of some of the difculties involved in constructing representations of social life through the mediation of theoretical language (e.g. Alexander, 1982a; Durkheim, 1982; Parsons, 1949; Weber, 1949, 1964).6 Nonetheless, it is also true that the linguistic turn (e.g. Rorty, 1979; Sapir, 1949; Winch, 1970; Wittgenstein, 1967) and poststructuralism (Derrida, 1976, 1978; Foucault, 1992) have raised issues that have problematized the transparency of concepts and theoretical discourse as never before. The implications of this have, unfortunately, led some to celebrate the phenomenon of the so-called oating signier the apparent incapacity to x signiers (words) to signieds (meanings). However, the recognition of the uidity of meaning, or the potential polyvalence of concepts, need not undermine the need for rigorous conceptual development (Canguilhem, 1994; Lopez and Scott, 2000; Potter, 1998, 1999; Woodiwiss, 1990, 2001). As Foucault argued, although the number of possible enunciations within a discursive formation may be great, they nonetheless remain limited. This is due to the fact that discourses, and the meanings that they make possible, are xed not at the level of the general structure of language (langue) but in institutionalized elds of discursive events (Foucault, 1992: 27). Thus, one of the reasons why theoretical terms (signiers) cannot be entirely free-oating is because they are embedded in both institutional and discursive networks of practice that limit the range of meanings (signieds) to which they can be attached (Bourdieu, 1991; Foucault, 1992; Lopez, 1999; Woodiwiss, 1990). Surprisingly, though, for a discipline allegedly in the throes of the linguistic turn, analyses that focus on the specicity of the conceptual networks in which concepts are embedded, and the conceptual and explanatory gains that they make possible, are much rarer than those that examine the institutional embeddedness of concepts and theoretical discourses in terms of power relations (Lopez, 1999; Lopez and Scott, 2000). This is perhaps nowhere clearer than in the current fashion for reducing the analysis of concept formation to sociologism (i.e. the extra-theoretical and extra-conceptual determinations of concepts and meanings). However, it is not sufcient in this case merely to argue against sociologism; it is also necessary to begin to look for, and develop, investigative techniques that will allow us to create a space in which the relative autonomy of theoretical and conceptual development can be explored. To do so, it is useful to draw on a transdisciplinary eld of study that highlights the centrality of metaphors in the development of concepts and theoretical strategies. By focusing on metaphorical strategies, scholars working in this eld are producing a body of work that provides some co-ordinates for examining the discursive distinctiveness and specicity of conceptual development and innovation.

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Social Theory and Metaphors


The literature on the relationship between metaphors and concept formation is extensive (Black, 1962; Bono, 1990; Davidson, 1981; Harr and Martin-Soskice, e 1982; Hesse, 1966; Johnson, 1981; Knorr, 1980; Leatherdale, 1974; Levin, 1981; Lewis, 1996; Lopez, 1999; Maasen, 1994; Noppen and Hols, 1990; Noppen et al., 1985; Ortony, 1979). In this section, rather than attempt to present a summary of the debates in this eld, I want to draw out some of the ideas that are of particular relevance to the argument that I am developing. The study of the role of metaphors, in concept formation, has been primarily concerned with examining the ways in which metaphorical strategies make possible the movement of concepts and meanings across different areas of study (e.g. from biology to sociology), often leading to conceptual and theoretical innovation as well as shifts in meaning. This process can be usefully conceptualized, following Maasen (1994), by distinguishing between two types of metaphorical linkages: transformation and transfer. A transformation takes place when a metaphor sets up a relationship between a host domain and another phenomenological domain where the latter is used to generate new domainspecic concepts in the host domain. A well-known example of this type of operation is the enunciation of the notion of the circulation of wealth in terms of Harveys conception of the circulation of blood (Foucault, 1994: 179). This metaphorical operation can be conceptualized as a catalyst because, in the process of producing new concepts, meanings and theoretical strategies, the initial connection with the domain from which the metaphor was drawn is severed. In the case that I have just mentioned, the signier circulation is attached to signieds and theoretical strategies in the discourse of political economy and not biology or physiology. I will refer to this type of process as a Modality A metaphorical operation. A transfer also sets up a relationship between a host domain and another phenomenological domain; however, what distinguishes it from a transformation is that it fails to produce new domain-specic concepts, meanings and theoretical strategies in the host domain. A classic example of this would be Durkheims organismic metaphor, where social scientic analogues for organs, physiology, and so on, are not developed.7 I will refer to this process as a Modality B metaphorical operation. In a certain sense, in a Modality A operation the metaphorical roots are superseded. This, however, is not the case with the Modality B variety. The epistemic content of the new concepts and theoretical strategies remains dependent on the semantic ties established between both domains. Consequently, networks of concepts will not be adequately integrated, producing gaps leading to both conceptual and theoretical instability.8 It is important to keep in mind that the distinction between Modality B (transfer) and Modality A (transformation) metaphors is one of degrees. All metaphorical operations begin their careers as a Modality B variety with the

