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This paper argues that colleges anchor their communities by developing knowledge and skills within their region; establishing links and exchanges outside the region; contributing to civic, political, cultural, and social activities and networks in their region; developing facilities and amenities used by the community; and, contributing to their region's economic activity. Particularly important are colleges' development of shared, collective or communal capacities, since these develop communities as communities, rather than individuals and organisations as discrete members of communities. We use Durkheimian sociology and critical realism to re-interpret the concept of agglomeration which we borrow from economics to trace the evolution of the concept of anchor institutions. Agglomeration is a particular type of emergence of phenomena from the interaction of components, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We argue that colleges benefit their communities through the agglomeration of activities and organisations, from which emerge distinctive characteristics of their communities. This leads to the economic, social, and cultural benefits of agglomeration or clustering of activities within a geographic area. The accumulation of knowledge and knowledgeable people in communities increases the sharing of knowledge between people and organisations, and facilitates the generation and diffusion of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resurgence of interest in the topic of industrial policy has been accompanied by an attempt to study it through novel methods of mainstream Economics, within what has been termed the ‘new empirics’ of industrial policy. Such an attempt stands in contrast to the more usual methodology adopted in what we call here the Industrial Policy/Developmental State (IPDS) paradigm. Drawing on the Critical Realist approach to Economics, we show why the methodology adopted in the IPDS paradigm is more adequate for the study of industrial policy than the methodology adopted within the ‘new empirics’ of industrial policy. We also argue that the methodology employed in the IPDS paradigm is quite compatible with Critical Realism, and would benefit from a more explicit engagement with the latter when systematizing its key methodological tenets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper uses the critical realist concept of human reflexivity to dev­elop a theoretical critique of the notion of ‘skills’ in current policy discourses, particularly in vocational education. We argue that current policy reifies skills as market commodities and alienates them from the minds, bodies, and hands of those who exercise them and the social contexts in which they are deployed. This is traced to historical ideas of a liberal market society, resulting in an impoverished view of human beings and human agency. The skills discourse presumes people’s reasons to value things they care about arise from possessive individualist preferences and external conditioning of atomistic social and material utility. In contrast, we suggest real people act on reasons they value to learn things and practice their skills or not, which resonates with the ontology of personhood, the intrinsic worth of human beings, and a rounded notion of human agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies the benefits of adopting a critical realist ontology to researching esports in the social sciences. The article outlines some of the challenges in researching esports, paying particular attention to the emerging specialisms and sub-disciplines. The article suggests that different schools of thought have different ontological and epistemological commitments, resulting in a complex and somewhat fragmented or contested set of definitions and research directives. The article considers how the philosophy of science can enable researchers to gain a more complete understanding and appreciation of esports. More specifically, the article outlines some of the central philosophical commitments of critical realism and considers their benefits for researching the multi-layered and multifaceted nature of esports. What results is a stratified ontology of esports, in which various biological, psychological and sociological factors interact to produce emergent outcomes at micro, meso and macro levels of causality. Such an interdisciplinary approach resists previous attempts to reduce esports research to singular (and competing) epistemological claims. Instead, this article invites sports researchers to investigate the complex ways natural and social factors interact to generate and change esports structures, institutions and agential behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social realist theorising about curriculum and social justice in higher education has emphasised the importance of providing equity of epistemic access to powerful knowledge. However, there has been little discussion about what constitutes powerful knowledge and how students can use it for social good. In the science disciplines, the traditional undergraduate curriculum is shaped by economic agendas and by perceptions of its purpose to train future scientists. This has resulted in a curriculum focused on the learning of scientific facts rather than on how scientific knowledge is created, validated and critiqued, overshadowing the potential for the curriculum to simultaneously empower learners to develop critical scientific literacy to productively engage with urgent socio-scientific issues such as climate change. In this paper, I argue that social good can be better served by engaging students with powerful knowledge of the epistemology of science