-
Call for papers: special issue on Morphogenetic Régulation Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Karim Kniou
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Ahead of Print, 2024)
-
Meaning of work as a personal emergent power[?]: developing theory based on a critical realist study of Sri Lankan workers Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-02-21 Lakshman Wimalasena, James Richards
Research on the `meaning of work', especially concerning the Global South, is scarce. This paper aims to reduce this scarcity by applying critical realist meta-theory to the work and life history i...
-
The question of epistemic fallacy in practical research: the case of IR Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Abbas Farasoo
In international politics, bridging the gap between the real and knowledge poses a persistent challenge as translating the real into concepts and narratives can nurture the epistemic fallacy. Criti...
-
Critique and its foundations: on critical realism and the Frankfurt School Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-01-25 Jaakko Nevasto
In this paper, I assess some recent critical realist constructive criticisms of Theodor Adorno, one of the leading thinkers of the Frankfurt School tradition of critical theory. I argue that while ...
-
Critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for the implementation of digital twins for urban management Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-01-16 Ramy Elsehrawy, Bimal Kumar, Richard Watson
This paper promotes critical realism as a suitable and fruitful philosophical foundation for the development and implementation of urban digital twins. The proliferation of a-theoretical digital tw...
-
The contribution of Angels Fear to metaReality: Gregory Bateson and Roy Bhaskar’s idiosyncratic approaches to the sacred Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-01-16 Rob Faure Walker
Gregory Bateson’s career from anthropologist, through his development of cybernetics and systems theory, to developing ideas around ‘the sacred’, has parallels with Roy Bhaskar’s intellectual journ...
-
PISA and teachers’ reflexivities. A mixed methods case study Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Terje André Bringeland, Tone Skinningsrud
Neoliberal educational reforms include extensive use of standardized tests. We examine the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) initiated and developed by the Organization for Econom...
-
The discursive emergence of ‘the market’ in capitalist political economy: crisis system and the Longue Durée Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Rob Faure Walker, John P. O’Regan
This paper presents a longue durée account of the discursive emergence of ‘the market'. It seeks to develop understanding of the ‘crisis system' by showing that the crises of the present have their...
-
Making realism work, from second wave feminism to extinction rebellion: an interview with Caroline New Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Caroline New, Jamie Morgan
Caroline New is an energetic activist who has interpolated critical realist ideas into the front-line of political activism. In this wide-ranging interview, she begins by reflecting on her life and...
-
The four C’s model of thematic analysis. A critical realist perspective Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Michalis Christodoulou
This article provides a critical realist (CR) alternative to the standard approaches to Thematic Analysis (TA) in qualitative research, namely the Braun-Clarke approach (reflexivity while coding th...
-
Morphogenetic Régulation in action: understanding inclusive governance, neoliberalizing processes in Palestine, and the political economy of the contemporary internet Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Andrew Dryhurst, Daniel ‘Zach’ Sloman, Yazid Zahda
The Morphogenetic Régulation approach (MR) contributes to the Morphogenetic Approach by explaining the material and ideational origins of change and stasis in agency, structure, and culture. In thi...
-
Call for papers: special issue of Journal of Critical Realism on ‘critical realism and the self’ Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Onur Ozmen
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Vol. 22, No. 5, 2023)
-
Bhaskar’s philosophy as third generation systems theory, with implications for ethics and earth system stability Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Leigh Price
Bhaskar's philosophy supports society via a process of homeostasis to resist socioecological system disintegration by developing its values and ethics in response to endogenous and exogenous change...
-
Realist complexity, between causal and complex systems: introduction to the 2022 conference special issue Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Karim Knio, Margaux Schulz
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Vol. 22, No. 5, 2023)
-
Unpacking the impacts of programmatic approach to assessment system in a medical programme using critical realist perspectives Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Priya Khanna, Chris Roberts, Annette Burgess, Stuart Lane, Jane Bleasel
Traditional, positivist assessment approaches generally fail to capture the nuances of learners’ clinical competence in medical programmes. This has led to the implementation of an alternate assess...
-
Crime and the metaphysical animal Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Alan Norrie
This essay considers how we talk in moral terms about crime and punishment using a framework that comes from psychoanalysis. The idea of the human as a metaphysical animal, an animal that thinks an...
