The Critical Realism Network held its first conference on Causal Powers and Social Science from March 4-5 in New Haven, Connecticut. The conference was co-organized by Professor Philip Gorski (Sociology, Yale University) and Professor Ruth Groff (Political Theory, St. Louis… Read More »Causal Powers & Social Science Conference Highlights
Q & A with Professor Webb Keane in response to questions from his recent webinar. To listen to the live recording of the webinar, click Here. To purchase his book Ethical Life: Its Natural and Social Histories, click Here 1. Are nonhuman animals capable… Read More »The Emergence of Ethical Concepts in Social History with Professor Webb Keane
Guest book review by Professor Douglas Porpora Douglas Porpora is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Anthropology at Drexel University. His book, Reconstructing Sociology: The Critical Realist Approach, explores the implications of critical realism for American sociology. He… Read More »Book Review of ‘Quantum Mind and Social Science: Unifying Physical and Social Ontology’ by Professor Douglas Porpora
A guest blog by Luis Flores Luis is a second-year doctoral student in sociology at the University of Michigan. His interests concern U.S. political economy, household finance, and social welfare in the 20th century. His interest in realist and pragmatist approaches to social scientific… Read More »Musings on the Material Elements of a Social Structure
Why does sociology need to do ontology? Why should we be concerned with persons? In this interview, Chris Smith addresses these issues and more, arguing for critical realism as a robust metatheory which enables us to own up to our commitments… Read More »Interview with Professor Christian Smith on CR & Human Flourishing
A guest blog by Dr. Joe O’Mahoney (Reader, Cardiff Business School) Dr. O’Mahoney is particularly interested in how to put critical realism into practice and how critical realism impacts the way we do research. He is the co-editor of the… Read More »Putting Critical Realism into Practice
Dr. Timothy Rutzou (Sociology, Yale University) interviews Professor Douglas Porpora (Drexel University) about critical realism, contemporary sociology, and the need for theory.
How does emergence help us to think through issues in social theory, sociology, and social science? Since the webinar the other week with Philip Gorski (available here) I have been contemplating a series of interrelated questions: how do we understand… Read More »Thinking about the Re-emergence of Emergence in Social Theory
This post was originally published on September 9, 2015 on Margarita Mooney’s blog. What might critical realist research methods look like? At the 2015 Annual Meetings of the International Association of Critical Realism, I discussed some common problems I saw… Read More »Critical Realist Research Methods
This post was originally published on September 4th on Margarita Mooney’s homepage. Is Viktor Frankl’s life a story of resilience or vulnerability? It’s both, I think. Frankl survived the Nazi concentration camps and went on to an influential career as a psychiatrist… Read More »Virtue and Vulnerability