through including 'Nature of Science' (NOS) in the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current interregnum, there has, not surprisingly, been a great deal of interest in the literary dystopia. However, far less attention has been directed to the dystopia's precursor, the practice Tom Moylan identifies as the critical utopia. The author argues that we see a brilliant realization of the form in Mohsin Hamid's Exit West (2017). Exit West exemplifies Fredric Jameson's generic discontinuity, moving as it does from a realist mode through a science fictional dystopia and the fantastic, arriving finally at the critical utopia. The last transition occurs through the narration of an unexpected event—one in which nothing is happening. The world that emerges is one where new possibilities appear in what Alain Badiou identifies as the conditions of science, art, politics, and "minimal communism," or love. Such a world—"not a heaven but not a hell"—is one wherein not knowing what is to come allows an authentic future again to become possible. This is in stark contrast to the ideologies of capitalist realism, which teach us that there are no alternatives, that the current interregnum is permanent, and that there is no future that is not a repetition of the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of mysticism has been at an impasse for many years, wavering between naïve realism around a common core hypothesis and critical questioning of the category of mysticism and its imposition. In this article, we review key 20th century developments in the study of mysticism to understand why the term was largely abandoned and unpack the contours of this impasse. Specifically, we probe the literature to ask (i) how has mysticism been defined and (ii) who counts as a mystic? Our primary data are key pieces of scholarly literature on mysticism, including interdisciplinary studies and disciplinary literature from religious studies, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. This review draws on a metatheoretic perspective of critical realism and is not meant to be comprehensive but rather analytical, seeking to identify patterns in scholarship. We find that each question is answered by studies along an axis, wavering between two ideal–typical poles. On the first question, we find scholarship ranging along an axis of essence between extreme poles of a reified vs. relativized substance of mysticism. On the second question, we find studies on an axis of access, varying between a rarified concept of mystical elites and a laified concept of mystical knowledge open to all. Putting studies along these axes yields a definitional space of mysticism that is compatible with critical realism and allows for the general study of mysticism to continue in a more nuanced, post-critique way. We also find that the category of experience lies at the origin or intersection point of both axes, and is a source of many problems in the general study of mysticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a concept, agency stretches from philosophical and meta-theoretical elaborations to studies documenting largely idiosyncratic happenings in a particular empirical context, which could be dismissed as anecdotal. In between, and the source for the recent revival of scholarly interest, lies the promise to explain transformation processes, multiplex governance, and varieties in wellbeing and development pathways, which are needed in a world overshadowed by crises. Have studies on agency and structure lived up to the promise? Only partly, we argue and suggest that we need to develop a common ontological commitment as well as adequate mid-range theories and methods coherent with such a commitment. We suggest critical realism as the backbone of such a common ontological commitment and discuss potential ways forward for a social science research programme with emancipatory potential, this is to say to contribute to our capabilities to make a difference in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a theory-driven evaluation design grounded in the critical realism philosophy, realist evaluation relies on eliciting the assumptions of stakeholders about how programmes are expected to produce outcomes. Little is known about key principles for involving stakeholders in realist evaluations. In this scoping review of realist evaluation studies, we explored how stakeholders were involved in the conduct of realist evaluation. A total of 26 'participatory' realist evaluation studies have been included. We analysed the approach to the involvement of stakeholders, using an analytical framework rooted in existing theories and models of participatory research and evaluations, using a 'Best Fit Framework Synthesis' methodology. We found a large range of approaches to stakeholder involvement, related to the types of stakeholders involved, their depth of involvement and means by which researchers/evaluators fostered their involvement. We discuss key lessons learnt and contribute to foster transparent and meaningful involvement of stakeholders in Realist Evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper introduces a new approach to theorising and learning from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women's experiences of inequality in academia. It offers a versatile model with which the structure of a particular racist-sexist inequality regime can be theorised from empirical evidence. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents composite, fictionalised accounts of intersectional discrimination which are then analysed through critical realist frameworks, employing critical race feminist theory insights. This novel "whisper network" method centres the knowledge of BAME women in academia, and is translatable to other marginalised actors, offering a more protective means by which to access their knowledge as a foundation for organisational change. Findings: Through theorising the ontological arrangement of key causal mechanisms responsible for the reproduction of inequality regimes, the paper illuminates links between micro-level intersectional discrimination and meso-level institutional inequality. Research limitations/implications: In order to preserve anonymity and reduce potential backlash, the vignettes in this paper are not intended to precisely capture specific empirical realities, but instead reflect wider patterns from the author's own whisper network knowledge. Nonetheless, the analytical method developed here could be applied to rigorously collected empirical data, with clear implications for improving organisational practice. Practical implications: The paper offers a structured and systematic process by which qualitative data on institutional inequality can be analysed and stakeholders engaged to develop and propose solutions, even by individuals new to the field. Social implications: A methodical basis for strategic action addressing the issues revealed through such an analysis can be developed in order to galvanise and steer organisational change. Originality/value: The novelty of the paper is twofold: in its original synthesis of critical realist depth ontology and ontological insights from critical race feminist theory about social structures of oppression, and in the development of the innovative "whisper network" method based upon a critical race theory counter-storytelling epistemology, in conversation with the emergent stream of literature within feminist organisation studies regarding the importance of "writing differently". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past few decades, social sciences and humanities has been involved in numerous methodological and theoretical debates that is described as the paradigms war between positivists, interpretativists and critics. In the 1970s or theoretical turn period, first constructivist interpretive and critical approaches emerged then hybrid approaches entered into this field. Critical realism is a modern approach that tries to combine paradigms and make a new definition of reality, knowledge, values, and research. This paper intends to overview the three dominant paradigms in social sciences and humanities in order to analyse methodological and theoretical innovations of critical realism.

We take a new mechanism-based approach to explain how social entrepreneurship emerges from the interaction of multilevel elements, based on case study evidence from China. Informed by Coleman's 'boat model' of social mechanisms, social capital theory and a critical realist ontology, we highlight three mechanisms – the sparking, manifesting and scaling mechanisms – which collectively generate the social entrepreneurship phenomenon. When enabled by social capital, these mechanisms explain the causal relations between the multilevel elements of social entrepreneurship: social needs, social entrepreneurial ideas and practice, market creation and social impact. This framework generates novel insights into the multilevel nature of social entrepreneurship, and the central role of social capital in enabling its underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background A central goal of implementation science is to generate insights that allow evidence-based practices to be successfully applied across diverse settings. However, challenges often arise in preserving programs’ effectiveness outside the context of their intervention development. We propose that qualitative data can inform generalizability via elucidating mechanisms of an intervention. Critical realist thematic analysis provides a framework for applying qualitative data to identify causal relationships. This approach can be used to develop mechanism maps, a tool rooted in policy that has been used in health systems interventions, to explain how and why interventions work. We illustrate use of these approaches through a case example of a community health worker (CHW)-delivered gestational diabetes (GDM) screening intervention in Pune, India. CHWs successfully improved uptake of oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) among pregnant women, however clinical management of GDM was suboptimal. Methods Qualitative interviews were conducted with 53 purposively sampled participants (pregnant women, CHWs, maternal health clinicians). Interview transcripts were reviewed using a critical realist thematic analysis approach to develop a coding scheme pertinent to our research questions: “What caused high uptake of GDM screening?” and “Why did most women with GDM referred to clinics did not receive evidence-based management?”. Mechanism maps were retrospectively generated using short- and long-term outcomes as fenceposts to illustrate causal pathways of the CHW–delivered program and subsequent clinical GDM management. Results Critical realist thematic analysis generated mechanism maps showed that CHWs facilitated GDM screening uptake through affective, cognitive and logistic pathways of influence. Lack of evidence-based treatment of GDM at clinics was caused by 1) clinicians lacking time or initiative to provide GDM counseling and 2) low perceived pre-test probability of GDM in this population of women without traditional risk factors. Mechanism mapping identified areas for adaptation to improve the intervention for future iterations. Conclusions Mechanism maps created by repeated engagement following the critical realist thematic analysis method can provide a retrospective framework to understand causal relationships between factors driving intervention successes or failures. This process, in turn, can inform the generalizability of health programs by identifying constituent factors and their interrelationships that are central to implementation.

