Critical Realism Network

You can now see the video of @anthonythorpe.bsky.social and @jpelonga.bsky.social introducing their book and comments from @helengunter.bsky.social and Lakshman Wimalasena on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEVJ...

New in the Journal of Critical Realism: "Assisted dying or ‘if we've explained morality, what now?’, Steve Ash and making ethics matter" - Jamie Morgan's extended discussion of Ash's book 'Explaining Morality' www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Journal of Critical Realism Morphogenetic Régulation. Volume 24, Issue 5 of Journal of Critical Realism

The full special issue of the Journal of Critical Realism on Morphogenetic Regulation is available now: www.tandfonline.com/toc/yjcr20/2...

Critical Realism for A level students - YouTube In these four short videos, Professor Priscilla Alderson and A level student Harry Hubbard introduce the critical realist approach to the social sciences.

Prof Priscilla Alderson and A level student Harry Hubbard have made a series of 4 short videos introducing Critical Realism for A level students: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

The Journal of Critical Realism's special issue on "Critical Realism and Criminal Justice: A Dialectical Engagement" is out now, featuring papers by Amanda Wilson, Alan Norrie, Craig Reeves, Paula Cecilia Hollstein Barria, James Kelly White, &Henrique Carvalho/Anastasia Chamberlen: buff.ly/Y74Z9hY

Guilt, responsibility and the tyranny of the past: Kleinian moral psychology, critical realism and criminal justice An emerging school of criminal justice scholarship draws on Kleinian psychoanalysis to develop a moral psychology for thinking critically about guilt, responsibility and punishment. Many contributi...

'Guilt, responsibility and the tyranny of the past: Kleinian moral psychology, critical realism and criminal justice' by Craig Reeves is out now in the Journal of Critical Realism:

Journal of Critical Realism Publishes research that fosters the discussion, propagation and development of critical realist approaches to understanding and changing the world.

Lots more papers from the special issue on morphogenetic regulation now available from the Journal of Critical Realism, by Zach Sloman, Margaux Schulz, Andrew Dryhurst, Fabiola Ponte Ordorica, Yazid Zahda, and Krista Garcin: www.tandfonline.com/journals/yjc...

'The Relational Quiddity of Virtual/Digital Reality' - Pierpaolo Donati's new open access paper in the JTSB examines the ontology of digital reality

Educational Leadership and Critical Realism Adopting a critical realist approach to educational leadership, this book shows how applied theory can contribute to the development of mechanisms allowing for the effective leadership of organisation...

In our webinar anthonythorpe.bsky.social and jpelonga.bsky.social will talk about their recent book, 'Educational Leadership and Critical Realism' with responses from helengunter.bsky.social and Lakshman Wimalasena. February 5th, 2:30 to 4pm GMT. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...

In 'Climate Emergency and Different Ways to Fail? The Fermi Paradox, the Simulation Hypothesis, Agency and Hope', Jamie Morgan argues that we are not doomed but the climate crisis matters - and yet we are acting as though we are doomed and as if it didn't matter. What hope remains?

New in the Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour: 'Ayn Rand: Realism, Morality, Selfishness and Capitalism'. Steve Ash argues that Rand's conception of both epistemology and moral value is incompatible with the ontological realism she professes

IACR has announced the first details of the 2026 Annual Conference:
📆Pre-Conference July 27- July 29
📆Conference30 July - 1 August
📍International Institute of Social Science, Den Haag, The Netherlands (hybrid format)
More coming soon!

Juan David Parra's new paper 'Trans-immanence, morphogenesis and régulation: new methodological avenues for applied political economy (of education) research' applies the morphogenetic régulation approach to education policy: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Morphogenetic Régulation: An Introduction to the Special Issue Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Ahead of Print, 2025)

New open access paper 'Morphogenetic Régulation: An Introduction to the Special Issue' by
Karim Knio, available now from the Journal of Critical Realism - and the other papers from the special issue are also starting to appear... www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Book symposium: celebrating the 50th publication anniversary of Roy Bhaskar’s A Realist Theory of Science Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Book symposium: celebrating the 50th anniversary of Roy Bhaskar’s A Realist Theory of Science - with contributions from @daveev.bsky.social , Ruth Groff, @objectoriented.bsky.social , Jonathan Joseph & Doug Porpora. Essential reading for critical realists! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The historical context of the experience of money and the road less travelled: the history of economic thought, Dennis Robertson’s Money, the thing positioned and the positioned thing Abstract. In this article, I place Dennis Robertson’s popular book Money in the context of its time in order to make a simple point about the scope and lim

Here's a new open access paper about the social ontology of money from Jamie Morgan in the Cambridge Journal of Economics: academic.oup.com/cje/advance-...

