Critical realism and the strategic-relational approach (original) (raw)
This article develops a distinctive critical realist analysis of structure and agency. It first describes Roy Bhaskar's account of critical realism; then discusses critical realism in general; next introduces Anthony Giddens's structuration theory and two particular applications of critical realism to structure and agency – those of Bhaskar and Margaret Archer; and, finally, presents a third such application based on the strategic-relational approach. The latter goes beyond conventional analyses of the duality, dualism, or dialectic of structure and agency by studying the recursive conditioning, mutual coupling, and complex co-evolution of structure and agency and, above all, by stressing the differential, spatio-temporal relationality of structure and agency. Its advantages over other approaches should emerge as we proceed. Critical Realism and Transcendental Naturalism Although 'critical realism' is a relatively recent term and the package of ideas linked with the Bhaskar 'school' is certainly distinctive and has its own logic, 2 many basic concepts and explanatory principles involved in critical realism have a longer history. A non-partisan, non-teleological genealogy has yet to be written. But Marx would figure as a major precursor both philosophically and in substantive theoretical terms; and others have independently 'discovered' several key themes articulated by Bhaskar and his associates. Moreover, while the initial revival of philosophical interest in the possibilities of critical realism in the social sciences in the last 30 years is strongly (and legitimately) associated with Bhaskar, his own work moved into a complex philosophical and methodological analysis of the dialectic as the pulse of 1 Andrew Sayer gave me valuable comments on this article; the usual disclaimers apply.
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