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Critical Realism and the Strategic-Relational Approach.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>2005
<mark>Journal</mark>New Formations: A Journal of Culture, Theory and Politics
Issue number56
Number of pages14
Pages (from-to)40-53
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This article develops a distinctive critical realist analysis of structure and agency . It first describes Roy Bhaskar�s account of critical realism; then discusses critical realism in general; next introduces Anthony Giddens�s structuration theory and two particular applications of critical realism to structure and agency � those of Bhaskar and Margaret Archer; and, finally, presents a third such application based on the strategic-relational approach. The latter goes beyond conventional analyses of the duality, dualism, or dialectic of structure and agency by studying the recursive conditioning, mutual coupling, and complex co-evolution of structure and agency and, above all, by stressing the differential, spatio-temporal relationality of structure and agency. Its advantages over other approaches should emerge as we proceed.