-
Complexity, trans-immanent systems and morphogenetic régulation: towards a problématique of calibration Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Karim Knio
This article aims to study the intersection between critical realism and complexity theories through the existing literature on complex systems via an engagement with Luhmann’s autopoiesis. With re...
-
The ‘three domains of reality’: do we need them? A reply Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Priscilla Alderson
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Vol. 22, No. 5, 2023)
-
Comment on the roundtable discussion ‘Does critical realism need the concept of three domains of reality?’ Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Mervyn Hartwig
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Vol. 22, No. 5, 2023)
-
The truth will set you free (ceteris paribus): incorporating prescriptive power in the rational judgement of theory Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-11-02 Ryan Armstrong
This paper argues that in the search for explanatory power, critical realist research has neglected, trivialized, or dismissed prescriptive power, the capacity for an explanation to offer insights ...
-
Realist evaluation and its role in the stages of explanatory research based on critical realism Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-09-14 Juan David Parra
This article advocates for the validity of Realist Evaluation (RE) as a manifestation of Critical Realism in evaluation research despite criticisms suggesting that the former disregards principles ...
-
Critical realism as a fruitful approach to social work research as illustrated by two studies from the field of child and family welfare Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-09-14 Vibeke Samsonsen, Inger Kristin Heggdalsvik
This paper argues the case for taking a critical realist (CR) approach to social work research. The normativity in social work is often under-communicated in the social sciences, resulting in resea...
-
Democracy and human nature: a layered system analysis Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-09-14 Carl Auerbach
This paper addresses a question posed by the increase of democratic backsliding: whether democracy itself is compatible with human nature. It analyses democracy as a layered system consisting of th...
-
In search of a democratic school culture: an analysis from the lenses of critical realism Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-07-17 Senem Sanal-Erginel, Sıtkıye Kuter
ABSTRACT Critical realism is a valuable philosophical stance in providing an in-depth analysis of multi-dimensional and multi-layered relationships in social science. Considering the scarcity of studies on this philosophical framework in social science, this study aimed, from multiple viewpoints, to examine the multi-faceted and multi-stratified experiences, events, structures, and mechanisms underlying
-
Correction Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-07-11
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Vol. 22, No. 3, 2023)
-
In praise of functional morals and ethics Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-26 Howard Richards
ABSTRACT Building on the moral economy of Andrew Sayer and Dave Elder-Vass, this article advocates for a functional (not functionalist) approach to morals and ethics, and consequently to economics. By choosing words responsibly it aims to be an example of the conscientious attitude it advocates. In the first section, I find that Andrew Sayer's approach dovetails with Pierre Macherey's – notably due
-
Accounting for complexity in critical realist trials: the promise of PLS-SEM Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-22 Heidi Singleton, Sam Porter, John Beavis, Liz Falconer, Jacqueline Priego Hernandez, Debbie Holley
ABSTRACT Background: Randomized controlled trials have been criticized for their inability to identify and differentiate the causal mechanisms that generate the outcomes they measure. One solution is the development of realist trials that combine the empirical precision of trials' outcome data with realism's theoretical capacity to identify the powers that generate outcomes. Main Body: We review arguments
-
On integral theory: an exercise in dialectical critical realism Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-15 Iskra Nunez
ABSTRACT This article offers an omissive critique of integral theory. To this objective, the article draws upon dialectical logic to investigate the affinities between integral theory and critical realism. Section 1 identifies new possibilities regarding the role of metatheory in practice by unpacking the metatheoretical coordinates of critical realism and integral theory. After providing a brief history
-
Scientific realism and quantum theory: on the status of the ‘unobservables’ Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-15 Arunima Chakraborty
ABSTRACT Scientific realism does not view theoretical terms as mere instruments of experimental predictions; it grants referential status to natural kind terms with 'epistemic access' and view scientific theories and terms as corresponding to physical phenomena and entities which exist independently of observation, and as thereby being the source of objective -approximate and not absolute- knowledge
-
Putting philosophy to work: developing the conceptual architecture of research projects Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-15 Adam J. Nichol, Catherine Hastings, Dave Elder-Vass