Introduction to the Special IssueCritical Realism and Criminal Justice: A Dialectical Engagement Published in Journal of Critical Realism (Ahead of Print, 2025)

Here's the intro to a special issue of the Journal of Critical Realism (with 5 more papers) on the relation between CR and criminal justice, by Amanda Wilson & Alan Norrie: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

It's an odd use of language, perhaps, but for Bhaskar, intransitive=stuff outside our head that's the way it is independently of what the individual concerned thinks about it; and transitive=our theories, beliefs, etc about the intransitive.

Exploring Educational Leadership Through Critical Realism Discover critical insights on educational leadership in 'Educational Leadership and Critical Realism' by Thorpe and Mboyo.

Here's a new blog post by Anthony Thorpe and Jean Pierre Elonga Mboyo about their recent book 'Educational Leadership and Critical Realism' criticalrealismnetwork.org/2025/11/05/e...

From a realist epistemology to ecosocialism: an interview with Ted Benton, Part 2 In Part 1 of this interview Professor Benton discussed his early life, education and the start of his academic career and focused in particular on his Philosophical Foundations of the Three Sociolo...

Part 2 of Jamie Morgan's interview with the early (critical) realist philosopher and eco-socialist Ted Benton is now out in the Journal of Critical Realism: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Now available! The Critical Realist thesis archive criticalrealismnetwork.org/the-critical... Just the tip of the iceberg so far, but if you have a critical realist thesis you can also submit it!

Call for Papers on Critical Realism and Human-Nature Relations Submit your paper on critical realism and human-nature relations by Feb 28, 2025. Explore new approaches for addressing environmental crises.

Here's a new call for papers, for a special issue of the Journal of Critical Realism on critical realism and human-nature relations: criticalrealismnetwork.org/2025/10/30/c... Looks interesting!

Exploring Critical Realism in Planning Theory and Practice Contribute to our edited volume on critical realism in planning. Explore theoretical and empirical insights by submitting your abstract today.

Working in planning? You might be interested in this new call for contributions to an edited book on ‘Critical Realism and Planning’ criticalrealismnetwork.org/2025/10/23/c...

The latest book in our Critical Realism book series!

Here's a blog post from Aristide Bertrand about the CSO's new bibliography of Margaret Archer's work: criticalrealismnetwork.org/2025/09/17/n...

Publications (complete list) You would oblige us so much by suggesting any addition or reporting any mistake (We suspect there are a lot of them still). You are very welcome to either comment at the bottom of this webpage or w…

Our friends in the Centre for Social Ontology have just published an online bibliography of the work of Margaret Archer - will be a useful resource for many critical realists. Here it is: socialontology.org/people/marga...

Emerging Interest in Critical Realism in Japan's Research Explore the growing interest in Critical Realism in Japan with study groups, translations, and developments in nursing and social sciences.

Learn about recent developments in critical realism in Japan in our latest blog post, from Hazuki Kajiwara: criticalrealismnetwork.org/2025/08/28/c...

Including 'A critical realist exploration of harassment in platform work' by ‪@quinlanresearch Tracey Carr & Xing Luo www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Journal of Critical Realism Volume 24, Issue 2 of Journal of Critical Realism

The new issues of Journal of Critical Realism, (24:2) is now available online including papers on living sustainably, false memory, harassment in platform work and greenwashing www.tandfonline.com/toc/yjcr20/2...

And there's lots more photos here: iacr.fmweb.pl/conference-d...
With many thanks to the Academy of Applied Sciences for hosting