Realistic Theory Research Articles

Foreign Policy Analysis from the Perspective of Neoclassical Realism

Neoclassical realism as a theoretical model belongs to the Realism School of Thought. It has its own vision about the state’s foreign policy analysis. This model’s assumption is interesting for scholars because it simplifies for the researchers in terms of how they analyze the different types of foreign policy decision-making. This model also is a result of its previous models in the same school such as classical realism and neorealism or structural realism. This work is a scientific effort for the sake of depicting the basic ideas behind the theory by showing and explaining the systemic and intervening variables on which this theory is working on them. The importance of this research is: the writer through using the original sources has made a precise explanation for the different assumptions of the theory, for this purpose, the study takes benefits from the comparison as well as the content analysis methods. In conclusion, the author concludes that Neoclassical realism theory has powerful theoretical assumptions for analyzing the state’s foreign policy because this model from two different levels of analysis is explaining foreign policy, internal and external factors, while the classical theory focuses on the internal issues, the neorealism focuses on the systemic factors.

Shaping a sustainable doctoral pathway: a critical analysis of reflexive mediation between structure and agency in the PhD experience

ABSTRACT This study aims to provide a complex account of a PhD candidate’s reflexive doctoral engagement process emergent from the changing doctoral environment vis-à-vis the neoliberal higher education context. Drawing on a critical realist theory of reflexivity, it analyzed narrative interview data collected with the participant over an 18-month period. The analytical focus was on how the student’s reflexivity mediated her exertion of agency within the structural affordances and constraints of her doctoral education to ultimately give shape to a unique doctoral trajectory. Findings revealed that the participant practiced distinct patterns of reflexive deliberations in three disparate but interweaving areas of her doctoral life: research progression, community belonging, and career construction. Notably, analysis highlighted the contingent and fluid characteristics of the reflexivity phenomenon and its context-dependent effects in the complexity of doctoral study. The study argues that a sociological view of reflexivity offers a novel means to understand the nuanced ways of agency-structure interplay pervading experiences of contemporary candidature.

Retrospectives: Joan Robinson on Karl Marx: “His Sense of Reality Is Far Stronger”

This paper revisits why Joan Robinson turned to Karl Marx in 1942 and which insights from Marxian economics she sought to incorporate into her later works, while commenting on how her encounter with Marx was received by some her of contemporaries. By the end of the 1930s, Robinson wanted to bring academic and Marxian economics together in a search for a more realist theory of the rate of profit and income distribution, along with clarifications on Keynes’s concept of full employment and the nature of technical progress and a long-period theory within the Keynesian framework. The result, An Essay on Marxian Economics (1942), was her most important work in terms of laying the foundations of her enduring challenge to the orthodox economics. Here she relied on Marxian insights to escape Marshallian orthodoxy. It is the story of how the originator of imperfect competition pushed further into a theory of exploitation.

Simple Realistic Model of Spin Reorientation in 4f-3d Compounds

This is a simple but realistic microscopic theory of spontaneous spin reorientation in rare-earth perovskites, orthoferrites RFeO3 and orthochromites RCrO3, induced by the 4f-3d interaction, namely, the interaction of the well-isolated ground-state Kramers doublet or non-Kramers quasi-doublet of the 4f ion with an effective magnetic field induced by 3d sublattice. Both the temperature and the nature of the spin-reorientation transition are the result of competition between the second- and fourth-order spin anisotropy of the 3d sublattice, the crystal field for 4f ions, and 4f-3d interaction.

Chinese Assimilationist Policies in Xinjiang: From Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping

This research article argues that the China’s intention and contention to maintain stronghold in Xinjiang through different policies from time to time reflects the views of Realist theory of international relations, which gives primacy to ‘national interest’ and ‘national security.’ Furthermore, the article argues that the Chinese emphasis on national security and stability in Xinjiang negates the ‘interests and aspirations’ of minority groups in Xinjiang (especially Uyghurs), which form the basis of constructive approach of international relations. While elaborating Chinese policies of assimilation of Uyghurs in Xinjiang from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, this article tries to examine how China’s bid to pursuing a kind of hardcore realism in preserving and protecting its interests in Xinjiang (stringent policies) has been contradicting and disregarding the essence of constructivist perspective (aims, and aspirations interests of Uyghurs).

