Professor Margaret Archer at University of Warwick has published widely in this field. Also Mark Carrigan (Uni of Warwick) he has an online blog which should have some references to get you going. 

Hope this helps

Wow, where does one begin? First, we have to define what we mean by Critical Realism. There are many definitions of it, but for this post, I'll stay with Bhaskarian Critical Realism. See Losch (2009) for more info on this. 

The foundational texts are with Bhaskar's "Realist Theory of Science" and "The Possibility of Naturalism." Key texts are found in Archer, Bhaskar, Collier, Lawson and Norrie's "Critical Realism Essential Readings." If you don't want to slog through all that, you can try (if you can find it), Andrew Collier's "Critical Realism An Introduction to Roy Bhaskar's Philosophy." There are other works which provide much shorter summaries. Ask me if you would like to access them. 

Bhaskar's work on Social Theory has been taken and enhanced by Margaret Archer. See her books "Culture and Agency" and "Realist Social Theory."

For Critical Realism's impact on research methodology, you should get Sayer's "Method in Social Science" and Danermark, et al "Explaining Society". 

Hope this helps. Let me know if I can provide you additional information. I used to have an annotated bibliography up on the AIS SIG Philosophy web site but that site has been take down.

Losch, A. 2009. "On the Origins of Critical Realism," Theology and Science (7:1), pp. 85-106.

Bhaskar, R. 1997. A Realist Theory of Science, (2nd ed.). London: Verso.

Bhaskar, R. 1979. The Possibility of Naturalism, (1st ed.). Brighton, Sussex: The Harvester Press Limited.

Archer, M., Bhaskar, R., Collier, A., Lawson, T., and Norrie, A. (eds.). 1998. Critical Realism Essential Readings. London: Routledge.

Collier, A. 1994. "Critical Realism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Roy Bhaskar." London: Verso.

Archer, M. S. 1988. Culture and Agency, the Place of Culture in Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Archer, M. S. 1995. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach, (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sayer, A. 1992. Method in Social Science a Realist Approach, (2nd ed.). London: Rutledge.

Danermark, B., Ekstrom, M., Jakobsen, L., and Karlsson, J. C. 2002. Explaining Society Critical Realism in the Social Sciences, (1st ed.). London: Routledge.

Thank you both for sharing.

I agree Michael- where do you start? I am thinking critical realism to underpin my PhD as I am attracted to the notion of agency vs structure. However I have a LOT of reading to do!

I'll make a start with these above. Thank you for you offer of access to more information as required- I'll see how I go,

Regards

David

Now that you have narrowed it down to the question of analytical dualism, I can give you some more focused advice.

Start with Alastair Mutch's 2007 paper on Mutual Constitution. He gives a really good summary of Archer's Morphogenetic Theory. This will break the ice.

Then go to Archer's 1995 work and study it in depth. This is the key theory work here. you will want to focus on ch 5-9 to get the theory down. After that look at Dave Elder-Vass' 2010 book on the causal power of social structures. This will fill in the gap on the emergence of causal power. This will give you the theory.

When you get to the question of "ok, so what do I do with this?" Check out my paper on applying Archer's theory. It is not only a shameless plug, but also the only paper that I have seen that give concrete advice for applying it. You will want to add Danermark's and Sayer's books for general backfill on methodology. 

As you go along you may want to fill in with some of the other works. 

I am happy to help you as much as you need. Since you are in Australia, you might want to look up Philip Dobson. He has done some real on the ground application of CR to studies in the IS field. 

Hope this helps!

Regard,

Mike

Mutch, A. 2007. "Concerns with "Mutual Constitution": A Critical Realist Commentary," in Issues and Trends in Technology and Human Interaction, B.C. Stahl (ed.). Hershey, PA: IRM Press, pp. 230-244.

Archer, M. S. 1995. Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach, (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Elder-Vass, D. 2010. The Causal Power of Social Structures Emergence, Structure and Agency. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Cuellar, M. J. 2010. "Using Realist Social Theory to Explain Project Outcomes," International Journal on IT Project Management (1:4), pp. 38-51.

Sayer, A. 1992. Method in Social Science a Realist Approach, (2nd ed.). London: Rutledge.

Danermark, B., Ekstrom, M., Jakobsen, L., and Karlsson, J. C. 2002. Explaining Society Critical Realism in the Social Sciences, (1st ed.). London: Routledge.

Thanks again Mike!

That's my next few months of bedtime reading sorted. And no worries about the shameless plug- ResearchGate is all about putting people in touch with our work!

Regards

David

In my humble view, one has to be clear about fundamental perspective. Critical realism lays down an ontological perspective to integrate knowledge with the help of deep discussion. Before advancing in this direction, one has to focus certain themes or questions instead of delving in the deep ocean of research in a traditional manner.

A researcher experience around his domain will help find a thoughtful direction and study the phenomenon that develops events.

He needs to use an interdisciplinary approach for his area of research. Retroduction (an operational activity that leads to synthesize and discover new aspects of knowledge about an existing phenomenon (Sayer, 1992). This thoughtful operation is further supported by induction and deduction (Frauley & Pearce, 2007) to bridge the gap of dichotomy created by the traditional frame of research. i hope these three can serve as the main resources of conducting research on critical research.

Everybody has their own favorite book on critical realism. My favorite is Bhaskar's book on Dialectic. Pulse of Freedom. After delving into "your" favorite I quite like the accessibility of the Dictionary on Critical Realism. 

I should warn that the following is not labeled "critical realism" but amounts to the same. 

-isms are different things to different people, although they do carry a definite history.  Definitions are based on how one ought to define –nesses, which is also embedded in culture.  Dyadic relations are inadequate because they are often too general and not useful enough in specific contexts where valuations are conflicting.  A reasonable person will mediate the two for particular situations after he/she figures out what is being asserted.  So, one should look for threes, not twos. 

To start, I would recommend “The Intelligibility of Peirce’s Metaphysics of Objective Idealism” by Nicholas Guardiano.  It sorts through different forms of -isms.  To really get at it, you have to think about a lot of things, including how things are in the future and whether there is one and only one truth or pluralism is allowed.  For example, I would argue that there are conflicting ways “monism” is defined and that it is not neutralism because neutralism is really pluralism and monism is against pluralism because it values and seeks to recognize and integrate otherness.  See how confusing that is?

To get around these issues, start with faith in triadic relations and consider the following list.  Peirce and Emerson have discussed some of the following triads explicitly.  Some others, I am adopting based on habit-taking.  See if they make sense to you.  You should look for sets that are bound in transformation; groups that are irreducible, depend on one another, display a particular sequence, and allow recursion.  If you find other relations, that’s great.  If you can correct me, even better, but the burden is on you to prove me otherwise. 

Look up the structure that accommodates them (c.f., CP 5.189):

One, two, three…

Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness...

quality of feeling, reaction, thought...

pathos, ethos, logos...

idealism, materialism, monism…

continental, analytic, pragmatic

-nesses, -isms, mediation/making sense/understanding the idea…

nothing, being, becoming...

esthetics, ethics, logic…

beauty, goodness, truth…

claritas, quidditas, epiphany...

sayer, doer, knower…

icon, index, symbol…

sign, object, interpretant…

mind, matter, evolution…

essence, existence, reality…

tychism, ananchism, agapism...

chance, law, habit-taking...

C, A, B...