Conference
August 9-11, 2023
This year's conference theme is "DESCRIBING + EXPLAINING + EVALUATING: THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD REVISITED." The theme has been formulated to provide scholars--critical realist or otherwise--an opportunity to step back and reflect on the way they investigate phenomena and the underlying assumptions about reality and knowing that condition the way we form, describe, and explain phenomena.
Plenary Speakers
For this year's conference, we are fortunate to have our four distinguished plenary speakers.
Ismael Al-Amoudi [In-Person]
Margaret Archer's Contribution to the Centre for Social Ontology: From Morphogenic to Post-Human Society
Ismael Al-Amoudi is a Full Professor at Grenoble Ecole de Management (France). He also serves as Director of the Centre for Social Ontology, Associate Editor of Organization, Editorial Board Member of Organization Studies, Academic Advisory Board Member of the Independent Social Research Foundation, and as a member of IACR’s Council.
Ismael’s research is very much grounded in critical realist social theory but he also draws selectively from other approaches such as post-structuralism (Foucault), sociology of conventions (Boltanski & Thévenot), and even Actor Network Theory (Latour) and the works of Judith Butler. Doing so has been helpful to understand contemporary social and organisational mechanisms with a particular interest in norms, power, violence and de/humanisation.
His publications include two edited books on post-human society (Routledge), several book chapters on social theory (Springer; Routledge) and scholarly articles in top journals of management, economics, sociology and social theory.
Grant Banfield [In-Person]
Journeys with a Permissive Meta-Theory
Grant Banfield is currently an adjunct lecturer at the University of South Australia. Prior to this, he worked for over thirty years as an educator and researcher at Flinders University in the field of educational sociology. His first book, Critical Realism for Marxist Sociology of Education, presents a critical realist underlabouring of Western Marxism and its various emergent educational forms.
Grant’s recent book, Working with Critical Realism (edited with Alpesh Maisuria) is an international and multidisciplinary collection of accounts from social researchers in their early methodological encounters with critical realism.
Dave Elder-Vass [Online]
Inventing Financial Value: Creating a Critical Realist Theory
Our third Keynote Address will be delivered online by Dave Elder-Vass. Dave is an Honorary Fellow at Loughborough University. His early work, notably in his books The Causal Power of Social Structures and The Reality of Social Construction, addressed broad questions in social ontology and social theory, arguing for a realist – but also constructionist – ontology of the social world.
More recently, he has brought this perspective to bear on issues in economic sociology, beginning with the role and nature of gifts. His most recent book, Profit and Gift in the Digital Economy, develops a realist political economy of practices and uses it to analyse the economic structures of some of the best known organisations in the contemporary digital economy.
Priscilla Alderson [Online]
To deliver the online Cheryl Frank Memorial Lecture is Priscilla Alderson, winner of the Cheryl Frank Memorial Award 2022 for her book Critical Realism for Health and Illness Research: A Practical Introduction
Priscilla started studying critical realism in 2009 by attending the late Roy Bhaskar’s reading group, where Cheryl Frank was also in attendance. When Roy died in 2014, Priscilla took on the reading group with Gary Hawke. Of that experience, Priscilla shares: “Every year I learned so much from visiting experts who gave lectures and also from many students.”
Her award-winning book is based on Roy’s course, with more attention paid to applying basic and dialectical critical realism to social research. Critical realist concepts are illustrated with examples from health and illness in works reported by eleven researchers. The book, however, could apply to most areas of social research.
Priscilla looks forward to sharing ideas from the book at the IACR conference.
In the morning of Day 2 of the Conference (10 August 2023), there will be four panel discussions featuring critical realist scholars who will share how critical realism has informed and enriched their work, followed by a dialogue with other researchers.