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potential of achieving the status of Modality A. The extent to which this is possible depends, in the rst place, on the inherent opportunities contained in the metaphorical operation itself. Some Modality B metaphorical operations will be explanatory dead ends from the very beginning. For instance, while there is some potential in thinking about an eye in terms of a photographic camera, the same does not apply to thinking about the eye in terms of a car! But equally important, it depends on the extent to which active creative theoretical work manages to attach terms (signiers) to new meanings (signieds). Again, this is also a matter of degrees, for as poststructuralists are surely right to point out, polysemy is an inescapable feature of all meaning systems. This last point, however, can be developed further by sketching the more general social and conceptual context in which the semantic links created by metaphors are established. Maasen (1994: 28) has argued that earlier accounts of the meaning-creating role of metaphors often understood the process as a discrete transfer or transmission of packets of meaning across bounded disciplines (e.g. from biology to sociology). This, however, linked the deployment of metaphorical strategies too narrowly to the instrumental and intentional strategies of atomistic actors, and failed to capture the complex social and cultural arrangements that were presupposed by these types of strategies (Foucault, 1992). Maasen suggests that it is more fruitful to develop . . . a non-linear model of the transfer of metaphors. According to this notion, the continuous transfer of particular metaphors or systems of metaphors, generates what Foucault has called a dispositif: a network of social, political, and scientic discourses, which in Mitmans words generate a general eld of meaning. (1994: 28) By locating the use of metaphors in this broader social context, it becomes possible to see them . . . as sites and media of exchange both in the intrascientic and extrascientic domains. Such exchanges, which trade on the capacity of metaphoric language to shift meaning, create an ecological network driven by the tension-fraught need or desire both to x meanings and to disrupt, generate and transform them. (Maasen, 1994: 29, quoting Bono, 1990: 73; emphases in the original) Thus, the success of a particular metaphor, or its very possibility, is in part dependent on this wider context.9 When considering the two types of metaphorical operations previously discussed, it is worth keeping in mind that both exist in this broader eld of meaning. If one takes seriously the need to investigate the opportunities and

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limitations contained in specic metaphorical operations, one has to do more than merely locate them in the general eld of meaning. It is important to investigate the extent to which the presence of a particular discourse in a eld of meaning generates new domain-specic concepts and theoretical strategies with increased explanatory purchase. In this article I will do this by drawing on the abovementioned distinction between the two modalities of metaphorical operations.10 I believe that the distinction provides a crucial stepping stone for a more measured appraisal of the conceptual and explanatory fertility of Modality A metaphorical operations in theoretical discourse. In the remaining sections of this article, I will use these distinctions in order to examine some of the metaphors underpinning the conceptual networks from which Marx attempted to formulate concepts of social organization, or social structure.11 I think that this task is important because metaphors have often been viewed, and continue to be viewed, with some suspicion in sociological theory (Maasen, 1994). For instance, Nisbet (1969) produced a powerful critique of metaphors of growth and evolution in social theory; however, in doing so, he marginalized the constitutive role of metaphorical operations in the development of new concepts and theoretical strategies. Alternatively, the recognition of the centrality of metaphors in theoretical discourse is frequently uncritically celebrated and used as a plank in an iconoclastic attack on the very possibility of sociological explanation. In the analysis that follows, I hope to show that it is possible to steer a course fruitfully between these two alternatives.

Base/Superstructure: Where are the Social Forces?


The 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy is, as is well known, the locus of the classical formulation of the base/superstructure model. It is also one of the few places where it is possible to nd the presence of the actual term structure: The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond denite forms of social consciousness. (Marx, 1978a: 4) Society is likened to a building. Its superstructure arises from its economic structure, its foundation. The base, in the case of a building, is embedded in the ground; in society it is found embedded in the real material conditions of production. To deploy a discursive strategy where the economic structure is enunciated as the foundation of social life is to provide a metaphorical plausibility to its centrality and primacy vis-` -vis the superstructure. a

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However, these are not sufcient grounds on which to reject the metaphorical strategy. What we need to determine is whether the metaphorical process has created a theoretical context where new domain-specic concepts can be formulated (Modality A), or whether it merely provides a conduit to signieds (meanings) in other discursive domains (Modality B). The usefulness of the base/ superstructure model as a discursive matrix from which to enunciate social structure is, thus, contingent on the existence of the social equivalent(s) to the physical meanings that they have in engineering.12 However, I believe that the base/superstructure model does not manage to shake its Modality B metaphorical status. The meaning of the arising from and the resting upon does not emerge in the context of a network of statements that enunciate specic social systemic mechanisms. Instead these terms take their meanings from the phenomenological domain of physics and engineering. The Preface, of course, does not contain an analytical account of the components of the economic base and the analytical relationships that it establishes with the superstructure. However, such concepts are enunciated in the earlier co-authored work with Engels, The German Ideology.13

Making and Producing Superstructures and Consciousness


The polemical aim of The German Ideology, as is well known, is made obvious from the very beginning. In contrast to the illusions of the consciousness of German Idealism, Marx and Engels begin with real individuals, and their real material activities (1978: 149). Materiality, real physical activities are, for the authors, both the premises and empirically veriable outcomes of the activities of individuals. It is these activities that are the foundation of social consciousness, and not vice versa (Marx and Engels, 1978: 150). It has often been stated that Marx and Engels overstatement of the determinative power of the material world has to be understood as a strategic intervention against the Young Hegelians. Thus, if one reads the crucial texts carefully, one nds that it is the word conditions that is often employed, instead of determines. Consequently, it is argued that the base/superstructure is more complex, and richer than it rst seems (see McLellan, 1973: 40).14 Notwithstanding this, the crucial question remains: are Marx and Engels capable of formulating the sui generis agencies operating between the so-called base and superstructure? Any reader of The German Ideology, sympathetic or not, will probably notice that there is a fast-moving pace in the rhetorical texture of the text. The key terms in the text are making and producing. These terms, and the network of conceptual resonances that they invoke, create a sense of movement and activity; producing subsistence products seamlessly ows into the making of history: The rst historical act is thus the production of the means to satisfy these needs, the

