Critical Realist Ontology Research Articles

Multilevel causal mechanisms in social entrepreneurship: the enabling role of social capital

ABSTRACT We take a new mechanism-based approach to explain how social entrepreneurship emerges from the interaction of multilevel elements, based on case study evidence from China. Informed by Coleman’s ‘boat model’ of social mechanisms, social capital theory and a critical realist ontology, we highlight three mechanisms – the sparking, manifesting and scaling mechanisms – which collectively generate the social entrepreneurship phenomenon. When enabled by social capital, these mechanisms explain the causal relations between the multilevel elements of social entrepreneurship: social needs, social entrepreneurial ideas and practice, market creation and social impact. This framework generates novel insights into the multilevel nature of social entrepreneurship, and the central role of social capital in enabling its underlying mechanisms.

Early knowledge but delays in climate actions: An ecocide case against both transnational oil corporations and national governments

Recent articles have demonstrated the knowledge and accuracy of oil corporations’ predictions made since the 1950s on the effects of their products on the global environment. But can the early relationship between oil corporations and national governments and lack of climate actions by both actors count as ecocide? If so, should remedial strategies appeal to freer markets for oil or greater state regulation? Cast within the wide context of investigating the collusion at play between powerful political-economic actors and decision-makers as monopolists and debates about ‘the modern corporation and private property’ (Berle and Means, 1932/2017), ‘the new industrial state’ (Galbraith, 1967), and ‘the economic theory of regulation’ (Stigler, 1971), the paper reviews the contentious relationship between states, corporations, and markets. Specifically, the article probes strategies of oil corporations and national governments intended to delay the inclusion of environmental concerns in policies and avoid accountability. Our method of content analysis of articles, reports, and international declarations of different actors and periods relies on a qualitative methodology and ontology of critical realism. We find that not only did oil corporations hide the truth, but also that national governments, that knew (or should have known) about the threat posed by oil industrial activities and which have wider responsibilities than corporations, did not act and are (at least) as responsible and as ‘ecocidal’ in what could be called an oil TNC-state alliance. Accordingly, we open the avenues for redressing an evolutionary shift from markets and states to commons, and embedding power within communities (Polanyi, 1945) along with a more universal right to bring a case of ecocide against both transnational oil corporations and states that collude with them.

A paradigm shift in giftedness research: integrating critical realism’s ontology, epistemology, and methodology

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the integration of critical realist ontology, epistemology, and methodology into giftedness and gifted education research. Although there is no consensus about the complex nature of giftedness, a paradigmatic shift is underway, emphasizing the impact of contextual and social factors in shaping gifted performance. Despite this shift, the ontological, epistemological, and methodological stances are often overlooked, leading to an incomplete understanding of the complex interaction between individuals and their context and constraining the potential to offer realistic and functional interventions for gifted education. Critical realism enables us to explore complex interactions, generate hypotheses, identify causal mechanisms, advance theoretical frameworks, and construct functional interventions for policy practices with its ontological, epistemological, and methodological arguments. This work contributes to the field by showcasing how critical realism's core concepts and tenets can be applied to various aspects of giftedness and gifted education and suggesting multiple avenues for further research.

The paramedic experience of return to clinical practice: A reflexive thematic analysis

Background: The Australian paramedic workforce has significantly expanded and evolved in the past few decades. Professionalisation, increasing demand and evolving clinical practice have contributed to pressure on paramedics to meet community expectations of service delivery. Returning to clinical practice after an absence presents a substantial challenge for paramedics who will need to navigate this transitional phase while readjusting to the fast-paced environment of pre-hospital care. This study aims to explore and understand the experience of paramedics returning to clinical practice. Methods: Paramedics were invited to discuss their experiences returning to clinical practice in ambulance services within Australia. A qualitative reflexive thematic analysis was conducted utilising an inductive approach, underpinned by the theoretical framework of the organisational support theory. An experiential orientation was supported by a critical realist ontology, which intersected and overlapped with epistemological contextualism. Results: Three major themes were identified: (1) perceived organisational support, (2) the reality of flexible work, and (3) clinician identity. Theme one was further broken down into three sub-themes relating to structure, work engagement, and clinical support. Conclusions: Our findings provide insight into the lived experiences of paramedics returning to clinical practice. These experiences and challenges should inform the application of organisational policy and resource allocation to better support returning paramedics in the future. Strategies should include enhanced leadership capability, flexible work, robust clinical education, and structured programmes with in-built flexibility to reintegrate staff with an emphasis on communication and support.

