The Critical Realism Network organises free online learning opportunities open to all. The Introducing Critical Realism for Social Science Research workshop series is intended as an introduction to Critical Realism, consisting of six live online sessions. It aims to support PhD students and early career researchers who would like to learn about critical realism and its use in social research. The first series ran fortnightly from October to December 2021 over Zoom. Each session involved:
- Engaging with some short introductory learning materials prior to the session
- Attending a live online session facilitated by an academic from the Critical Realism Network. These sessions involve some delivered content and some interactive activities/opportunities for discussion. They are 60-90 minutes long, depending on audience interaction.
- Signposting to further learning materials after the session
We intend to run the series again in the future. In the meantime, feel free to browse the learning materials below in your own time; we will leave them on this page for as long as they are useful. As well as recommended reading, the materials include the slides used in the sessions and videos of the delivered content, which are available on our YouTube channel with links below. If you have questions about the material, try raising them in our Facebook group!
Session 1: Ontology
What is ontology, and why does it matter for my research?
We recommend that attendees engage with these introductory materials prior to the live-online session:
- Gorski, P. S. (2013). “What is Critical Realism? And Why Should You Care?” Contemporary Sociology, 42(5), 658–670. Available here.
- A short guide to ontology and epistemology: why everyone should be a critical realist, by Tom Fryer. Available here.
We recommend that attendees engage with these further learning materials after the session:
- The Nature of Social Reality: Issues in Social Ontology, by Yannick Slade-Caffarel. Available here.
- The Critical Realist Notion of Depth Stratification, a short video produced by the Asia Pacific Critical Realism Network. Available here.
Here are the slides used during the workshop in October 2021 and a video of one of the sessions.
Session 2: Epistemology
What is epistemology, and why does it matter for my research?
We recommend these introductory materials prior to the live-online session:
- Critical Realism Essentials: Judgemental Rationality, a short video produced by the Asia Pacific Critical Realism Network. Available here.
We recommend these further learning materials after the session:
- Six Epistemic Challenges for Ethnographers, by Tim Rutzou. Available here.
- Where Constructionism and Critical Realism Converge by Al Amoudi and Willmott. Available here.
Here is the encyclopedia entry on relativism mentioned by Ismael, the slides used during the workshop, and a video of one of the sessions.
Session 3: Methodological Choices
What are the implications of Critical Realism for my methodology?
We recommend these introductory materials prior to the live-online session:
- Inference and inquiry. A short video from the CR Network, available here.
We recommend these further learning materials after the session:
- Method in Comparative Political Social Science: Converging on Critical Realism? By Simeon Newman. Available here.
- Critical Realism and Realist Evaluation, an overview for everyone, by Alex Clark. Available here.
- Mukumbang FC, Marchal B, Van Belle S, et al. (2019) Using the realist interview approach to maintain theoretical awareness in realist studies. Qualitative Research. Available here.
Here are the slides used during the workshop in 2021 and a video of one of the sessions.
Session 4: Approaches to analysis
How can Critical Realism help me interpret my findings and explain what’s going on in the world?
We recommend these introductory materials prior to the live-online session:
- What is a good explanation? Aa short video from the CR Network, available here.
We recommend these further learning materials after the session:
- Maxwell, J. A. (2004). Causal explanation, qualitative research, and scientific inquiry in education. Educational researcher, 33(2), 3-11. Available here.
- Wiltshire, G., & Ronkainen, N. (2021). A realist approach to thematic analysis: making sense of qualitative data through experiential, inferential and dispositional themes. Journal of Critical Realism, 1-22. Available here.
Here are the slides used in the workshop in 2021, and a video of one of the sessions.
Session 5: Key concepts
Note: sessions 5 and 6 have been reversed since the previous version of the schedule.
What key concepts in Critical Realist tradition should I be aware of and seek to learn more about?
We recommend these introductory materials prior to the live-online session:
- Elder-Vass, D. (2021). Critical realism. In G. Delanty & S.P. Turner (eds.), Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory. Available here.
We recommend these further learning materials after the session:
- Existential Intransitivity, a short video produced by the Asia Pacific Critical Realism Network. Available here.
- Open-systemic causality, a short video produced by the Asia Pacific Critical Realism Network. Available here.
Here are the slides for the second and third sessions in 2021. This is a shortened version of the slides used in the first session (only three of the six segments were used, selected by the attendees). And here’s a video of one of the sessions.
Session 6: Critical Realism as a framework
How can Critical Realism be used to help me bring together other literature and theories?
We recommend these introductory materials prior to the live-online session:
- Danermark. B, Ekstrom, M. Jakobsen, L. and Karlsson, JC (2002) Explaining society: Critical realism in the social sciences, London: Routledge, Chapter 5, ‘Theory in the methodology of social science’. Note that this has become chapter 6 in the second edition (2019): available here.
- Theory in Sociology: a longer video interview with Frederic Vandenberghe, available here
We recommend these further learning materials after the session:
- Porter S. (2015) Realist evaluation: an immanent critique, Nursing Philosophy, 16(4):239-51: available here
- Vincent, S. and Pagan, V. (2019) Entrepreneurial agency and field relations: A Realist Bourdieusian Analysis. Human Relations, 72(2):188-216: available here, or here for free access
Here are the slides used in the workshop in 2021, and a video of one of the sessions.