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Tag Archive for ‘critical realism’
Critical Realism & the Generative Structuralism of Bourdieu
Bourdieu has now become the hegemon in the field of social theory. Everybody knows the concepts of field, habitus, practice and symbolic violence by now. The common language even allows for discussion among colleagues and among disciplines. Commentaries on Bourdieu’s… Read More ›
Video interviews with leading critical realists
A series of video interviews with leading CR theorists, produced by the Critical Realism Network:
structure, culture and agency: selected papers of margaret archer
The Amazon page has gone live for this book I’m editing with Tom Brock and Graham Scambler. As well as the titular selected papers, it will include an interview with Archer, an annotated bibliography, a foreword by Doug Porpora and an… Read More ›
The Critical Realism Network
An important new initiative for anyone interested in Critical Realism. This is how Phil Gorski introduces it: Dear Colleagues, I am excited to announce the launch of the Critical Realism Network (CRN) which aims to engage a community of academics… Read More ›
Reconstructing Sociology: The Critical Realist Approach
Critical realism is a philosophy of science that positions itself against the major alternative philosophies underlying contemporary sociology. This book offers a general critique of sociology, particularly sociology in the United States, from a critical realist perspective. It also acts… Read More ›
Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order
The latest volume in the Social Morphogenesis series examines how generative mechanisms emerge in the social order and their consequences. It does so in the light of finding answers to the general question posed in this book series: Will Late… Read More ›
The Relational Subject
“The Relational Subject by Pierpaolo Donati and Margaret S. Archer Many social theorists now call themselves ‘relational sociologists’, but mean entirely different things by it. The majority endorse a ‘flat ontology’, dealing exclusively with dyadic relations. Consequently, they cannot explain… Read More ›
Critical Realism: Reimagining Social Science
“Critical Realism: Reimagining Social Science” at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame/South Bend, Indiana, USA 27-30 July 2015 “What difference does critical realism make for how we do our empirical work?” More work must be done on how Critical… Read More ›
Critical Realism: Reimagining Social Science
“Critical Realism: Reimagining Social Science” at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame/South Bend, Indiana, USA 27-30 July 2015 “What difference does critical realism make for how we do our empirical work?” More work must be done on how Critical… Read More ›
Workshop: Investigating the Internal Conversation
I’m organising this workshop at Warwick in June for anyone using Margaret Archer’s work on reflexivity in empirical research. She’ll be there all day & will discuss the development of this work as well as answering questions about it. There… Read More ›
Five important works of realist social theory being published in 2015
To Flourish or Destruct: A Personalist Theory of Human Goods, Motivations, Failure, and Evil Generative Mechanisms Transforming the Social Order (Social Morphogenesis) The Relational Subject Reconstructing Sociology: The Critical Realist Approach A realist philosophy of social science
International Association for Critical Realism (IACR) 2015 Annual Meeting
“Critical Realism: Reimagining Social Science” July 28-30, 2015 Notre Dame, IN (USA) “What difference does critical realism make for how we do our empirical work?” That is the question that many social scientists who hear about critical realism initially ask,… Read More ›
Critical Realism, Gender and Feminism
Special Issue of the Journal of Critical Realism (15:5, 2016) Edited by Angela Martínez Dy, Lena Gunnarsson and Michiel van Ingen Email: lena.gunnarsson@oru.se An increasing number of gender scholars have become familiar with critical realism, finding it a robust alternative… Read More ›
Andrew Collier, 1944–2014
There’s a lovely obituary for Andrew Collier, the critical realist philosopher, in Radical Philosophy: Andrew Collier’s contribution to realist philosophy and social theory can perhaps best be summed up in the title of one of his chapters in the collection Critical… Read More ›
Book Review: The Sacred Project of American Sociology
I approached this book with a certain degree of ambivalence, curious as to the hostility one of my favourite sociologists has seemingly provoked in many of its readers. As someone fascinated by the sociology of sociology, it was exciting to hear that… Read More ›
Realist evaluation, mechanisms and theoretical minimalism
At IACR earlier today I heard two interesting talks about Realist Evaluation. I had previously had a vague idea about what this involved, largely through encountering citations from Pawson in other texts, without ever having really grasped what it was in a… Read More ›
Are you confused by critical realism?
If so then this glossary might be a helpful resource: Absence Actualism Change Closed and Open Systems Completion Constellation Critique and Transcendental Argument Determinism Dialectics Differentiation and Stratification Emergence Epistemic and Ontic Fallacies Epistemic Relativism and Judgmental Rationality Ethical Naturalism… Read More ›
Foucauldian analysis and the mystification of elites
In a recent review of The Reflexive Imperative*, Jonathon Joseph describes subjects “being encouraged to become active citizens and consumers who must make the right life choices based on acquiring the appropriate skills and information, making informed choices about risk activities, taking responsibility… Read More ›
Fred Phelps, Calvinistic soteriology and its implications
Does adopting a five point Calvinist soteriology logically implicate the type of views advocated by Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church? The opinion of Frank Schaeffer, son of Francis Schaeffer, is that there is a positive continuity between these views and… Read More ›
Rorty, Realism and the Idea of Freedom
In contrast to the scorn which Rorty’s name now provokes in some quarters, it’s arresting to see the esteem in which he was held by Roy Bhaskar in the late 80s, albeit in the context of a trenchant philosophical critique…. Read More ›
Roy Bhaskar on the Fetishisation of Facts
What is a ‘fact’? This deceptively simple question provides a route into the most pressing issues concerning the philosophy of science. In a short essay, “Philosophies as Ideologies of Science: A Contribution to the Critique of Positivism”, Roy Bhaskar offers… Read More ›
A dialogue between phenomenology and realism in pedagogical and educational research
The workshop forms part of the activity to support our Social Sciences strategic priorities for 2013-14 and falls under the Teaching research methods stream. The workshop is free to attend for delegates from both subscribing and non-subscribing institutions but booking is essential to… Read More ›
Why Things Matter to People
Underlying this book is a simple proposition: things matter to people. As well as the thought and interaction which have been traditional objects of the human sciences, we also evaluate – our relation to the world is one of concern. Andrew Sayer’s book is concerned with drawing… Read More ›
Podcasts: Contemporary Realist Theory
These podcasts were recorded at an event in September run by the British Sociological Association’s Realism Study Group. A range of speakers working in the critical realist tradition were asked to address the theme of contemporary issues in realist theory. The intention… Read More ›