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production of material life itself (Marx and Engels, 1978: 1556). Making and producing is the paradigmatic form of meaningful historical action; it remains constantly on the real ground of history; it does not explain practice from the idea but explains the formation of ideas from material practice (Marx and Engels, 1978: 164). It is this material practice that the authors oppose to the abstractions found in German Idealism. It is the point zero of human history (Marx and Engels, 1978: 156). Nonetheless, it is also clear that Marx and Engels struggle against the persistent penetration of consciousness and ideas into their paradigm of productive-material practice. Rhetorically, there is continued reference to the real, practical, material, physiological conditions of life in opposition to the abstraction of the world of ideas found in German Idealism.15 This is partly a result of attempting to enunciate the basis of the systematicity of the social totality in terms of concrete, empirically veriable productive practices. Ideas and consciousness are, rather unrealistically, made derivative of material practice. This is, of course, in direct opposition to the explicit theoretical commitments that Marx makes in the Theses for an understanding of consciousness not as being causally determined by the external material world, but as emerging within the context of practice itself (1978b: 144). Whatever the discursive exigencies might be in terms of conceptualizing the relationship between ideas and productive activities within the positivist frame of reference of concrete material practice, in The German Ideology a new order of exigencies is superimposed. This is because the superstructure is also enunciated as a form of social consciousness, as a superstructure of distinct and peculiarly formed sentiments, illusions, modes of thought and views of life, or as an idealistic superstructure (Larrain, 1979: 50). One of the consequences of this is that there is no form for analytically distinguishing between the potentially different phenomenological domains of a particular individuals social consciousness and social consciousness at the level of the social system. Inasmuch as the paradigm of concrete material practice is deployed to enunciate social life as an articulated whole, then ideas, and consciousness, must be made derivative. In opposition to German Idealism, Marx and Engels prioritize the material base, without, however, enunciating the alleged social mechanisms responsible for this prioritization. This contains serious shortcomings. That the material practice paradigm presupposes the simultaneous existence of ideas is made clear in the Theses; thus, strictly speaking, the practical, real, material activity of individuals in the process of making their lives cannot explain elements from the superstructural realm. These elements are already, implicitly, contained in material practice. Consequently, a crucial discursive, and theoretical, exigency crystallizes: the paradigm of material practice presupposes the simultaneous existence of social mechanisms acting between the base and the superstructure, but it cannot itself provide ways of enunciating said relationship. If making the conditions of daily

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individual existence is the premise of all history, then the general making of material life also serves to oppose the economic structure to the superstructure. However, structure formulated thus, notwithstanding its Modality B metaphorical plausibility, is bereft of sufcient analytical categories and theoretical depth to represent the complexity of the social world. The discursive tensions built into Marx and Engels solution lead to the theoretical collapse of the superstructure into the base. At the level of the social system, there are no analytical strategies for distinguishing between the base and the superstructure.16 Discursively, however, if it does not collapse, it is because of the connotative power of the Modality B metaphorical operation. The German Ideology, of course, breaks some new ground with respect to the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (Marx, 1977). Whereas in the context of the Manuscripts, it was not theoretically possible to distinguish between societal differentiation and alienation, this is not the case in this second text.17 The materialist conception of history contains a number of theoretically aligned concepts that make it possible to put forward what is, at a certain level of abstraction, a feasible account of historical differentiation. But, ultimately, the base/superstructure metaphor is crippled by being located in a discursive matrix where economic life is enunciated in terms of discrete, concrete, daily actions of production. This discursive constraint limits its analytical potential; in itself, it does not provide a discursive matrix from which it is possible to enunciate systemwide processes of co-ordination of social actions.

Energizing 19th-Century Society


There can be no doubt that the term labour is one that consistently appears in Marxs work. However, the empirical appearance of a term (signier) should not be mistaken as evidence of continuity at the level of meaning (signieds). As I argued in the introduction, in order to uncover the epistemic content of terms, it is necessary to explore the wider conceptual eld(s) in which they are immersed. With this in mind, it is important to note that implicit in Capital, though often unnoticed, is a conception of labour that is formulated in a conceptual universe that is signicantly different from that found in Marxs earlier works: In Capital Marx also refers to labor as a process by which man through his own actions, mediates, regulates and controls the metabolism between himself and nature, but this can be read as a metaphor for a process that is now understood entirely in energeticist terms. (Rabinbach, 1992: 77)18 Rabinbach argues that the shift in meaning of the term labour has not gone unnoticed (1992: 321). For instance, Agnes Heller (1981) identied a displacement from a paradigm of work to a paradigm of production. Similarly, Louis