Ontology and interdisciplinary research in esports

ABSTRACT This article identifies the benefits of adopting a critical realist ontology to researching esports in the social sciences. The article outlines some of the challenges in researching esports, paying particular attention to the emerging specialisms and sub-disciplines. The article suggests that different schools of thought have different ontological and epistemological commitments, resulting in a complex and somewhat fragmented or contested set of definitions and research directives. The article considers how the philosophy of science can enable researchers to gain a more complete understanding and appreciation of esports. More specifically, the article outlines some of the central philosophical commitments of critical realism and considers their benefits for researching the multi-layered and multifaceted nature of esports. What results is a stratified ontology of esports, in which various biological, psychological and sociological factors interact to produce emergent outcomes at micro, meso and macro levels of causality. Such an interdisciplinary approach resists previous attempts to reduce esports research to singular (and competing) epistemological claims. Instead, this article invites sports researchers to investigate the complex ways natural and social factors interact to generate and change esports structures, institutions and agential behaviours.

Spiritual Tourism and its Contribution to Psychological Wellness in the Post-Pandemic Era

The ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic have manifested adversities not just to the physical health of the people but have severe consequences on their psychological well-being. The earlier research bespeaks the ministration of spirituality and religion in the life of a psychologically troubling human as an efficient way of adding to their coping mechanism. In the same vein, the restorative powers of tourism have been widely recognised. The research aims to examine the psychological and emotional consequences of the pandemic and its associated measures, such as confinement, social distance, and mobility restrictions, on the people. Further explores the effect of the pandemic on travel intentions and motivations, with particular attention to tourism for spiritual purposes. The ontology of critical realism was effectively adopted for this qualitative study. Thirty-six travellers were interviewed through purposive sampling to understand the nature of the destination the tourists will opt for after the pandemic and their motivation behind the travel. The authors created a phenomenological connection between a person's well-being and spiritual tours. A gap is filled in the literature on the inclination of tourists towards spirituality and will further lay premises for the discussion on the rise of spiritual travel after calamities.

On integral theory: an exercise in dialectical critical realism

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 of the origins of critical realism and integral theory, I review the ontological, epistemological, and methodological metatheorems of dialectical critical realism, and I put them to work to provide an omissive critique of integral theory. Then I introduce the notion of strictly non-dialectic because it functions to explain formally how integral theory relates to critical realism. Section 2 isolates the inadequacies at every moment in the passage from the MELD dialectic. Section 3 concludes the article with a discussion of the implications of foregrounding a critical realist ontology for integral theory.

Patient safety and hospital visiting at the end of life during COVID-19 restrictions in Aotearoa New Zealand: a qualitative study

BackgroundVisiting restrictions were enacted in Aotearoa New Zealand to reduce transmission of COVID-19 and protect the healthcare system. This research aimed to investigate the experiences of families and clinicians of...

Fine Companions: Critical Realism and Framework Analysis

This article discusses the alignment of framework analysis with a critical realist philosophy in qualitative analysis. Whilst both are used in social sciences and prioritise meaning making of complex phenomena, the two approaches have not been combined prior to the study outlined in this article. The article describes critical realist ontology and epistemology, the implications of this philosophy for data analysis and the structured processes of framework analysis. Using an example from a study of youth programmes in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the article demonstrates the value of framework analysis for critical realist studies. Emphasis is placed on the capacity of framework analysis to support varied foci on data, theory, and different modes of inferencing which are used in critical realist studies to provide an explanatory account of data.

Post-traumatic Mental and Physical Consequences of Frontline Reporting in the MENA Region

Background: A current need in journalistic frontline work is to understand the potential psychological and physical traumatic consequences that may result from on-duty appointments. Journalists are active in frontline zones to report on conflicts, crises, and natural disasters. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, reporters are not equipped or trained mentally or emotionally to handle stressful events. Most journalists suffer from certain degrees of post-traumatic mental and physical disorders associated with their frontline duties. Objective: The objective of this exploratory study is to provide comprehensive insights into challenges faced by journalists reporting in conflict zones in the MENA region. Methods: This research study is based on a qualitative research approach where data was collected by directly interviewing eight journalists who have covered frontline conflicts and disasters in the MENA region. The collected qualitative data was analysed by conducting a thematic analysis to appreciate emerging categories. The ontology of critical realism was adopted to recognise the real feelings and experiences of the responding journalists. Results: This original study presents six themes emerging from the data and researcher triangulation. The health and social issues in MENA are found to be most critical for high-risk reporting. Conclusion: Amidst the psychological and physical problems, all journalists did not give up their jobs or ask for privileges. Media houses could consider a more robust training plan based on health and safety to prepare these journalists.

