≫

Critical Realism, Feminism, and Gender: A Reader

Making waves, and beyond I: Philosophical preliminaries: critical realism, feminism, and gender Feminism, realism, and universalism Introduction: the practice of a priori universalising Feminism and realism An indication that realism/ontology matters Illustration 1: the formalistic modelling of social processes The particularity’ of formalistic modelling A structured ontology Conditions for closure The social domain Social positions and relations as integral to social reality’The importance of internal relations Formalistic modelling as a generalised tool of social science Illustration 2: positioned interests as essential to epistemic practice An epistemology for an open system Contrastive explanation Situated knowing Contrastive explanation and feminist epistemology Illustration 3: the possibility of human emancipation There is more to reality than the course of events and states of affairs Human nature Needs Grounding the possibility of human emancipation Final comments Notes References Post-structuralist and constructivist feminism Introduction Relativism by any other name Nominalist feminism Behaviourist agency Hate speech Notes References Sex and gender: a critical realist approach Introduction Transitive and intransitive dimensions Stratification and generative mechanisms Causal explanation The reality of sex From sex to gender Objections Sex and ‘race’Judith Butler Difference feminism Conclusion Note References A defence of the category ‘women’Introduction The intersectional challenge: women are not only women The constructedness of women/‘womcn’The concrete and the abstract Structures, positions and people Conclusion Notes References Gender theory non-conforming: critical realist feminism, trans politics, and affordance theory Introduction Queering (critical) realist feminist gender theory Gender as an affordance system Embodiment Structure and agency: natural, canonical and designed affordances The value of affordance theory for critical realist feminism Future research Conclusions Notes References II: Critical realism and intersectionality Developing a critical realist positional approach to intersectionality Introduction Intcrscctional complexity and the limitations of current approaches Positivism in intersectionality theory The hermeneutic tradition and intersectional identity Towards a critical realist intersectionality Critical realist feminism in an intersectional framework Structure and agency in intersectional theory Critical realism and a positional approach to methodological complexity Conclusion Note References Agency and ontology within intersectional analysis: a critical realist contribution Introduction Intcrscctional theory Critical realism and morphogenetic analysis Agency Intersectional theory and critical realism Notes References Why we keep separating the ‘inseparable’: dialecticising intersectionality Introduction Dialectical critical realism The unclear meaning of ‘inseparability’Intra-action and ‘processification’Structures and subjects Abstraction and the continued need for ‘separatist’ theory Conclusion Funding Notes References III: Methodology and methods: critical realism and empirical research The reality of gender (ideology): using abduction and retroduction in applied critical realist research Introduction The usefulness of critical realism for gender research Beliefs and values as causal Identifying causes through abduction and retroduction The Saskatchewan Farm Women Study Applying abduction and rctroduction in the SFWS Abduction Retroduction Conclusion Notes References After constructivism: rethinking Feminist Security Studies through interdisciplinary research Introduction On the importance of thcory/praxis (in)consistcncy and interdisciplinary integration Theory/praxis consistency Interdisciplinary integration On mainstream Security Studies and its feminist ‘other’Feminist Security Studies: a sketch of the constructivist consensus Theory/practice inconsistencies: constructivist FSS as a compromise formation Interdisciplinary integration: constructivist FSS and the fragmentation of knowledge On critical realism and interdisciplinarity Situating critical realist philosophy Bhaskar’s critique of positivism (and its implications for constructivism)Emergence, ontological stratification, and interdisciplinarity Conclusion Notes References Integrating critical realist and feminist methodologies: ethical and analytical dilemmas Introduction The research Critical realism Ethics in practice Knowledge production Conclusion Notes References Critical Realist Discourse Analysis, motherhood, and gender: a systematic methodological approach to analysis Introduction Critical Realist Discourse Analysis vs discourse analysis Governments and governmental institutions Psychology and psychological models The feminist movement Method: ‘doing applied CRDA’Applied CRDA - examples of analysis Discussion and conclusion Notes References Further reading

Next chapter

Making waves, and beyond