Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 09:01:19 +0000
Subject: BHA: Want to be a Creative Writer? -- Write for JCR


Dear friend of critical realism,

We are writing to invite you to support Journal of Critical Realism 
(JCR) in the best way possible: by contributing it.

Thanks largely to the splendid efforts of its contributors, JCR has 
developed from a newsletter to an established academic journal in six 
short years. From 2004 it will be published, promoted and distributed by 
Brill Academic Publishers, an internationally oriented publishing firm 
located in the Netherlands. Brill will put it online with Ingenta, where 
it will be fully cross-referenced and located in the mainstream of the 
academic search scene the world over. We expect JCR under the Brill 
regime to rapidly acquire a significant international presence in 
institutional libraries.

We are going to stay with two issues per year for 2004, but thereafter 
special issues will become a possibility and we would like to move on 
quickly to three and then four issues per year depending on the 
subscription base and the volume of contributions.

So our invitation to you is to keep the momentum going! Keep those 
creative contributions rolling in, and encourage friends and colleagues 
who aren't critical realists to engage. We want to continue to act as a 
home base for critical realists, but our orientation is ever outwards, 
not in.

To have a chance of appearing in the November 2004 issue, articles must 
be submitted by 17th May 2004. You can find out Submission Guidelines on 
our website www.journalofcriticalrealism.org
Manuscripts should be sent by email attachment to the editor,
Mervyn Hartwig <mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk>

Please distriubute this message as widely as possible.


With all best wishes,



Mervyn Hartwig
Kathryn Dean
Karl Maton
Jamie Morgan
Jenneth Parker
JCR EDITORIAL TEAM
www.journalofcriticalrealism.org

Please reply to: Mervyn Hartwig <mh-AT-jaspere.demon.co.uk>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AVAILABLE FROM NEXT WEEK:

*JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REALISM* Vol 2 No 1 November 2003


ARTICLES

GRAHAM CLARKE, Fairbairn and Macmurray: psychoanalytic studies and 
critical realism

This paper argues that the relatively new academic 
subject--psychoanalytic studies--could benefit from critical realist 
thinking. Work by David Will on psychoanalysis as a science from a 
critical realist perspective is reviewed and arguments for Fairbairn's 
object relations theory as a prime candidate are developed. It also 
argues that recent work by Andrew Collier on Being and Worth, which 
makes use of the work of John Macmurray, might provide a good basis for 
a critical realist object relations theory. Part of this argument 
concerns the strong parallels argued to exist between Fairbairn and 
Macmurray. As such the possibility of a multi-self object relations 
model of the psyche within a critical realist framework is raised to 
contrast with the Freudian model that often appears by default.

STEFAN MORÉN & BJÖRN BLOM, Explaining human change: on generative 
mechanisms in social work practice

The purpose of this article is to discuss the possibilities of 
explaining the way results, i. e. client effects, in social work 
practice emerge from certain interventions. Critical realism and one of 
its key concepts, 'generative mechanisms', is suggested as a useful 
perspective to reveal the intervening process and explain the way human 
change unfolds and is achieved in social work practice. First, some 
trends in evaluation of social work practice will be outlined. 
Thereafter, some characteristics of the meta-perspective critical 
realism will be outlined, and its relevance for the study of social work 
practice discussed. Finally, a case study based on this perspective is 
presented, and also some findings in terms of a set of plausible 
generative mechanisms that were inferred from the empirical material.

