Critical Realist View Research Articles

Re-Envisioning Leadership Practice for an Uncertain Future: A Conceptual Synthesis Based on Critical Realist View and Quantum Principles

Re-Envisioning Leadership Practice for an Uncertain Future: A Conceptual Synthesis Based on Critical Realist View and Quantum Principles

Multi-Dimensional Time and Innovation Ecosystems: A Critical Realist View

Multi-Dimensional Time and Innovation Ecosystems: A Critical Realist View

The emergence of organisations conducting community asset transfers of leisure facilities

ABSTRACT Community Asset Transfer (CAT) has increased as a way of delivering leisure services in England, where community groups (CG) form to manage leisure facilities in replacement for local authorities (LA). This paper builds on existing studies of the process of CAT to discuss how groups emerge to take on these facilities. Studies situated the emergence of these groups amidst LA outsourcing, with budgetary reductions, and poor management, as contexts for facilities needing transfer with CAT. A critical realist view of emergence is taken, where the morphogenetic framework is used to explain the contexts, interactions, and elaborations within two voluntary CGs that emerged to take on the management of leisure facilities. The paper confirms emergence as shaped by contexts of facility closure and LA cuts with interactions occurring when activists campaign to prevent closures, and form entities.

A critical realist view of gesture

ABSTRACT In the panorama of gesture theories, the contribution of relational sociology based on critical realism is underdeveloped. This contribution seeks to fill the deficit by considering Giovanni Maddalena's theory on the ‘complete gesture’. On the one hand, this theory 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, if we want to understand the gesture from a critical realistic perspective, we need to complement the theory of gesture with a relational social ontology. This means that the theory of the gesture as action (unit act) must be placed within an ontological and epistemological framework, in which Peirce’s triangle is related to the latent value of the real as indicated by the sign. A relational alternative to Peirce's semiotic triangle is presented here with the aim of connecting the sign of the gesture to the underlying reality.

A critical realist view of gesture

ABSTRACT In the panorama of gesture theories, the contribution of relational sociology based on critical realism is underdeveloped. This contribution seeks to fill the deficit by considering Giovanni Maddalena's theory on the ‘complete gesture’. On the one hand, this theory 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, if we want to understand the gesture from a critical realistic perspective, we need to complement the theory of gesture with a relational social ontology. This means that the theory of the gesture as action (unit act) must be placed within an ontological and epistemological framework, in which Peirce’s triangle is related to the latent value of the real as indicated by the sign. A relational alternative to Peirce's semiotic triangle is presented here with the aim of connecting the sign of the gesture to the underlying reality.

Entering the World

There is a significant lack of clarity among critical realists in the language they use to discuss perception. In this paper I illustrate this lack of clarity and then argue that a critical realist view of perception is best understood as conceiving of perception as an active process in direct contact with the world. I connect this view with the thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s views of perception and embodiment and argue that seeing this point has implications for our understanding of perception by offering a path through the direct/indirect debate. It suggests challenges both to the definition of knowledge as justified true belief and to the reduction of knowledge to effectiveness. It bears on the question of truth insofar as it challenges the view that truth can be reduced to propositions.

States of exception, human rights, and social harm: Towards a border zemiology

Crimmigration, that is, the merging of criminal and migration law, is receiving increasing attention within criminology. However, while crimmigration widens our understanding of coercion and punishment, it is a reductive lens through which to make sense of migration control. This article comprises three parts: first, I critique the concept of crimmigration, its conceptual foundations, and its methodological limitations. Second, I explore how migration control practice transcends both the state’s territory and sovereignty, using the example of the European Union’s policy of non-assistance, and argue that this policy evidences the need to move beyond crime-based categories in favour of a social harm-based approach. Lastly, I propose a zemiological methodology for the study of migration control, based on a critical realist view of society and building on Nancy Fraser’s idea of social justice. The resulting framework provides a coherent and empirically useful tool for the study of border-related harms.

The Origin and Nature of Religion: A Critical Realist View

There are few social scientists who have done as much scholarly research on religion as Christian Smith. Over the past three decades, he has interviewed hundreds of people, fielded numerous surveys, and written dozens of books. And in recent years, he has pushed beyond the boundaries of empirical social research into the neighboring domains of social theory, philosophy, and theology. Anyone who studies or cares about religion will want to know what he has to say about it.

A Critical Realist View of the Human Resource Management Role Development in Malaysia

Methodological challenges in studying HRM especially to unlock the HRM-performance link have been highlighted by HRM experts. Most experts argue that HRM research findings are less likely to provide a comprehensive explanation to support the empirical evidence. The development of critical realism seeks to overcome this limitation. Critical realists see the world as influenced by human agents and social structures, thus accept the existence of different structures and materials in developing knowledge as well as to justify the research finding. A lack of definition in the line managers’ HRM role suggests the necessity of exploring the structures that influence the role’s development and the influence of agency within those structures. Using evidence drawn from case studies in three Malaysian airports, interviews were conducted with line managers, senior managers and HR representatives to explore their experience in the HRM role development process. Insights to be captured, using both structure and agency, provide an understanding of the line managers’ HRM role development. In terms of structure, airport category/size and the company’s strategic priorities are found to influence the formulation and implementation of the HRM activities. Agency is addressed by the individual’s personality and cultural values. In Malaysia, studies on the line managers involvement in HRM are still limited, thus the interactions of structure and agency in critical realist approach is able to provide clear insights of how HRM ‘role’ is developed in the Malaysian context.