AI Alignment is a term used to summarize the aim of making artificial intelligence (AI) systems behave in line with human intentions and values. There has been little consideration in previous AI Alignment studies of the need for AI Alignment to be adaptive in order to contribute to the survival of human organizations in changing environments. This research gap is addressed here by defining human intentions and values in terms of survival biophysics: entropy, complexity, and adaptive behavior. Furthermore, although technology alignment has been a focus of studies for more than thirty years, there has been little consideration in AI Alignment studies of established resources for aligning technologies. Unlike the current focus of AI Alignment on addressing potential AI risks, technology alignment is generally focused on aligning with opportunities. Established resources include the critical realist philosophy of science, scientific theories, total quality management practices, technology alignment methods, engineering techniques, and technology standards. Here, these established resources are related to the alignment of different types of machine learning with different levels of human organizations. In addition, established resources are related to a well-known hypothetical extreme example of AI Misalignment, and to major constructs in the AI Alignment literature. Overall, it is argued that AI Alignment needs to be adaptive in order for human organizations to be able to survive in changing environments, and that established resources can facilitate Adaptive AI Alignment which addresses risks while focusing on opportunities.

Background: A central goal of implementation science is to generate insights that allow evidence-based practices to be successfully applied across diverse settings. However, challenges often arise in preserving programs' effectiveness outside the context of their intervention development. We propose that qualitative data can inform generalizability via elucidating mechanisms of an intervention. Critical realist thematic analysis provides a framework for applying qualitative data to identify causal relationships. This approach can be used to develop mechanism maps, a tool rooted in policy that has been used in health systems interventions, to explain how and why interventions work. We illustrate use of these approaches through a case example of a community health worker (CHW)-delivered gestational diabetes (GDM) screening intervention in Pune, India. CHWs successfully improved uptake of oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) among pregnant women, however clinical management of GDM was suboptimal. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 53 purposively sampled participants (pregnant women, CHWs, maternal health clinicians). Interview transcripts were reviewed using a critical realist thematic analysis approach to develop a coding scheme pertinent to our research questions: "What caused high uptake of GDM screening?" and "Why did most women with GDM referred to clinics did not receive evidence-based management?". Mechanism maps were retrospectively generated using short- and long-term outcomes as fenceposts to illustrate causal pathways of the CHW–delivered program and subsequent clinical GDM management. Results: Critical realist thematic analysis generated mechanism maps showed that CHWs facilitated GDM screening uptake through affective, cognitive and logistic pathways of influence. Lack of evidence-based treatment of GDM at clinics was caused by 1) clinicians lacking time or initiative to provide GDM counseling and 2) low perceived pre-test probability of GDM in this population of women without traditional risk factors. Mechanism mapping identified areas for adaptation to improve the intervention for future iterations. Conclusions: Mechanism maps created by repeated engagement following the critical realist thematic analysis method can provide a retrospective framework to understand causal relationships between factors driving intervention successes or failures. This process, in turn, can inform the generalizability of health programs by identifying constituent factors and their interrelationships that are central to implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we empirically investigate VR users' subjective experiences of realism. We conceptualise two operationally distinct processes: a top-down critical evaluation of realism and a bottom-up felt experience of realism. Study 1 investigated the latent factor structure of a measure of subjective realism responses to different virtual environments. Results indicated a three-factor structure: (i) felt realism – user's feelings of realism, (ii) perceptual realism – evaluation of the realism of stimulus form or perceptual elements, and (iii) conceptual realism – evaluation of stimulus content or conceptual elements. Study 2 investigated the effect of two "objective realism" manipulations on the three "subjective realism" factors. We manipulated the visual quality and normality of the virtual setting. Results indicated that participants rated abnormal environments lower in perceptual realism and conceptual realism. However, the abnormal environments were reported higher in felt realism. The findings demonstrate the power of abnormal and "unreal" environments in inducing subjective realism for entertainment users. