scholarly journals The Socio-Materiality of Dirty Work: A Critical Realist Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 095001702110113
Author(s):  
Anna Galazka ◽  
Joe O’Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Physical Domain ◽  
Dirty Work ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
The Social ◽  
Material Environment ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Realist Ontology ◽  
Realist Perspective

New materialist applications in ‘dirty work’ studies have rightly emphasised the importance of materiality alongside symbolism. However, these approaches have neglected important themes irreducible to the material world, such as temporality, reflexivity and social structure. This article develops an alternative critical realist perspective on socio-materiality in dirty work which emphasises these themes. It draws on 2016–2017 ethnographic data on the work of clinical photographers of wounds in a UK specialist outpatient wound healing clinic. First, it shows how photographers’ reflexivity mediates the relationship between their embodied materiality and their agency in the physical domain. Second, it highlights the temporal dynamics between reflexive agents, their material environment, and the context of their operation. Finally, it emphasises the non-conflationary relationship between the social structures of the medical hierarchy and photographers’ agency in dirty work. Together, these contributions highlight the utility of an emergent, realist ontology in understanding the dynamics of dirty work.

scholarly journals Developing a critical realist informed framework to explain how the human rights and social determinants of health relationship works

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Haigh ◽  
Lynn Kemp ◽  
Patricia Bazeley ◽  
Neil Haigh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Determinants Of Health ◽  
Social Determinants ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Determinants Of Health ◽  
Construction Of Knowledge ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Background That there is a relationship between human rights and health is well established and frequently discussed. However, actions intended to take account of the relationship between human rights and social determinants of health have often been limited by lack of clarity and ambiguity concerning how these rights and determinants may interact and affect each other. It is difficult to know what to do when you do not understand how things work. As our own understanding of this consideration is founded on perspectives provided by the critical realist paradigm, we present an account of and commentary on our application of these perspectives in an investigation of this relationship. Findings We define the concept of paradigm and review critical realism and related implications for construction of knowledge concerning this relationship. Those implications include the need to theorise possible entities involved in the relationship together with their distinctive properties and consequential power to affect one another through exercise of their respective mechanisms (ways of working). This theorising work enabled us identify a complex, multi-layered assembly of entities involved in the relationship and some of the array of causal mechanisms that may be in play. These are presented in a summary framework. Conclusion Researchers’ views about the nature of knowledge and its construction inevitably influence their research aims, approaches and outcomes. We demonstrate that by attending to these views, which are founded in their paradigm positioning, researchers can make more progress in understanding the relationship between human rights and the social determinants of health, in particular when engaged in theorizing work. The same approaches could be drawn on when other significant relationships in health environments are investigated.

Historicity, Peoplehood, and Politics: Holocaust Talk in Twenty-First-Century France

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 968-997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly A. Arkin
Keyword(s):  
First Century ◽  
North African ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Anthropological Literature ◽  
French National Identity ◽  
Holocaust Narratives ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractDrawing on ethnographic data from the mid-2000s as well as accounts from French Jewish newspapers and magazines from the 1980s onward, this paper traces the emergence of new French Jewish institutional narratives linking North African Jews to the “European” Holocaust. I argue that these new narratives emerged as a response to the social and political impasses produced by intra-Jewish disagreements over whether and how North African Jews could talk about the Holocaust, which divided French Jews and threatened the relationship between Jewishness and French national identity. These new pedagogical narratives relied on a very different historicity, or way of reckoning time and causality, than those used in more divisive everyday French Jewish Holocaust narratives. By reworking the ways that French Jews reckoned time and causality, they offered an expansive and homogenously “European” Jewishness. This argument works against a growing postcolonial sociological and anthropological literature on religious minorities in France and Europe by emphasizing the contingency, difficulty, and even ambivalence around constructing “Jewishness” as transparently either “European” or “French.” It also highlights the role played by historicity—not just history—in producing what counts as group “identity.”

scholarly journals Sustainable Accountability:   a Dualist Vedic Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Samuel David Stewart-Jacks
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Ancient India ◽  
The Past ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Surrounding Environment ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Realist Ontology ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge ◽  
Relative Factors

