A critical realist approach to systems thinking in evaluation

Pawson and Tilley’s acknowledgment of programs embedded in multiple social systems has gained little traction in realist synthesis and evaluation practice. A practice focusing on fairly closed systems—explaining how programs work and do not work—has emerged. This article negotiates the boundaries of knowledge pertinent to have in program design and evaluation from a realist perspective. It highlights critical realism as another possible response to systems thinking in evaluation. Moving one level up a program, it theorizes about social structures, mechanisms, and causes operating in a complex system within which an education-to-work program is nested. Three implications of the approach are highlighted: it foregrounds the relational nature of social, psychological, and programmatic structures and mechanisms; enables policymakers to develop a broader understanding of structures needed to support a program; and enables program architects to ascertain how a planned program might assimilate and adapt to social structures and mechanisms already established in a context.

Peripheralization, Political Discontent, and Social and Solidarity Economy—Case Studies From Rural Hungary and Germany

The reintegration of Central and Eastern European (CEE) economies into globalized capitalism resulted in increasing regional polarization and the emergence of internal peripheries. The crisis of the globalized capitalist economy in 2008 resulted in the further peripheralization of rural areas, and the related crisis of representative democracies triggered rural resentment against the existing order. Inhabitants of peripheralized areas have a feeling of abandonment and political discontent. The rise of right-wing populism may be understood as a revolt of people living in precarious conditions in peripheralized areas both in Hungary and Germany. Left-wing populism, which builds on equality and social justice and is based on radical democracy, has not been able so far to reach the precaritized inhabitants of peripheralized rural areas. Solidarity economy, which is a contemporary social movement, refers to a comprehensive program aimed at transforming the entire economy, and may have the potential to address the political discontent of people living in peripheralized rural areas. In spite of the rising support for right-wing populism, social and solidarity economy (SSE) initiatives are being carried out in rural peripheries. These initiatives are based on the principles of participatory and economic democracy. Spaces provided by SSE initiatives can become forums for deliberation and co-management to develop economic democracy and become seeds of a solidarity economy movement in CEE. Therefore, based on a critical realist ethnographic approach, this paper aims to answer the question of how SSE initiatives may address the everyday material challenges and political discontent of people living in peripheralized villages by studying two SSE initiatives being carried out in two contrasting cases of peripheralization. Studying SSE initiatives in relation to 1) the locality they are embedded in, 2) “subaltern” groups within the locality, and 3) participatory, economic and 4) representative democracy helps to better understand in what ways SSE initiatives can mobilize political discontent to strengthen the solidarity economy movement in CEE.

The Experience of Self-conscious Emotions in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Thematic Analysis

Few studies have investigated emotional experiences in people living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, self-conscious emotions, including embarrassment and shame, are indicated as a key factor in delayed help-seeking for bowel symptoms, which can result in poorer health outcomes. This study aimed to explore experiences of self-conscious emotions among people with IBD. Fifteen participants were recruited from outpatient IBD clinics and patient groups, and engaged in semi-structured interviews about their experiences of IBD-related self-consciousness. Data were analysed using thematic analysis following an inductive, semantic approach and conducted from a critical realist position. The analysis generated two themes, each with three sub-themes, which captured self-conscious emotions in relation to experiences which threatened participants’ preferred identities. The first theme, ‘Lack of control’ encapsulated participants’ distress relating to fundamental alteration in self-perception, and their attempts to mitigate this. The second, ‘Lack of understanding’ captured distress associated with awareness of being unfairly judged by other people. Clinical implications are identified, including consideration of therapeutic approaches which target self-conscious emotions such as shame, and continued societal efforts to educate others about invisible disabilities such as IBD. Experiences which threatened participants’ identities were implicated in the generation of self-conscious emotions; these should be considered in work with clients with IBD. Future research should target further investigation of these constructs.