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, this research was conducted using 360 video stimuli, future research should test these findings with full HMD VR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Learning from’ in Religious Education, as a mode of moving towards interdenominational and interfaith learning, has a long and fruitful history. However, It has been criticised for being overly subjective as it mainly encourages learning about oneself. Though this has value, it needs to address better the need to understand rather than simply use the religious tradition that is being studied. It raises the question of the objectivity of ‘Learning from’ religions. It is argued that interpreting the correctness of one’s understanding of a text entails more than ‘learning about’ a religious tradition. It should also include a process of self-reflection to enable a judgement of one’s accuracy in comprehending the text’s grammar as well as its underlying more universal truth. This calls for a movement towards what the philosopher-theologian, Bernard Lonergan, named intellectual conversion, a personal appreciation of what true knowledge entails. It is thus contended that ‘Learning from’ religions needs not only awareness of one’s ‘signals of transcendence’ but also of how they can be developed, in light of what is being presented, leading to an informed and wise choice of worldviews about how one is to live, which is an admirable goal of Religious Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of policy notwithstanding, climate emergency continues to unfold and the need for new ideas is urgent. In this short article, I contextualize the need for 'revolutions for life' and set out some of the key ideas from Hosseini and Gills' recent book Capital redefined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A systematic literature review of 'leading indicators (LIs) development and identification' is conducted to develop a novel analytical framework for identifying LIs. • New LIs are identified from case study incident reports and normative documents using the framework. • The study combines predominantly objectivity philosophy reflected from a critical realism position and subjectivity expressed by an interpretivist philosophical stance. • This novel research constitutes the first attempt to identify and validate LIs via the use of an analytical framework and real-life case study data. Introduction: This research implements the steps of developing or identifying leading indicators (LIs) delineated in a previously published conceptual model to test its practicality on case study data. Concomitant objectives are (a) to systematically review extant literature of 'LIs development and identification' to develop an analytical framework for identifying LIs; and to identify LIs from case study incident reports and normative documents using the framework. Method: To empirically validate the conceptual model, a two staged data analysis process was adopted: (1) a theoretical work stage, where pertinent literature was studied through systematic literature review using Scopus and Web of Science databases and a detailed framework analysis; and (2) practical work stage, where an inductively developed analytical framework and insights gained from the theoretical work stage were applied to real-life case study data and their apposite normative documents. Random sampling was used to select 12 different case studies of accidents from a private database of 97 case studies. In total, 2,423 LIs were identified from extant literature and through framework analysis using the bespoke analytical framework generated, a total of 484 LIs were identified from a combination of selected case study materials and their relevant normative documents. All these 484 newly developed LIs were contrasted with a compilation of the previously published 2,423 LIs in the literature. Results: Consequently, a total of 232 LIs out of 484 were recognized as entirely new and novel. These LIs were then thematically grouped into 19 clusters for brevity. A novel analytical framework for identifying new LIs was inductively developed. The framework enables identification of LIs from a qualitative dataset and classify them into eight types of LIs. Practical Applications: This novel research constitutes the first attempt to identify and validate LIs via the use of an analytical framework and real-life case study data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In acknowledging psychotherapy as a space oriented toward philosophical exploration, this article embraces Schmid's challenge for person-centered psychotherapists to develop philosophy more congruent with the practice of the person-centered approach. Inspired by practitioners from other approaches, the author challenges the dominant interpretive-phenomenological foundations of recent person-centered conceptual developments, tentatively arguing the case for a critical realism as an alternate onto-epistemic framing for person-centered psychotherapy. The author acknowledges weaknesses of interpretive phenomenology in relation to the person-centered approach, particularly the challenges it presents for dialogue, development and decision-making in terms of theory, research and practice. These challenges are highlighted in reference to Rogers' conceptualization of a 'New Integration' of science and experience put forth in On Becoming a Person. An abridged explanation of critical realism is offered before considering critical realism's application to the person-centered approach. The author demonstrates critical realism's use in formulating congruence theoretically, providing robust frameworks for research that can generate knowledge without assuming the role of expert, allowing critical reflexivity on socio-cultural contexts of theory, and offering