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s Great Power Course

The study of this article focuses on the policy of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (2001-2006) to establish the State as a great power. The subject of the study is selected aspects of this policy: rightconservatism, educational reforms, amendments to the constitution of Japan, military reforms, diplomatic activity in relation to the US, the UN and the Asia Pacific. The author pays special attention to the emergence of the political conjuncture that prompted Prime Minister Koizumi to carry out a series of reforms, and focuses on the transition from Japan’s economic weight to the political one during the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi. The study is based on the theory of political realism, namely, the expression of the national interests of the State in the international arena, such as national security, the interests of the national economy or the maintenance of world order. Similar political processes can be observed in Japan during the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi. In the process of research analytical method, problem-chronological and institutional are widely used. This choice is primarily due to the object and subject of the study. The author describes the course of Junichiro Koizumi: the whole set of measures and reforms is fairly comprehensive and at the same time radical. The author points out that Koizumi’s reforms have not been completed and have served as guidelines for subsequent prime ministers. The relevance of this study is conditioned by the increased political weight of Japan in both APAC and world politics; moreover, the attitude to Junichiro Koizumi’s course is polar: as P.V. Kulneva points out "On the one hand, the great-power policy of Junichiro Koizumi has become a reason for fear of a possible revival of Japanese militarism and nationalism; on the other hand, Japan’s policy of gaining political weight consistent with its economic power, is fully justified and is highly positive".

Une lecture intra-active des dramaturgies robotiques

This article mobilises the theory of agential realism especially the notion of “intra-action” developed by American feminist physicist Karen Barad, to produce a reading of the intricacies between human and robotic cultures in theatre and performance. Although robotic imaginations and their underpinning ideologies, values and ideas first created a dichotomous relation between humans and robots, Julie-Michèle Morin proposes to focus not on the production of differences between human and non-human creatures, but on the intricate relations between nature, culture, and technologies, and their onstage materialisation. Drawing on two plays, Actor #1 (Kris Verdonck) and Sayonara (Oriza Hirata), she examines how human beings and robots are mutually constituted while reflecting on theatre as a means to question, criticise, or diversify the normativity of robotic imaginations.

Role of senses in the construction of knowledge

The rationale of this articulate study is to critically, deeply, and analytically evaluate core phenomena of knowledge creation based on the sensory notions driven by the experience, through a literature review. The study sets Locke’s arguments as a yardstick for comprehensive analysis and drives the rationale of knowledge creation by the knowledge based on the sensory notions. Hence, the study has set strong arguments that all knowledge exclusively is driven through the experience based on the five senses (smell, taste, sound, touch, and sight) as stated by Locke. Following the set arguments of Locke, this study has compared, critiqued, and analyzed the arguments delivered on the knowledge created by other researchers. Not only has this study compared the arguments of just mentioned philosophers but also, we have compared underlying assumptions and declarations of developed theories such as the theory of realism, rationalism, and empiricism, whereas this article belongs to empiricism. The study, therefore, emphasizes the theory of empiricism and also retaliated critiques the empiricism by the means of solid arguments. However, the findings of this article in the light of a thorough comparative study revealed that apparently, knowledge is not only created by senses only, but also by existing experience in the external world. Keywords: Empiricism; Experience; Ideas; Senses; Knowledge; Thoughts.

Exotic shape symmetries around the fourfold octupole magic number N=136 : Formulation of experimental identification criteria

