scholarly journals Realist Criminology and its Discontents

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 80-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Winlow ◽  
Steve Hall
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Critical Criminology ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Ball Rolling ◽  
Realist Position ◽  
Research Programmes ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
Realist Criminology

Critical criminology must move beyond twentieth-century empiricist and idealist paradigms because the concepts and research programmes influenced by these paradigms are falling into obsolescence. Roger Matthews’ recent work firmly advocates this position and helps to set the ball rolling. Here we argue that Matthews’ attempt to use critical realist thought to move Left Realism towards an advanced position can help to put criminology on a sound new footing. However, before this becomes possible numerous philosophical and theoretical issues must be ironed out. Most importantly, critical criminology must avoid political pragmatism and adopt a more critical stance towards consumer culture’s spectacle. A searching analysis of these issues suggests that, ultimately, criminology is weighed down with obsolete thinking to such an extent that to remain intellectually relevant it must move beyond both Left Realism and Critical Realism to construct a new ultra-realist position.

Critical realism and grounded theory: Analysing the adoption outcomes for disabled children using the retroduction framework

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Bunt
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Disabled Children ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Causal Mechanisms ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Realist Position

The critical realist position moves away from merely identifying correlations and attempts to seek out the causal mechanisms which underpin disadvantage. By drawing on an empirical study on placing disabled children for adoption, the article seeks to demonstrate the practical application of critical realist by combining its Retroductive framework with Grounded Theory methods. Bhaskar’s ‘Retroduction’ provides an analytical framework from which the researcher examines data within three distinct levels (observable; actual; real). The Observable and Actual levels are processes which identify significant incidences and connections between variables. The ‘Real’, attempts to extend conceptual analysis by hypothesising about the causal mechanisms which account for a situation. This article argues that the multidimensional framework offered through Retroduction is necessary if we are to fully grasp the disadvantage disabled children experience in adoption processes. This entails examining the extent to which socially constructed notions of childhood and disability implicitly affect the practice decisions of social workers. The findings presented through these levels of analysis reveal a nuanced and multilayered understanding of adoption outcomes.

scholarly journals Critical Realism and Feminist Criminology: Shall the Twain Ever Meet?

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Claire Renzetti
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Culturally Competent ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Feminist Criminology ◽  
Potential Synergy ◽  
Realist Criminology

This article assesses the commonalities and divergences between critical realist criminology and feminist criminology. Using Roger Matthews’ (2014) construction of Critical Realism as discussed in his book, Realist Criminology, the article first notes that critical realists have largely overlooked or dismissed feminist criminology, despite the potential synergy between the two perspectives. The article then identifies three major areas – (1) epistemology and research methods; (2) a critique of essentialism; and (3) commitment to culturally competent and client/community-centered interventions – in which the perspectives share similarities, while distinguishing the differences in each area as well. The article concludes with an invitation for dialogue between critical realists and feminist criminologists.

Deuteronomy, Hosea, and the Theory of Northern Origins

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill T. Arnold
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
History Of

Deuteronomy appears to share numerous thematic and phraseological connections with the book of Hosea from the eighth century bce. Investigation of these connections during the early twentieth century settled upon a scholarly consensus, which has broken down in more recent work. Related to this question is the possibility of northern origins of Deuteronomy—as a whole, or more likely, in an early proto-Deuteronomy legal core. This chapter surveys the history of the investigation leading up to the current impasse and offers a reexamination of the problem from the standpoint of one passage in Hosea.

scholarly journals Converting Consumerism: A Liturgical-Ethical Application of Critical Realism

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 338
Author(s):  
Benjamin Durheim
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realism ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Sacramental Theology ◽  
Liturgical Theology ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Christian Conversion ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Concrete Application

Critical realism as a lens of thought is not new to theological inquiry, but recently a growing number of theologians have been using its conceptual frameworks to guide their thought on how social structures function theologically, and how ethics might function in light of its insights. This article pulls these developments into the nexus of liturgy and ethics, applying critical realist categories to contemporary understandings of how liturgical celebration (and the structures thereof) form, inform, and/or malform Christian ethical imaginations and practices. The article begins with a brief survey of the main tenets of critical realism and their histories in theological inquiry, and argues that a main gift critical realism can offer liturgical and sacramental theology is a structural understanding of liturgical narrative- and value-building. Having described this gift, the article moves to a concrete application of this method in liturgical theology and its implications for ethics: addressing consumerism as a culture that can be both validated and challenged by liturgical and sacramental structures. The article ends with some brief suggestions for using and shifting liturgical structures to better facilitate the Christian conversion of consumerism.

scholarly journals Building on the shoulders of Bhaskar and Matthews: a critical realist criminology

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Matthew Wilkinson ◽  
Muzammil Quraishi ◽  
Lamia Irfan ◽  
Mallory Schneuwly Purdie
Keyword(s):  
Critical Realist ◽  
Realist Criminology

The Meaning[s] of "Without": An Exploration of Liszt's Bagatelle ohne Tonart

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Berry
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Musical Thought ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
The Future ◽  
Piano Composition ◽  
Musical Evolution ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
The Way