holding, developmental frameworks for practitioners and trainees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how Thomas Hardy's fiction turns to the heart as a privileged figure for grappling with one of the great philosophical challenges of the novel form: how to put the corporeality of emotional experience into words? It contextualizes Hardy's cardiac poetics in relation to historical and contemporary scientific and medical understandings of bodily affect. The conclusion argues that Hardy's heart-centered strategies of affective description can at once illuminate his uneasy relationship with realism's normative operations and pluralize critical understanding of realism and its characteristic methods for dramatizing philosophical accounts of human experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complexity is not 'the same as simply complicated'. This is because its advocates present it as a theoretical approach to explaining major aspects of the social order, usually at the macro level, whereas many social phenomena, at any level, can be full of complications (such as the incidence of road accidents) without a unifying theoretical key. Thus, the latter have a strong tendency to remain at the level of events and their study to be confined to a 'variables' approach, statistically combining the most variable of potentially contributory factors, without being troubled by the absence, in particular cases of one or more common contributors to accidents (such as drivers' alcohol consumption). But 'the Complexity Turn' does much more than leaving empiricism behind, like Critical Realism from its earliest beginnings, and in some hands is seen as the senior partner of these two approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Complexity theory (CT) identifies our social system as a contingent and emergent product of non‐linear interactions between existing patterns and events. However, CT scholars carrying out various empirical applications have often adopted constructivist positions that disallow the separate existence of social systems and agency, thereby preventing effective analysis of their interactions. Instead, with the help of Critical Realism (CR), we offer a realist complexity approach that sees complexity in terms of the distinction between the domains of the Real, the Actual, and the Empirical, when existing studies of CT still work with a flat ontology that collapses the three domains into one (the Empirical domain). Our non‐conflationary CR‐CT approach thus argues that a satisfactory explanation of social complexity cannot be at the level of agential experience (the Empirical domain) or at the level of human and systematic events (the Actual domain) but needs to identify causal mechanisms (in the Real domain) of such events. It then combines this depth ontology (that distinguishes the three reality domains) with epistemological relativism (that underscores the contingent character of knowledge claims) to argue that though our knowledge and complexity reduction techniques are socially constructed, it hardly follows that the ontological dimension of reality (spreading across the three domains) is always affected by our complexity reduction efforts at the epistemological dimension in the Empirical domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay considers the question of how to frame social complexity from the point of view of critical realism as it was developed in the direction of dialectics by Roy Bhaskar. One of the main objectives of dialectical critical realism (DCR) was to see dialectics as offering a more open and flexible way of handling social reality. I begin by outlining the main aims of DCR and its general orientation, before outlining some key concepts which afford it greater flexibility in handling complexity. In particular I look at ideas of totality, holistic causality, four planar social being and dispositional identity. I then use these ideas to explore in more detail two particular issues which relate to my own interests in thinking about the place of moral psychology in a dialectical critical realist setting. Here I focus on the complexity in understanding what it means to be responsible for an act in the light of the four planar social being/dispositional identity argument, and on how psychological phenomena animate social and political relations in light of ideas of totality and holistic causation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intersection between Critical realism, complex system thinking and Luhmannian autopoiesis has been subject to various debates. By showing how a complex system necessitates a trans‐immanent philosophical foundation, Knio proposed in a previous article a problématique of calibration which seeks to bring back to the fore the importance of considering a complex causality generated by environments onto boundaries and systems in an iterative, recursive, and emergentist way. The next step is to understand the motivation behind the actions of a trans‐immanent system. This paper contributes to this discussion by operationalizing the motivation behind action in terms of the Spinozian conatus. In so doing, this research shows how trans‐immanent systems such as people and society not only objectify (socially construct) but objectivate (create) objects behind desire. Finally, the forgoing shows how systemic persistence is not a simple matter of inertia or imitation but it is a matter of empowering reflexivity or, perseverance. This is shown through a thorough overview of the different interpretations of the conatus, followed by their application to several case studies within pre‐existing and prominent theories of institutional change within capitalism. As a result, the