<p>This thesis offers a theory of sustainable accountability informed by Vedic philosophy. Although Vedic philosophy is often described as the philosophy of ancient India, this thesis will explain how relative factors, such as time and place, do not exclude one from experiencing the taste of what is described as the ripened fruit of the tree that is the Vedic literatures. The implications the Vedas have for sustainability stem mainly from their alternative notions of the self and its needs. The Vedas hold that upon a correct evaluation of the needs of the self, an individual will be completely satisfied and will therefore not desire to live and consume in a way that is destructive to their surrounding environment and its inhabitants. Within the Vedic paradigm there are two main divisions of thought - the dualist and non-dualist schools of philosophy. Because they differ in their conceptions of the self, these schools differ markedly in their notions of accountability, welfare and theories of sustainability and social change. Within the social accounting literature, a non-dualist theory of sustainable accountability has been given by Saravanamuthu (2006), but a dualist opinion has not yet been presented. This thesis seeks to introduce dualist Vedic philosophy and its theory of sustainability, and describe how a system of accountability could be constructed upon such a philosophy. In the past, academic scholarship has frowned upon sacred forms of knowledge such as the Vedas, and has considered their claims to be unverifiable. Therefore this thesis also asserts, using arguments from the critical realist ontology, that sacred forms of knowledge such as the Vedas should be admissible in academic circles.</p>

scholarly journals Comment on Naturalizing Critical Realist Social Ontology

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petri Ylikoski
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Transcendental Arguments ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Argumentative Strategy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Realist Ontology

AbstractThis comment discusses Kaidesoja (2013) and raises the issue whether his analysis justifies stronger conclusions than he presents in the book. My comments focus on four issues. First, I argue that his naturalistic reconstruction of critical realist transcendental arguments shows that transcendental arguments should be treated as a rare curiosity rather than a general argumentative strategy. Second, I suggest that Kaidesoja’s analysis does not really justify his optimism about the usefulness of causal powers ontology in the social sciences. Third, I raise some doubts about the heuristic value of Mario Bunge’s social ontology that Kaidesoja presents as a replacement for critical realist ontology. Finally, I propose an alternative way to analyze failures of aggregativity that might better serve Kaidesoja’s purposes than the Wimsattian scheme he employs in the book.

Theoretical triangulation and pluralism in accounting research: a critical realist critique

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 1138-1150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Modell
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Theoretical Pluralism ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Knowledge Claims ◽  
Realist Perspective

Purpose – This is a rejoinder to Hoque et al. (2013) previously published in this journal. The purpose of this paper is to further elucidate and extend some of their key arguments related to the use of theoretical triangulation in accounting research. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual discussion focusing on how the understanding of the notion of theoretical triangulation can be enhanced from a critical realist perspective. Findings – The author draws attention to some ambiguities in Hoque et al.’s (2013) reasoning and advance a critique of their rather under-developed conceptions of the relationship between ontology and epistemology, the epistemic premises influencing the choice of theories and the role of theories in conditioning empirical observations and scholarly knowledge claims. To address these issues the author advances a critical realist approach and discusses its implications for theoretical triangulation in accounting research. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the ongoing debate about theoretical pluralism in accounting research by explicating how critical realism may further such pluralism and the inter-disciplinary accounting research project more generally.

scholarly journals Critical realism, mimetic theory and social work

2021 ◽  
pp. 146801732110088
Author(s):  
Stan Houston ◽  
Calvin Swords
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Mimetic Theory ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
The Social ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Realist Ontology

Summary Scapegoating is a ubiquitous, yet pernicious, phenomenon in today’s world. It manifests in innumerable ways. Social work, in line with its emancipatory value-base, seeks to engage with various scapegoated groups to challenge the experience. In this article, the authors draw on critical realism and mimetic theory to elucidate the causative mechanisms fuelling scapegoating. This is done in order to heighten social workers’ insight into the process and empower targeted groups. Findings Mimetic theory highlights that scapegoating is a product of desire, rivalry and deflection. These are deep-seated mechanisms that are compatible with critical realist ontology and its search for causative properties in the social world. It is argued that critical realism augments mimetic theory by setting it within a much wider and deeper context of understanding. As such, it emphasizes intersecting causes and contingencies such as the role of temporal and spatial factors shaping the scapegoating experience. Applications Social workers can transform these theoretical insights into sensitizing constructs when they facilitate self-directed groupwork with scapegoated groups. Being theoretically informed, they can pose critical questions to group members to assist them to make the link between personal problems and political issues. The aim is to empower these groups so that they can embrace the sociological imagination and act for change.

Impoverishment and child maltreatment in African American and European American neighborhoods

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
JILL E. KORBIN ◽  
CLAUDIA J. COULTON ◽  
SARAH CHARD ◽  
CANDIS PLATT–HOUSTON ◽  
MARILYN SU
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
European American ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Census Tracts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Abuse And Neglect ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
The Relationship

Although it is well documented that child maltreatment exerts a deleterious impact on child adaptation, much less is known about the precise etiological pathways that eventuate in child abuse and neglect. This paper reports on a multimethod ecological study of the relationship between neighborhood structural factors and child maltreatment reports in African American and European American census tracts. The study had two major components. First, in an aggregate analysis, the effects of four measures of community structure (impoverishment, child care burden, instability, and geographic isolation) on child maltreatment report rates were examined separately for predominantly African American (n = 94) and predominantly European American (n = 189) census tracts. Impoverishment in particular had a significantly weaker effect on maltreatment rates in African American than in European American neighborhoods. Second, focused ethnographies were conducted in four selected census tracts with child maltreatment report rates in the highest and lowest quartiles. Ethnographic data point to the importance of the social fabric in accounting for differences in child maltreatment report rates by predominant neighborhood ethnicity.

