About the Lecture:

This lecture is about the author's practical introduction to critical realism, which won the International Association of Critical Realism annual book prize. The book is based on an annual course conducted at IOE since 2007. The book is a clear time-saving introduction for postgraduate students, researchers, supervisors and lecturers. After decades of conducting sociological research, the author was concerned about gaps and contradictions in the main paradigms. These are addressed in the first chapters, with ways in which critical realism helps to resolve them. Interactions between structure and agency, and whether research can be value-free are then addressed. Two frameworks that greatly help with data analysis, the four planes of social being and four stages of transformative change, are explained, with a final chapter on how critical realism informs effective research. The critical realist concepts are illustrated with examples about health, but they apply to any discipline.

About the Speaker:

Priscilla Alderson
Emerita Professor at IOE - Social Research Institute

Since 1991, Priscilla Alderson has worked at the Social Science Research Unit, now in the Social Research Institute UCL. Her research covers many aspects of health and education, ethics, childhood and children’s rights, and is reported in over 300 publications. In 2014, she started leading the UCL critical realism postdoctoral course, founded by Roy Bhaskar in 2007. Her latest research, published in a series of open access journal papers, is detailed on the UCL website about children’s consent to heart surgery.

A practical introduction to critical realism

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