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Althusser pointed out that Marx abandoned the anthropological conception of work in his later writings (Althusser and Balibar, 1970: 171). Rabinbach, however, suggests that the shift in meaning is, perhaps, better understood in the context of the energeticist framework that coalesced transnationally around the new science of energy, or thermodynamics, associated with, among others, the work of Hermann Helmholtz, Sardi Carnot, James Prescott Joule and Julius Robert Mayer.19 Moreover, Rabinbach also argues that the signicance of this eld of meaning lies in the fact that it was a crucial social, political, cultural and scientic site where fatigue, productivity and the conservation of energy were constituted as scientic, moral and political objects of study (Rabinbach, 1992: Ch. 3). As Kuhn (1959), Prigogine and Stengers (1985) and Smith (1998), for instance, have shown, the process through which the paradigm of thermodynamics became hegemonic in 19th-century science, and society (Rabinbach, 1992), is a complex and highly nuanced one. Nonetheless, at the level of the scientic community: Physicists learned about the relationship between heat and work and found the two to be interchangeable. They also realised that all forms of energy, from mechanical to thermal, are convertible to each other. These realisations led to an understanding which was fundamentally different from the idealised world of the clockwork universe and mechanically organised systems of transformations without friction, where moving objects would continue their motion indenitely unless they were stopped by an object in their path. It involved both a shift from time-symmetry to a distinction between past and future, and a move from idealisations to descriptions of nature. (Adam, 1990: 61) Moreover, this novel way of conceptualizing nature, as a reservoir of a fundamental and convertible component energy not only operated across scientic disciplines (e.g. Helmholtz was also a physiologist), but also provided new ways of relating society to nature and for conceptualizing labour and society itself. Thus, The discovery of energy as the quintessential element of all experience both organic and inorganic, made society and nature virtually indistinguishable. Society was assimilated to an image of nature powered by protean energy, perpetually renewed, indestructible and innitely malleable. (Rabinbach, 1992: 46) This in turn created some of the conditions of possibility through which ideas of productivism, efciency, fatigue and the science(s) of work were developed

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around the metaphor of the human motor (Rabinbach, 1992: Ch.1). Thus, the nation that most efciently used and conserved the existing supply of the worlds energy including both labor power and technology would also win the race for industrial supremacy (Rabinbach, 1992: 70).

Energized Labour and Marxs Capital


Some of the social and political concerns around fatigue, productivism and wasted labour (energy) are clear in Marxs work by the 1860s, as he moves away from a conception of emancipation through labor, to emancipation from productive labor by an even greater productivity (Rabinbach, 1992: 73; emphases in original). However, more important, for our concerns here, is Marxs use of the concept of labour power (Arbeitskraft), which had been rst coined by Helmholtz. As Rabinbach points out, the conversion to an energeticist conception of labour is not clearly signposted by Marx, but a careful reading of Marxs Capital reveals the extent of the debt (Rabinbach, 1992: 7681). Engels (1940), of course, makes the link to Helmholtz explicit, and argues for the unity between the natural and the social world. However, we need not accept Engels scientistic account of Marxs work in order to recognize the importance of the energeticist framework. Metaphorical exchanges in a eld of meaning, as we saw above, need not be thought of in terms of disciplinary colonization or imperialism; they can also produce discursive and conceptual matrices for the development of domain-specic concepts and theoretical strategies. In this case, enunciating labour in terms of an energeticist metaphor released discursive and conceptual potentialities that had not been available to Marx in the elds of meaning in which the earlier writings had operated. The concept of labour that emerges from the energeticist framework, as we will see in the sections that follow, provides a possible representation of social life a way of seeing social life as something other than concrete material activity; it provides a different way of conceptualizing social organization. In Capital,20 as in Marxs other works, the term structure is curiously near absent; however, this should not be taken to mean that the only concept of social organization, or social structure, is that of the base/superstructure model. There is a diffuse and implicit articulation of a notion of structure in terms of systems of actions. I want to argue that this concept of structure lays the groundwork for a formulation of structure that is altogether different from the base/superstructure model. The most important potentiality of the energeticist metaphor is that it does not present the concept of labour in terms of the discrete actions of individuals. Instead, because labour is regured as a natural force among others united by the universal equivalence of Kraft, it is no longer a creative or singularly human act, it is one kind of work aimed at the production of use values (Rabinbach, 1992: 77). This introduces an important analytical distinction

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between individual actions (concrete acts of labour) and labour as an expenditure of social energy. Marx does this by arguing that although specic acts of production (or exchange) have certain meanings and consequences for individual actors, these very same acts can be simultaneously conceptualized or seen as being, to some extent, independent of the immediate contexts in which they unfold. Capital, like The German Ideology, is imbued with a lexicon constantly connoting movement. But the types of movements, which Marx is often making reference to, are not understandable within the context of the temporality and spatiality of concrete individual acts, as was the case in the earlier text. In Capital, it becomes clear that concrete acts are only really possible in the context of the wider system of actions in which they are embedded. By using energized labour as a bridge-concept between interaction and system, he is able to create a discursive space where the sui generis features of a specic system of actions (capitalism) can be formulated. Marx begins Volume 1, as is well known, with his discussion of that strange and queer thing called a commodity. He does this by presenting the analytical distinction between use-value and exchange-value (Vol. 1: 54). Without denying the importance of the commodity as a use-value, Marx argues that it is, in fact, a commodity in virtue of its value-form. The value, arising from the valueform, according to Marx, is not inherent in the bodily form of the commodity as such. If the exchange-value of the commodity is not given in its bodily form, then the value must come from elsewhere. Not surprisingly, the origin is productive labour. However, this is not the same productive labour of Marxs earlier writings. He is not, here, referring to concrete discrete acts of labour; instead he is referring to a homogeneous mass of human labour-power (social energy): The total labour-power of society, which is embodied in the sum total of the values of all commodities produced by that society, counts here as one homogenous mass of human labour-power, composed though it be of innumerable individual units. (Vol. 1: 46) Hence, though a commodity would not have an exchange-value were it not for the concrete labour that it embodies, the value of the commodity is in fact a feature of the system(s) of actions related to production, not reducible to any particular instance of production. The value-form, then, does not arise out of a real, discrete and perfectly delimited concrete material act; rather, it arises from the integration and equalization of a plurality of social acts that constitutes a social reality, sui generis: their social existence can be expressed by the totality of their social relations alone (Vol. 1: 71).

