Subject: Re: BHA: Re: Re: Request for help on the issue of "models" in CR
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2004 13:21:36 +0200


Thanks again - especially for the free site!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mervyn Hartwig" <mh-AT-jaspere7.demon.co.uk>
To: <bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2004 11:03 AM
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!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
> 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
>
>
>
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