conatus as based on a trans‐immanent system offers great potential in institutional analysis; exemplified in the Critical Realist model of social change: Morphogenetic Régulation. This research contributes not only to political, economic, social, and cultural analyses of institutional change but analyses of complex and open systems as a whole, and thus understandings of human empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This is a response to Cristián Navarrete and Tom Fryer's recent paper on contextual emergence and critical realism. Their paper raises some stimulating challenges to critical realist accounts of emergence, but I argue that it does not establish that critical realist accounts of emergence are flawed, nor that the contextual emergence tradition has significant improvements to offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: PrEP, a highly effective HIV prevention measure, provides autonomy to individuals in managing their HIV acquisition vulnerability. Despite its availability in tenofovir-based oral pills and injectable cabotegravir formulations, PrEP uptake among Black cisgender women in the U.S. South, a region with a high HIV burden, remains critically low. This demographic faces a disproportionately high rate of new HIV diagnoses, yet fewer than 10% of women in the US who could benefit from PrEP are currently receiving it. Methods: Utilizing a critical realism interpretative framework, this narrative review employed a tri-level analysis strategy to examine the empirical, actual, and real domains influencing PrEP implementation among Black women in the Southern U.S. The empirical level refers to observable events and data (e.g., PrEP uptake rates), the actual level encompasses experiences and actions that may not always be directly observed (e.g., healthcare interactions and community engagement), and the real level involves the deeper structures and mechanisms (e.g., systemic racism and cultural narratives) that shape these outcomes. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed literature from PubMed and other sources was conducted to identify barriers and facilitators to PrEP uptake in this population. Results: The analysis revealed significant barriers, including structural violence, socioeconomic disparities, medical mistrust, stigma, and inadequate healthcare policies. Empirical data showed variability in PrEP awareness and interest among Black women, while actual experiences highlighted misaligned marketing strategies, financial constraints, and interpersonal dynamics. At the real level, underlying mechanisms such as systemic racism and cultural narratives were identified as critical impediments to PrEP uptake. Discussion: Addressing these multifaceted barriers requires a comprehensive, multi-level approach that integrates personalized, community-centric strategies. Emphasizing the need for healthcare providers, community leaders, researchers, and policymakers to collaborate, the review proposes actionable strategies to enhance PrEP implementation, focusing on education, structural reforms, and policy changes to improve access and acceptability among Black women in the South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in higher education systems across the world have led to the identification of practice and research in the field of Educational Development as a means of addressing what are often conceptualised as ‘problems’. This paper argues that the field has not always met the expectations imposed upon it because of conditions constraining the agency of practitioners to produce research which will conceptualise problems meaningfully and to identify practice that will address them. In order to do this, the paper draws on, and extends, previous work (Shay, 2012; Boughey, 2022) using a framework based on Bhaskar’s (1978) critical realism and Archer’s (1995, 1996, 2000) social realism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketers need to understand consumers in both theory and practice to create offerings that are valuable to them. Hence, the marketing discipline has conceptualized consumers' subjectively perceived value in various ways, using multiple paradigms. Nevertheless, its constituents remain unclear. We argue that this is because the ontological and epistemological premises are both vague and narrow. Consequently, consumers' value perceptions are still difficult to study or manage. With the aim of making a conceptual leap, our paper is the first to apply a critical realist (CR) approach to the phenomenon. CR's stratified ontology and subjectivist/pluralist epistemology reconcile the positivist and interpretivist/constructionist paradigms, allowing the simultaneous existence of external socio-natural and internal subjective realities. Using these premises, we examine, from a marketer's perspective, how consumers perceive value, which is a subjective, phenomenological, and socially constructed act embedded in the natural world. Our CR theorizing deploys Bhaskar's (2010) RRREIC schema and includes a review of the extant subjective value conceptualizations (consumer perceived value, value-in-use, value-in-experience) and retroduction of the key mechanisms generating the phenomenon: meaning-making and sensory perception. Finally, we propose a novel conceptualization for Emergent Consumer Perceived Value formation (ECPV) as an open system. As its integral component, we introduce the concept of Sensory Value Affordance, explaining how consumers transform physical properties into subjective meanings. These conceptual tools cater especially to B2C managers and account for both the phenomenological and sociocultural as well as the corporeal and perceptual. Finally, we present broader implications for