302
Critical Realism: A Philosophical Movement in Social Theory

Tuesday, 17 July 2018: 08:30-10:20
Location: 701A (MTCC SOUTH BUILDING)
RC16 Sociological Theory (host committee)

Language: English

Critical Realism is a philosophical movement in the social sciences that is inspired by the philosophy of science of the late Roy Bhaskar. Showing that positivism is not even valid in the natural sciences, it contests its hegemony in the social sciences. With its strong concepts of causal explanation, emergence, duality of structure and the morphogenesis of society, critical realism offers a coherent and solid alternative for the social sciences. Thirty years after its original formulation, critical realism is now going through a renaissance, both in the UK (around the work of Margaret Archer, Andrew Sayer and Elder-Vass) and in the US (with the Critical Realism Network). This session invites scholars and students who are part of the anti-positivist alliance to explore the contours of realist social theory in and through dialogue with contending paradigms (critical theory, speculative realism, generative structuralism, pragmatism, analytical sociology, cultural sociology, relational sociology).
Session Organizers:
Philip GORSKI, Yale University, USA and Frederic VANDENBERGHE, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Oral Presentations
Critical Realism Meets Resonance
Lisa WALDENBURGER, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany; Hannes TEUTOBURG-WEISS, University of Teacher Education Zurich (PHZH), Switzerland
Repositioning Epistemology; Radicalizing Realism
Katelin ALBERT, University of Toronto, Canada; Paige SWEET, University of Illinois Chicago, USA; Jonah Stuart BRUNDAGE, UC Berkeley, USA
Complex Adaptive Systems and Radical Social Transformation
Christopher POWELL, Ryerson University, Canada
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