Norm Circles and Critical Realism

ABSTRACT An increasing number of scholars have employed the critical realist concept of norm circles in empirical research. Norm circles are social structures, composed of human agents, that tend to encourage people to conform with norms. As such, they provide a (partly) structural explanation for social normativity, which in turn plays an important role in many other social structures. Researchers who come across the concept, however, often ask how it relates to other elements of critical realist theory. This paper addresses the relationships between norm circle theory and the work of three influential critical realist theorists: Roy Bhaskar, Margaret Archer and Tony Lawson. With reference to Bhaskar's work, it presents norm circles as entities with emergent causal powers and as social structures that are concept and activity dependent. With reference to Archer's work, it shows how the morphogenetic approach applies to the development of norm circles but also considers the tensions between norm circle theory and Archer's understandings of reflexivity and culture. Regarding Lawson's work, it argues that norm circles add an explanation of why people go along with positional rights and obligations that are the centrepiece of Social Positioning Theory and how positions exist. Overall, the paper argues that norm circle theory complements all these contributions. It illustrates how abstract ontological work can be applied to more concrete empirical social cases and thus extends critical realist social ontology. Given the centrality of normativity to many social structures, it also provides a resource for theorising other forms of social structure.