The uncritical realism of realist evaluation

This article is a response to Ray Pawson’s critique of critical realism, the philosophy of science elaborated by Roy Bhaskar. I argue with Pawson’s interpretation of critical realism’s positions on both natural and social science and his charges concerning its totalizing ontology, its arrogant epistemology and its naive methodology. The differences between critical realism and realist evaluation are not as significant as Pawson contends. The main differences between the two realisms lie in their approaches to the relationship between social structures and human agency, and between facts and values. I argue that evaluation scientists need to clearly distinguish structure and agency. They should also make their values explicit. The uncritical approach of realist evaluation, combined with its underplaying of the importance of agency, leaves it open to implication in the abuses of bureaucratic instrumentalism.

The Violent Maintenance of the Portuguese Colonial Identity and the Search for a Postcolonial one: literary images of Portugal as a colonial and postcolonial nation

Through the examination of Camões's Os Lusíadas , Sena's Os Grão-Capitães and Saramago's A Jangada de Pedra , this article explores violence as a means of shaping Portuguese identity in different historical contexts, and how these works portray the continued recourse to violence as Portugal moves from colonizing to postcolonial nation.

Validity, trustworthiness and rigour:reasserting realism in qualitative research

Aim The aim of this paper is to challenge recent sceptical approaches to the possibility of validating qualitative research and to underline the benefits of adopting a realist approach to validity. Background In recent discussion about the methodological bases for qualitative research it has been argued that, because different methodologies take different approaches to validity, attempts to develop a common set of validation criteria are futile. On the basis of this sceptical view, a number of strategies for judging qualitative research have been proposed. These include suggestions that: it should be judged according to aesthetic or rhetorical criteria, rather than epistemological validity; responsibility for appraisal should move from researchers to readers; each methodology should be assessed individually according to its own merits. Discussion None of these suggestions provide a viable alternative to validity, defined as the extent to which research reflects accurately that to which it refers. Because the form of research does not determine its content, replacement of epistemology by aesthetics is unsustainable. Because research reports mediate between writer and reader, a one-sided approach to this relationship constitutes a false dichotomy. If we accept the criterion of practitioner confidence as a means of judging methodological approaches, this involves rejection of judgement according to a methodology�s own merits. Conclusion If qualitative research is actually about something, and if it is required to provide beneficial information, then a realist approach to validity holds out greatest promise.

Failure of Local Realism Revealed by Extremely-Coarse-Grained Measurements

We show that failure of local realism can be revealed to observers for whom only extremely-coarse-grained measurements are available. In our instances, Bell's inequality is violated even up to the maximum limit while both the local measurements and the initial local states under scrutiny approach the classical limit. Furthermore, we can observe failure of local realism when an inequality enforced by nonlocal realistic theories is satisfied. This suggests that locality alone may be violated while realism cannot be excluded for specific observables and states. Small-scale experimental demonstration of our examples may be possible in the foreseeable future.

Testing nonlocal realism with entangled coherent states

We investigate the violation of nonlocal realism using entangled coherent states (ECSs) under nonlinear operations and homodyne measurements. We address recently proposed Leggett-type inequalities, including a class of optimized incompatibility inequalities proposed by Branciard et al. [Nature Phys. 4, 681 (2008)], and thoroughly assess the effects of detection inefficiency.

Prising open the black box: Critical realism, action research and social work

There is a growing interest in critical realism and its application to social work. This article makes a case for adopting this philosophical position in qualitative social work research. More specifically, it suggests that there is a concordance between critical realist premises and action research with its cyclical inquiry and advancement of social change. This combination of philosophy and method, it is argued, promotes anti-oppressive social work research and illuminates the processes shaping outcomes in programme evaluations. Overall, the article underscores the importance of 'depth' in qualitative inquiry by conceiving the social world in terms of five interlacing, social domains.

Imperial Migrations. Colonial Communities and Diaspora in the Portuguese World

This volume explores the role and history of migration and diaspora within the Portuguese empire, investigating what role colonial communities and diaspora have had in shaping the Portuguese empire and its heritage. The book consists of twelve case studies which look at topics such as Portuguese migration to Africa, the Ismaili and the Swiss presence in Mozambique, the Goanese in East Africa, the Chinese in Brazil, and the history of the African presence in Portugal.

Faithful test of nonlocal realism with entangled coherent states

We investigate the violation of Leggett's inequality for nonlocal realism using entangled coherent states and various types of local measurements. We prove mathematically the relation between the violation of the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt form of Bell's inequality and Leggett's one when tested by the same resources. For Leggett inequalities, we generalize the nonlocal realistic bound to systems in Hilbert spaces larger than bidimensional ones and introduce an optimization technique that allows one to achieve larger degrees of violation by adjusting the local measurement settings. Our work describes the steps that should be performed to produce a self-consistent generalization of Leggett's original arguments to continuous-variable states.