Polkinghorne on Metaphysics of Divine Action: Presuppositions and Implications

Applying critical realism to the COVID-19 pandemic to improve management of future public health crises.

This article will utilise Peter Kropotkin’s theory of Mutual Aid to reconsider ontology in International Relations (IR). Mutual Aid Theory holds that the evolution of organisms is shaped by cooperation within a group of species against a variable ecology; thus giving rise to a sociality instinct. This is contrasted with the Malthusian assumption that evolution takes place at the individual level according to their intraspecific fitness. Mutual Aid Theory, applied to the realm of politics, overturns collective-action-problem-grounded theories that hold that the egoistic and competitive drive of humans must be overcome to promote cooperation. Bradley Thayer applied the orthodox individual-fitness interpretation of evolution in an attempt to shore up realist arguments. I argue that such reductionist approaches to studying politics are archaic and not congruent with current scientific understanding. A Critical Realist (CR) approach, placing analytical priority on ontological investigations over epistemological/methodological commitments, is employed to assist in the criticism of orthodox reductionist ontologies. However, equally in line with Kropotkin’s Anarchist ideas, I argue that this critical realist approach also provokes ontologically-driven inquiries into post-sovereignty global politics and can inform the emancipatory intent of Critical IR theory, along side the basic Anarchist ontological claim: society precedes the State.

Secondary prevention programmes for Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) aim to reduce cardiovascular risks and promote health in people with heart disease. Though programmes have been associated with health improvements in study populations, access to programmes remains low, and quality and effectiveness is highly variable. Current guidelines propose significant modifications to programmes, but existing research provides little insight into why programme effectiveness varies so much. Drawing on a critical realist approach, this article argues that current research has been based on an impoverished ontology, which has elements of positivism, does not explore the social determinants of health or the effects on outcomes of salient contextual factors, and thereby fails to account for programme variations. Alternative constructivist approaches are also weak and lacking in clinical credibility. An alternative critical realist approach is proposed that draws on the merits of subjectivist and objectivist approaches but also reflects the complex interplay between individual, programme-related, socio-cultural and organizational factors that influence health outcomes in open systems. This approach embraces measurement of objective effectiveness but also examines the mechanisms, organizational and contextual-related factors causing these outcomes. Finally, a practical example of how a critical realist approach can guide research into secondary prevention programmes is provided.

This paper explores the implications of adopting a critical realist approach to soft systems methodology (SSM) both to address local problematic situations and to develop deeper explanations. However, its potential as a means for developing generalizable knowledge for management science has been limited due at least in part to its adherence to strong interpretivism. After exploring the history of soft systems methodology and basic tenants of critical realism, the paper builds on previous discussions of ways in which SSM is compatible with a critical realist approach. Next, the consequences for such an approach are considered by examining a case in which SSM was integrated into a critical realist approach for discovery as means to guide large-scale reform in a non-profit organization. The case revealed that critical realism served as an effective guide both for incorporating existing knowledge as well as setting the stage for its possible modification. Opportunities and challenges in the approach are presented. Apart from the adoption of a realist ontology, a critical realist approach to SSM requires assuming a dual-role as an insider--outsider, which presents a number of challenges. However, it appears soft systems methodology are highly compatible and could serve to help bridge the practice--research gap.

Purpose – While there is a large volume of entrepreneurial social capital research, the philosophical assumptions have received limited attention. The purpose of this paper is to review and classify entrepreneurial social capital studies according to the following approaches – objectivist (positivist-realist, structuralist) and subjectivist (social constructionist). There is a neglect of structure and agency, and the authors encourage a critical realist approach that permits an understanding of observable network structure, constraint-order and human agency as a dynamic system. Design/methodology/approach – The ontological and epistemological assumptions, and associated strengths and weaknesses of objectivist (positivist-realist, structuralist) and subjectivist (social constructionist) entrepreneurial social capital studies are discussed. The case for a more progressive critical realist approach is developed. Findings – The authors demonstrate that objectivist (positivist-realist, structuralist) research with findings bereft of situated meaning and agency dominates. The emergence of subjectivist research – narratively examining different network situations from the perspective of those embedded in networks – is an emerging and competing approach. This dualism is unlikely to comprehensively understand the complex system-level properties of social capital. Future research should adopt critical realism and fuse: objective data to demonstrate the material aspects of network structures and what structural social capital exists in particular settings; and subjective data that enhances an understanding of situated meaning, agency and intention in a network. Originality/value – This paper contributes a review of entrepreneurial social capital research and philosophical foundations. The development of a critical realist approach to understanding social capital gestation permits a system-level analysis of network structure influencing conduct, and agency.

The aim of this article is to understand populism as a hegemonic project involving a struggle for power between different social forces. We take a critical realist approach in defining populism. This implies several things. We develop a new approach to understanding populist politics by taking neither a purely discursive (Laclau), nor a solely structural (Poulantzas), but a critical realist approach and analysing the three-way relationship between structural conditions, agency, and institutional framework. Second, it implies that populist politics is composed of complex and often contradictory dynamics and emergent features involving mainly domestic but also international processes. We develop this through a combination of three concepts – passive revolution, hegemonic depth, and partial hegemony. These indicate how a hegemonic project is situated in deeper social relations and how hegemonic leadership responds to this. We take the policies of AKP government in Turkey as a case in populist hegemonic project. We demonstrate that AKP has followed different hegemonic projects during its rule changing from an initial majoritarian populist politics to one of neoliberal authoritarian populism as it has consolidated its hegemonic depth. These different populist projects involve alternative visions of Turkey but are nevertheless all compatible with a global neoliberal agenda.