SEAN CREAVEN, Marx and Bhaskar on the dialectics of freedom

Bhaskar's dialectical incarnation of critical realism has especially 
placed the problem of human emancipation at the heart of his project. 
Bhaskar's contribution here is to grasp human emancipation in terms of a 
dialectic of universalization from 'primal scream' to 'universal free 
flourishing'. In doing so, Bhaskar has reintroduced to emancipatory 
social theory the concept of progressive directionality in social 
development, which was also central to Marx's historical materialism. 
This article will argue two main points. First, that Bhaskar's dialectic 
of emancipation is both theoretically defensible, and of crucial 
importance at the contemporary global conjuncture, providing necessary 
philosophical underlabouring for the emancipatory potential inherent in 
late capitalist modernity. Second, that Marx's historical materialism 
provides Bhaskar's dialectic of freedom with sociological flesh, in the 
absence of which it cannot fully substantiate the concept of progressive 
geo-historical directionality which lies at its root. The emancipatory 
thrust of Bhaskar's dialectic of freedom, when sociologically 
substantiated by Marx's dialectics of forces and relations of production 
and capital and class, will be illustrated by considering the objective 
prospects for human emancipation at the start of the new century.


JAMIE MORGAN Empire inhuman? The social ontology of global theory

Hardt and Negri's highly influential neo-Marxist text Empire is 
primarily a theory of social ontology. The sustainability of this social 
ontology is therefore an important issue in terms of assessing whether 
the concept of Empire should be taken seriously as an adequate 
theorisation of global order. I argue that Empire constitutes an 
asthenotheory (a theory 'without strength') on the basis that its social 
ontology is highly problematic in five ways. Empire commits a basic 
conflation of reality and theory that undermines its critique of 
postmodernism as well as its subsequent social ontology (that actually 
repeats postmodernist errors). It is parasitic on a dialectical 
understanding of social reality but denies dialectics. It fails to 
articulate a differentiated social ontology, and thus collapses the 
stratified differentiation of aspects of the social, and of the 
distinction between the human and the social s/he reproduces, that 
contradicts Empire's interest in transformation and emancipation. Its 
social ontology is therefore inhuman. Since its social ontology is 
defective it is unable to provide an effective framework of analysis of 
empirical cases. It is in addition, and because of its social ontology, 
non-falsifiable. Its conceptualization of power is overly focussed at 
the systemic level (Lukes' third dimension). To illustrate the argument 
I provide an extended analysis of the debate over weapon's of mass 
destruction and the justification for the recent invasion of Iraq.


DEBATE

JONATHAN JOSEPH, Re-stating hegemonic theory

BOB JESSOP, Putting hegemony in its place


REVIEWS

BRIAN PINKSTONE, Reorienting economics: new horizons

NEIL CURRY, Mediating realism and sociology

GARRY POTTER, Critical realist strengths and weaknesses

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Journal of Critical Realism began life in 1998 as the newsletter of the 
International Association for Critical Realism (IACR) entitled Alethia. 
IACR was established in 1997 to foster the discussion, propagation and 
development of critical realist approaches to understanding and changing 
the world. Alethia's main focus from the outset was the publication of 
scholarly articles. In 2001 Alethia gave way to Journal of Critical 
Realism (incorporating Alethia) (unrefereed). From November 2002 Journal 
of Critical Realism will be peer reviewed, appearing in a new format and 
series.

Critical realist philosophy and social theory elaborate a general 
conceptual schema or meta-theory, via the immanent critique of other 
traditions and its own previous phases and the transcendental analysis 
of scientific and other human practices, for emancipatory science, i.e. 
science that makes genuine discoveries and can therefore help to promote 
human flourishing. It combines and reconciles epistemic relativism (all 
knowledge is socially produced, or transitive, and fallible) with 
judgemental rationalism (there are rational criteria for preferring one 
judgement or theory to another, genuine knowledge of the causally and/or 
existentially intransitive objects of science is possible) and 
ontological depth (the world is intransitive or irreducible to 
epistemology, transfactual or open, and stratified and emergent, hence 
differentiated and changing).

On such a view of the world, there is more to what is than what is 
known, more to laws of nature than regular succession, more to society 
than human agents and more to human agents than effects of society; and 
objective explanations need not be practically neutral.

