Critical Realism (Bhaskar)

Overview

Critical realism posits a stratified ontology: the real (structures and mechanisms that exist whether or not they are activated), the actual (events that occur when mechanisms are activated), and the empirical (events that are observed or experienced). Research must move beyond empirical regularities to identify the generative mechanisms that produce observed phenomena.

When to Use

• Moving beyond correlational findings to causal explanation
• Designing mixed-methods research that integrates structure and agency
• Analyzing why the same mechanism produces different outcomes in different contexts
• Critiquing positivist or constructivist approaches as ontologically insufficient

When NOT to Use

• When pure prediction without causal understanding is sufficient
• When the research question is about subjective meaning-making only (use interpretivism)
• When the audience requires strict hypothesis-deductive methodology