Why things happen – Developing the critical realist view of causal mechanisms

Events happen within the organizational world not by chance but for reasons. It is surely the task of management research to try to explain why these events occur. This requires us to understand the nature of causality but, in general, this is seldom discussed in the management or IS literature. The standard, positivist view underlying statistical analysis is the Humean one of constant conjunctions of events leading to universal laws. Against this, many constructivists find the whole idea of external causality implausible. In this paper we explore a third alternative that is developing strongly within the philosophy of science, social theory and critical realism – the mechanisms view. This proposes that events are generated through the interaction of specific mechanisms endowed with causal powers that may or may not be triggered, and may or may not be countervailed. In particular, the paper develops some of the fundamental concepts such as the nature of events, emergent properties, the difference between properties and powers, casual interactions between levels, absences as causes, event causality and generative causality, and abstracting causal regularities. The paper concludes by illustrating these ideas with a series of empirical case studies.

Critical Realism, Urban Planning and Urban Research

The paper discusses key meta-theoretical presuppositions for urban planning to be possible and meaningful, pointing at critical realism as a fruitful philosophical position for research within urban planning and urban studies. For ontological reasons, critical realism considers that interdisciplinary integration is necessary to arrive at valid knowledge, whereas competing positions such as positivism and poststructuralism tend to neglect important parts of reality. Critical realism acknowledges the independent causal powers of both agents and structures and thus provides a suitable platform for investigating causal relationships between social conditions, spatial urban structures and the actions of agents (including those of planners). Moreover, a critical realist view on the possibilities of research-based predictions squares well with the qualitative impact assessments of alternative solutions and the modest, context-adapted estimates of magnitudes of effects typical within urban planning.

Case studies and generalization in information systems research: A critical realist perspective

The status of case study research as a legitimate scientific method in IS research is often challenged by the view that case findings are not readily generalizable. Positivist and interpretivist perspectives have typically dominated discussions of this important methodological issue. I provide an alternative perspective by presenting a critical realist view of generalizing from case findings. I show that critical realism represents a very different view than either positivism or interpretivism. Critical realism recognizes the role of case study research in empirical generalization, theoretical generalization, and theory testing. In contrast, the role of case study research in empirical generalization and theory testing is either ignored or neglected by interpretivism and positivism. Embracing critical realism would therefore enable researchers to more fully explore the potential for case finding generalization.

The Generative Mechanisms of Digital Infrastructure Evolution

The current literature on digital infrastructure offers powerful lenses for conceptualizing the increasingly interconnected information system collectives found in contemporary organizations. However, little attention has been paid to the generative mechanisms of digital infrastructure, that is, the causal powers that explain how and why such infrastructure evolves over time. This is unfortunate, since more knowledge about what drives digital infrastructures would be highly valuable for managers and IT professionals confronted by the complexity of managing them. To this end, this paper adopts a critical realist view for developing a configurational perspective of infrastructure evolution. Our theorizing draws on a multimethod research design comprising an in-depth case study and a case survey. The in-depth case study, conducted at a Scandinavian airline, distinguishes three key mechanisms of digital infrastructure evolution: adoption, innovation, and scaling. The case survey research of 41 cases of digital infrastructure then identifies and analyzes causal paths through which configurations of these mechanisms lead to successful evolution outcomes. The study reported in this paper contributes to the infrastructure literature in two ways. First, we identify three generative mechanisms of digital infrastructure and how they contingently lead to evolution outcomes. Second, we use these mechanisms as a basis for developing a configurational perspective that advances current knowledge about why some digital infrastructures evolve successfully while others do not. In addition, the paper demonstrates and discusses the efficacy of critical realism as a philosophical tradition for developing substantive contributions in the field of information systems.

Analysing discourse as a causal mechanism

Utilising critical realist philosophy of social science, this article contends that discourse may be studied as a causal mechanism in the generation of events — and one relationally connected to mechanisms of differing kinds. To do this, it is argued that we should adopt critical discourse analysis rather than the guidance of poststructuralist discourse theory. After establishing the key assumptions of poststructuralist discourse theory, some of the substantive analytical tendencies that secrete are discussed and illustrated through a look at the treatment of humanitarian discourse in the International Relations literature on the nature of Western warfare. The article then places discourse within a critical realist view of the social world. I argue that unlike in poststructuralist discourse theory, with critical realism, discourse can be differentiated from the realm of extra-discursive practice, placed in dialectical relation to this wider realm of social relations, and analysed as a possible causal mechanism in the generation of social phenomena, alongside these other mechanisms, as a way to better determine discourse’s actual effect on events. critical discourse analysis is introduced as offering an amenable methodological tool-kit for studying discourse as conceptualised in this way.