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Moreover, it is the socially determined labour time, an attribute of the capitalist system, that makes exchange possible at all. It allows a certain quantity of commodity A to become an equivalent for a certain quantity of commodity B (Vol. 1: 62). The extent to which exchange operates in a different temporality and spatiality is signied through a comparison with direct barter, where the actual transaction is one that takes place within the context of two individuals who necessarily have to be temporally and spatially xed. In contrast, though commodity exchange presupposes the existence of both a buyer and seller, there is no need for them to be temporally and spatially co-present (Vol. 1: 114). Consequently, exchange acts have to be seen as simultaneously taking place in systems of concrete interaction, as well as in wider processes of production in which their values become xed. The representation of the systemic features of exchange cannot be formulated in terms of discrete concrete acts. Similarly, when Marx examines labour, the source of value of commodities, he does not conceptualize it as a concrete instance: We say labour, i.e. the expenditure of his vital force by the spinner, and not spinning labour, because the special work of spinning counts here, only so far as it is the expenditure of labour-power in general, and not in so far as it is the specic work of the spinner. (Vol. 1: 184)21 However, Marx does not only distinguish between labour-power in general and a concrete modality of labour; he also conceptualizes it as having two distinct properties: that of preserving value and that of creating new value (Vol. 1: 199). The property of being able to preserve value is related to the utilization of means of production. The means of production, inasmuch as they are the product of past labour, embody a certain quantity of value: value that is determined by the socially necessary labour time required for their production. Marxs analytical abstraction of the relationship between labour and value allows him to think about labour in terms of it being stored. It can be removed from the immediacy of concrete individual actions.22 Hence in the labour process, congealed labour or dead labour can be conceptualized as being outside of the interaction context that gave rise to it. The value that is preserved in the act of production remains a potential quantity of labour susceptible to being transferred through its contact with live labour. Congealed labour is an abstract representation of action (productive action), a potentiality that can be actualized in different temporal and spatial frameworks. It is a storing up of social energy, of social activity. It is a powerful conceptual tool that allows Marx to enunciate system properties in such a way that, notwithstanding the fact the capitalist system requires individual action, it can nonetheless be given its sui generis temporality and spatiality. The social system can be seen as a system of transmission that is, to a certain extent,

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independent of the actions with which it interfaces. It opens a theoretical space where system logics can be conceptualized as being at odds with, or simply different from, those of concrete systems of interaction.23 This notion of social objects (means of production embedded in a capitalist system of production) being energized, containing potentialities that are autonomous from particular acts of production, is an important discursive and conceptual plank in Marxs formulation of structure as some type of organized sui generis social complexity. These objects are social objects because the powers that they have arise from their being embedded in a capitalist system of production. They are constituted not by the actions of any one individual, but by the actions of a plurality of individuals related in analytically determinable ways (i.e. property relations and relations of production that are embedded in identiable circuits, in relationships of value with other social objects, within technical and social congurations of production, within temporal and spatial matrices, etc.).

Enunciating Simultaneity
However, not only does the energeticist discursive eld license the enunciation of an abstract notion of labour, it also provides the basis from which to formulate what I am going to call a logic of simultaneity (see Lopez, 1999): a form of sui generis social co-ordination. Hence, when Marx deals with the origin and genesis of surplus value, and its concealment in the wage form, he argues that the capitalist pays for labour-power and does not actually pay for the labour, or the actual value created through the act of production. The value of labour-power, predictably, is the value necessary to reproduce a workers capacity to work. This, of course, is well known; however, what is often not noticed is the fact that the same act of production is simultaneously conceptualized as travelling different spheres, or circuits, of the capitalist social system. For instance, if half of the value created through a labourers productive action serves to reproduce his or her own labour-power, the other half is pocketed as prot by the owner of the means of production: a concrete act of labour can be analytically conceptualized as both reproducing labour-power and making capitalist accumulation possible. This is impossible to represent within a sequential logic, where an object cannot be both things at one time. Hence not only can labour be stored in social objects, it can simultaneously exist in distinct spheres of social life. To take another example: If in consequence of a new invention, machinery of a particular kind can be produced by a diminished expenditure of labour, the old machinery becomes depreciated more or less, and consequently transfers so much less value to the product. (Vol. 1: 203)