ABSTRACT Research necessarily entails the close interrelation of concepts and arguments, including solutions to a range of meta-questions, whether acknowledged explicitly or not. Despite this, few detailed accounts currently exist that support researchers to develop their complex conceptual architectures, especially in critical realist spheres. Indeed, many published accounts often omit much of this
-
Painting with natural pigments on drowning land: the necessity of beauty in a new economy Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-15 Maria Jordet
ABSTRACT This article draws on insights of young people learning to make natural pigments and traditional paintings in acute climate vulnerable areas. Why do they paint during ongoing crises and how do they voice their future concerns? Critical realism is applied as a meta-theory in this field-based study in a slum area in Kolkata and the Sundarbans mangrove forest. Methods comprise focus groups, semi-structured
-
A realist evaluation of post-implementation modifications: a context-initiative-mechanism-outcome perspective Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-15 Taiwo Oseni, Mahbubur Rahim, Susan Foster
ABSTRACT This paper exemplifies a theoretical and methodological evaluation of IT Initiatives. It discusses post-implementation modifications (ERP-PIM) to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for the purpose of business process optimization (BPO) from a Context-Initiative-Mechanism-Outcome (CIMO) perspective. CIMO suggests that context and mechanisms are factors triggering causal effects responsible
-
Social mechanisms: bridging critical realist and pragmatist approaches Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-05 Bridget Ritz
ABSTRACT In this paper, I discuss critical realists’ and contemporary sociological pragmatists’ approaches to conceptualizing social mechanisms, which, on my reading, each involve some ambiguities or confusions. I sketch some corrections and clarifications that bring into view ways pragmatism and critical realism might inform each other in a constructive fashion on the question of what social mechanisms
-
The contributions of scientific realism and critical realism to realist evaluation Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-05 Ferdinand C. Mukumbang, Denise E. De Souza, John G. Eastwood
ABSTRACT Realist evaluation has gained prominence in the field of evaluation in recent years. Its theory-driven approach to explaining how and why programmes work or not makes it attractive to many novices, early career researchers, and organizations implementing various programmes globally and relevant to policymakers and programme implementers. While realist evaluation seeks to be pragmatic, adopting
-
Critical realism, the climate crisis and (de)growth Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-05 Hubert Buch-Hansen, Peter Nielsen
ABSTRACT What does it entail to study the climate crisis from – or consistently with – a critical realist perspective? The paper addresses this question in three steps. First, it considers the boundaries of critical realism in relation to climate crisis research. In this context it identifies climate science as a field that in important respects resonates implicitly with critical realism. Conversely
-
The transactional gift-exchange: a morphogenetic analysis of unpaid internships Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-06-05 Andrew Morrison
ABSTRACT This paper combines the use of gift theory and the metatheory of the Morphogenetic Approach as a framework for the proposal that the relationship between unpaid interns and ‘employers’ may be conceptualized as a form of transactional, but asymmetrical, gift-exchange. The article begins by applying insights from gift theory to the findings of a range of studies into unpaid internships. It is
-
World politics, critical realism and the future of humanity: an interview with Heikki Patomäki, Part 2 Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-03-30 Heikki Patomäki, Jamie Morgan
ABSTRACT In Part 1 of this interview, Professor Patomäki discussed his work and career up to the Global Financial Crisis. In Part 2 he turns to his later work. Questions and issues range over the use of retroduction and retrodiction, the degree of openness and closure of systems, and the role of iconic models, and scenario-building and counterfactuals in social scientific explanation and the exploration
-
World politics, critical realism and the future of humanity: an interview with Heikki Patomäki, Part 1 Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-03-28 Heikki Patomäki, Jamie Morgan
ABSTRACT In Part 1 of this wide-ranging interview Heikki Patomäki discusses his early work and career up to the Global Financial Crisis. He provides comment on his role as a public intellectual and activist, his diverse academic interests and influences, and the many and varied ways he has contributed to critical realism and critical realism has influenced his work. In Part 2 he discusses his later
-
Critical realism and ‘downward causality’: professional rugby union as an extreme sport Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-03-22 Graham Scambler
ABSTRACT Only too often critical realist contributions to understanding and explaining social phenomena fall into one of two discrete categories: exercises in philosophy or social theory, or empirical research that strikes as more or less atheoretical. This paper continues a long-term project to build bridges between abstruse issues of philosophy and theory and attempts to grasp the ‘how’ and ‘why’
