Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 10:03:35 +0100
Subject: Re: BHA: Re: Re: Request for help on the issue of "models" in CR


> If anyone can point me to a study where someone has
>developed a CR model - in any discipline -

Try:

  Morén, Stefan and Blom, Björn (2003b) ‘Explaining Human Change. On 
Generative Mechanisms in Social Work Practice’, Journal of Critical 
Realism Vol. 2, No. 1.
available for free on the JCR website (see below).


TIM ROGERS, The Doing of a Depth-Investigation: Implications for the 
emancipatory aims of critical naturalism (forthcoming JCR v3n2 November 
2004) develops/ applies models.
Tim Rogers <tim.rogers-AT-adelaide.on.net>

Mervyn


In message <004101c47c51$2f54fa70$4ac0ef9b-AT-dee>, Dee Pratt 
<deep-AT-intekom.co.za> writes
>Hi, Tobin  - beautifully incisive!  I'm so pleased that CR is
>"model-friendly"- should have thought it would be, but I'm a relative
>neophyte in the field.   Yes, the "chinese boxes" syndrome where everything
>in CR seems to roll inside itself (Bhaskar comments somewhere that even CR
>itself is part of the empirical) is something I've picked up, with some
>pleasure, because it mirrors the boxes-in-boxes feel of the universe.   Part
>of the "rigour" would lie in explaining the inquiry process in terms of  the
>orientation, and this is what I have doggedly been doing in my recent
>proposal submission attempts.  My inquiry (or this cycle of it) is complete,
>but I have yet to submit a formal proposal - I haven't had time, too busy
>"baking" my model!  I am definitely driving my supervisors nuts, without
>particularly wishing to (they are nice ladies, pretty much my own age, and
>very sharp, and I love them to bits!)  I did suggest that I was "developing"
>a model rather than "constructing one" - they suggested "crystallizing",
>which has postmodern connotations and is a bit too wannabe-New Age (I have
>no problems with New Age, just the wannabes).  I like "baking" very much!
>The grim reality is that I am running out of  Study Leave, and need to
>clarify what it is that I
>am about in academespeak , so the Higher Degrees Committee can process my
>stuff and sleep safely in their beds without thinking that the barbarians
>are at the gates, and so that I can finish the damn thesis - I love writing,
>but this is ridiculous!  If anyone can point me to a study where someone has
>developed a CR model - in any discipline - this would be a great  help.
>Meanwhile, I'll look for those references in RTS.  Thanks!
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tobin Nellhaus" <nellhaus-AT-mail.com>
>To: <bhaskar-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU>
>Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2004 3:51 AM
>Subject: BHA: Re: Request for help on the issue of "models" in CR
>
>
>> Hi Dee--
>>
>> Actually models are explicitly a part of CR.  I can't give chapter and
>verse
>> because I recently moved and everything's in disarray, but I know RB talks
>> about it at a couple of points in RTS, even if not in great depth.  The
>> basic argument however is that in positivism, models are essentially
>> understood as descriptions of behavior (at the level of events, and
>> basically serving pragmatic or psychological needs), whereas in CR they
>are
>> interpretations of real entities and/or their powers.  The concept of
>> "underlying mechanisms" is a model, as is any theory of a particular
>> mechanism.  For that matter, the theory that reality is stratified is
>itself
>> a model (note the metaphoric role of "strata").
>>
>> If you're the sort of person who likes to drive your advisor nuts, you
>might
>> observe that "model building" is also a model, and that you reject it in
>> favor of model baking.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> T.
>>
>> ---
>> Tobin Nellhaus
>> nellhaus-AT-mail.com
>> "Faith requires us to be materialists without flinching": C.S. Peirce
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Dee Prat" <deep-AT-intekom.co.za>
>> To: "Bhaskar Mailing List" <bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
>> Sent: Friday, 06 August 2004 3:38 AM
>> Subject: BHA: Request for help on the issue of "models" in CR
>>
>>
>> Please could mailing list subscribers help me with this.  I've carried out
>a
>> depth investigation into certain key aspects of written composition over
>the
>> last 20 years, and have arrived at a view of writing which has enabled me
>to
>> produce a writing tutor computer program.  I didn't start this as a formal
>> research project, but found out fairly recently that the type of inquiry I
>> was engaged in was critical realist in nature.  I then formally adopted a
>> critical realist research orientation, and am engaged in writing up the
>> development of both a "model" of written composition and the writing tutor
>> program informed by it as a Ph.D. thesis.
>>
>>
>>
>> The investigation was more of a "life experience" than a formal research
>> project, but the results of the investigation can be backed up from
>> literature, current approaches and theory on written composition, as well
>as
>> several formal research projects.  I found video protocol analyses (of
>which
>> I've carried out more than 40, with students writing actual assignments)
>> particularly useful in being able to project my thinking past the
>> events/experience mismatch which Bhaskar notes (he uses the term "out of
>> phase", I think).  I also found it useful to focus on particular
>> characteristics of the written mode of production itself, which Tobin
>> Nellhaus has helped me to back up by providing a copy of  one of his
>> conference papers.  My inquiry revealed four levels of stratification, and
>I
>> have a tentative model which explains composing by showing it as an
>> individual act, a social act, and a mode of discourse with specific
>> features - I have also been able (again, tentatively) to trace the
>> mechanisms as far as certain key aspects of human communication.
>>
>>
>>
>> At this stage, you may well ask, why don't I just "die happy"?  Well, my
>> supervisors require a formal exposition on the development of models, as
>> well as evidence of "rigour" (and, obviously, evidence that the criteria
>> demonstrating it have been fulfilled in the actual research).  Now I'm not
>> sure if critical realists actually develop models, or if the notion of
>> "rigour" itself is typical of critical realism (and if it is, I would
>expect
>> the definition to be different from that offered in other orientations).
>> Instead of "model building", critical realists might carry out "depth
>> investigations" and arrive at explanations involving mechanisms at various
>> layers, which is what I actually have done.
>>
>>
>>
>> Please could I have some help on the issue of model development within a
>> critical realist perspective, and any readings or websites where I could
>> find out more?  If this kind of "model building" (even the word "building"
>> sounds a bit positivist) doesn't apply you critical realism, I would be
>very
>> grateful to be able to cite some authority on this to satisfy the degree
>> requirements (personally, I'm quite happy to take your word on it).
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Dee Pratt
>>
>>
>>
>> P.S. I'm senior lecturer in the English Dept at a multicultural technikon
>in
>> Durban, South Africa, and would really like to complete my Ph.D. before I
>> retire!
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --- StripMime Warning --  MIME attachments removed ---
>> This message may have contained attachments which were removed.
>>
>> Sorry, we do not allow attachments on this list.
>>
>> --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
>> multipart/alternative
>>   text/plain (text body -- kept)
>>   text/html
>> ---
>>
>>
>>      --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>>
>>
>>
>>      --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

-- 
Mervyn Hartwig
Editor, Journal of Critical Realism (ISSN 1476-7430)
37 Stockwell Green
Stockwell
London SW9 9HZ,
United Kingdom
mh-AT-jaspere7.demon.co.uk
tel & fax: 020 7 737 2892
htttp://www.journalofcriticalrealism.org
A Dictionary of Critical Realism website:
http://www.journalofcriticalrealism.org/index.php?sitesig=DCR



     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---