{"title":"Review of Critical Realism, Feminism and Gender: A Reader","authors":"Glory Rigueros Saavedra, D. Pilgrim","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1993702","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1993702","url":null,"abstract":"This is a most welcome handbook arriving at a timely moment for those interested in feminism in relation to sex/gender, progressive politics and sustainability. Critical realism has been an invaluable tool in many fields of enquiry because of the resolution it is capable of bringing to the ongoing conceptual rift between enlightenment and universalist ideas and subsequent developments of postmodernism which rejected scientism and grand theories (Lyotard 1984), in defence of diversity and localism. The discipline of ‘Development Studies’, which has encouraged and benefitted from the tools of deconstruction has, at the same time, encountered problems due to its adoption of full-blown relativism, for example, in its understanding of the Climate Emergency. The realization that we live in a shared material world and do share many universally valid and real experiences has led to necessary reformulations in which a shared planet and shared universal experiences can co-exist with different particular and localized ones. Critical Realism has been an important part of this reformulation through its proposal of analytical depth, interdisciplinarity and dialectical analysis (Bhaskar et al. 2010). Feminism too, as an integral part of Sustainable Development, and as a field of knowledge and political action, has been assailed by similar theoretical criticisms by postmodernism. These challenges to Second Wave feminist formulations have not been invariably creatively transformative. Intense controversies have, at times, bordered on the destructive and the unresolved, whilst often also defeating the aim of the feminist emancipatory project. It is therefore hoped that this volume will provide some clarity on the subject of Feminism in general and, in particular, on the vexed concept of Gender and its relationship to Sex. Broadly the aim of the book is to highlight how the perspectives of critical realism illuminate the relationship between feminist and gender studies with the philosophy of science and by so doing to overcome the perceived antagonism between them. The editors emphasize that this is not to be done by denying evident theoretical differences but by showing how these fields are inevitably intertwined because they operate at different levels of analysis which reflect the reality of a stratified ontology. Their interdependence makes it possible to tease out and examine how different understandings of feminism and gender may be better or worse explanations of our daily lives. Structurally the book is rational and approachable in its layout of three parts. Firstly, a section on Philosophical Preliminaries, secondly a section on Intersectionality and thirdly a section on Methodology. This allows readers to easily seek out the sections most relevant to their own interests. The contributing authors strive to give consideration to ideas from different streams of feminism’s so-called first, second and third waves of analysis, which is useful and refreshing and","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"21 1","pages":"247 - 256"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46816084","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The strategic-relational approach, realism and the state: from regulation theory to neoliberalism via Marx and Poulantzas, an interview with Bob Jessop","authors":"B. Jessop, J. Morgan","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1995685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1995685","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this wide-ranging interview, Bob Jessop discusses the development of, and many of the main themes in, his work over the last fifty years. He explains how he became interested in realism and Marxism; and he describes the various influences on his highly influential theory of the state. The discussion explores his strategic-relational approach, his thoughts on regulation theory, variegated capitalism, post-disciplinarity, cultural political economy and his ‘spatial-turn’, as well as neoliberalism, contemporary events and looming problems of climate change and crisis.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"21 1","pages":"83 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46816812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Wilkinson, Muzammil Quraishi, Lamia Irfan, Mallory Schneuwly Purdie
{"title":"Building on the shoulders of Bhaskar and Matthews: a critical realist criminology","authors":"M. Wilkinson, Muzammil Quraishi, Lamia Irfan, Mallory Schneuwly Purdie","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1992736","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992736","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Building on the insights of the late Roy Bhaskar and the late Roger Matthews, as well as some recent developments in ultra-realist criminology, this article introduces and delineates some core intellectual contours of a Critical Realist Criminology (CRC) based on the principles of: The ‘emergent,’ stratified ontology of crime and of the offender; the full critical realist account of the dialectics of being and becoming, including the spiritual turn in critical realism, applied to processes of criminal justice and reform; maximal inclusion of diverse theoretical research positions and the primacy of ontology in methodological selection; a ‘serious’ critical relationship of criminologists with professionals, institutions and policy-makers of criminal justice. These principles are directed at developing a criminology that ‘underlabours’ the recovery of human flourishing for the victims and perpetrators of crime and for society at large, including in-depth inquiry into what counts as crime and the purposes of incarceration.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"21 1","pages":"123 - 144"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43111064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Problematizing people management practices: a critical realist study of knowledge sharing","authors":"T. Edwards, Konstantinos Kakavelakis","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1992734","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992734","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Within the field of Human Resource Management (HRM), it is assumed that people management practices, including teamworking and cultural initiatives, enable knowledge sharing because they encourage employees to work collaboratively. Perhaps less well understood are occasions when such efforts fail to deliver knowledge sharing arrangements. Here we employ the critical realist concept of emergence to situate the introduction of people management practices in support of knowledge sharing, to examine how such efforts create the emergent properties to either share or not to share knowledge. Then we refine the critical realist concept of communicative reflexivity to explain why employees decide to engage or withdraw from collaborative work. By focusing on reflexivity as not just an ‘internal dialogue’ but also as an ‘external conversation’ we demonstrate why the situated circumstances of work interactions is a significant form of mediation between social contexts and practice in support (or not) of knowledge sharing.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"21 1","pages":"46 - 64"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46030264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Muzammil Quraishi, Lamia Irfan, Mallory Schneuwly Purdie, M. Wilkinson