A Critical Realist Approach on Autism: Ontological and Epistemological Implications for Knowledge Production in Autism Research

The ontological status of autism has been a subject of considerable debate and philosophical approaches of it have been recent and sparse. On the one hand, from its conception, autism has been historically heavily located in the fields of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience, which often assume access to an “objective,” neutral and infallible reality that is external to the research process and is based on the autistic person’s biology and behavioural characteristics, which can be scientifically observed and studied. On the other, proponents of the neurodiversity movement argue against medicalised and pathologising approaches to autism and toward approaches that consider social constructions of autism and relations of power. The Critical Realist philosophy can help reconcile the two positions. Critical Realism conceptualises objectivity as a statement about an object, rather than a neutral and infallible reality. Consequently, Critical Realism suggests that access to reality can only occur through fallible theories. It also suggests that effective theorising goes beyond appearances and phenomena and may even contradict them, which can help challenge dominant behaviourist approaches on autism. I then explore how the tenets of Critical Realism can help strengthen autistic-led theories of autism, the arguments they make, as well as how they support the importance of community autism knowledge. Finally, I present how Critical Realism’s approach to knowledge itself as well as the process of knowledge creation can strengthen autistic theorising, autistic participation in autism research and autistic emancipation. In the last part of the article, I explore how the concepts of Critical Realism apply to autistic sociability. I start with the debate between structure and agency, how Critical Realism reconciles this debate and the implications for autistic emancipation and autism research. I then present Critical Realism’s process of critique and explanation, how they connect to human emancipation and how they can lead to impactful change in autism research by requiring clear links from research to practice, enhancing practices with strong theoretical underpinnings and thus aiding the aims of emancipatory autism research.

Mechanisms underpinning the usage of e-government services by businesses: A proposal based on previous empirical research

For many years, the public sector has been undergoing digital transformation. Information and communication technologies (ICT) have offered new ways of interaction between governments and their constituents. However, governments face different challenges to migrate users towards digital channels and electronic documents, which are believed to be more cost-efficient for all stakeholders. Despite a plethora of empirical research conducted towards the identification of factors that influence e-government services usage by businesses, there seems to be a lack of 'holistic' understanding in the absence of systematic literature reviews. This paper aims to contribute by hypothesizing a set of mechanisms based on a critical realist process of retroduction. We argue that the factors identified in previous research are a manifestation of mechanisms. Such mechanisms might explain businesses’ usage of ICT when interacting with governments, whether in the context of incidental situations or regular administrative tasks (through online self-service applications) or regular exchange of information (through inter-organizational e-services).

Exploring the Traits of a Grand Strategy for Turkey: Resilience, Protean Power, and Connectography

The international system is experiencing profound changes and has taken on an uncertain character as a result. The concept of strategy and its study has closely followed this trend, and new concepts have emerged both to adapt to and theoretically describe the practical changes and challenges it has engendered. This article explores the ill-suited features of mainstream debates and theorizing from a Turkish perspective and suggests that a critical realist analysis of agential strategizing is most useful to addressing the emerging context. It argues that Turkey has a long pursued grand strategy, but new concepts –resilience, protean power, and connectography– can enhance Turkey’s ability to strategize and can enrich the lately emerged vibrant debates exploring Turkey’s grand strategy.

Towards Understanding Post-Socialist Migrants’ Access to Physical Activity in the Nordic Region: A Critical Realist Integrative Review

Experiences of, and access and barriers to, physical activity (PA) differ between individuals. This becomes perpetuated in a migration context. Although there is super-diversity between migrant groups, health research rarely accounts for this cultural diversity. More concerningly, the matter of context is rarely scrutinized or juxtaposed with the specifics of certain ethnic groups. This integrative review assessed the evidence on post-socialist migrants’ PA levels, constraints, and enablers for PA in the Nordic region. The results show that post-socialist female migrants have an especially high risk of being physically inactive. The qualitative work elucidates socio-cultural factors that impose specific constraints on females when attempting to engage in PA. Furthermore, in scrutinizing the context, Nordic nature (Friluftsliv) is a viable way for migrants to access PA with additional health benefits (e.g., mental). However, the Nordic environment also poses specific PA challenges, such as harsh winters. This can be understood by considering post-socialist migrants’ prior use of, and attitude to, nature. The review highlights the importance of understanding specifics about both migrant groups and contexts through a critical-realist lens in the pursuit of providing PA opportunities. Future PA programs need to understand the contextual, sociohistorical, and cultural settings in which they and migrants are embedded.

The current education on professional ethics for vietnamese students

With the cause of industrialization and modernization, especially by the impact of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. the role of education and training are changed dramatically, and also from the direction of the Vietnamese government on the concentration of education and training policy improvement which leads to the foundation and driving force for industrialization and modernization of the country, this paper will analyze and present the basic concepts of professional ethics education and the status quo of education of professional ethics at the universities in Vietnam. The key research method applied in this paper is the critical realist approach. Later, the recommendations are proposed for the enhancement of the effectiveness of professional ethics education for Vietnamese students at the universities.