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The causality implicit in this citation is not susceptible to being explained in the temporal and spatial contexts of the interaction from which it (the invention of the machine) arose. The relationships of different values, in virtue of the socially necessary labour that they embody, can only be understood within the logic of a system where elements of labour can be represented as travelling social circuits, far removed from the particular instances in which they were initiated. This demands a representation far removed from our everyday thinking about social life and its conditions of possibility. However, there is no need to stop here; the enunciative possibilities are much richer. Labour could also be seen as setting off what we could call action-pathways leading to other concrete and systemic events. It implies systematic connections with the technical organization of skills and the use of space. It connects with regimes of discipline, and articulates with natural structures (depletion of resources, pollution, etc.), and so on. In other words, inasmuch as labour, as conceptualized by Marx, connects with different systems of actions (the different spheres and circuits of capitalism), it has repercussions for those social systems related to law, the state, consumption, education, scientic research, health, the environment, and so on.24 It is important to stress that we are not dealing here with the perennial unintended consequences of action. Rather, given the conguration of property relationships, socially necessary labour times, the relationship between certain commodities and socially determined consumption criteria, the relationships of the values contained in different means of production, the relationship with different modalities of labour organization to productivity, and so on, the systemic causal links that are set off are not truly enunciable within the unintended consequences of the individual action schema. Thus, the unintended consequence of cheapening the production of shirts is possibly the increasing of the general rate of prot. However, the fact that this social action sets off the series of causal links leading to this consequence cannot be understood in the context of an individual actor (Vol. 1: 299300). It is the connection between production and consumption (in this case the socially specied bundles required for the reproduction of labour-power), articulated through a series of systemic mechanisms that makes this outcome both possible and describable in social scientic terms. This travelling of social forces, this ow of social energy (the causal sequence through which the cheapening of shirts translates into the reduction of the value of labour-power), can only be grasped within the context of a conceptual language that can abstract from the concrete interactions of individual actors. It is premised on a systemic sui generis coordination, or alignment, of action systems (productive, circulative and reproductive in this case) that allows for the same action to have causal efcacy in three different spheres simultaneously. Similarly, it only makes sense to speak of labourpower in the context of the ways in which it connects with wider social circuits, its potentiality for creating surplus value, for reproducing its own value and transferring value from the means of production to the newly produced commodities. In

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turn, this is contingent on adequate conditions of production, on adequate circuits of circulation, on the turnover periods for reproduction within the production circuit in which it is embedded, and so on. In this and previous sections, I have not been so much concerned with giving an account of, or defending, Marxs substantive explanations. Instead, I have been attempting to draw attention to the different order of spatiality, temporality and causality implicit in the principles of vision of his conceptual networks and theoretical strategies one opposed to representing the systematicity of social life in terms of the concrete and discrete actions of individuals. This is also evident when Marx describes the relationships between the different circuits of capital (productive, commodity and money capital): In a constantly revolving circle every point is simultaneously a point of departure and a point of return. If we interrupt the rotation, not every point of departure is a point of return. Thus we have seen that not only does every individual circuit presuppose (implicate) the others, but also that the repetition of the circuit in one form comprises the performance of the circuit in other forms. The entire difference thus appears to be a merely formal one, or as a merely subjective distinction existing solely for the observer. . . . Since every one of these circuits is considered a special form of the movement in which various industrial capitalists are engaged, this difference always exists only as an individual one. But in reality every individual industrial capitalist is present simultaneously in all three circuits. (Vol. 2: 104)25 More examples could be presented, but I think that the ones given sufce to highlight the extent to which the conceptual architecture to be found in Capital emerges from discursive networks qualitatively different from those in which the earlier writings were embedded. Consequently, the conception of structure implicit in Capital is not formulated merely as a simple arithmetic aggregate of a plurality of concrete actions. Instead, social organization, or structure, is conceptualized as an articulation of systemic attributes that make production, exchange and distribution possible. As such key concepts (labour, value, production, circulation, capital, prot, etc.) do not denote concrete substantialist, visible entities or events; instead, they presuppose a new form of scientic visuality. They denote a sui generis co-ordination of a plurality of different events and processes. Structure, as social organization, is not enunciated as mechanistically determining concrete events; rather, it is seen as constituting a spatial,26 temporal and social eld that provides the very basis for the existence of these events. However, the very possibility of this theoretical architecture is not contained in general ontological statements of the existence of an independent social sphere, or in the mere commitment to some species of material primacy. The

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possibility of this theoretical system is predicated on discursive networks and strategies that make it possible to enunciate simultaneity, interdependence, complex causal processes and sui generis social mechanisms. As such the embeddedness of Capital in an energeticist metaphor of the Modality A variety is not peripheral, but constitutive of the notion of social complexity and organization formulated in the text.

