Using Critical Realism in IS Research

The Handbook of Information Systems Research ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-144-5.ch018 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 323-338 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Sven A. Carlsson

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Critical Realism ◽

Social Reality ◽

Structural Factors ◽

Is Research ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

Direct Contrast ◽

Structure Dimension

Different strands of postmodern, poststructuralist, postrealist, and nonpositivistic approaches and theories have gained popularity in information systems (IS) research. Since most of these approaches have a flat treatment of the agency/structure dimension, focus almost exclusively on micro phenomena, and reject objectivist elements, it can be argued that they are problematic to use in IS research. An alternative approach and philosophy is critical realism, which suggests, for example, that social reality is not simply composed of agents’ meanings but that there exist structural factors influencing agents’ lived experiences. Critical realism starts from an ontology which identifies structures and mechanisms through which events and discourses are generated as being fundamental to the constitution of our natural and social reality. This is in direct contrast to a constructivist ontology. This chapter presents critical realism and Derek Layder’s critical-realism-based adaptive theory and exemplifies how they can be used in IS research.

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Critical Realism as an Underlying Philosophy for IS Research

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, First Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-553-5.ch107 ◽

2005 ◽

pp. 606-610 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Philip J. Dobson

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Critical Realism ◽

Human Beings ◽

Is Research ◽

Classical Realism ◽

Causal Laws ◽

Realist Perspective ◽

Stable Structures ◽

Formal Constraints

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Critical Realism sebagai Alternatif Landasan Filosofis di Penelitian Sistem Informasi

Jurnal Teknologi Informasi dan Ilmu Komputer ◽

10.25126/jtiik.2021833383 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 509

Author(s):

Diah Priharsari

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Critical Realism ◽

The State ◽

Philosophical Foundation ◽

Basic Information ◽

Systems Research ◽

Information Systems Research ◽

Alternative Approach

Tulisan ini dibuat untuk memperkenalkan landasan filosofis critical realism atau yang pada sebuah artikel di Indonesia disebut sebagai realisme kritis di akademisi dan praktisi sistem informasi Indonesia. Critical realism diajukan oleh beberapa peneliti terdahulu sebagai metode alternative untuk membantu perkembangan keilmuan di bidang sistem informasi. Banyak akademisi terdahulu yang mengkritik ketidakmampuan keilmuan sistem informasi menyumbangkan teori. Pada tulisan ini dibahas landasan critical realism dan bagaimana critical realism dapat membantu perkembangan teori. Selanjutnya, juga diberikan contoh penelitian di bidang sistem informasi yang menggunakan critical realism. AbstractThis essay was made to introduce critical realism as a philosophical foundation in information systems research. The expected audience for this writing is Indonesian information systems academia and practitioners. Information systems researchers suggest that critical realism affords the potential to establish alternative approach to theorising in information systems. There have been several articles made by senior scholars criticising the state of theorising in information systems. In this essay, we described the basic information about critical realism and how critical realism may help to theorising in information systems. We also showed an example of recent critical realism research in information systems and listed additional recent papers using CR.

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Critical Realism and IS Research

Research Methodologies, Innovations and Philosophies in Software Systems Engineering and Information Systems ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-0179-6.ch004 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 63-81

Author(s):

Philip J. Dobson

Keyword(s):

Information Systems ◽

Critical Realism ◽

Methodological Development ◽

Is Research ◽

Practical Guidance ◽

Practical Implications

Critical realism is seeing more application within the Information Systems field, but its application is still limited. Applying critical realism has proven to be difficult, partly because critical realism provides little practical guidance as to methodological development and even less guidance as to the role of technology within its complex arguments. This chapter discusses some of the practical implications consequent from adopting critical realism in terms of philosophy, theory, and methodology.

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Critical Realism as an Underlying Philosophy for IS Research

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Second Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-60566-026-4.ch131 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 806-810 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

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).

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Critical Realism in IS Research

Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, First Edition ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-553-5.ch108 ◽

2005 ◽

pp. 611-616

Author(s):

Sven A. Carlsson

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Grounded Theory ◽

Information Systems ◽

Network Theory ◽

Critical Realism ◽

Structuration Theory ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Actor Network ◽

Is Research

The Information Systems (IS) field is dominated by research approaches and theories based in positivism (Arnott, Pervan, O’Donnell, & Dodson, 2004; Chen & Hirschheim, 2004; Schultze & Leidner, 2003). IS scholars have pointed out weaknesses in these approaches and theories and in response different strands of post-modern theories and constructivism have gained popularity—see Lee, Liebenau, and DeGross, (1997), Trauth (2001), Whitman and Woszczynski (2004), and Michael Myers’ “Qualitative Research in Information Systems” (http://www.qual.auckland.ac.nz). The approaches and theories argued for include interpretivism, ethnography, grounded theory, and theories like Giddens’ (1984) structuration theory and Latour’s (1987) actor-network theory. (For simplicity, we refer to these different approaches and theories as “post-approaches” and “post-theories” when distinction is not required).