We employ a realistic nuclear mean-field theory using the phenomenological, Woods-Saxon Hamiltonian with newly adjusted parameters containing no parametric correlations; originally present correlations are removed employing the Monte Carlo approach. We find very large neutron shell gaps at $N=136$ for all the four octupole deformations ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{3\ensuremath{\mu}=0,1,2,3}$. These shell gaps generate well-pronounced double potential-energy minima in the standard multipole $({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{20},{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{22},{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{3\ensuremath{\mu}},{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{40})$ representation, often at ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{20}=0$, which in turn generate exotic symmetries ${C}_{2v}$, ${D}_{2d}$, ${T}_{d}$, and ${D}_{3h}$, discussed in detail. The main goal of the article is to formulate spectroscopic criteria for experimental identification. Calculations employing macroscopic-microscopic method are performed for nuclei with $Z\ensuremath{\ge}82$ and $N\ensuremath{\ge}126$ in multidimensional deformation spaces to analyze the expected exotic symmetries and octupole shape instabilities in the mass table ``northeast'' of the doubly magic $^{208}\mathrm{Pb}$ nucleus. Whereas the proton-unperturbed properties of neutron-generated octupole shell effects are illustrated in detail for exotic ${}_{Z=82}{\mathrm{Pb}}_{N>126}$ nuclei, our discussion is extended into even-even $Z>82$ nuclei approaching the less exotic $Z/N$ ratios, to encourage experiments which could identify the predicted exotic symmetries. In addition to the tetrahedral point group symmetry, ${T}_{d}$, of which experimental evidence has recently been published, we present ${D}_{2d}$ symmetry resulting from a superposition of axially symmetric quadrupole and tetrahedral symmetries and two new point group symmetries, ${D}_{3h}$ and ${C}_{2v}$, associated with the octupole ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{33}$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{31}$ energy minima, respectively. The multidimensional $n>2$ deformation spaces are treated as usual by projecting the total potential energies onto the $n=2$ subspace. Using the representation theory of point groups we formulate quantum mechanical criteria for experimental identification of exotic symmetries through analysis of the specific properties of the collective rotational bands generated by the symmetries. The resulting band structures happen to be markedly distinct from the structure of the bands generated by ellipsoidal symmetry quantum rotors; those various rotational properties are discussed in detail.

Recognition of the Strategic Situation of US-China Relations after the U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan: Focusing on Policy Implications for Northeast Asia and the Korean Peninsula

Purpose: The re-occupation of Afghanistan by the U.S. troops and the Taliban gives many lessons to the security of the Korean Peninsula. As shown in Vietnam Communization, the poor Taliban troops beat the rich troops of the U.S.-backed Kabul regime, which lacks a will to fight and strategy. The purpose of this study is to discover the implications of the Biden administration s withdrawal from Afghanistan with a neoliberal perspective and its implications for security and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula. Method: This paper analyzes the US withdrawal from Afghanistan with the theory of Radall Schweller s neoclassical realism and explains political implications toward the Korean Peninsula. This paper will examine four major domestic factors in neoclassical realism focus on nationalism, military ability to mobilize, the influence of domestic interest groups, and nationalism and ideology. It suggests four implications over security and denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula by using the theory of the Neo-classical realism s perspective. Results: First, the withdrawal of the U.S. from Afghanistan can be seen as an expression of shrinking nationalism stemming from the U.S. priority that has emerged since the Trump era. Second, the continued burden of the war due to the worsening financial situation in the U.S. due to COVID-19 and the fatigue of the accumulated war was a cause for the US to withdraw from Afghanistan. Third, to win the votes of the white middle class in the Midwest of the United States, known as Trump s supporters, President Biden decided to withdraw from the need to rebuild the middle class. Fourth, the U.S. Biden administration decided to withdraw troops to focus on checking China, an authoritarian regime, based on value diplomacy that values democracy and human rights. Conclusion: As the Biden administration put more weight on checking China, the declaration of the end of the war pushed by the Moon Jae-in administration has been put on the back burner. The end-of-war declaration pushed by the South Korean government is opposed by the U.S. government as it weakens the justification for the presence of U.S. troops in South Korea that is a strategic hub for checking China. The Biden administration is implementing a policy to actively intervene in human rights issues in China and North Korea, focusing on value diplomacy, and is tightening sanctions against those involved, worsening the atmosphere of dialogue for negotiations. South Korea needs quiet diplomacy to promote the peace process. The U.S. sanctions on North Korea are creating an atmosphere and cause for North Korea to provoke more militarily in the future, raising the need to maintain a military response posture to South Korea and the US.

Ethnic Diversity, Anti‐Immigrant Sentiments, and Radical Right Voting in the Flemish Region of Belgium

AbstractA standard assumption in realistic threat theories is that the presence of ethnic minorities is associated with a rise of anti‐immigrant sentiments. However, we do not know whether this presence has a specific local effect, or whether one can detect a more general nationwide perception of threat. Using data from a recent Belgian population survey, we assess the association between ethnic diversity within the local community and anti‐immigrant sentiments. Results suggest a strong negative association between the level of ethnic diversity and anti‐immigrant sentiments. Furthermore, while we do not find evidence for an association between ethnic diversity and radical right voting on the individual level, there is a strong negative correlation on the aggregate level. We conclude with some speculation about how anti‐immigrant sentiments are created in areas with a very low levels of ethnic diversity, and what this implies for the electoral potential of radical‐right parties.

