Realism and Social Science

“The task of a realist study of education/work is to combine sensitivity to context with an account of larger patterns, including aspects of social relations not directly observable (Sayer 2000).”

“The paper describes the tendency to HPS, explores the possible explanations, and begins to reflect on the implications; on the way reviewing prior discussions of growth in participation including Trow (1974), Schofer and Meyer (2005), and Baker (2011).”

“The short answer is that we should choose the one(s) that offer the strongest explanatory power in relation to the empirical evidence (Sayer, 1992, 2000).”

“A realist philosophy of science posits that the identification and testing of contextualised, generative mechanisms provide the greatest explanatory potential for phenomena and the strongest basis for inferring how mechanisms will operate in other contexts [23].”

“Social structures are seen as having causal powers which are ‘emergent’ and contextual, being activated only under certain conditions and having varied consequences dependent on their intersection with other social structures (Sayer, 2000: 12–17).”

“The deficiencies produced through stand alone inductive and deductive inference correlates to what in realism is termed a ‘flat ontology’ (Sayer 2000; Emmel 2013).”

“Strategic foresight builds on deep comprehension of the current world; this is possible only by understanding the actors, processes, and causal powers that have jointly produced, and are producing, current reality (Bhaskar, 2010; Sawyer, 2005; Sayer, 2000).”

“While interpretation lies at the very heart of the social sciences (1, 28), it has thus been seen as almost intrinsically qualitative; “meaning has to be understood, it cannot be measured or counted, and hence there is always an interpretive or hermeneutic element in social science” (2, 17).”

“…interpretation lies at the very heart of the social sciences, it has thus been seen as almost de fi nitionally qualitative; “ meaning has to be understood, it cannot be measured or counted, and hence there is always an interpretive or hermeneutic element in social science ” (Sayer, 2000, p. 17).”

“The student experience is situated as complex and diverse, yet not beyond understanding (Sayer 2000).”

“…the more prominent research methodologies, GT’s movement from empirical data towards abstract theory resonates with the CR requirement to move from the ‘concrete’ towards a causal explanation by means of ‘abstraction and careful conceptualization’ (Sayer, 2000, p. 19; also, Kempster & Parry, 2011).”

“Here the world is not fixed but continually becoming (Sayer 2000), pre-structured by resource configurations and prior hierarchies yet always partly open.”

“In developing alternatives to the vortex-like compulsion of the center-periphery model of science, the article works with an open ontology in which change is continuous and reality is not fi xed but emerging (Sayer 2000).”

“…of self-transformation via mediating artefacts, nested in social and cultural contexts that nurture individual development – contexts that are continuously accessible to change through human action – closes the dualism between structure and agency that dogs the social sciences (Sayer, 2000).”

“Our approach is grounded in critical realism (e.g., Sayer 2000).”

“[39] Critical realism, which arose mainly from the work of Bhaskar [40] and Sayer,[41,42] suggests ‘‘that the world should not be conflated with our experience of it’’.[41] In other words, critical realism asserts that there is an independent reality ‘‘out there’’ but our knowledge of that reality is socially construc…”

“tivism, Hacking’s social constructionism, pragmatism, critical realism, and critical theories (Campbell, 1988; De Waal, 2005; Hacking, 1999; Sayer, 2000; Tyson, 2014).”

“Shared understanding, based on agreed and consistent terms, is desirable, while ontological openness is essential (Sayer, 2000).”

“Sayer (2000, 12) distinguishes between reality, including social relations, and those aspects of reality apprehended in empirical observation.”

“Sayer (2000) explains how conditions in different structures can produce events (outcomes) though causal mechanisms within a critical realist framework.”

“These two sections are grounded in critical realism (Sayer, 2000) and social realism (Archer, 1995): they assume an open ontology of space and scale, in which neither social structure nor human agency can permanently fix the other.”

“British Journal of Educational Technology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Educational Research Association are viewed conceptually and empirically distinct phenomena that are both important in any analyses of explaining social life (Archer, 2003; Sayer, 2000).”

“This has furthermore rightly been understood to pose limits on quantification, since it implies that the measured objects are not qualitatively invariant (Sayer, 1992, 2000).”

“different position from that espoused by positivism and relativism (Sayer 2000), albeit, we suggest, in the manner of friendly association, as opposed to contradiction.”

“…realism, a perspective that holds that though social reality is objective, researchers’ understanding of that reality is partial, incomplete, limited, and potentially divergent; therefore, robust knowledge of social reality demands multiple methods and perspectives (Sayer, 2000; Van de Ven, 2007).”

“While careful synthesis of 134 ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY quantitative and qualitative approaches is difficult (see, e.g., Sayer 2000), the promise of deeper understanding and explanation, covering the gaps not addressed by the other to reveal a fuller picture, makes it worthwhile at least exploring in a…”

“Sayer (2000) distinguished between three aspects of the world ’ s reality: the empirical , or that which is experienced; the actual , referring to things that occur but are not necessarily directly experienced; and the real , or the deep structures and mechanisms that generate phenomena.”

“Therefore, critical realism recognizes the difficulties inherent in attempting to design social science research that could produce such deterministic patterns of activity (Sayer, 2000; Modell, 2009; Zachariadis et al., 2010).”

“Additionally, critical realists argue that (b) the human actors’ understanding of the world is constructed drawing on experiences and perspectives, filtered by what is observable (Archer et al., 1998; Bhaskar, 1997; Sayer, 2000).”

“A critical realist lens was adopted as an epistemic and ontological framework (e.g. Sayer, 2000).”

“Their ability to forecast real-world social systems is, however, limited [and for some phenomena, perhaps nonexistent (Sayer, 1999)].”