Critical Realism as an Underlying Philosophy for IS Research

2011 ◽  
pp. 806-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Dobson
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Is Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Classical Realism ◽  
Causal Laws ◽  
Realist Ontology ◽  
Realist Perspective ◽  
Stable Structures

Many recent articles from within the information systems (IS) arena present an old-fashioned view of realism. For example, Iivari, Hirschheim, and Klein (1998) saw classical realism as seeing “data as describing objective facts, information systems as consisting of technological structures (‘hardware’), human beings as subject to causal laws (determinism), and organizations as relatively stable structures” (p. 172). Wilson (1999) saw the realist perspective as relying on “the availability of a set of formal constraints which have the characteristics of abstractness, generality, invariance across contexts.” Fitzgerald and Howcroft (1998) presented a realist ontology as one of the foundational elements of positivism in discussing the polarity between hard and soft approaches in IS. Realism is placed alongside positivist, objectivist, etic epistemologies and quantitative, confirmatory, deductive, laboratory-focussed and nomothetic methodologies. Such a traditional view of realism is perhaps justified within the IS arena, as it reflects the historical focus of its use, however, there now needs to be a greater recognition of the newer forms of realism—forms of realism that specifically address all of the positivist leanings emphasised by Fitzgerald and Howcroft (1998). A particular example of this newer form of realism is critical realism. This modern realist approach is primarily founded on the writings of the social sciences philosopher Bhaskar (1978, 1979, 1986, 1989, 1991). The usefulness of such an approach has recently been recognized in the IS arena by Dobson (2001) and Mingers (2002).

Questioning the ontology of sociomateriality: a critical realist perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 1073-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deniz Tunçalp
Keyword(s):  
Information Search ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Realm ◽  
Realist Perspective ◽  
Social Aspects Of Technology

Purpose – The author join Orlikowski (2007) in seeking the “reconfiguration of our conventional assumptions and considerations of materiality.” In her sociomaterial approach, Orlikowski combines what is social and what is material into a “sociomaterial assemblage” in considering material and social aspects of technology. However, the author thinks this conflation creates a number of analytical and phenomenological problems for the understanding of technology in organizing. Rather than considering materiality with a primacy, the author argue that the proposed approach may reduce what is material into a social essence and makes materiality of a technology impossible to perceive separate from the social aspects. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Empirical examples of “Information Search” and “Mobile Communication” in Orlikowski (2007) are further employed to discuss the grounds of the criticism. Findings – The author propose a critical realist perspective to technology both as social and material recursively. Research limitations/implications – The analysis is primarily ontological and meta-theoretical. In future, extensive reviews can be performed on what questions have been asked and what questions have been omitted by researchers employing different versions of sociomaterial perspective. Practical implications – The perspective offered by this paper enables asking new questions and necessary empirical leverage to analyze how one technology becomes materialized and successful in the social realm and not the other. The author also discusses strategic conditions of how one successful technology can be replaced by another. Social implications – Understanding the state of the art in theory in understanding material and social aspects of technology would help us develop novel strategies to contest, complement and adapt to material and social issues of technologies. Originality/value – This paper is among the few critical papers that meta-theoretically question the relatively recent sociomaterial turn in organization studies and information systems fields.

scholarly journals How to define the adult in 2020?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Maria Herzog
Keyword(s):  
Social Construct ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Social ◽  
Material Environment ◽  
Processing Program ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Holistic Representation

Today adulthood seems to be characterized also by a certain number of obligations and the assumption of responsibilities. It is an age in which the life course in the form of an institutional processing program seems to be undermined. This can be seen in the extended periods of schooling, teaching, training and the associated shortening of the working phase of a lifetime. Adulthood is to be understood as a social construct resulting from current demands and ideas. A diverse multidisciplinary presentation of the demands placed on adults will be discussed and a holistic representation of the concept of the adult will be developed. Which educational, biological, philosophical, legal, economic and psychological approaches and theories are relevant here? In view of this, adulthood can currently be defined on the basis of various interdisciplinary characteristics. Adulthood is defined as a phase that is open to development and begins with (sexual) maturity. The adult moves between dependence and autonomy, striving for autonomy. The adult is also characterized by responsibility and "wisdom". Adulthood is therefore to be understood from the perspective of contemporary educational science as a phase of development in which the relationship of the individual to himself and his environment changes through the mastering of age-related demands and the examination of the social and material environment. The adult thereby experiences himself/herself as a legally mature being who assumes economic and social responsibility for him/herself.

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