A guest post by Jin Xue. Call for contributions: Planning is an interdisciplinary field, operating at the intersection of science, policy, and lived experience. As the world is becoming increasingly complex and intertwined, and being challenged by polycrisis, new technologies… Read More »Call for contributions to edited book ‘Critical Realism and Planning’
Karin Zotzmann’s Codes of Corruption: A Critical Realist Discourse Analysis of Illicit Transactions (2025) is the latest exciting book in Routledge’s Critical Realism book series. The Centre for Critical Realism is hosting an online book launch on May 14th 2025… Read More »Codes of Corruption: book launch
A guest post by Tom Fryer and Cristián Navarrete. This blog is adapted from the introduction of Revisiting Realist Theory of Science (2024) by Tom Fryer and Cristián Navarrete. The full version of the book, which aims to introduce Bhaskar’s… Read More »Revisiting Realist Theory of Science: A Practical Guide
A guest post by Ferdinand C Mukumbang Realist evaluation is a theory-driven approach to evaluating programmes (interventions and policies). Its focus on explaining how, why, for whom, and under what circumstances a programme works (or not) makes it attractive to… Read More »Critical realist and scientific realist principles scaffolding realist evaluation
Guest post by Dr Li Li, Senior Lecturer, Bath Spa University ‘Making our Way through the World’ (borrowing Professor Margaret Archer’s (2007) words) conveys the trials and tribulations of our lives. My journey to the critical realist world has been… Read More »My journey to critical realism (CR)
=== Watch the video of the book launch on YouTube === Working with Critical Realism: Stories of Methodological Encounters, edited by Alpesh Maisuria and Grant Banfield, has been published by Routledge in our Critical Realism book series. This international and… Read More »Online book launch: Stories from researchers on learning to work with Critical Realism
A guest post by Catherine Hastings, Angela Davenport and Karen Sheppard Critical realism can feel overwhelming at the start. There is much richness in Roy Bhaskar’s work and the writing of other researchers and philosophers who have worked with his… Read More »Finding ‘a tribe’ – developing a critical realist ‘underlabouring muscle’
A guest post by Priscilla Alderson about her new book: Alderson P. 2021. Critical Realism for Health and Illness Research: A Practical Introduction. Policy Press. https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/critical-realism-for-health-and-illness-research-3 All are welcome to the book launch on Wednesday 21st April 5-6pm, London time.… Read More »Critical Realism for Health and Illness Research
As a result of a series of workshops undertaken over the course of the year, a group of us decided to sit down and have a frank discussion about ethnography; both our own personal experiences as we have gone about… Read More »Six Epistemic Challenges for Ethnographers (and how critical realism might help)
“…emotions are in themselves generative mechanisms with special tendencies toward action, inaction, and communication. In their most immediate effects, emotions motivate approaching or avoiding behavior.” * This is a guest blog post by Dr. Benjamin Lamb-Books. Benjamin is the author of Angry Abolitionists… Read More »Emotions and Emergence in Sociology: The Critical-Realist Alternative