Itself plural, open, and developing, critical realism is compatible 
with, and promotes, a wide range of emancipatory research programmes 
(which incorporate additional premises), and explicitly espouses 
methodological pluralism; every science is a science only insofar as it 
deploys a methodology appropriate to the specificities of its object. 
Critical realism is accordingly also plural in its political affinities 
within a broad emancipatory remit. Emancipation refers to the historical 
process of freedom whereby people remove constraints on the fulfilment 
of their needs and seek to create the positive social conditions for the 
full flourishing of their potential as a species. The theory of 
explanatory critiques and the dialectics of freedom (which are 
substantive as well as formal) suggest broadly how a unity of theory and 
political practice might be effected by movements for change, with 
realist science and social science playing an important role; while the 
recent work of a leading critical realist philosopher, Roy Bhaskar, 
elaborates a theory 'within the bounds of secularism, consistent with 
all faiths and no faith', of the spiritual presuppositions of 
emancipatory projects.

Critical realism is, indeed, arguably above all a philosophy and social 
theory of emancipation which seeks to grasp the historical process of 
freedom in thought and promote it in practice. It is coming to 
prominence within the academy simultaneously with the rise of a global 
movement for human emancipation which shares many of its insights. Both 
are premised on the understanding that a new human future of social 
justice, peace, care, solidarity, and ecological sustainability is 
possible and necessary; without such a future, the future as such is in 
jeopardy.

Journal of Critical Realism provides a forum for scholars wishing to 
promote realist emancipatory philosophy, social theory and science on an 
interdisciplinary and international basis, and for those who wish to 
engage with such an approach. Critical realism's intellectual power and 
vitality, together with the sheer range of its concerns across the gamut 
of human endeavour, will ensure that this leads to no inward looking 
provincialism. We envisage that much critical realist scholarship and 
research will continue to be published elsewhere and will actively 
promote exchanges, friendly as well as polemical, with other approaches.

Editorial policy

We will endeavour to promote, specifically:

"       Lively and original research and scholarship within the remit of 
the aims of the IACR
"       A genuine internationalism, in terms of subject matter, domicile 
of contributors, recommended pricing policy, and assistance to 
contributors with English language expression where necessary
"       Gender balance among contributors, and a flourishing younger 
generation of scholars
"       An authentic pluralism, both methodologically and in terms of 
political affinity
"       Interdisciplinarity of approach in keeping with the 
stratification, relationality and processuality of the world
"       Human emancipation-an accelerating and mutually enriching 
dialectic between critical realist philosophy, scientific research 
pursued within a range of research programmes (including the elaboration 
of concrete utopias), and movements for liberation