Program
Below is the schedule for our three-day IACR conference:
Day 1, August 9 (WEDNESDAY)
Time | Activity |
|---|---|
08:00 | Morning Reception (Light Snacks with Coffee and Tea) |
09:00 | Welcome and Introduction: Fr. Roberto Yap SJ (Ateneo de Manila University President) Dr. Douglas Porpora (IACR President) |
09:30 | Keynote Address 01: Dr. Grant Banfield "JOURNEYS WITH A PERMISSIVE META-THEORY " Moderator: Dr. Catherine Hastings |
11:00 | Coffee and Tea |
11:30 | Parallel Sessions |
13:00 | Lunch |
14:00 | Keynote Address 02: Dr. Ismael Al-moudi "MARGARET ARCHER'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE CENTRE FOR SOCIAL ONTOLOGY: FROM MORPHOGENIC TO POST-HUMAN SOCIETY " Moderator: Dr. Doug Porpora |
15:30 | Coffee and Tea |
15:30 | Parallel Sessions |
18:00 | IACR Tribute to Prof. Maggie Archer (Socials) Sharers: Doug Porpora, Tone Skinningsrud, Ismael Al-moudi, and Mark Carrigan (ONLINE) Moderator: Johnny Go |
19:30 | End of Conference Day One |
Day 2, August 10 (THURSDAY)
Time | Activity |
|---|---|
08:00 | Morning Reception (Light Snacks with Coffee and Tea) |
"Critical Realism across the Disciplines" Panel Discussion I: SOCIOLOGY (Plenary Session) | |
09:00 | SOCIOLOGY Speaker Dr. Douglas Porpora (Drexel University) Responders Dr. Czarina Saloma-Akpedonu (Ateneo de Manila University) Dr. Ma. Cynthia Rose Bautista (University of the Philippines Diliman) Moderator: Catherine Hastings |
"Critical Realism across the Disciplines" Panel Discussion II: NATURAL SCIENCES & EDUCATION (Plenary Sessions) | |
09:45 | NATURAL SCIENCES Speaker Dr. Margaret Blackie (Rhodes University) Responders Dr. Benjamin Vallejo, Jr. (University of the Philippines Diliman) Dr. Inez Ponce de Leon (Ateneo de Manila University) Moderator: Dr. Robyn Yucel |
10:30 | EDUCATION Speaker Dr. Tone Skinningsrud (The Arctic University of Norway) Responders Dr. Dina Ocampo (University of the Philippines Diliman) Dr. Jennie Jocson (Philippine Normal University) Moderator: Dr. Robyn Yucel |
11:15 | Coffee and Tea |
Panel Discussion III: "Critical Realism across the Disciplines" (Plenary Sessions) | |
11:30 | PHILOSOPHY Speaker Dr. Onur Özmen (Independent Researcher, University College London) [Online] Responders Mr. Michael Ner Mariano (Ateneo de Manila University) Dr. Jove Jim Aguas (University of Santo Tomas) Moderator: Dr. Grant Banfield |
12:15 | MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION STUDIES Speaker Dr. Ismael Al-amoudi (Grenoble Ecole de Management) Responders Dr. Benito Teehankee (De la Salle University) Dr. Ma. Assunta Cuyegkeng (Ateneo de Manila University) Moderator: Dr. Grant Banfield |
13:00 | Lunch |
14:00 | Keynote Address 03: Dr. Dave Elder-Vass (ONLINE) "INVENTING FINANCIAL VALUE: CREATING A CRITICAL REALIST THEORY" Moderator: Dr. Caroline Kuhn |
15:30 | Coffee and Tea |
16:00 | Parallel Sessions |
18:00 | Socials and Conference Dinner |
Day 3, August 11 (FRIDAY)
Time | Activity |
|---|---|
08:00 | Morning Reception (Light Snacks with Coffee and Tea) |
09:00 | Parallel Sessions |
11:00 | Coffee and Tea |
11:30 | THE CHERYL FRANK MEMORIAL LECTURE: Dr. Priscilla Alderson (ONLINE) Moderator: Dr. Angela Davenport |
13:00 | Formal Closing of the Conference Lunch |
14:00 | IACR Business Meeting |
Conference Dinner
Join us at this traditional conference dinner, where we gather to celebrate our community, to network with one another, and to welcome new critical realists.
This year's conference dinner will be a celebration of the Filipino palate, featuring a cuisine as rich, eclectic, and unique as the history and culture of the Philippines.
