Abstract
I believe social reality to exist with objective content independent of the human mind, and to exist as a multiplicity of beings: the variety of ways that nature is differentiated into and can be identified, perceptible to the human mind as representations of different things in themselves (i.e. chair, table, earth, human, cat, plane, sea, etc.). This viewpoint aligns with ‘dialectical materialism’ or realist ontology, which accords primacy to content and being over form (i.e. the ideal) and thought (Kipfer, 2009). Dialectical materialist ontology is encapsulated in the concept of “social formation” by Marx and Engels, who argue that “consciousness can never be anything else than conscious being” (Marx and Engels, 1998, pp. 36–37). The ‘form’ of individuals in the process of becoming a conscious being is determined, among others, by their production, which not only entails physical production and reproduction, but also a definite form of expressing life on an individual’s part. The human, in this view, is the empirically perceptible grounds of social reality, rather than being an ideal or a subjectively constructed phenomenon in an abstract rigidity (as with the dead facts in the case of empiricists or the imagined subjects of the idealist). This ontology views social reality as amenable to empirical research through sense experience and observation (for a discussion on the distinction between this and other approaches to social inquiry, positivism, empiricism and rationalism, see May, 2011, and Markie, 2017).
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Notes
- 1.
There might be many other forms that join two or three of the above categories in their management by various degrees and at various levels of management, but on the whole if decision-making modality on resource allocation and income distribution is taken as the denominator, an economy can encompass public, private or cooperative structures of governance.
- 2.
Formerly ‘the Central Statistical Organization’ (CSO).
- 3.
The data was given in bulk and disaggregated based on sector and province using MS Excel.
- 4.
This is if we disregard the many duplications and many confusions in the classification of business activities in ACBR-IP data (e.g. “Transportation and Storage” and “Transport”).
- 5.
Based on a 2015 UN Habitat report on Afghanistan’s cities (UN Habitat, 2015), Herat and Balkh came second and third after Kabul among Afghanistan’s provinces in many of the report’s indices, including the contribution to the national budget from their provincial earnings, which can be taken as one indication of their importance in the national economy.
- 6.
A district in Balkh province is also called Balkh.
- 7.
To reiterate, simply walking into a government office in Kabul, even with a university letter confirming research student status, is time-consuming and often in vain because bureaucratic or regulatory approval of such a letter may not exist or the functionary receiving it might simply choose not to cooperate. Taking such formalities seriously was mostly secondary to and much less influential than a personal link.
- 8.
The exact number was not known to the head of the Afghanistan Industrial Association (MKAAIA070518) due to irregularity of contact between it and its members.
- 9.
Units from the same industry (e.g. plasticware, cement poles, electrical wire) forming an inter-industry support group. This was different than sector-wide associations that could include members from all kinds of manufacturing activities and were not exclusive based on industry.
- 10.
ABNM-P; HM-U; MMF-P; MSM-P; NMF-P; RHF-P; ZKF-P.
- 11.
FBF-P; MAM-P; NGF-P.
- 12.
HMKM-P.
- 13.
NUHM-P.
- 14.
AAM-P; HSSM-P; BAM-P; MAAM-P; NM-P.
- 15.
AM-P27; MM-P.
- 16.
AM-P18; MWQM-P; NAAM-P; SNMM-P.
- 17.
BM-P.
- 18.
HRKM-P; HSM-P; NSM-P; QYM-P.
- 19.
DAAM-P; MTM-P; MZM-P15.
- 20.
ABM-P; MZM-P23; SNM-P.
- 21.
AGHM-P; NNM-P; PKZM-P; ZMM-P.
- 22.
BAKM-P; DMYM-P; HSMM-P.
- 23.
BHM-P; JKM-P.
- 24.
AMPM-P.
- 25.
ARHM-P.
- 26.
FM-P.
- 27.
MSSM-P.
- 28.
JM-P; GZAM-U.
- 29.
HKGM-P.
- 30.
In one case, the interview took place inside the Presidential palace with an official of the President’s High Economic Council for which no electronics were allowed. The other interview took place in an impromptu manner, for which I did not have my recorder and took notes.
- 31.
Based on Loghatnaam’e Deh’Khuda Persian Dictionary.
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Rafi, K. (2022). Method. In: Patriarchal Hierarchy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98407-6_5
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