Publications

Open access versions

Pre-publication versions of my papers can be downloaded from the links below. In some cases the official published version is open access so you can reach the free version by clicking through to the journal.

Books

Elder-Vass, D. (2022). Inventing Value, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Download a pre-publication version of chapter 1, ‘Introduction: Inventing Value’ here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2018). Profit und Gabe in der digitalen Ökonomie. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition. German translation of Profit and Gift in the Digital Economy.

Elder-Vass, D. (2016). Profit and Gift in the Digital Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Download a pre-publication version of chapter 1, ‘Introduction’ here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2012). The Reality of Social Construction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Download a pre-publication version of chapter 1, ‘Introduction’ here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2010). The Causal Power of Social Structures, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Download a pre-publication version of chapter 6, ‘Normative institutions’ here.

New and forthcoming papers

Elder-Vass, Dave. (2024). An Imaginary Predicament. Innovation in the Social Sciences, 2(2), 242–251. This review article discusses key arguments from Social Imaginary and the Metaphysical Discourse by Christoforos Bouzanis, defending critical realism against criticisms made in the book. Note: published version is open access.

Elder-Vass, Dave (2024), Value, Conventions, and Finance. In R. Diaz-Bone & G. de Larquier (Eds.), Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions. Springer International Publishing. Available online. Download an open access version here.

Articles and book chapters

Elder-Vass, Dave, & Morgan, Jamie. (2023). From original institutionalism to the economics of conventions and Inventing Value: An interview with Dave Elder-Vass. Real World Economics Review, 105, 87–110. Note: published version is open access.

Adam J. Nichol, Catherine Hastings, & Dave Elder-Vass (2023) Putting philosophy to work: developing the conceptual architecture of research projects, Journal of Critical Realism 22(3), 364-383. Note: published version is open access.

Elder-Vass, Dave (2023), Commerce, communauté et dons numériques, Revue du MAUSS 2023/1 (n° 61), 133-153 (French translation of Elder-Vass, D. (2014) ‘Commerce, community and digital gifts’ – see below for further details of the English version).

Dave Elder-Vass, Tom Fryer, Ruth Groff, Cristián Navarrete, & Tobin Nellhaus (2023). Does critical realism need the concept of three domains of reality? A roundtable.” Journal of Critical Realism, 22(2), 222–239. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, Dave. (2023). The social determination of monetary value: A response to Ecks. Finance and Society, 9(2), 64–66. Note: published version is open access. This is a response to Stefan Ecks’ review of my book Inventing Value in the same issue.

Dave Elder-Vass, Andrew Sayer, Tobin Nellhaus, Ian Verstegen, Alan Norrie & Nick Wilson (2023): Symposium on The Space That Separates: A Realist Theory of Art, Journal of Critical Realism, 22(1): 90-121. Download an open access version of my contribution here.

Elder-Vass, Dave. (2022). ‘Moral Economy: A Framework and a Manifesto’. In B. Sanghera & G. Calder (Eds.), Ethics, Economy and Social Science: Dialogues with Andrew Sayer (pp. 97–105). Routledge. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, Dave. (2022). Ethics and Emancipation in Action: Concrete Utopias. Journal of Critical Realism, 21(5): 539-551. Note: published version is open access.

Elder-Vass, D. (2022). Pragmatism, critical realism and the study of value. Journal of Critical Realism, 21(3): 261-287. Note: published version is open access.

Elder-Vass, D., & Zotzmann, K. (2022). ‘Overlapping traditions with divergent implications? Introduction to the special issue on pragmatism and critical realism’. Journal of Critical Realism, 21(3): 257-260. Note: published version is open access.

Elder-Vass, D., & Morgan, J. (2022). ‘Materially social’ critical realism: an interview with Dave Elder-Vass. Journal of Critical Realism, 21(2): 211-246. Note: published version is open access.

Elder-Vass, D. (2022). Book Review: Social causation and biographical research: philosophical, theoretical and methodological arguments by Giorgos Tsiolis and Michalis Christodoulou, Journal of Critical Realism, 21(1), 119-121. Note: published version is open access.

Elder-Vass, D. (2021). Critical realism. In G. Delanty & S.P. Turner (eds.), Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2021). Book Review: The nature of social reality: issues in social ontology by Tony Lawson, Journal of Critical Realism, 20(3): 322-328. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2021). Book Review: The Digital Economy by Tim Jordan, Global Media and China, 6(2), 241-243. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2021). Assets need audiences: How venture capitalists boost valuations by recruiting investors to asset circles. Finance and Society. Early View. Note: published version is open access.

