Routledge Studies in Critical Realism
About the Book Series
Critical Realism is a broad movement within philosophy and social science. It is a movement that began in British philosophy and sociology following the founding work of Roy Bhaskar, Margaret Archer and others. Critical Realism emerged from the desire to realise an adequate realist philosophy of science, social science, and of critique. Against empiricism, positivism and various idealisms (interpretivism, radical social constructionism), Critical Realism argues for the necessity of ontology. The pursuit of ontology is the attempt to understand and say something about ‘the things themselves’ and not simply about our beliefs, experiences, or our current knowledge and understanding of those things. Critical Realism also argues against the implicit ontology of the empiricists and idealists of events and regularities, reducing reality to thought, language, belief, custom, or experience. Instead Critical Realism advocates a structural realist and causal powers approach to natural and social ontology, with a focus upon social relations and process of social transformation.
Important movements within Critical Realism include the morphogenetic approach developed by Margaret Archer; Critical Realist economics developed by Tony Lawson; as well as dialectical Critical Realism (embracing being, becoming and absence) and the philosophy of metaReality (emphasising priority of the non-dual) developed by Roy Bhaskar.
For over thirty years, Routledge has been closely associated with Critical Realism and, in particular, the work of Roy Bhaskar, publishing well over fifty works in, or informed by, Critical Realism (in series including Critical Realism: Interventions; Ontological Explorations; New Studies in Critical Realism and Education). These have all now been brought together under one series dedicated to Critical Realism.
The Centre for Critical Realism is the advisory editorial board for the series. If you would like to know more about the Centre for Critical Realism, or to submit a book proposal, please visit www.centreforcriticalrealism.com.
The Reality of Knowledge: Towards a Critical Realist Sociology of Knowledge
1st Edition
By Philip D. Walsh
February 19, 2026
This book proposes a new approach to the sociology of knowledge, providing a cross-section of some of the major theories that have influenced and continue to influence the field. Through a series of engagements with the history of the discipline, it brings a critical realist perspective to bear on ...
Humanising Language Education in the Generative Artificial Intelligence Age: A Critical Realist Approach
1st Edition
By Jérémie Bouchard
January 26, 2026
Examining the presence and influence of GenAI in the contexts of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and written composition within university-level English as a foreign language (EFL) programmes, this book asserts a humanist view of language education informed by critical realism and the social ...
The Sociological Theory of Margaret Archer: A Critical Appraisal
1st Edition
By Graham Scambler
December 05, 2025
Margaret Archer’s contribution to the development of sociological theory has been significant and lasting. This volume by Graham Scambler offers both an account of her evolving body of work over time and an appraisal of its salience for contemporary sociological theory and practice. The author ...
The Question of Emergence: Sociology vs. Physics
1st Edition
By Douglas V. Porpora
November 06, 2025
This book takes the relationship between physics and sociology as its subject, focusing on the philosophical dispute between emergentism and reductionism. It argues that the mystery behind emergence disappears when we abandon the lawful understanding of causality in favor of a powers view. Adopting...
Platform and Agency: Becoming Who We Are
1st Edition
By Mark Carrigan
October 21, 2025
agency and reflexivity in contemporary social life. Drawing on Margaret Archer’s social realist framework, it moves beyond treating platforms merely as tools or environments to conceptualise them as distinct sociotechnical structures with emergent properties and powers that shape human action ...
Educational Leadership and Critical Realism
1st Edition
By Anthony Thorpe, Jean Pierre Elonga Mboyo
September 18, 2025
Adopting a critical realist approach to educational leadership, this book shows how applied theory can contribute to the development of mechanisms allowing for the effective leadership of organisations. Through an examination of pertinent theories and debates in educational leadership and critical ...
Codes of Corruption: A Critical Realist Discourse Analysis of Illicit Transactions
1st Edition
By Karin Zotzmann
March 31, 2025
Corruption is expanding internationally and so are strategic accusations of others being corrupt. It has become quite common for some politicians and their supporters to make false accusations of corruption against opponents in order to win power. A precise understanding of the phenomenon is ...
Explaining Morality: Critical Realism and Moral Questions
1st Edition
By Steve Ash
September 25, 2023
Adopting a critical realist approach to morality, this book considers morality as an aspect of social reality, enquiring into the nature of moral agency and asking whether we can legitimately argue for a specific moral position and whether moral positions can be understood to apply universally. ...
The Morphogenesis of the Norwegian Educational System: Emergence and Development from a Critical Realist Perspective
1st Edition
Edited
By Margaret S. Archer, Unn-Doris K. Bæck, Tone Skinningsrud
September 25, 2023
Based in the philosophy of critical realism, this book employs a range of Margaret Archer’s theoretical concepts to investigate temporal and spatial aspects of Norwegian education. Stemming from Archer’s engagement as visiting professor from 2017 to 2019 in the Department of Education at UiT The ...
A Critical Realist Theory of Sport
1st Edition
By Graham Scambler
December 30, 2022
This book argues that sport in the era of global or financialised capitalism has undergone a process of fracturing, which requires a re-assessment of longstanding and consensual accounts of traditional-to-modern sporting activity. Considering rival concepts of sport, it presents detailed, ...
Working with Critical Realism: Stories of Methodological Encounters
1st Edition
Edited
By Alpesh Maisuria, Grant Banfield
December 30, 2022
This international and interdisciplinary collection gathers stories from researchers and research students about their methodological encounters with critical realism. Whether the contributors are experienced or novice researchers, they are predominantly new to critical realism. For various reasons...
Big Picture Perspectives on Planetary Flourishing: Metatheory for the Anthropocene Volume 1
1st Edition
Edited
By Nicholas Hedlund, Sean Esbjörn-Hargens
July 29, 2022
This book, split across two volumes, is a follow-up and companion to Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2016). All three of these volumes are the dialogical outcome of a multi-year symposia series wherein critical realists and integral theorists deeply engaged each other and their ...