Cultural competence in a multinational group of sport psychology professionals

Sport psychology scholars and practitioners (SPPs) now recognize the importance of cultural competence (CC). However, only a few SPPs have deliberately centered CC in their practice. The purpose of this study was to understand how SPPs conceptualize and develop CC within their professional practice. Our study is grounded in a critical realist ontology and framed within the consensual qualitative research method (CQR). Using a semi-structured interview guide, we interviewed 25 globally situated SPPs (13 males, 12 females) with three to 40 years of professional experience (17.83, SD = 10.88) residing on four different continents. We constructed seven categories to provide a snapshot of how SPPs conceptualize, develop, and emphasize CC as an ethical and moral obligation to engage in effective professional practice. The participating SPPs described how CC is contextual and encompasses one’s cultural knowledge, awareness, and skills developed from professional and personal cultural interactions and investment in cultural professional development. The SPPs shared how CC plays a relevant role in their sport psychology practice. We also highlighted how culture and CC are frequently conceptualized and experienced from a one-dimensional perspective, overlooking the importance of how cultural identities and modes of being interact within and between SPPs and clients or participants. The implications for individuals and professional bodies are discussed for professional development, training, and effective practice. Lay summary: Cultural competence is an ethical and moral obligation for SPPs to engage in effective professional practice. In this study, a multinational group of SPPs shared how they conceptualize, develop, and implement cultural competence within their professional practice. Applied Implications The development of and deliberate consideration of CC into applied and scholarly practice is an ethical and moral responsibility It is important for SPPs to invest in developing their CC, becoming comfortable with making mistakes, and engaging in difficult conversations. It is important for SPPs to ground their CC development in their own reflections as well as personal and professional cultural encounters.

‘I hate having my mental health’ – Making sense of mental health through coproduction and visual methods with young people with complex needs

ABSTRACT There is evidence that research involving young people in conceptual stages of the design can be empowering, leading to a sense of personal agency, sustainable outcomes, interventions and resilience. Yet, despite calls for greater involvement of young people in services that affect them, in reality this is often tokenistic or a ‘tick box’ exercise. This article presents the findings from a practical ‘on-the-ground’ project, drawing on visual methods and coproduction with young people enrolled in a social–emotional and behavioural difficulties school in the UK and practitioners, to gain insight into how they make sense of their mental health. Applying coproduction, our approach was centred around the process of knowledge production, rather than ‘data gathering’. With this in mind, we adopted two mutual and reciprocal phases, the steering group phase and the knowledge production phase, consisting of young people, practitioners and researchers. Results highlight visual methods, in this case drawing/doodling on tablecloths, enabled young people to articulate implicit emotions and affective experiences. Whilst this study does not offer a ‘standard model of coproduction’, by framing coproduction within critical realist ontology and positioning theory, we have come some way in addressing issues around power imbalance and reciprocity.

The new hope of Chinese football? Youth football reforms and policy conflicts in the implementation process

ABSTRACT Research question This research focuses on the implementation of youth football policies in China following the 2015 national football reform. It asks the question ‘To what extent have contextual and organisational factors facilitated and/or constrained the effective implementation of Chinese youth football policies?’ Research methods Guided by a critical realist ontology, we conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in the implementation process of the youth football policy including members of the national and local football associations, schools, and professional football clubs. Results and findings The findings reveal a number of policy conflicts that restricted an effective implementation of the youth football policies. The main conflict lay in the ambiguous intertwinement of two dominant policy coalitions (i.e. sport and education), which consequently led to confusion and conflicts among key implementers in the three pathways. Other factors such as the continuous mismatch of traditional values and beliefs held by actors towards youth football participation, as well as the emphasis on excellence over participation by some actors are also identified as having potentially inhibited effective implementation. Implications This paper contributes to the debate of the positioning of youth sport in an increasingly elite-driven sporting context. It argues that policymakers, implementers, and the overall society, even if they are willing to foster a positive youth sport development, can also generate an adverse effect if they do not work together.