Top-down causation and social structures.

Top-down causation has been implicit in many sociological accounts of social structure and its influence on social events, but the social sciences have struggled to provide a coherent account of top-down causation itself. This paper summarizes a critical realist view of causation and emergence, shows how it supports a plausible account of top-down causation and then applies this account to the social world. The argument is illustrated by an examination of the concept of a norm circle, a kind of social entity that, it is argued, is causally responsible for the influence of normative social institutions. Nevertheless, social entities are structured rather differently from ordinary material ones, with the result that the compositional level structure of reality implicit in the concept of top-down causation has some limitations in the social world. The paper closes by considering what might be involved in examining how top-down causation can be shown to be at work in the social domain.

Religions: Are There Any?

Several scholars have recently argued that the concept of “religion” is manufactured, constructed, invented, or imagined, but does not correspond to an objective reality, “out there” in the world. This paper seeks to evaluate that critique. I argue that the critique is composed of three levels or threads: that “religion” is a social construction, that the term distorts one’s perceptions of the reality it seeks to name, and that it is ideologically poisonous. Granting the partial truth of these three arguments, the paper agrees with the critics that a naive realism about religion is indefensible. However, some of the critics draw the conclusion that “there is no such thing as religion” or “there are no religions,” but I reject this conclusion. I seek, instead, to develop a critical realist view of the concept of religion that is able both to take into account the history of the semantics of the concept and, nevertheless, to see the study of religion as the study of patterns of behavior which are independent of the scholar.

Taming Eastern Nationalism: Tracing the Ideational Background of Double Standards of Post-Cold War Minority Protection

This article uses the logic of explanatory emancipation to criticize post-Cold War minority politics. The main argument is that the ideational background of the double standards of minority protection originates from a contested dichotomy of nationalism that divides nationalisms into Eastern ethnic/malignant nationalism and Western civic/benign nationalism. After presenting the theoretical tradition of the ‘Kohn dichotomy’, the article traces its use in post-Cold War academic and official policy papers. Through intertextual analysis, this article shows how the old theoretical tradition was recycled into a new context to dispel post-Cold War confusion. This article presents a Critical Realist view on how ideas and theories can be treated as parts of the causal analysis of social practices. With explicitly causal language, identifying possible forms for emancipatory action is easier than with constitutive analyses.

Situating Emotion: A Critical Realist View of Emotion and Nonconscious Cognitive Processes for the Law

This Article attempts to clarify legal thinking about emotion in decision making. It surveys evidence from psychology and neuroscience on the extensive role that emotion and related nonconscious cognitive processes play in human behavior, then evaluates the treatment of emotion in three legal views of decision making: rational choice theory, behavioral economics, and cultural cognition theory. The Article concludes that each theory is mistaken to treat emotion mostly as a decision objective rather than a part of the decision-making process and, indeed, to treat it as a force that mostly compromises that process. The Article introduces the view that emotion is a critical behavioral process that plays a role in most if not all decisions and is not readily amenable to accumulation or maximization. The Article discusses broad implications of this view for welfarist legal theory and policy generally and for an ongoing debate on risk regulation between behavioral economists and cultural cognition theorists. It also sketches potential applications in the law of employment discrimination, consumer protection, and criminal law.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a hologram of post-Enron disclosure: a critical realist commentary

Abstract The purpose of this commentary is to examine commentaries as intellectual contributions in accounting scholarship in order to frame and develop a critical realist view of key disclosure provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This examination gives rise to a premise that different philosophies of deconstruction underpin commentaries in accounting. Critical realism is suggested as an appropriate commentary framework relative to disclosure issues addressed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. As applied in the paper, critical realism opens a new perspective on the commentary form for betterment of the public interest.

Habitus and the Practical Logic of Practice

Bourdieu confuses himself and others by calling his project a ‘transcendence’ of the objectivist–subjectivist antinomy. Contrary to claims, Bourdieu’s methodology and theoretical premises are directly opposed to phenomenological social constructivism, though he makes use of several key phenomenological concepts. Habitus enriches the objectivist perspective by specifying a partial theory of agency which, contrary to critics, is non-reductionist. Habitus’ current formulation and usage brim with inconsistencies and ambiguities. It is non-reflective but not corporeal; it should not be equated to cultural capital; it is specifiable into concrete components instead of being ‘difficult to specify empirically’.The concepts of practical logic and doxa are connatural to habitus, but the concept of strategy derives from a different premise and is non-essential to habitus.The above interpretation derives from the critical realist view. An empirical study of China’s trade unionists is provided for illustration.