Conclusion
Underpinning the argument presented in this article is the need to take seriously the language-borne nature of social theory and sociological concepts (Lopez, 1999; Lopez and Scott, 2000; Woodiwiss, 1990, 2001). This presupposes that we understand discursive networks and theoretical strategies not as transparent tools for the description of social life, but as principles of organization that align our scientic visuality (Woodiwiss, 2001). As such, the possible universe of meanings or theoretical strategies is going to be, in part, determined by the conceptual networks or elds of meaning that we are drawing on. These networks are going to shape what we can theoretically see and not see! Moreover, these meaning systems need to be explained not only in terms of how they are institutionally located in different congurations of social power, but also as relatively autonomous meaning systems. For instance, the debate regarding the base/superstructure has most frequently been approached in terms of the tenability of the economic determinism thesis. This, however, has served to hide another order of conceptual problems with the model that I have highlighted in this article. The base/ superstructure model is formulated within a conceptual system that connotes a visuality of material physicality. This means that questions are posed in terms of an above and below, in terms of a before or after. Consequently it understands the notion of ontological depth in purely physicalist terms. Thus, it blocks an understanding of the ontological depth of social structure as being a virtual, and simultaneous, complexity that we attempt to represent discursively (Lopez and Scott, 2000: Ch. 5). I have argued here that, to a certain extent, Marx manages to escape the physicalist connotations of the base/superstructure model by deploying an energeticist metaphor. At this point, I am not going to repeat the argument already made. Rather, I would briey like to suggest some of the potentialities contained in the later concept of structure, as well as some of its limitations. I think that the implicit discursive and theoretical architecture that allows Marx to speak of the distinction between concrete productive action and systemic processes can be fruitfully applied as a principle of theoretical visuality to other dimensions of social life. In a certain sense, this potential is implicit in Capital. However, having said this, there are no analogues in the realm of ideology, political practice, law, science, culture, and so on, to the enunciation of labour-

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power. There are no explicit discursive and conceptual tools with which to understand their systematic basis as is the case with production, circulation and exchange. This of course is highly signicant because these three spheres presuppose the simultaneous existence of the aforementioned domains. Nonetheless, it can be argued that Marxs formulation of the systemic basis of the capitalist social system could in turn be taken as the metaphorical conceptualization of analogous mechanisms in these other domains.27 Moreover, this suggests an important, yet often ignored, dimension of attempts to formulate concepts of social structure; that is to say, an examination of the potentialities and limitations of the conceptual systems that we deploy. Thus what is at stake is not only whether structures determine agents absolutely or not, but the adequacy with which our concepts and theoretical strategies can represent a social complexity with sui generis agencies not describable, or seeable, in the frame of reference of individual agents. Furthermore, these debates could be made richer by an awareness of the creative and explanatory potentials of metaphorical operations in our sociological discourses.

Notes
I am grateful to Telsing Andrews, Ken Morrison, Garry Potter and the two anonymous referees for their comments. I am also very grateful to Tony Woodiwiss, both in print and in person, for his championing of the importance of the language-borne nature of social theory. Finally, I am particularly indebted to John Scott for a very detailed critique made of an earlier draft of this article. 1. Similarly, Sewell (1992: 2) has argued that the concept of structure fulls a foundational metaphorical role in social theory. See Barnes (2000) critique of the theoretically underdeveloped status of current accounts of agency notwithstanding their current hegemonic moment in social theory. Also see Emirbayer (1997: 284) for a similar argument from the perspective of relational sociology. Alternately, it is also possible to invoke false consciousness. It is also necessary to recognize that the discursive space in which sociology unfolds is different from that of philosophy. Consequently, it is not necessary to solve the perennial freedom/ determination problem before tackling the question of social structure. An example of this type of analysis is found in the history of concepts approach developed in the history of science by Bachelard (1937), Canguilhem (1994) see Gutting (1989: Ch. 1), Lecourt (1975) and Tiles (1987). See Lopez and Scott (2000) for an analysis of the concept of social structure informed by this approach. Parsons (1949) and Alexander (1982a, 1982b, 1983, 1984) both developed penetrating critical readings of classical social theory that paid close attention to the autonomy of theoretical language; however, their conception of theoretical discourse as systems of logically coherent statements excluded the consideration of the constitutive role played by metaphors and other narrative strategies. A related Modality B metaphor that has been more inuential in the development of theories of social organization is the metaphor of equilibrium drawn from the elds of both biology and thermodynamics (see Bailey, 1994; Russet, 1966).

2.

3. 4.

5.

6.

7.

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8.