Elder-Vass, D. (2020). Defining the gift. Journal of Institutional Economics, 16(5), 675-685. https://doi.org/10.1017/S174413741900033X Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2019). Appropriative practices and the ontology of economic form. Teoria e Cultura, 14(2). Note: published version is open access.

Rutzou, T. and D. Elder-Vass. (2019). On assemblages and things. Sociological Theory 37(4), 401-424. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2019). Actor-network theory. In P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, A. Cernat, J. W. Sakshaug, & R. A. Williams (Eds.), SAGE Research Methods Foundations. Sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036766534 Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2019). No price without value. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 43(6), 1485-1498. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2019). Realism, values and critique. Journal of Critical Realism 18(3), 314-8. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2019). What is humanity? Review of Daniel Chernilo’s book Debating Humanity for a review symposium in Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 21(1), 63–66. Download an open access version here.

Whittle, J., D. Elder-Vass and K. Lumsden (2019) ‘”There’s a bit of banter”: How male teenagers “do boy” on social networking sites’ in Karen Lumsden and Emily Harmer (eds), Online Othering: Exploring Digital Violence and Discrimination on the Web, Palgrave. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2019). Comment on ‘Disciplining Culture: A Socio-Cognitive Approach’ by Victor C. de Munck and Giovanni Bennardo. Current Anthropology, 60(2), 184-5. Download an open access version of this short discussion of the nature of cultural systems here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2018). Moral economies of the digital. European Journal of Social Theory, 21(2), 141–147. Download an open access version of this introduction to a special issue on the social theory of the digital economy here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2018). Lifeworld and systems in the digital economy. European Journal of Social Theory, 21(2), 227–244. Download an open access version here.

Elder-Vass, D. (2017). Reflections on sociology’s unspoken weakness: Bringing epistemology back in. Journal of Sociology, 53(4), 753–755. Download an open access version here.

[A30] Elder-Vass, D. (2017) ‘Wie wirken Normen? Critical realism und die kausale Kraft sozialer Strukturen’ in Urs Lindner and Dimitri Mader (eds) Critical Realism meets kritische Sozialtheorie, Transcript, 77-93. Download an open access version in English here.

[A29] Elder-Vass, D. (2017) ‘Materialising social ontology’, Cambridge Journal of Economics. 41:5, 1437-1451. Download an open access version here.

[A28] Elder-Vass, D. (2017) ‘Material parts in social structures’, Journal of Social Ontology, 3:1, 89-105. Note: published version is open access.

[R3] Elder-Vass, D. (2017) Book Review: Religion, Gender and Citizenship: Women of Faith, Gender Equality and Feminism, by Line Nyhagen and Beatrice Halsaa, for The Sociological Review, 65:2, 429–431. Download an open access version here.

[A27] Elder-Vass, D. (2015) ‘The moral economy of digital gifts’, International Journal of Social Quality, 5:1, 35-50. Download an open access version here.

[A26] Elder-Vass, D. (2015) ‘Collective intentionality and causal powers’, Journal of Social Ontology 1:2, 251-270. Note: published version is open access.

[A25] Elder-Vass, D. (2015) ‘Free gifts and positional gifts: Beyond exchangism’, European Journal of Social Theory, 18:4, 451-468. Download an open access version here.

[A24] Elder-Vass, D. (2015) ‘Developing social theory using critical realism’, Journal of Critical Realism 14:1, 80-92. Download an open access version here.

[A23] Elder-Vass, D. (2015) ‘Disassembling Actor-Network Theory’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 45:1, 100-121. Download an open access version here.

[R2] Elder-Vass, D. (2015) ‘Of babies and bathwater. A review of Tuukka Kaidesoja (2013) Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology‘, for Journal of Social Ontology, 1:2, 327-331. Note: published version is open access.

[A22] Elder-Vass, D. (2014) ‘Commerce, community and digital gifts’ in Robert Garnett, Paul Lewis and Lenore Ealy (eds) Commerce and Community: Ecologies of Social Cooperation, Routledge, 236-252. Download an open access version here.

[A21] Elder-Vass, D. (2014) ‘Social entities and the basis of their powers’ in Julie Zahle and Finn Colin (eds) Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate, Springer, 39-53. Download an open access version here.

