My research question is: How do young offenders experience and understand case management? In many ways this lends itself to a phenomenological approach, but I do not share this worldview. Critical realism is more apt in this regard, but it seems to be used to support studies with an explanatory purpose. The issue of 'causation' is confusing to me in critical realism.
At this stage, I am taking a dialectical pragmatist (Johnson 2011, 2012) stance informed by: pragmatism-of-the-middle philosophy (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie 2004; Johnson, Onwuegbuzie and Turner 2007); critical theory; and weak social constructionism (i.e. realist ontology | relativist epistemology).
Any thoughts?
Exploratory research is effective in laying the groundwork that will lead to future studies. Exploratory research, as the name states, intends merely to explore the research questions and does not intend to offer final and conclusive solutions to existing problems. Humans become alienated from their potential by prevailing economic, political and cultural authority. Social reality is produced by humans, but also exists objectively and dominates human experience. Ontological assumptions (beliefs about the nature of the world around us) realism vs. constructivism (nominalism)
Ontological assumptions -a potpourri of alternatives
Critical Realism
Direct Realism
New realism
Radical empiricism
Idealism
Pragmatism
Relativism
Yes you can use critical realism as a theoretical frame - we refer to its uses in this chapters. We don't always explicitly refer to it but we have an orientation to analysis that incorporates its ideas.
“Raising youth voices in community and policy decision-making”. Sanders, J. & Munford, R. In Ungar, M. & Liebenberg, L (Eds.) Resilience in Action: Working with Youth across Cultures and Contexts. Canada, University of Toronto Press.
“Assessment of families”. Munford, R. & Sanders J. In Sowers, C. & Dulmus, C. (Eds.) The Comprehensive Handbook of Social Work and Social Welfare. New Jersey, USA, John Wiley and Sons.
Your question 'can critical realism be applied to exploratory research'? is a very interesting question as the term 'applied' is key here. Critical realism is presented as a philosophy for both the social and natural worlds and is contemporary in today's research world. I struggled with this 'applied' nature a few years ago when undertaking my own doctoral studies. However, as that journey brings you from philosophy/meta theory to the pragmatics of carrying out research that is guided by a philosophical perspective, I was led to the works of Margaret Archer, Derek Layder, Pawson and Tilly, Andrew Sayer ... among many others where the applied nature of critical realism is evident. You can locate on my profile a paper I wrote with regards to my engagement with critical realism as a philosophical framework for the study of gender and mental health. I hope you find it useful.
Hi Shelley,
I agree with Michael, above. Archer uses her realist social theory and has conducted a number of studies published in a series of books published by the C.U.P. The theoretical foundations are contained within 'Being Human' (2000) followed by exploratory empirical work in 'Structure. agency and the Internal Conversation' (2003). This formed the groundwork for increasingly bigger empirical studies using mixed methods (2007, 2012). They describe how reflexivity mediates the powers of structure and agency. All this informed my own exploratory investigation, an ethnographic study of a UK-based multi-national corporation (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Re your comment that: 'The issue of causation' is confusing to me in critical realism.' You might be wrestling with the CR notion of different level of reality (Bhaskar discussed laminated systems, see Chapter 1 in the book 'Studying Organizations Using Critical Realism, O.U.P., edited by Edwards, O'Mahoney & Vincent ). It's about things 'out there' that we haven't yet experienced. See also the edited book by Archer et al (1998) 'Critical Realism: Essential Readings'. I particularly liked Steve Fleetwood's explanation at Chapter 1: An Ontology for Organisation and Management Studies in Fleetwood and Ackroyd's (2004) 'Critical Realist Applications in Organisation and Management Studies', Routledge. Wonderful stuff.
Good luck with your study.
http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/management/business-ethics/corporate-social-entrepreneurship-integrity-within?format=PB#pucZRDRwWB6gzgHw.97
Please let me know if this reference/site is helpful to you:
Applying critical realism to information and communication
...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01446190902842292
Applying critical realism to information and communication technologies: ... information and communication technologies: a ... critical realism in ICT research can ...
Published in:Construction Management and Economics · 2009
Authors:Stephen Fox
Affiliation:Vtt Technical Research Centre of Finland
About:Philosophy of science · Critical realism · Information and Communications Technology
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