Frequently, when sociologists refer to a metaphor pejoratively, it is this variety that they have in mind. Consequently, the study of metaphors can also provide important co-ordinates for the study of cultural change in diverse yet related social domains (Bono, 1990). Broadly speaking, two different approaches can be taken. First, inasmuch as a metaphor remains in the Modality B stage, then we will encounter the phenomenon of the oating signier. That is to say, the signier will not have a clear signied within the host domain. This can mean that it will be able to attach itself to a number of signieds within the host domain, as well as continue to obtain signieds from the foreign domain. Second, it is conceivable to have new signiers with signieds in the host domain that nonetheless require theoretical alignments from other domains; thus, it is also important to examine the extent to which the metaphorical operations produce theoretical realignments among the new concepts (see Lopez, 1999: Ch. 1). Derrida (1994) and Carver (1998) also present arguments that are broadly compatible with the analysis developed here. It is interesting to note that the fact that the problem of the base/superstructure was initially formulated in terms of the superstructure resting on the base posed important obstacles to the understanding of the phenomenon in engineering. The solution necessitated the metaphor of the springiness of solids, which served to develop the concept of elasticity that forms part of modern-day understanding of the relationship between a base and a superstructure (see Gordon, 1978: 347). Though the base/superstructure metaphor is not as clearly formulated in The German Ideology as it is in the Preface, it is nonetheless present (e.g. Marx and Engels, 1978: 163). However, to make this argument is to suggest that the phenomenon of the oating signier is a desirable mode of existence for theoretical concepts. Consequently, it is also to refuse to examine the metaphorical operations that underpin the apparent logical coherence of theoretical systems. As Schmidt (1971: 869) argues, this stress on the centrality of physiological processes is derived from the inuence of German Materialists who also held an anti-Idealist position specically the metabolic metaphors of Moleschott. This is the case notwithstanding the strong tensions that existed between Marx and the group which he referred to as vulgar materialists (see Rabinbach, 1992: 31920). Also see Gregory (1977) for a study that maps the relationships between Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Vogt, Jacob Moleschott, Ludwig Buchner and Heinrich Czolbe. This collapsing, of course, has not gone unnoticed by various of Marxs commentators (see Hall, 1970; Jakubowski, 1976; Williams, 1977). Lack of space prevents me from providing a detailed textual analysis of the narrative strategies that Marx uses to elaborate a concept of social organization in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (see Lopez, 1999: Ch. 5). Very briey, Marx draws on two different conceptual universes: rst, he criticizes political economy for conceptualizing labour as any other commodity. Thus, just as in The German Ideology, he conceptualizes labour positivistically as concrete acts of production. The second strategy draws on romantic notions of community and totality that he discursively xes around the signier Species Being. Furthermore, he opposes Species Being to the alienation of both private property and the concept of labour used in political economy. One of the consequences of this, as Habermas (1989: 341) has pointed out, is that Marx, at this point, is unable to distinguish between the social differentiation of the life-world and alienation. This section owes much to Rabinbach (1992).

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

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19.

As is well known, the two fundamental laws of thermodynamics deal with the processes that underpin the conversion of energy. The rst law of thermodynamics deals with the conservation of energy. It states that the total amount of energy in a process is conserved despite complex forms and changes (Adam, 1990: 61). The second law, which deals with entropy, states that all systems tend towards disorder; that things, just like people, are impermanent; and that every time something occurs, some amount of energy will be unavailable for future work (Adam, 1990: 62). See Prigogine and Stengers (1985) for an accessible introduction to thermodynamics. From this point onward, I shall use Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 in the text to refer to the relevant volume of Marxs Capital (1983). The similarity with Helmholtzs formulation is particularly clear: . . . the work of the smith requires a far greater and more intense exertion of the muscles than that of the violin player. . . . These differences, which correspond to the different degree of exertion of the muscles in human labour, are alone what we have to think of when we speak of the amount of work of a machine. We have nothing to do here with the manifold character of the actions and arrangements which the machines produce; we are only concerned with an expenditure of force. (Helmholtz, 1995: 99)

20.

21.

22.

The debt to the energeticist metaphor is obvious here. The conception of labour as a quantum of social energy allows Marx to charge social objects metaphorically. That is to say, the means of production embody value in the form of congealed labour. However, it is important to note that this charging is dened in terms of the social theoretical concepts that he has specied. In stressing the importance of the notion of labour, I do not want to be understood as arguing that labour is the key to all social phenomena, or to an understanding of social structures. Rather, I am interested in highlighting the mode of representation or visuality that allows reference to both system and interaction simultaneously. It is fair to say, however, that though Marx makes reference to these things, he never develops the connection at the same level of abstraction and sophistication with which he deals with labour. I will return to this point in the concluding section. I think that the conceptual and theoretical richness contained in Marxs discursive attempt to respatialize capitalism as a complexly structured social system is missed by the essentialism of commentators such as Laclau and Mouffe (1985) who focus exclusively on the untenability of the economic determinist thesis, and who seem to read Marx exclusively as a political theorist. In this sense, it is not surprising that much of the interesting work which has been done within the context of the conceptualization of social space has a strong Marxist debt: for instance, Gregory and Urry (1985), Harvey (1985), Lefebvre (1991), Soja (1989), to name but a few. For instance, some of the conceptual tools provided by Foucault (1979, 1980) and Burchell et al. (1991) could be crucial for a systematic theory of political structure, notwithstanding Foucaults own protestation to the contrary. Similarly, structuralist and post-structuralist accounts of meaning, identity, culture and discourse provide powerful theoretical tools for a richer, more complex and simultaneous embedding in other spheres of socio-economic processes as described in Capital. Moreover, Marxs account of the capitalist system as a eld of complexly co-ordinated processes can also be seen as providing important points of contact with the systems notion of communication found in the work of Luhmann (1995, 1998) and theorists who are exploring a theoretical rapprochement between social theory and complexity theory. Finally, the concept of social structure as a eld and the notion of structure as virtual depth found in the work of both

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

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Bourdieu and Foucault (Lopez and Scott, 2000) also contains important points of contact with Marxs later schema.

References
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Jose Lopez teaches social theory in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Nottingham University. He is co-author, with John Scott, of Social Structure (Open University Press, 2000), and is co-editor, with Garry Potter, of the forthcoming After Postmodernism: An Introduction to Critical Realism (Athlone, 2001). He is currently working on a book that explores the relationship between metaphors and classical conceptions of social structure. He is also researching the signicance of metaphors in the emergence of the eld of bioethics. Address: School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. [email: j.lopez@nottingham.ac.uk]

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