Editor: Mervyn Hartwig

Editorial Committee: Kathryn Dean, Karl Maton, Jamie Morgan, Jenneth 
Parker

Editorial Advisory Board
Margaret Archer (Warwick) Ted Benton (Essex), Roy Bhaskar (London) Bill 
Bowring (London) Thomas Brante (Örebro) Derek Brereton (Michigan) 
Gideon Calder (Newport) Bob Carter (Warwick) Noel Castree (Manchester), 
Alexander Clark (Glasgow), Andrew Collier (Southampton) Sean Creaven 
(UWE, Bristol) Justin Cruickshank (Birmingham) James Daly (Belfast) 
Berth Danermark (Örebro) Kathryn Dean (London) Hans Despain (Wesleyan), 
Radha D'Souza (Waikato), Peter Dickens (Cambridge, UK) Howard 
Engelskirchen (WSU) Pär Engholm (Uppsala) Hans Ehrbar (Utah) Norman 
Fairclough (Lancaster) Marshall Feldman (URI), Steve Fleetwood 
(Lancaster) Martha Gimenez (Colorado) Ruth Groff (York, Ca) Andrew Hagen 
(Rutgers) Cynthia Lins Hamlin (Recife) Gil-Soo Han (Monash) Nick 
Hostettler (London) Bob Jessop (Lancaster) Branwen Gruffydd Jones 
(Sussex) Jonathan Joseph (Aberystwyth) Anne Junor (UNSW, Au) Mansoor 
Kazi (Huddersfield) Ruth Kowalzyck (Lancaster) Hugh Lacey (Drexel) Julie 
Lawson (Amsterdam) Tony Lawson (Cambridge) Paul Lewis (Cambridge) Chris 
Lloyd (New England, Au) Terrence Lo (Hong Kong) José López 
(Nottingham) Gary MacLennan (QUT, Au) Karl Maton (Leicester) Andrew 
Mearman (New York) John Mingers (Warwick) Günter Minnerup (NSW, Au) 
Maria Mitropoulos (QUT) Richard Moody (Allegheny) Jamie Morgan 
(Manchester) Ross Morrow (Newcastle, Aus) Viren Viren Murthy (Chicago) 
Tobin Nellhaus (Yale) Peter Nielsen (Roskilde, Dk), Caroline New 
(Bristol) Alan Norrie (Kings, London) Peter Nielsen (Roskilde, Dk) Chris 
Norris (Cardiff) Wendy Olsen (Manchester) William Outhwaite (Sussex) 
Heikki Patomäki (Helsinki) Ray Pawson (Leeds), Ian Parker (Manchester) 
Jenneth Parker (Southbank) Brian Pinkstone (Western Sydney) Steve 
Pratten (Kings, London) Doug Porpora (Drexel) Garry Potter (Wilfrid 
Laurier, Ca) Jonathan Pratschke (Trinity, Dublin/ Salerno) Hans 
Puehretmayer (Vienna) Amit Ron (Minnesota) Andrew Sayer (Lancaster) 
Graham Scambler (London) Rachel Sharp (London) Tone Skinningsrud 
(Norway) Mark Smith (Open, UK) Manindra Thakur (Delhi) Subramaniyam 
Venkatraman (Chennai, Ind) Sean Vertigan (London) Ian Verstegen 
(Philadelphia) Colin Wight (Sheffield)

IACR Secretariat and Council
Andrew Sayer (President), Steve Fleetwood (General Secretary), Ruth 
Kowalzyck (Treasurer), Mervyn Hartwig (Journal Editor),  Cynthia Lins 
Hamlin (Recife), Julie Lawson (Amsterdam), Tony Lawson (Cambridge), 
Caroline New (Bristol), Peter Nielsen (Roskilde), Wendy Olsen 
(Manchester), Heikki Patomäki (Helsinki), Brian Pinkstone (Western 
Sydney), Doug Porpora (Drexel), Andrew Sayer (Lancaster), Tone 
Skinningsrud (Norway), Subramaniyam Venkatraman (Chennai, Ind).

Details
"       Volume 1 Number 1 (November 2002). Two issues per year.
"        ISSN 1476-7430
"       Publisher: The International Association for Critical Realism.
"       Production: JCR is produced with the assistance of the 
Nottingham Trent University, UK.
"       List price Institutions
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Zone II: All other countries
"       Prices include subscription to JCR Online
www.journalofcriticalrealism.org
"       Subscriptions and back issues:
www.journalofcriticalrealism.org



Back Issues

Alethia Volume 1 Number 1 (April 1998)
Alethia Volume 1 Number 2 (September 1998)
Alethia Volume 2 Number 1 (April 1999)
Alethia Volume 2 Number 2 (September 1999)
Alethia Volume 3 Number 1 (April 2000)
Alethia Volume 3 Number 2 (November 2000)
Journal of Critical Realism (incorporating Alethia) Volume 4 Number 1 
(May 2001)
Journal of Critical Realism (incorporating Alethia) Volume 4 Number 2 
(November 2001)
Journal of Critical Realism (incorporating Alethia) Volume 5 Number 1 
(May 2002)
Journal of Critical Realism Volume 1 Number 1 (November 2002)
Journal of Critical Realism Volume 1 Number 2 (May 2003)



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