Identifying Generative Mechanisms through Affordances: A Framework for Critical Realist Data Analysis

Bygstad, Bendik; Munkvold, Bjørn Erik; Volkoff, Olga

doi:10.1057/jit.2015.13

Cited by 194 publications

(254 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(57 reference statements)

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“…However, in keeping with the CR goal of explanation over prediction (Bygstad and Munkvold 2011), we do not claim that the presence or absence of these conditions is deterministic. Instead, we argue their presence contributes, alongside other factors, to a causal explanation of digital entrepreneurial success.…”

Section: The Value Of a Cr Perspective And Methodsmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…The DREI(C) method underpins this methodological approach, and guides theoretical explanation (Bygstad & Munkvold 2011;Danermark et al 2002). It requires describing (Byrne 2006;Healy et al 2011) and contrastive (Lawson 2003;Mussell 2016) analytical techniques to inform our comparative case method (Kaarbo & Beasley 1999) and assist in retroduction.…”

Section: Methodology and Method: Cr Intersectional Feminist Contrastimentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Neither is there a conception of structural conditions necessary for their attainment, as they are generally analysed primarily at the level of the individual. In contrast, a CR analysis encourages us to explore enabling conditions at both levels, which we did following the DREI(C) method (Bygstad & Munkvold 2011;Danermark et al 2002). First, we described (D) the expected benefits suggested by extant literature (Table 1) of using the Internet for enterprise activities.…”

Section: The Value Of a Cr Perspective And Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assuming the relevance of both various external and internal resources to successful entrepreneurial activity (Jayawarna et al 2014;Jones et al 2013) and following established critical realist method (Bygstad & Munkvold 2011;Danermark et al 2002), we organised and theoretically redescribed these conditions into two groups. First, social resource access (external or structural): material, financial, cultural and temporal resources accumulated over the life course and second, individual know-how (internal or agential): tacit knowledge such as digital and business skillsets, problem-solving skills and auto-didactic ability.…”

Section: The Value Of a Cr Perspective And Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Causal powers and generative mechanisms are sometimes used interchangeably; in this article, we refer to powers at the level of agents and mechanisms at the level of structure, defining both as processes that can produce an outcome, resulting in contingent causality in open systems (Bygstad & Munkvold 2011;Sayer 1992). Things may be sentient beings (such as a human), material (such as a computer) or discursive (such as a belief), with attendant properties and limitations, while powers/mechanisms have three states: in potential, exercised and unactualised, or exercised and actualised (Fleetwood 2009;Martin 2014 -see Table 2).…”

Section: Ontologising Digital Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emancipation through digital entrepreneurship? A critical realist analysis

2018

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Digital entrepreneurship is presented in popular discourse as a means to empowerment and greater economic participation for under-resourced and socially marginalised people. However, this emancipatory rhetoric relies on a flat ontology that does not sufficiently consider the enabling conditions needed for successful digital enterprise activity. To empirically illustrate this argument, we examine three paired cases of UK women digital entrepreneurs, operating in similar sectors but occupying contrasting social positionalities. The cases are comparatively analysed through an intersectional feminist lens using a critical realist methodological framework. By examining the relationships between digital entrepreneurship, social positionality, and structural and agential enabling conditions, we interrogate the notion of digital entrepreneurship as an emancipatory phenomenon producing liberated workers.

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Section: The Value Of a Cr Perspective And Methodsmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Methodology and Method: Cr Intersectional Feminist Contrastimentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Value Of a Cr Perspective And Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Value Of a Cr Perspective And Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ontologising Digital Entrepreneurshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Emancipation through digital entrepreneurship? A critical realist analysis

2018

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Flatpack democracy: Power and politics at the boundaries of transition

Burnett

Nunes

2021

Env Pol Gov

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This paper seeks to critically assess how “radical” sustainability approaches that challenge “mainstream” development trajectories—and politics—are crafted and contested within local government. We explore the extent to which these approaches account for a consolidation, break down or transformation of role boundaries and political identities and their implications for the politics of niche–regime dynamics. In our in‐depth study of Independents for Frome (Somerset, UK), an “independent” group who took control of the town council in 2011 and consolidated a non‐partisan approach within its administrative functions, referred to as its “Flatpack Democracy” model, we take a closer look at adversarialism and the intersection of power dynamics within local government. The findings reveal the capture of local mainstream political institutions by niche “protagonists” through an orchestration and consolidation of transition governance, woven in strategically and opportunistically into new forms of localized political identities at the niche–regime interface, which helped to create a community‐level regime of transition governance. We suggest that informal institutional capital, such as the role of personal ties can impact on legitimacy, accountability, or the validation of sustainability agendas. Our findings also advance debates on transition thresholds within “liminal transition spaces”, interstitial spaces between a previous way of knowing and doing, and a new way. Here ground rules dictating socio‐political norms are unclear, collaborative actions are potentially working at cross‐purposes and/or multiple forms of (transformative) power are exercised simultaneously at distinct moments, or instantiations of transition. That is, there remains a much‐needed theoretical debate around the fragile and imperfect processes of democratization within the everyday politics of transition management.

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Unpacking Mechanisms in Climate Resilient Agriculture Interventions

Barrett

D’Errico

Anderson

et al. 2020

New Drctns Evaluation

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The investigation of causal mechanisms has the capacity to provide donors and implementing institutions with a greater understanding of people's reasoning and reactions as they work with interventions. This chapter contributes to the literature by identifying behavioral mechanisms generated through engagement with climate‐resilient agriculture interventions within a larger livelihood project in Ethiopia. It works through the steps that enabled the study to unpack the black box between the climate‐smart interventions and the outcome of crop production. The first step was a matching‐based sampling design, following households over 3 years with six biannual surveys, and setting up a quasi‐experimental evaluation setting. The second step used the data generated from the surveys in difference‐in‐difference models to assess the impact of the intervention on crop production. Third, to gain insight into the mechanisms at work, Focus Group Discussions (FGD) were conducted with smallholder farmer project beneficiaries. The FGDs revealed what the beneficiaries themselves considered the key mechanisms generated from the intervention, thus forming the bridge between the interventions and outcome. The result was an evaluation design enabling deeper insight into attribution claims. The findings offered novel insights for policymakers about how the climate‐resilient interventions worked for the people themselves and shedding light on the inner workings of the climate‐smart technologies. Finally, they provided key stakeholders (commissioning agency and implementing organizations) with a powerful means by which to learn about the last project, so to better plan for the next iteration and improve the climate resilience of smallholder farmers.

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Identifying Generative Mechanisms through Affordances: A Framework for Critical Realist Data Analysis

Cited by 194 publications

References 46 publications

Emancipation through digital entrepreneurship? A critical realist analysis

Emancipation through digital entrepreneurship? A critical realist analysis

Flatpack democracy: Power and politics at the boundaries of transition

Unpacking Mechanisms in Climate Resilient Agriculture Interventions

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