[A20] Elder-Vass, D. (2014) ‘Giving and Social Transformation’, Journal of Critical Realism 13:3, 261-285. Download an open access version here.

[A19] Elder-Vass, D. (2014) ‘Redescription, reduction & emergence: A response to Wahlberg’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 44:6, 792-797. Download an open access version here.

[A18] Elder-Vass, D. (2014) ‘Seven ways to be a realist about language’, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 44:3, 249-267, published with a response from Alison Sealey and Bob Carter, and my ‘Reply to Sealey and Carter on Realism and Language’, 44:3, 282-7. Download an open access version here.

[A17] Elder-Vass, D. (2014) ‘Social emergence: relational or functional?’, Balkan Journal of Philosophy 6:1, 5-16, special issue on social ontology. Download an open access version here.

[A16] Elder-Vass, D. (2012) ‘Towards a realist social constructionism’, Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas 70, 9-24. Note: published version is open access.

[A15] Archer, M. and D. Elder-Vass (2012) ‘Cultural System or Norm Circles?’, European Journal of Social Theory 15:1, 93-115. Download an open access version here.

[A14] Elder-Vass, D. (2012) ‘Top-down causation and social structures’, Interface Focus 2, 82-90. Part of an interdisciplinary special issue on the concept of top-down or downward causation. Note: published version is open access.

[A13] Elder-Vass, D. (2011) ‘The Causal Power of Discourse’, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 41:2, 143-160. Download an open access version here.

[A12] Elder-Vass, D. (2010) ‘The Emergence of Culture’ in Albert & Sigmund (eds) Soziologische Theorie kontrovers (Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie Special Issue 50) 351-63, VS Verlag. Published with a response by Jens Greve, ‘Culture and Interpretation’ and my reply ‘Can groups have causal powers?’ 378-82. Download an open acces version here.

[A11] Elder-Vass, D. (2010) ‘Realist critique without ethical naturalism and moral realism’. Journal of Critical Realism 9:1, 33-58. Download an open access version here.

[A10] Elder-Vass, D. (2010) Book Review of Frauley & Pearce (eds), Critical Realism and the Social Sciences, for British Journal of Sociology 61:1, 200-202. Download an open access version here.

[A9] Elder-Vass, D. (2008) ‘Searching for realism, structure and agency in actor network theory’. British Journal of Sociology 59:3, 455-73. Also reprinted in Hillyard (ed) 2014, Approaches to Fieldwork, Volume 1, London: Sage. Download an open access version here.

[A8] Elder-Vass, D. (2008) ‘Integrating institutional, relational, and embodied structure: an emergentist perspective’. British Journal of Sociology, 59:2, 281-99. Download an open access version here.

[A7] Elder-Vass, D. (2007) ‘Social structure and social relations’. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 37:4, 463-77. Download an open access version here.

[A6] Elder-Vass, D. (2007) ‘Luhmann and emergentism: Competing paradigms for social systems theory?’. Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 37:4, 408-32. Download an open access version here.

[A5] Elder-Vass, D. (2007) ‘Reconciling Archer and Bourdieu in an Emergentist Theory of Action’. Sociological Theory, 25:4, 325-46. Download an open access version here.

[A4] Elder-Vass, D. (2007) ‘A Method for Social Ontology’. Journal of Critical Realism, 6:2, 226-49. Download an open access version here.

[A3] Elder-Vass, D. (2007) ‘For Emergence: Refining Archer’s Account of Social Structure’. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 37:1, 25-44. (Also see the responses by Porpora, Varela, and King in the subsequent issue). Also reprinted in Olsen (ed) 2010, Realist Methodology, Volume 1, London: Sage. Download an open access version here.

[A2] Elder-Vass, D. (2006) ‘Re-examining Bhaskar’s three ontological domains: the lessons from emergence’. In C. Lawson, J. Latsis & N. Martins (Eds.), Contributions to Social Ontology, 160-76. London: Routledge. Download an open access version here.

[A1] Elder-Vass, D. (2005) ‘Emergence and the Realist Account of Cause’. Journal of Critical Realism 4:2, 315-38. Download an open access version here.

Working Papers

[W1] Elder-Vass, D. (2009) ‘Towards a social ontology of market systems’, CRESI Working Paper 2009-06, University of Essex. Note: this is an open access working paper.

[W2] Elder-Vass, D. (2013). The social structures of money. Unpublished paper available here.