Some Notes Towards a Realistic Realism: The Practical Implications of Realist Philosophies of Science for Social Research Methods

This note is written in the spirit of Becker's dictum that “methodology is too important to be left to methodologists” (Becker, 1970: 3). The methodology I wish to examine is the influential realist approach to social science, which has recently been held up as a panacea for many sociological ills. As an approach with its own specificity it has developed since the mid‐1970s, making important and influential contributions to a wide range of concerns, suggesting that it is more than just another in the series of intellectual fads by which many sociologists have been seduced (Outhwaite, 1987). However, realism, like many other intellectual projects which attempt to operate at the interface of theory and practice, has been subject to the constraints of current institutional arrangements.