Building political capital through corporate social responsibility: a microlevel focus on the role of business leaders

PurposeThere are no management decisions deprived of ethical or political consequences. Political corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been highlighting this assertion but research at the microlevel on this topic is scarce. This study aims to contribute to the microlevel research by proposing a behavioral framework where leaders’ political skills are determinants of engagement in strategic CSR and perceived CSR leverages their ascribed legitimacy to perform a political role outside the boundaries of the organizations.Design/methodology/approachBuilding upon political CSR and critical realism theories, this study offers a general review on key political CSR microlevel concepts and examines multiple dimensions of CSR to explain the indirect effect between boards' political skills and political legitimacy.FindingsThis research suggests that high politically skilled leaders are associated to more CSR adoption which fosters higher legitimacy to act as political influencers. Among these, CSR activities directed toward community members and employees are seemingly the most successful from a political standpoint.Originality/valueThis study proposes a contemporary form of political influence to business leaders that, in contrast with other strategies such as lobbying or financing political campaigns, does not end up damaging corporate image and reputation. Also, this study proposes that not all CSR activities leverage corporate political legitimacy per se, therefore they do need to be differentiated. This study then offers a comprehensive future research agenda, including detailed suggestions for research designs and measurements.

Towards an eco-decolonial museum practice through critical realism and Cultural Historical Activity Theory

ABSTRACT Museum practice remains rooted in its historical ontology of nature-culture dualism. This article moves beyond this dualism by combining Bhaskar’s dialectical MELD schema with cultural historical activity theory. It therefore provides an iterative, practical pathway towards a new, ecological-decolonial mode of museology that potentially disrupts normalized practice and generates new possibilities for museums to offer people agency. A situated turn for museum practice is thus envisioned, with a focus on people as complex social-ecological entities. Specifically, this involves a dialectical relationship between peoples’ stories, or intangible heritage, and the core museum activity of collecting.

Realist Poetry and Paul Laurence Dunbar's Majors and Minors

Focusing on the previously unanalyzed structure of Paul Laurence Dunbar's 1895 poetry collection, Majors and Minors, this article argues that the division of poems between the two sections of the book performs, in the first section, an autocritique of idealist poetic conventions as impediments to addressing a living bodily reality, and announces, in the second section, a move toward a realist depiction of everyday life structured by socio-historical forces. This practice of realism in poetry is characterized by a focus on the individual as historical agent, a relocation of the spiritual from the religious to the everyday, an insistence on the value and creativity of dialect, and a racial indeterminacy that evades the kind of racist essentialism of which Dunbar and dialect poetry more generally have been accused. In this sense, this examination of Dunbar's realism takes up Elizabeth Renker's project of rediscovering nineteenth-century American poetry's contribution to realism but does so to refocus that project on poems that strive to depict historical forces in concrete terms. In turn, the claim that Dunbar's dialect poems are realist has a number of implications for theories of realism and their selective prose tradition.

A critical realist theory of ideology: Promoting planning as a vanguard of societal transformation

This article explores the potential values of a critical realist theory of ideology on the analysis of planning issues. In particular, it argues its usefulness in promoting planning as a vanguard of societal transformation. The critical realist theory of ideology revitalizes the epistemological inquiry of beliefs, which enables an evaluation of the social, economic and environmental impacts of the ideas and beliefs embedded in planning. Furthermore, the essence of critical realist theory of ideology is to explain the (re)production of the ideology, which paves the way for transformative planning, as transformation cannot be realized without eliminating constraining social conditions. Finally, critical realism situates its critique of ideology within the wider transformation process by rendering visible the dimensions that can contribute to eradicating the ideology in question, and shaping better planning ideas, including ethical reasoning, utopia thinking and transformative agency. A meta-theoretical framework based on critical realism is proposed to guide a critique of ideology in planning. By using an example of planning for sustainable urban development in Copenhagen and Oslo, the paper demonstrates the ways in which the meta-theoretical framework can be applied to planning in a quest for societal transformation.