<i>Reconstructing Sociology: The Critical Realist Approach</i>. By Douglas V. Porpora. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. 249. $35.99 (paper).<i>The Relational Subject</i>. By Pierpaolo Donati and Margaret S. Archer. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. 356. $37.95 (paper).

PurposeWithin the context of the changing nature of research and of universities, insider action research provides a particular expression of action research that poses considerable challenges to those engaging in it. The purpose of this article is to address the challenges of insider action research.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on such research undertaken in Sweden.FindingsInsider action researchers need to confront the issues pertaining to preunderstanding, role duality and organizational politics. Attention to experience, understanding and judgement which leads to action, provides a methodology through which they can affirm what and how they know. They need to do so in a critical realist approach which challenges them to transcend their own subjectivity through the quality of how they are attentive to the data, intelligent in their understanding, reasonable in their judgements and responsible in their actions. Such transcendence provides the criteria for a rigorous epistemology and quality action research.Originality/valueThis paper brings the work of Bernard Lonergan to the field of action research and insider action research in particular and addresses in concrete terms how his critical realist approach may be actualized in practice by those engaging in insider action research.

This article contributes to developing intersectionality theory by deepening understanding of how patriarchy and racism interact with other structural factors to influence low‐paid migrants’ progression attempts. Using a critical realist approach and analysing interviews of 31 female and male migrants employed in five large organizations in Scotland and England, we reveal how major structural factors influence their main forms of identity work and the resources that they draw on in both the workplace and home. The feminist approach undertaken by this study makes significant advances to organizational intersectional theory in three ways. Firstly, it highlights the importance of examining the interaction of the influence of patriarchy within the home with racism and other structuring forces within the workplace. Secondly, it reveals how combinations of constraints and enablements that intersect with gendered and racialized identity work create formidable barriers to progression. Thirdly, it explores migrants’ differential access to diverse resources, including financial, social, discursive and psychological resources in both spheres over time. These findings reinforce the need for policy actions that recognize the interaction of structural factors which influence female and male migrant progression and the need for support within and beyond the workplace.

Despite years of policy attention and increasing intervention, the numbers of young people experiencing homelessness in Australia continue to increase. Previous meta-theoretical approaches to understanding homelessness amongst young people are largely unable to explain the conditions which enable young people to exit homelessness and maintain stable housing. We put forward Critical Realism as a way of overcoming the limitations of the main approaches which have been used to date: Empiricism, Interpretivism, and Interactionism/Epidemiology. The meta-theoretical assumptions made by Critical Realism can allow researchers to more robustly explain what enables young people to exit homelessness and maintain stable housing by identifying what it is about the structures and mechanisms, or the absence of these structures and mechanisms, which leads to this outcome. By using a Critical Realist approach, we hope to be able to contribute to more robust explanations of how young people exit homelessness and maintain housing.

ABSTRACTThe primary purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a critical realist approach can add to our understanding of professional recognition of educators in a pre-school setting. Recognition is a function of personal achievement and social arrangement, and is understood through examining those subjective conditions and objective structures as observed in the field of practice or as articulated by the actors involved. Through in-depth interviews, we provoked early childhood educators to deliberate on their lived experiences of professional recognition vis-à-vis policy expectations and institutional practices. In doing so, we identified interactive forces that influence professional recognition in a pre-school context. We argue that a stratified view of reality and epistemic relativism espoused by critical realists offers valuable theoretical insights for exploring teacher professional recognition. Finally, drawing on our empirical data and latest literature, we outline four points of reflection regarding the analytical advantages of critical realism.

This paper will utilize Peter Kropotkin’s theory of Mutual Aid to reconsider ontology in IR. Mutual Aid Theory holds that the evolution of organisms is shaped by cooperation within a group of species against a variable ecology; thus giving rise to a sociality instinct (Kropotkin 1902). This is contrasted with the Malthusian assumption that evolution takes place at the individual level according to their intraspecific fitness. Mutual Aid Theory, applied to the realm of politics, overturns collective action problem-grounded theories that hold that the egoistic and competitive drive of humans must be overcome to promote cooperation. Thayer (2004) applied the orthodox individual-fitness interpretation of evolution in an attempt to shore up Realist arguments. I argue that such reductionist approaches to studying politics are archaic and not congruent with current scientific understanding. A critical realist approach, placing analytical priority on ontological investigations over epistemological/methodological commitments, is employed to assist in the criticism of orthodox reductionist ontologies. However, equally in line with Kropotkin’s anarchist ideas, I argue that this critical realist approach also provokes ontologically-driven inquiries into post-sovereignty global politics and can inform the emancipatory intent of critical IR theory, along the basic anarchist ontological claim: society precedes the State.

Renewing Literature Reviews in MIS Research? A Critical Realist Approach

Explaining objective forces, driving forces, and causal mechanisms affecting the formation and expansion of the peri-urban areas: A critical realism approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges in adding a critical realist epistemological perspective to a positivist approach in research on listed companies by equity researchers and other financial services professionals.Design/methodology/approachA purposive sample of publicly available equity research reports was examined to assess the dominant epistemological approach to investment analysis.FindingsIt was found that there is an absence of a critical realist epistemological approach to investment analysis, confirming the dominance of a positivist approach to obtaining and analysing investment information.Research limitations/implicationsThis research drew on a small, purposive sample, and could be followed by more wide‐scale research. Taking a critical realist approach may create a clash of “institutional logics” which will need to be considered by a range of stakeholders.Originality/valueEquity research reports are examined through the lens of critical realism. This exploration allows for an additional epistemological perspective on analysis of firm value.