Developing Critical Realist Empirical Research

This project asks how critical realist philosophy is operationalised into methodologies to support empirical research projects within the social sciences. Critical realism is a philosophy of science increasingly used by scholars to inform and scaffold empirical research projects. Its philosophical ideas about the nature of the social world, and how we gain knowledge about it, offer practical and supportive frameworks for transdisciplinary and theoretical explanatory research.

The research synthesises findings from semi-structured in-depth interviews with international critical realist-oriented scholars across various disciplines, with existing literature on critical realist research, methods and methodological descriptions. The project will bring together evidence for how critical realism motivates approaches to develop critical realist research methodologies and meets a growing need for information about applying critical realism in social science research. Outputs of the project will provide a crucial and timely resource for scholars designing and adapting methodologies to be compatible and influenced by critical realist principles.