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Women's rural-urban migration in Lebanon

10.26756/th.2020.158 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Sally N. Youssef

Keyword(s):

Internal Migration ◽

Low Income ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Urban Migration ◽

Structural Factors ◽

Migrant Women ◽

Migration Studies ◽

Rural Urban Migration ◽

Low Income Women ◽

The Impact

Women’s sole internal migration has been mostly ignored in migration studies, and the concentration on migrant women has been almost exclusively on low-income women within the household framework. This study focuses on middleclass women’s contemporary rural-urban migration in Lebanon. It probes into the determinants and outcomes of women’s sole internal migration within the empowerment framework. The study delves into the interplay of the personal, social, and structural factors that determine the women’s rural-urban migration as well as its outcomes. It draws together the lived experiences of migrant women to explore the determinants of women’s internal migration as well as the impact of migration on their expanded empowerment.

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Quantitative structure-toxicity relationships using TOPS-MODE. 3. Structural factors influencing the permeability of commercial solvents through living human skin

SAR and QSAR in Environmental Research ◽

10.1080/1062936031000073162 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 14 (2) ◽

pp. 145-163 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

E. Estrada ◽

E. Uriarte ◽

Y. Gutierrez ◽

H. González

Keyword(s):

Human Skin ◽

Structural Factors ◽

Quantitative Structure ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Mode 3

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“They Do Not Care about Us Anymore”: Understanding the Situation of Older People in Ghana

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18052337 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (5) ◽

pp. 2337

Author(s):

Joseph Asumah Braimah ◽

Mark W. Rosenberg

Keyword(s):

Older People ◽

Lived Experiences ◽

Climatic Factors ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Structural Factors ◽

Sanitation Services ◽

Poor Access ◽

Access To Water ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Sharing Circles

While existing research acknowledges copious challenges faced by older adults (people aged 60 and over) in Ghana and most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, they fail to situate the lived experiences of this vulnerable group within the broader context of health geography and public health. This paper draws insights from ecological systems theory and the “geographies of older people” literature to examine the lived experiences of older people in Ghana. Data for the study were gathered using interviews (42) and sharing circles (10). Our findings reveal a complex mix of experiences consistent with the different levels of the environment. Dominant themes include access to social support, functional impairment and poor health status, social status, poor access to water and sanitation services, food insecurity, economic insecurity, and caregiving burden. These findings support the wide-held notion that the experiences of older people are complex and produced by the interplay of both individual and structural factors. Our findings demonstrate that sociocultural, economic, political, and climatic factors are important consideration in promoting elderly wellbeing and quality of life in Ghana.

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SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS OF WOMEN’S LONELINESS

Ukrainian Psychological Journal ◽

10.17721/upj.2020.2(14).9 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 171-188

Author(s):

І. M. Leonova

Keyword(s):

Interpersonal Relationships ◽

Social Groups ◽

Antisocial Behaviour ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Structural Factors ◽

Emotional Instability ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Behavioural Types ◽

Personal Qualities ◽

Fear And Anxiety

Factors of loneliness experienced by women from different social groups, identified with factor analysis, are considered. Six structural factors were identified: neuroticism, an individual’s position in relation to herself and others, sociability, interpersonal relationships, personal potential, behavioural types. Each of these factors has a direction, so determines a woman’s sociality or, vice versa, deepness of her loneliness. We have determined that personal qualities developed due to experienced negative emotions, including low self-esteem, too high demands toward themselves and others, depression, fear and anxiety, insecurity, or emotional instability, contribute to antisocial behaviour (social indifference) and loneliness. A woman’s aggressive-negative position is one of the factors influencing her maladaptation to society and making her feels lonely. We can also argue that destructive communications also contribute to the feeling of loneliness. We have found that harmony and comfort at interpersonal relationships and loneliness depends on a woman’s position in interpersonal relationships, their distance and valence. Women with a high personal potential are less likely to experience feelings of loneliness than women with low personal potential. Moreover, fear and aggression directly affect the development of women’s depressed-aggressive behaviour, which leads to social maladaptation; this fact allowed us to understand the causes for the fear of being alone and the mechanism forming women’s feeling of loneliness.

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