In this essay, I explore historical and theoretical issues germane to an understanding of an 1885 piano composition with an intriguing title: LisztÕs Bagatelle ohne Tonart--a bagatelle "without tonality" or "without a key." After briefly describing the workÕs history and musical associations with other compositions by Liszt, I survey two present-day approaches that reveal ways in which the work defies tonality: octatonic interpretations via set-class examinations, and Schenker-influenced prolongational models. I then turn to focus instead on how the Bagatelle fit within the framework of nineteenth-century musical thought; how its processes were supported by contemporaneously evolving theories of chromaticism. Partly through an analysis based on the practice of Gottfried Weber (1779-1839), I demonstrate that the Bagatelle is not a piece "without tonality" as much as it is one "without the fulfillment of the tonic." It maintains harmonic tension by avoiding anticipated resolutions, as well as by preserving a sense of ambiguity as to what the actual "missing" key is. Next, I consider why Liszt was prompted to write a piece in such a manner. We know that he was a proponent of musical progress--of Zukunftsmusik ("music of the future")--but for this fact to be relevant we must confirm, first, that Liszt had definite ideas about a Zukunftsharmoniesystem; and second, that such a system is reflected in the processes exhibited by the Bagatelle. I argue that the BagatelleÕs traits are indeed in accordance with theoretical views about musicÕs future direction, to which Liszt subscribed. Relevant theories of Karl Friedrich Weitzmann (1808-80) and Franois-Joseph FŽtis (1784-1871) are assessed. Lastly, in a "Schoenbergian epilogue" I explore connections between LisztÕs operations and SchoenbergÕs ideas, addressing historical associations that conjoin their views of composing "ohne Tonart."I conclude that the 1885 BagatelleÕs attenuation of tonality was part of a tradition that extended from the mid-nineteenth into the early twentieth century--one that stretched from Liszt and his contemporaries through Schoenberg and his pupils and beyond, embracing along the way the theoretical prescriptions of Weitzmann, FŽtis, and Schoenberg himself. The various threads of theory and analysis explored in this article contribute to an understanding of the same strand of musical evolution: the increasing circumvention of tonality to the point that a piece could be written "ohne Tonart."

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Marinopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
First Century ◽  
Late Modernity ◽  
Scientific Philosophy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Epistemology

Critical Theory and Epistemology is a comparison of the major epistemological concerns in the twentieth century with critical theory of the Frankfurt School. I focus on modern epistemology as a theory of and about science that also addresses the social and political aims of scientific enquiry.The critique that the book deploys on the epistemological tendencies of late modernity suggests that the main distinction between Kant and the critical theorists lies in their understanding of rationality. Such a critique can be characterized as the ‘battle’ of modern epistemology for or against the scientifically, socially and politically rational. Thus, arguments of modern epistemology, as articulated by phenomenology, structuralism, poststructuralism, modernists and postmodernists, systems’ theory and critical realism, can certainly be considered ‘modern’ in historical terms, but in essence their concerns are of a pre-modern and pre-scientific nature. In such a manner, we come closer to understanding what constitutes the scientific, philosophy, truth, and whether modern epistemology paves the way for a political epistemology in the twenty-first century.

The SoSM Revisited-A Critical Realist Perspective

2011 ◽  
pp. 122-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Dobson
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Critical Systems ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Defining System ◽  
Emancipatory Practice ◽  
Framework System ◽  
Realist Perspective

The chapter revisits the System of System Methodologies (SoSM) and suggests that use of the SoSM as a framework for defining methodological assumptions is difficult when the concerned methodologies have significantly different meanings for one axis of the framework—“system” complexity. It is suggested that the purpose of the underlying system can provide a more appropriate frame for defining system approaches—such purpose being defined as interaction or transformation (Mathiassen & Nielsen, 2000). The chapter also uses aspects of critical realism to provide insights into the SoSM and the critical theory underpinning the framework. The SoSM helped to highlight the neglect of coercive situations and ultimately helped prompt the development of critical systems theory which is focused on three basic commitments, critical awareness, methodological pluralism, and emancipation. Maru and Woodford (2001) recently argue that the focus on emancipation has been relegated due to a concentration on pluralism. This chapter suggests that this is a logical outcome of the epistemological focus of the underlying critical theory of Habermas. The Habermas focus on the epistemological or knowledge-based aspects of the development process must necessarily relegate the importance of ontological matters such as the conditions necessary for emancipatory practice. This chapter proposes that the philosophy of critical realism has insights to offer through its highlighting of the ontological issues in more detail and in arguing for a recognition of the deep structures and mechanisms involved in social situations.

Critical Realism

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-72
Author(s):  
Dominik Giese ◽  
Jonathan Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Science And Society ◽  
The Real ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Ontological Question ◽  
The World

This chapter evaluates critical realism, a term which refers to a philosophy of science connected to the broader approach of scientific realism. In contrast to other philosophies of science, such as positivism and post-positivism, critical realism presents an alternative view on the questions of what is ‘real’ and how one can generate scientific knowledge of the ‘real’. How one answers these questions has implications for how one studies science and society. The critical realist answer starts by prioritizing the ontological question over the epistemological one, by asking: What must the world be like for science to be possible? Critical realism holds the key ontological belief of scientific realism that there is a reality which exists independent of our knowledge and experience of it. Critical realists posit that reality is more complex, and made up of more than the directly observable. More specifically, critical realism understands reality as ‘stratified’ and composed of three ontological domains: the empirical, the actual, and the real. Here lies the basis for causation.

Basic critical realist concepts

2021 ◽  
pp. 41-64
Author(s):  
Priscilla Alderson
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Levels Of Reality ◽  
Closed Systems ◽  
Natural Necessity ◽  
Generative Mechanisms

Chapter 2 sets out basic critical realism concepts to show how they help to resolve the problems examined in Chapter 1. The concepts or themes include: the need to separate ontology-being from epistemology-thinking; the transitive and intransitive; the semiotic triangle; open and closed systems and demi-regs; the possibility of naturalism; natural necessity or the three levels of reality, the empirical, actual and real; a detailed example of the three levels in Mexican neonatal research; retroduction; creative power1 and coercive power2; time sequencing; political economy; the search for generative mechanisms; dichotomies, and policy.

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