A Panel Study of Attitudes toward Ethnic Minorities and the Role of Changes in Individuals’ Economic Situations

Abstract This study applies the dynamic perspective of realistic conflict theory to assess whether and the extent that individuals’ negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities changed and were linked to changes in individuals’ economic situations. Employing Dutch panel data, we found that negative attitudes toward ethnic minorities were remarkably stable. Differences in attitudes toward ethnic minorities were more pronounced between individuals than within individuals. The small changes that did occur over the 10-year study period were hardly explained by economic characteristics. Only increased individual dissatisfaction with the national financial situation was associated with more negative attitudes. These results cast doubt on whether attitudes toward ethnic minorities are susceptible to change and raise questions about realistic conflict theory’s relevance in explaining attitudinal change.

A realist model for home visitation program evaluation

Increased attention on home visitation as a strategy to reduce child maltreatment and increased funding to support home visitation programs has led to their rapid and widespread adoption in the United States and internationally. The rapid adoption of home visitation programs has occurred without an adequate understanding of the underlying mechanisms of influence on child maltreatment. Consequently, there is a lack of consistency in structures and processes across programs. The variability in structures and processes within and across programs has contributed to the inconsistent findings related to the effectiveness of home visitation as a strategy to constrain child maltreatment. Identifying the underlying mechanisms that are facilitating or constraining program success or failure is essential for informing policy and practice. We propose the use of realist theory to identify the underlying mechanisms of home visitation programs. While realist theory has been used broadly in the social sciences, its uptake in nursing has been slow. Despite its limited use in nursing, realism's primary function, seeking to identify the underlying mechanisms in complex social programs, makes it suitable for investigating many complex phenomena that are of interest to nurse scientists. Here we discuss the theoretical foundations for home visitation programs, the recent evidence for program effectiveness, significant home visitation program components, and we propose a realist model for home visitation program evaluation that may aid in identifying how, for whom, and under what conditions home visitation programs work when these programs are implemented to address child maltreatment.

On the edge of anarchism: a realist critique of philosophical anarchism

ABSTRACT The article examines whether realist theory should adopt a philosophical anarchist position concerning political obligation. The conclusions are mixed. Drawing on a distinction between strong and weak theories of political obligation (in the terminology of the paper, strong theories are committed to morality-based theorizing while weak theories depart from it), the article argues that philosophical anarchism and realist theory are natural allies against strong theories of political obligation but they must part company when it comes to weak theories because it is exactly their departure from morality-based theorizing that can make weak theories especially appealing to realists. In addition, two further objections can be raised against philosophical anarchism on realist grounds: first, philosophical anarchists are drawn to undesirably sweeping conclusions about the non-existence of legitimate political authority or the extreme scarcity of genuine political relations by their Kantian or Lockean background assumptions and, second, Simmons seems to have an implicit weak theory of political obligation which could be, ironically, much more appealing to realists than his overall Lockean anarchism or his sweeping criticism of weak theories. All in all, can a realist be an anarchist? Probably, but definitely not on philosophical anarchist grounds.

Complex Interventions Deserve Complex Evaluations: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Evaluation of a Preventive Personalized Medicine Intervention.

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the largest cause of disability and death globally. The human and financial costs of NCDs have raised questions of sustainability for many health systems. Personalized, preventive health interventions are an innovative way to address NCDs, but it is difficult to measure their effectiveness using standard evaluation methods. This article describes a novel approach to evaluation by coupling transdisciplinary methods with realist theory to design and pilot a health outcomes evaluation for a personalized medicine approach to NCD prevention in Istanbul, Turkey. Research and practice stakeholders contributed to study design, research questions, validation of results, and recommendations through interactive workshops, consistent dialogue, and reflection. They co-created a customized outcome measurement framework and recommendations that promote sustainability and continuous improvement of future evaluations. The participatory methods helped resolve the dichotomy between patient, practitioner, and researcher focus in the evaluation and improved stakeholders' data literacy. This research contributes to the body of evidence advocating for the use of non-standard methods such as transdisciplinary research to evaluate the effectiveness of complex interventions. The results of the pilot evaluation are also presented as a case study.

Aesthetic Realism and Manifest Properties

AbstractThis article outlines a realist theory of aesthetic properties as higher-order manifest properties and defends it from several objections, including a possible conflict with contextualist approaches to the aesthetic properties of works of art.