value research, the field of marketing, and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AI Alignment is a term used to summarize the aim of making artificial intelligence (AI) systems behave in line with human intentions and values. There has been little consideration in previous AI Alignment studies of the need for AI Alignment to be adaptive in order to contribute to the survival of human organizations in changing environments. This research gap is addressed here by defining human intentions and values in terms of survival biophysics: entropy, complexity, and adaptive behavior. Furthermore, although technology alignment has been a focus of studies for more than thirty years, there has been little consideration in AI Alignment studies of established resources for aligning technologies. Unlike the current focus of AI Alignment on addressing potential AI risks, technology alignment is generally focused on aligning with opportunities. Established resources include the critical realist philosophy of science, scientific theories, total quality management practices, technology alignment methods, engineering techniques, and technology standards. Here, these established resources are related to the alignment of different types of machine learning with different levels of human organizations. In addition, established resources are related to a well-known hypothetical extreme example of AI Misalignment, and to major constructs in the AI Alignment literature. Overall, it is argued that AI Alignment needs to be adaptive in order for human organizations to be able to survive in changing environments, and that established resources can facilitate Adaptive AI Alignment which addresses risks while focusing on opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The COVID‐19 pandemic and the consequent lockdowns were flashpoints that exposed the vulnerabilities of low‐skilled interstate migrants that have persisted for years across the globe and demanded a critical examination of their work experiences and conditions. Unlike migrants who cross national borders for employment and economic reasons, internal migrants migrate within the country in search of better livelihood options. However, while the problems of low‐skilled immigrants who cross national borders attract research attention, the experiences of internal migrants have not been adequately researched. Using critical realism as a framework, we investigated the precarious working conditions of one of India's most vulnerable groups of workers—interstate migrant workers. Our findings showed that, despite short‐term positive outcomes, interstate migration does not guarantee freedom from poverty, precarity, or powerlessness. The conspicuous absence of formal opportunities to develop their potential reiterates their status as a marginalized, forgotten, and exploited group of workers, also neglected by human resource development (HRD) researchers. HRD has a critical role to play in the short term by providing skill training and in the long term by advocating for policy changes to ensure the well‐being and empowerment of migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kálmán Mikszáth (1847–1910) was introduced to China in the early twentieth century and the translation of his work had run through the Chinese history of the last century. In order to gain a thorough understanding of Mikszáth in China, this study adopts the socio-cultural context of twentieth-century China as the entry point to probe into the translation of his work and examine his reception in China. Like the translation of Jókai's work in China, that of his work was first influenced by the nationalist discourse of "the literature of marginalized nationalities" and then became part of the cultural exchanges between socialist countries. It finds that although Mikszáth attracted less attention in early twentieth-century China due to the lack of revolutionary subjects in his writing, the artistic values of his works had already been appreciated. Later, benefiting from the social-critical themes and anecdotal/legendary elements found everywhere in his works, Mikszáth had been vigorously promoted and widely circulated in China in the second half of the century. As a result, a great realistic writer who made the flexible use of romanticism to criticize the Hungarian society had been imprinted into the Chinese readers' minds in the twentieth century. This way of interpretation has extended its influence to the twenty-first-century China, which hinders the modernist traits of Mikszáth's writing from being captured by the Chinese readers in the new millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Universum is the property of Instituto de Estudios Humanisticos Juan Ignacio Molina, Universidad de Talca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Digital platforms such as Spotify have specific characteristics and properties that influence, to some extent, how the platform is used. However, users develop their own interpretations of these properties as well as unique ways to engage with the platform. This study applies a critical realist framework to explore how reflexivity modes are practiced in the context of Spotify as an example of algorithmic recommendation systems. From this perspective, reflexivity is a person's capacity to reflect on their contexts, data, previous experiences, and knowledge, among other elements, before deciding how to act. Findings from interviews with Spotify users suggest that participants practice multiple reflexivity modes when interpreting Spotify's recommendations and deciding what to listen to. These modes depend on each participant's concerns and algorithmic knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]