Interpreting hidden meaning in qualitative research interview data: opportunities and challenges

ABSTRACT Hidden meaning, understood as relationally constituted unformulated or defended experience, presents both opportunities and challenges not adequately theorised and explored in the qualitative research literature. This paper outlines weaker and stronger forms of hiddenness and discusses the epistemological and methodological difficulties that hidden meaning presents. Many qualitative approaches claiming to accommodate hidden meaning are significantly flawed because of their attenuated conceptions of intersubjectivity and consequent reliance on interview transcripts, rather than the rich intersubjective data co-created in the interview process. If the researcher’s subjectivity is the primary research instrument, we need to work with both verbal content and affect-laden embodied experience, reflexively observing its manifestations and intersubjective impacts. The disciplined use of reflexive subjectivity involves paying close attention to our affective resonances, reveries, and/or researcher countertransference, which signal implicit research manifestations of the relational unconscious. I propose an interpretive process model, underpinned by a critical realist ontology and epistemology, and illustrate this with reference to some interview material. I conclude with an overview of the ethical challenges of interpreting hidden meaning and the crucial role that rigorous and holistically conceived reflexivity plays as an interpretive and ethical resource.

Use of Critical Ethnography to Study the PMTCT Program

Background: Despite the efforts at establishing Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programs in Rwanda, there are still children who are becoming infected through mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The purpose of our research study was to explore the experiences of HIV positive women using PMTCT program to prevent HIV transmission in Rwanda. Methodology: In this study, a qualitative approach using a critical ethnographic design was used to answer to our research question and with the aim to discover the meaning, process, and context of the studied phenomenon. In this paper, we discussed ethnography, critical ethnography, and its related philosophical assumptions as well as illustrating the rational for the use of critical ethnography to study the PMTCT program. Critical ethnography ultimately will contribute to raising awareness on how we can prevent new infections among children born from HIV positive mothers who are using the PMTCT program. The findings suggested a wide range of challenging factors that are shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender values, and that directly and indirectly affect the uptake of the PMTCT program. While using the critical realist ontology, we discovered multiple truths about the challenging factors for HIV+ mothers experience to uptake the PMTCT program. We triangulated their experiences with the findings gathered from healthcare providers, PMTCT leaders and policymakers, field observation, and document analysis. No previous studies on this phenomenon used a critical lens to explore the reality behind a wide range of experiences of mothers using the PMTCT program to prevent HIV transmission in Rwanda. Conclusion: The critical nature of this inquiry contributed to the depth and breadth of knowledge related to the delivery of the PMTCT program to prevent MTCT of HIV.

'A troublesome girl is pushed through': Morality, biological determinism, resistance, resilience, and the Canadian child migration schemes, 1883-1939.

This article critically analyses correspondence and decisions regarding children/young people who were included in the Canadian child migration schemes that ran between 1883 and 1939, and those who were deemed ‘undeserving’ and outside the scope of the schemes. Drawing on critical realist ontology, a metatheory that centralises the causal non-linear dynamics and generative mechanisms in the individual, the cultural sphere, and wider society, the research starts from the premise that the principle of ‘less or more eligibility’ lies at the heart of the British welfare system, both now and historically. Through analysing case files and correspondence relating to children sent to Canada via the Waifs and Strays Society and Fegan Homes, I shed light on the complex interplay between morality, biological determinism, resistance, and resilience in decisions around which children should be included or excluded. I argue that it was the complex interplay and nuance between the moral/immoral, desirable/undesirable, degenerate, and capable/incapable child that guided practice with vulnerable children in the late 1800s. In judgements around ‘deservedness’, related stigmas around poverty and ‘bad’ behaviour were rife. Within this, the child was punished for his/her ‘immoral tendencies’ and ‘inherited traits’, with little regard for the underlying reasons (e.g. abuse and neglect) for their (abnormal) behaviour and ‘mental deficiencies’.

Re-examining the gap: A critical realist analysis of eye health inequity among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians

The prevalence of diabetes among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (hereafter ‘Aboriginal’) Australians is three times greater than non-Aboriginal Australians, contributing to a greater risk of blindness from treatable and preventable ocular conditions, most prominently cataract and diabetic retinopathy. In rural and remote Aboriginal communities, blindness prevalence is higher, and ocular treatment coverage and uptake are lower. In collaboration with Aboriginal Community Based Researchers (CBRs), this study explored complex contingent factors that shape access to eye health services among rural and remote Aboriginal Australians living with diabetes. Interviews (n = 126) and focus groups (n = 12) were conducted with patients, primary care clinicians, and CBRs, in four rural communities in the Northern Territory and New South Wales. Factors internal and external to health systems were examined, drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, and doxa to understand agency and decision-making among patients and clinicians. The study used the ontology of critical realism, categorising contingent factors as underlying structures (generative mechanisms), and applying a decolonising approach that centred causal relationships and tensions between dominant (Western biomedical neoliberalism) and non-dominant (Aboriginal) value systems. Three forms of marginalisation; linguistic, economic, and cultural, were identified as the generative mechanisms that inhibit equitable eye health outcomes. Marginality is linked to structural factors that position Aboriginal culture as a barrier, and is reinforced through biomedical health systems, and the agents who operate in and influence them. In order to address eye health inequity, a shift in how Aboriginal cultural sovereignty is understood within health systems is needed, to position it as a strength that can facilitate eye care accessibility, and to support enhanced cultural responsivity among clinicians and service providers.

Critical realism, mimetic theory and social work

Summary Scapegoating is a ubiquitous, yet pernicious, phenomenon in today’s world. It manifests in innumerable ways. Social work, in line with its emancipatory value-base, seeks to engage with various scapegoated groups to challenge the experience. In this article, the authors draw on critical realism and mimetic theory to elucidate the causative mechanisms fuelling scapegoating. This is done in order to heighten social workers’ insight into the process and empower targeted groups. Findings Mimetic theory highlights that scapegoating is a product of desire, rivalry and deflection. These are deep-seated mechanisms that are compatible with critical realist ontology and its search for causative properties in the social world. It is argued that critical realism augments mimetic theory by setting it within a much wider and deeper context of understanding. As such, it emphasizes intersecting causes and contingencies such as the role of temporal and spatial factors shaping the scapegoating experience. Applications Social workers can transform these theoretical insights into sensitizing constructs when they facilitate self-directed groupwork with scapegoated groups. Being theoretically informed, they can pose critical questions to group members to assist them to make the link between personal problems and political issues. The aim is to empower these groups so that they can embrace the sociological imagination and act for change.

Re-Structuring Parliamentary Roles

Abstract Prominent extant definitions of, and approaches to, parliamentary roles conflate roles and behaviour and, consequently, contain a latent behaviouralism that enfeebles the role that institutions and other structural features play in outcomes. To overcome such issues, this article makes the case for a historical institutionalist approach to the study of parliamentary roles, premised on a critical realist ontology and the figure of homo sentiens. Such an approach defines parliamentary roles in terms of sets of expectations impinging on incumbents of the social position of Member of Parliament and has a number of consequences for how we study parliamentary roles. Namely: the focus of research is squarely on legislative roles; attention is shifted away from focusing (so much or solely) on what mp s think; patterns of behaviour become the starting point for identifying parliamentary roles; and normative questions concerning the ‘goodness’ of parliamentary roles and attendant parliamentary institutional architecture gain prominence.

Becoming the temporary surgeon: A grounded theory examination of anaesthetists performing emergency front of neck access in inter-disciplinary simulation-based training.

The time-critical 'can't intubate, can't oxygenate' [CICO] emergency post-induction of anaesthesia is rare, but one which, should it occur, requires Anaesthetists to perform rapid emergency front of neck access [FONA] to the trachea, restoring oxygenation, and preventing death or brain hypoxia. The UK Difficult Airway Society [DAS] has directed all Anaesthetists to be trained with surgical cricothyroidotomy [SCT] as the primary emergency FONA method, sometimes referred to as 'Cric' as a shorthand. We present a longitudinal analysis using a classical approach to Grounded Theory methodology of ten Specialist Trainee Anaesthetists' data during a 6-month training programme delivered jointly by Anaesthetists and Surgeons. We identified with a critical realist ontology and an objectivist epistemology meaning data interpretation was driven by participants' narratives and accepted as true accounts of their experience. Our theory comprises three themes: 'Identity as an Anaesthetist'; 'The Role of a Temporary Surgeon'; and 'Training to Reconcile Identities', whereby training facilitated the psychological transition from a 'bloodless Doctor' (Anaesthetist) to becoming a 'temporary Surgeon'. The training programme enabled Specialist Trainees to move between the role of control and responsibility (Identity as an Anaesthetist), through self-described 'failure' and into a role of uncertainty about one's own confidence and competence (The Role of a Temporary Surgeon), and then return to the Anaesthetist's role once the airway had been established. Understanding the complexity of an intervention and providing a better insight into the training needs of Anaesthetic trainees, via a Grounded Theory approach, allows us to evaluate training programmes against the recognised technical and non-technical needs of those being trained.