“…studies (Chibber, 2013), this strict form of economic determinism is rejected by many contemporary Marxists and certainly the Marx-inspired scholars who are cited in urban studies (see, e.g. Gibson-Graham, 2006 [1996]; Harvey, 2010: 113–116; Lee, 2002; Massey, 1995 [1984]: 6; Sayer, 2000).”

“I utilize a realist methodology in the study; a methodology in which abstract concepts in interaction with the empirical data are utilized as tools for creating theoretical meaning (Lourie & Rata, 2017; McPhail & Lourie, 2017; Rata, 2012; Sayer, 2000).”

“This research was guided by a critical realist worldview; the experiences and understandings of participants were viewed as constructed but founded in reality (Sayer, 2000).”

“According to CR, there is a reality that exists independent of our thoughts about it, and while observing may make us more confident about what exists, existence itself is not dependent on observation [19].”

“Drawing upon the distinction between necessary and contingent relations in critical realism (Sayer, 1992; 2000), I develop a theory of mechanism that conceptualizes process as a contingent change in a general recurrent series of related actions/events and mechanism as a particular and necessary…”

“…part of the broader school of critical realism, which brings ontological issues to the fore of social meta-theory, challenging both positivism and postmodernism (Bhaskar, 1997 [1975], 1998 [1979]; Dy et al., 2014; Gunnarsson, 2011, 2013, 2014; McCall, 2005; Sayer, 1992, 2000; Walby et al., 2012).”

“This study drew on a realist approach, which aims to identify underlying processes and mechanisms that explain social interactions (Sayer, 2000).”

“The paper, therefore, follows a somewhat retroductive/ abductive approach(1) (Bhaskar, 1979; Sayer, 2000), that links the theoretical and empirical in an expressly iterative way.”

“The paper draws on critical realism (Bhaskar 2008; Sayer 2000) as a theoretical perspective to make sense of the qualitative data generated during the mentoring process.”

“The reason the transitive elements of our world deserve to be studied is because they influence or can be said to be as causal in relation to our behaviour as are the intransitive dimensions (Sayer 2000a).”

“We undertook an intensive case study approach to tease out the complexities of what happens as the global complex hits the ground (following Sayer 2000).”

“In order to investigate architectural mechanisms, we build on critical realism (Bhaskar, 1998; Sayer, 2000) in our data analysis.”

“Where the research aim is to address causal mechanisms and to move beyond surface appearances to explore the processes involved, it is appropriate to study individuals in context (Kazi, 2003; Sayer, 2000) and so in-depth, one-to-one semi-structured interviews were undertaken, based on a topic guide.”

“The scaffold is grounded in realist perspectives on causality based on mechanism-based explanation as the basis for theorizing (Bhaskar, 1997; Bunge, 2006; Harré & Madden, 1975; Sayer, 2000).”

“Critical realism posits that reality is stratified, and the occurrence of events depends on structures, mechanisms, and contingent conditions, which illustrates that there is more to the world than simply a pattern of events (Bhaskar, 1975; Mingers, 2004; Sayer, 2000).”

“Indeed, as Andrew Sayer argues, merely identifying binaries and rejecting binaries doesn’t ‘‘amount to an argument for or against anything, though it can play upon the guilt of men’’ (Sayer, 2000: 56).”

“However, some events may emerge into the empirical domain as they are observed and experienced by people (Sayer 2000).”

“Retroduction is a metaprocess through which an explanation for a particular phenomenon is developed by identifying and/or postulating mechanisms that can generate it (Collier, 1994; Bhaskar, 2008; Sayer, 1992, 2000).”

“The methodology for the revisit research (which took place between 2008–2009) was informed by ‘real world research’ (Robson 2002) and critical realism (for example, Sayer 2000).”

“Generative mechanisms are seen to be discernible within the social systems in which they operate (Bhaskar, 2013; Sayer, 2000).”

“Yet, Sayer (2000) argues that one or two cases is enough when using intensive (qualitative) research methods.”

“At first glance, superficial structures (Sayer, 2000) (i.e., legacy strategy, leveraging tools, organization infrastructure) may appear to control and produce an event legacy.”

“research interview) acknowledged as influencing its content [25, 26].”

“Wemay also see both that somemeanings of ‘the public university’ are being jeopardized, and that, perhaps surprisingly, spaces are opening spaces for other meanings to be pursued (Sayer 1997, 2000).”

“Ethnographic data collection is a powerful research strategy when operating under such conditions (Sayer, 2000).”

“This is, at core, a naïve-objectivist epistemology (Sayer, 2000) in which cities are viewed as empirically self-evident, territorially discrete, and universal units of human settlement, generally through an implied or explicit contrast to other generic settlement types, such as suburbs, towns, and…”

“The object is to indicate what can be important, not to say that this is always the case, but to generate an understanding beyond the observation of patterns (Sayer, 2000).”

“Critical realism sets out particular ontological commitments (Bhaskar, 1979; Lawson, 1997; Sayer, 2000; Groff, 2004; Elder-Vass, 2010), licensing a range of theories that are consistent with them, while ruling out those that are inconsistent as either false or incomplete (Bhaskar, 1978).”

“Sayer discusses that, while observability can provide confidence about what we think exists, existence itself is not dependent upon it (Sayer, 2000).”

“This is because we build on a critical realist philosophy of science (see for example Bhaskar 2008 and Sayer 2000) and perceive opportunities as mainly objective realities that may or may not be discovered by entrepreneurs.”

“A critical realist lens was employed in this research to enable exploration of why something exists, in this case, why nurse representation exists in its current form (Bhaskar 1998; Archer 1995; Sayer 2000; Pawson 2006; Bhaskar 2008).”

“According to realism, reality is objective and independent from human knowledge but can be evidenced through observable patterns of events or outcomes that materialize only when social ingredients combine under the right contextual circumstances (Sayer, 2000).”