A guest post by Karim Knio Call for papers: special issue of Journal of Critical Realism on ‘Morphogenetic Régulation’* * This is a shortened version of the call for papers. The full text, with references, can be found at this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767430.2024.2318544 Morphogenetic Régulation (MR) is a (meta)theoretical and methodological framework that studies complex systemic transformations and their persistence within contemporary capitalism situated across four key and interrelated ontological debates: individual-group, structure-agency, material-ideational ..read more

In this guest post, Graham Scambler talks about his recent book on the causal forces at work in elite sport – and the severe consequences they can have for the athletes involved. Two major themes have informed my applications of critical realist thinking to the study of and engagement with social phenomena. The first is a commitment to help build bridges between the consideration of abstruse philosophical or theorical issues on the one hand and the conduct of empirical research on the other. I have no intrinsic objection to either of these, but only too often they accumulate outputs in intell ..read more

A guest post by Ruth Groff. The Critical Social Ontology Workshop is an interdisciplinary venue for radical thinking about the metaphysics of irreducibly social phenomena. Core members of CSOW are Ruth Groff (Coordinator), Sally Haslanger, Tony Lawson, Doug Porpora, Vanessa Wills and Charlotte Witt. We invite paper proposals for the 2024 meeting of the Workshop, to be held via Zoom due to the on-going SARS-CoV-2 (Covid) pandemic. As always, we welcome contributions the aim of which is to address fundamental issues of social ontology (and/or foundational meta-theoretical issues that have implic ..read more

In this final book by renowned sociologist Margaret S. Archer, her groundbreaking morphogenetic approach is defended, refined and extended through a series of provocative engagements with her critics. Archer, a pioneer of critical realism, addresses key debates surrounding her work on structure, agency, and social change. Each chapter responds to critiques from a different scholar, using these exchanges as springboards to further develop her powerful explanatory framework. Through these lively dialogues, Archer elaborates her tools for analysing the intricate dynamics of social stability and ..read more

We are delighted to announce a one-day symposium dedicated to exploring and celebrating the legacy of Margaret Archer, one of the most influential sociological thinkers of our time. The aim of the symposium is to engage with and critically assess Archer’s contributions to social theory, her influences and engagements outside critical realism, the global reception of her work, and her place within the larger tradition of critical realism. Margaret Archer’s work has had a profound impact on social theory, challenging and reshaping our understanding of agency, structure, culture and their interp ..read more

The annual conference of the International Association for Critical Realism (IACR) 2024 will be hosted at the University of Warwick, England, beginning with a pre-conference workshop from 29-30 July, followed by the conference itself from 31 July – 2 August. The theme for this conference is to ‘look back in order to look forward’. Next year (2024) marks the first anniversary of the death of Maggie Archer, former Professor of Sociology and Head of Department at the University of Warwick. Her work on social morphogenesis and social ontology is well-established in the social sciences. It also mar ..read more

A guest post by Onur Ozmen Call for papers: special issue of Journal of Critical Realism on ‘critical realism and the self’* * This is a shortened version of the call for papers. The full text can be found at this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767430.2024.2280015 We are calling for papers for the special issue of the Journal of Critical Realism on critical realism and the self, thematizing the self and cognate concepts such as subjectivity, reflexivity, authenticity, personhood, identity and others. Submissions may be dealing with the subject matter in either abstract th ..read more

A guest post by Ismael Al-Amoudi, reporting on discussions held at the Centre for Social Ontology (www.socialontology.org) and a forthcoming Forum issue of the Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. Realist discussions of unpredictability and catastrophes In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic was circulating around the Globe at a baffling speed, only matched by the celerity with which myriad commentaries appeared, circulated and contradicted one another, thus generating heated controversies about the basic questions that occupied most people’s minds: how dangerous are present and future variants ..read more

Margaret Archer’s prescient work highlighted vital questions about the possibilities for relationship and “friendship” between humans and AI systems. Though written before the rise of chatbots and other interactive AI, Archer’s late papers reveal remarkable insight into issues surrounding AI personhood, sociality, and relationality that remain highly relevant today. Our project seeks to spotlight Archer’s critical realist framework and engage leading thinkers to extend its application to contemporary AI capabilities and constraints. Through a series of invited written responses by experts acro ..read more

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 researchers and policymakers. With increasing emphasis on considering philosophical foundations while conceptualising research projects (Nichol et al., 2023), operationalising realist evaluation highlighted concerns around the ontological and epistemological foundations underpinning its methodology and adopted methods. Realism generall ..read more