{"title":"Doing ‘judgemental rationality’ in empirical research: the importance of depth-reflexivity when researching in prison","authors":"Muzammil Quraishi, Lamia Irfan, Mallory Schneuwly Purdie, M. Wilkinson","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1992735","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992735","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Critical realist thought has theorised convincingly that epistemic relativism is constellationally embedded in ontological realism which in turn necessitates judgemental rationality. In social science, judgemental rationality involves acting upon plausible decisions about competing points of view. However, the tools for doing this are, as yet, under-articulated. This paper addresses this absence by articulating triangulation and depth-reflexivity as two tools for doing judgemental rationality in empirical research. It draws on the experiences of a diverse team working on an international comparative research project on conversion to Islam in prisons. It demonstrates how epistemic and relational gaps between researchers and research subjects can be bridged by mobilising the ‘laminated’ properties and personal attributes of a diverse research team that factors in attributes that are absent as well as those present. The biographical experiences of the team are analyzed in a variety of intersecting dimensions: faith, ethnicity/ethno-culture, gender, class and professionality.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"21 1","pages":"25 - 45"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59980201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The problem of evil and critical realism","authors":"Dominic Effiong Abakedi, E. K. Iwuagwu, M. Egbai","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1992738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992738","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper applied the philosophical theory of critical realism to the problem of evil. Using the method of critical analysis of related literature, the paper discovered, among other things, that existing theodicies that are responses to the problem of evil can broadly be categorized into the compatibility thesis and the incompatibility thesis, respectively; and that the relevance of critical realism for the problem of evil lies in preserving a logical gap between the idea of the nature of ‘God as He really is, and how He is conceptualized or described by human theodicies’. The paper argued that whereas the thesis of the non-observability of the nature of God as He really is, independent of human cognition, conforms to critical realism, the non-observability of the omnibus does not. And to accommodate this, the novel concept of critical theism is proposed.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"21 1","pages":"196 - 210"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41615346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The loneliness of a long-distance critical realist student: the story of a doctoral writing group","authors":"Catherine Hastings, Angela Davenport, Karen Sheppard","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1992740","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992740","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As doctoral students from New Zealand and Australia, advised by supervision teams with a diversity of critical realist experience from limited to none, we came independently to the 2018 Critical Realism conference – primed to seek increased understanding, confidence, motivation, and reassurance. We certainly found these things from the pre-conference, presentations, and individuals within the critical realist community. We also found each other, and a virtual writing group was born. This article is a description of what we did, why, and the outcomes we experienced over the final two years completing our theses. It identifies the structures, contexts, motivations, and mechanisms from which our emotional, critical realist and writing-related outcomes emerged. We outline the roles of serendipitous timing, culture, different disciplinary approaches, administrative structures, and types of interactions on the social learning we developed. We anchor our discussion in recent theoretical literature about the role of writing groups in doctoral education.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"21 1","pages":"65 - 82"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45991730","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Illuminating the ethical tensions in the obesity Canada website: a transdisciplinary social justice perspective","authors":"Deana Kanagasingam, M. Norman, Laura Hurd","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1992733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1992733","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Even though considerable resources have been allocated to the study of obesity, there is no consensus on its definition, causes, or solutions. Amidst ongoing debates over understandings of obesity, Obesity Canada (OC) was established to enhance the quality of life of Canadians with obesity through the advancement of anti-discrimination, policy change, and obesity prevention and treatment. Drawing upon a transdisciplinary social justice framework, we use critical thematic analysis to examine the OC website, which is the organization’s primary knowledge mobilization platform. We will address the following research question: To what extent does OC serve social justice goals that promote the best interests of larger people? We argue that the social justice potential of OC ultimately falls short and conclude with some recommendations on how the site content could be enhanced with social justice principles.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"20 1","pages":"474 - 490"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49289971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Democracy in practice? The Norwegian public inquiry of the Alexander L. Kielland North-Sea oil platform disaster","authors":"H. Weihe, M. Smith-Solbakken","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1995688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1995688","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In March 1980, the oil-platform Alexander L. Kielland capsized in the North Sea resulting in the death of 123 workers. The Norwegian inquiry into the disaster was closed to the public and the survivors' accounts of the disaster differed considerably from the official account. The inquiry was experienced as undemocratic by those who had been in the disaster. Many of them felt humiliated, claiming that their opinions were not given due weight. We argue that if the inquiry had been more transparent and inclusive, important information would have been made available that might have prevented subsequent disasters. Such transparency would be supported if disaster commissions used a critical realist version of knowledge acquisition based on a layered ontology and grounded in an epistemology that uses retroduction and judgemental rationality. In this article, critical realism is also used to justify the interdisciplinary nature of the research, which starts with historical methods.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"20 1","pages":"525 - 541"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47399246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Preventing mental disorder and promoting mental health: some implications for understanding wellbeing","authors":"D. Pilgrim","doi":"10.1080/14767430.2021.1966603","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14767430.2021.1966603","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this paper, I consider the debates surrounding the prevention of mental disorder and the promotion of mental health. In so doing, I offer some provisional insights into the wider notion of wellbeing. All three topics – mental disorder, mental health and wellbeing – imply generative mechanisms of some sort. By considering these mechanisms as ontological entities, we can appraise the relationship between human agency and its biological, social and economic constraints. This provides us with an understanding of bio-psycho-social causal loops, fluxing across time and space, which avoids a reductionist explanation of wellbeing. I also describe how the critical realist concept of four planar social being (our relationship to the natural world, one another, embedding social and economic structures, and our unique biographies) can further assist in the development of a holistic understanding of mental health and mental disorder.","PeriodicalId":45557,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Critical Realism","volume":"20 1","pages":"557 - 573"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48010805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}