Critical Realism: An Alternative in Social Analysis

Abstract

The article highlights the limitations of positivism in the social sciences. Critics of positivismappeal to its ontological superficiality and the consequences on its epistemicpertinence, and claim the need of methodological alternatives in social research. CriticalRealism, as a philosophical stand, and Margaret Archer’s Morphogenetic Approach, as atheoretical implication, are both presented to contest the dominant research paradigm.The paper innovates in the sense that it makes an effort to link philosophical discussionswith its practical implications for social research, including an explicit reference to threeprevious works that have used realism to inform an institutional analysis. The counterproposalis still premature, but it has an important scientific potential.