Critical Realism

New Titles and Key Backlist 2012

Part of Routledge Sociology, the Critical Realism list is dedicated to publishing classic and cutting-edge titles that explore the implications of the critical realist philosophy across a wide range of fields and disciplines.

Contacts

Marketing Inquiries

  1. Gemma Walker
    Associate Marketing Manager, UK

Editorial Inquiries

  1. Damian Mitchell
    Editorial Assistant, Textbooks and Revision

Other Inquiries

Studies in Critical Realism

This series, publishing initially in hardback only, includes monographs exploring the application of critical realism to a variety of topics ranging from education policy to deconstruction and from Explaining Global Poverty to Ontology of Sex, as well as more general volumes such as Defending Objectivity and Contributions to Social Ontology.

  1. Marxism and Realism

    A Materialistic Application of Realism in the Social Sciences

    By Sean Creaven

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    This book rethinks Marx's sociology as a form of realist social theory, extending Roy Bhaskar's philosophical realism into the social sciences. By constructing historical materialism as realist social theory, it becomes possible to resolve many long standing dilemmas in Marxist discourse, such as...

    Published December 5th 2012 by Routledge

  2. Beyond Relativism

    Raymond Boudon, Cognitive Rationality and Critical Realism

    By Cynthia Lins Hamlin

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    This book argues that critical realism offers the theory of cognitive rationality a real way of overcoming the limitations of methodological individualism by recognising both the agents' - and the social structure's - causal powers and liabilities. Cynthia Lins Hamlin persuasively argues that...

    Published January 19th 2012 by Routledge

  3. Critical Realism and Composition Theory

    By Donald Judd

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    The field of composition theory has emerged as part of the intellectual turmoil and set of pedagogical debates which have beset higher education for the last four decades and is now revolutionizing the theory and praxis of higher education. This volume examines three of the dominant pedagogical...

    Published January 19th 2012 by Routledge

  4. Against the Spiritual Turn

    Marxism, Realism, and Critical Theory

    By Sean Creaven

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    The argument presented in this book is that the recent ‘spiritual’ trajectory of Roy Bhaskar’s work, upon which he first embarked with the publication of his From East to West, undermines the fundamental achievements of his earlier work. The problem with Bhaskar’s new philosophical system (...

    Published January 19th 2011 by Routledge

  5. Explaining Global Poverty

    A Critical Realist Approach

    By Branwen Gruffydd Jones

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    The twenty-first century is characterized by extremes of poverty and wealth, of scarcity and abundance. The vast inequalties of wealth distribution between the developed west and the impoverished developing world is a complex problem. This book recognises that Africa in particular has manifested&...

    Published December 6th 2009 by Routledge

  6. Revitalizing Causality

    Realism about Causality in Philosophy and Social Science

    Edited by Ruth Groff

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    This cutting edge collection of new and previously published articles by philosophers and social scientists addresses just what it means to invoke causal mechanisms, or powers, in the context of offering a causal explanation. A unique collection, it offers the reader various disciplinary and...

    Published November 15th 2009 by Routledge

  7. Engendering the State

    The International Diffusion of Women's Human Rights

    By Lynn Savery

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Why have states in general been slower to incorporate the international diffusion of women’s human rights norms domestically than other human rights norms and why has the diffusion of these norms varied so greatly between states? Why are some states more responsive and exert more effort than...

    Published November 10th 2009 by Routledge

  8. A Philosophical History of German Sociology

    By Frédéric Vandenberghe

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    A Philosophical History of German Sociology presents a systematic reconstruction of critical theory, from the founding fathers of sociology (Marx, Simmel, Weber) via Lukács to the Frankfurt School (Horkheimer, Adorno, Habermas). Through an in depth analysis of the theories of alienation,...

    Published November 10th 2009 by Routledge

  9. Emergentist Marxism

    Dialectical Philosophy and Social Theory

    By Sean Creaven

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    In tackling emergentist Marxism in depth, this well-written volume demonstrates that critical realism and materialist dialectics are indispensable to theorizing the functioning of complex social and physical systems. Author Sean Creaven investigates Marx’s dialectics of being and consciousness,...

    Published January 29th 2009 by Routledge

  10. Education Policy and Realist Social Theory

    Primary Teachers, Child-Centred Philosophy and the New Managerialism

    By Robert Wilmott

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    In Europe welfare state provision has been subjected to 'market forces'. Over the last two decades, the framework of economic competitiveness has become the defining aim of education, to be achieved by new managerialist techniques and mechanisms. This book thoughtfully and persuasively argues...

    Published December 23rd 2007 by Routledge

  11. Ontology of Sex

    By Carrie Hull

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Poststructuralism, particularly through the writings of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, has achieved remarkable success in challenging our belief in natural sex categories and instincts. Here, Carrie Hull endorses the progressive ideals of poststructuralism while demonstrating the superiority of...

    Published December 23rd 2007 by Routledge

  12. Critical Realism, Post-positivism and the Possibility of Knowledge

    By Ruth Groff

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Groff defends 'realism about causality' through close discussions of Kant, Hilary Putnam, Brian Ellis and Charles Taylor, among others. In so doing she affirms critical realism, but with several important qualifications. In particular, she rejects the theory of truth advanced by Roy Bhaskar. She...

    Published December 3rd 2007 by Routledge

  13. Contributions to Social Ontology

    Edited by Clive Lawson, John Spiro Latsis, Nuno Martins

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Recent years have seen a dramatic re-emergence of interest in ontology. From philosophy and social sciences to artificial intelligence and computer science, ontology is gaining interdisciplinary influence as a popular tool for applied research. Contributions to Social Ontology focuses...

    Published December 6th 2006 by Routledge

  14. Defending Objectivity

    Essays in Honour of Andrew Collier

    Edited by Margaret Archer, William Outhwaite

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Andrew Collier is the boldest defender of objectivity - in science, knowledge, thought, action, politics, morality and religion. In this tribute and acknowledgement of the influence his work has had on a wide readership, his colleagues show that they have been stimulated by his thinking and offer...

    Published January 21st 2004 by Routledge

  17. In Defence of Objectivity

    By Andrew Collier

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Published June 11th 2003 by Routledge

  18. On Christian Belief

    A Defence of a Cognitive Conception of Religious Belief in a Christian Context

    By Andrew Collier

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Published May 14th 2003 by Routledge

  19. Critical Realism

    The Difference it Makes

    Edited by Justin Cruickshank

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Critical realism is a movement in philosophy and the human sciences most closely associated with the work of Roy Bhaskar. Since the publication of Bhaskars A Realist Theory of Science, critical realism has had a profound influence on a wide range of subjects. This reader makes accessible, in one...

    Published March 19th 2003 by Routledge

  20. Realism and Sociology

    Anti-Foundationalism, Ontology and Social Research

    By Justin Cruickshank

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    In recent years, methodological debates in the social sciences have increasingly focused on issues relating to epistemology. Realism and Sociology makes an original contribution to the debate, charting a middle ground between postmodernism and positivism.Critics often hold that realism tries to...

    Published September 11th 2002 by Routledge

  21. Hegemony

    A Realist Analysis

    By Jonathan Joseph

    Series: Routledge Studies in Critical Realism

    Hegemony: A Realist Analysis is a new and original approach to this important concept. It presents a theoretical history of the use of hegemony in a range of work starting with a discussion of Gramsci and Russian Marxism and going on to look at more recent applications. It examines the current...

    Published May 22nd 2002 by Routledge