-
Does critical realism need the concept of three domains of reality? A roundtable Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-03-12 Dave Elder-Vass, Tom Fryer, Ruth Porter Groff, Cristián Navarrete, Tobin Nellhaus
ABSTRACT The concept of the three domains of reality is widely used in empirical critical realist research. However, there has been little scrutiny of how the domains are conceptualized and what they contribute to critical realism and how they should be applied in empirical research. This paper involves four arguments. First, Tom Fryer and Cristián Navarrete argue that the three domains of reality
-
An interdisciplinary realist take on moral agency Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2023-03-08 Li Li
ABSTRACT This paper reports an empirical study on moral reasoning. It seeks to answer two questions: in the moral framing of tourism matters, what does this reasoning consist of? How are these elements mobilized by actors to reach moral pronouncement(s)? Through the means of group interviews, abduction and retroduction, this study finds that moral muteness (i.e. silence to socially unacceptable conduct)
-
Race, ethnicity and the limitations of identity politics Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-12-06 David Pilgrim
ABSTRACT This paper argues that identity politics is impeding respectful deliberative democracy. Its starting point is an analysis by Loïc Wacquant which problematizes the relationship between race and ethnicity. Wacquant's discussion covers the biological and social ontology of race, the importance of the culture of individualism in the USA and the general limitations of identity politics. I argue
-
A critical realist (re-)envisaging of emancipatory research, science and practice Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-11-29 Ingrid Schudel
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Vol. 21, No. 5, 2022)
-
Sociolinguistics as scientific project: insight from critical realism Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-11-29 Jeremie Bouchard
ABSTRACT The dominant meta-theories in contemporary sociolinguistics include interactionism, social constructivism, poststructuralism and similarly relativist, anti-realist approaches (hereby grouped within the broader category of interpretivism). This paper argues that anti-scientific, anti-realist tendencies in contemporary sociolinguistics are ill-justified, confuse science with positivism, and
-
What’s in a conference theme? Some reflections on critical realist research and its emergence in Africa over a period of 20+ years Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-11-28 Heila Lotz-Sisitka
ABSTRACT In keeping with the 2021 IACR Conference theme (Re) Envisaging Emancipatory Research, Science and Practice, this paper reviews over fifty instances of critical realist research in Africa which have sought to establish emancipatory research praxis by using critical realism to underlabour a range of applied studies in a diversity of disciplines and countries. The initiators of this research
-
A laminated, emergentist view of skills ecosystems Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-11-28 Presha Ramsarup, Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Simon McGrath
ABSTRACT In this paper we present a model of vocational education and training (VET) that can be used to guide decisions relating to VET in Africa today. This model takes the critique of the neoclassical, neoliberal model of VET as its starting point. Guided by Bhaskar's Critical Naturalism, we use immanent critique to consider the adequacy of proposed alternatives to the neoclassical approach, such
-
Special issue: Judgemental rationality Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-11-24 Robert Isaksen
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Vol. 21, No. 5, 2022)
-
Are post-human technologies dehumanizing? Human enhancement and artificial intelligence in contemporary societies Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-11-09 Ismael Al-Amoudi
ABSTRACT Post-human technologies, such as human enhancements and artificial intelligence, blur or displace the boundaries of our common humanity. While these technologies enhance many valuable human powers, there is limited philosophical discussion as to whether and how they can also be dehumanizing? To answer this question, I start from a philosophical discussion of the concept of ‘dehumanization'
-
Understanding society: an interview with Daniel Little Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-10-31 Daniel Little, Jamie Morgan
ABSTRACT In this interview, Daniel Little provides an overview of his life and work in academia. Among other things, he discusses an actor-centred approach to theory of social ontology. For Little, this approach complements the assumptions of critical realism, in that it accords full ontological importance to social structures, causal mechanisms, and enduring and influential normative systems. The
-
Correcting ‘a notional’ confusion for critical discourse analysis Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-08-09 Rob Faure Walker
ABSTRACT The meaning and grammatical status of ‘a notional’ in the schema for critical discourse analysis (CDA) from Bhaskar’s posthumously published Enlightened Common Sense (2016) is somewhat ambiguous. An ambiguity that has persisted through a subsequent development of the schema. Following the publication of Bhaskar’s original manuscript, it can now be seen that erroneous grammatical changes were
-
Critical realist hermeneutics Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-08-09 Frédéric Vandenberghe
ABSTRACT The article resituates critical realism within critical theory and proposes a tripartite articulation of British critical realism, German critical theory and French anti-utilitarianism. It suggests that the critique of positivism has to be enhanced with a critique of utilitarianism and makes the case that both critiques have to be grounded in a hermeneutic approach to social life. By taking
-
Philosophy, metaphilosophy and ideology-critique: an interview with Ruth Porter Groff Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-08-01 Ruth Porter Groff, Jamie Morgan
ABSTRACT In this interview, Ruth Groff discusses how she came to be a realist, her role as a community organizer, her relationship to critical realism, and various issues arising from her published work over the years. Discussion ranges across the nature of positivism and its legacy, the concept of falsehood, realism about causal powers, mind-independent reality, the history of philosophy, and the
-
Neoliberalism’s conditioning effects on the university and the example of proctoring during COVID-19 and since Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-07-22 Sioux McKenna
ABSTRACT Neoliberalism has shaped the academy in ways that constrain its potential as a public good. Neoliberalism is based on the assumption that, by submitting to the so-called neutral forces of the market, wealth can be created alongside the achievement of equality and efficiency. Although this assumption is demonstrably false, neoliberalism remains politically powerful. As an example, this article
-
When singing strengthens the capacity to aspire: girls’ reflexivity in rural Bangladesh Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-07-15 Maria Jordet, Siri Erika Gullestad, Hanne Haavind
ABSTRACT In the present paper, we explore the impact of singing for girls in rural Bangladesh. Previous findings in this field-based interview study (with 18 girls) have demonstrated that singing can act as a driving force in young girls’ psychological individuation processes, implying increased agency and autonomy. A critical question, however, is to what extent the village girls will manage to maintain
-
Gesture from a critical realist perspective: beyond Peirce’s triangle Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-07-13 Pierpaolo Donati
ABSTRACT The paper deals with the theory of gesture from the point of view of relational sociology. On the one hand, the thesis of the ‘complete gesture’ developed by Giovanni Maddalena is appreciated as a significant step forward from classical pragmatism. On the other hand, since theories based essentially on phenomenology and semiotics are at risk of nominalism and constructivism, if we want to
-
Why and how Barcelona has become a health inequalities research hub? A realist explanatory case study Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-07-08 Lucinda Cash-Gibson, Eliana Martinez-Herrera, Astrid Escrig-Pinol, Joan Benach
ABSTRACT Despite the increase in global research on health inequalities, more needs to be done to strengthen efforts to inform local interventions. In this article, we ask what determines the local capacity to engage in research on health inequalities. A bibliometric analysis identified Spain as the 10th highest global contributor to this research field (1966–2015), yet a significant proportion of
-
Objects of virtue: ‘moral grandstanding’ and the capitalization of ethics under neoliberal commodity fetishism Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-07-06 Steph Grohmann
ABSTRACT This article critiques conspicuous displays of morality within public discourse, recently framed as ‘moral grandstanding’, from the perspective of an intersubjective Critical Realist theory of ethics. Drawing on Honneth’s recognition theory as the basis of a ‘qualified explanatory critique’, I argue that these practices are not mere aberrations within moral discourse, but a necessary consequence
-
Symposium on The Space That Separates: A Realist Theory of Art Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-07-04 Dave Elder-Vass, Andrew Sayer, Tobin Nellhaus, Ian Verstegen, Alan Norrie, Nick Wilson
Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Vol. 22, No. 1, 2023)
-
Explaining the reorganization of political space in local governance reform: would critical realism help? Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-07-01 Yi Yang
ABSTRACT When explaining the causes of structural variations in local governance reform, regional studies scholars face a trilemma: how to avoid voluntarism that over-inflates individuals’ power to ‘heroically’ reorganize local governance regimes; how to avoid determinism that denies the prowess of local actors in the face of institutional constraints; and how to avoid constructivism that denies the
-
Round table: is the common ground between pragmatism and critical realism more important than the differences? Journal of Critical Realism Pub Date : 2022-06-02 Karin Zotzmann, Emily Barman, Douglas V. Porpora, Mark Carrigan, Dave Elder-Vass
ABSTRACT One theme of this special issue is an incitement to reconsider the relationship between pragmatism and critical realism. While their advocates sometimes come into conflict, there are also clearly borrowings and overlaps between the traditions, and we therefore invited scholars with feet in either or indeed both camps to discuss their relationship. The discussion was conducted virtually, with