Retroductive Theorizing: A Contribution of Critical Realism to Mixed Methods Research

Abstract

Mixed methods studies in social sciences are predominantly employed to explore broad, complex, and multifaceted issues and to evaluate policies and interventions. The integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in social sciences most often follows the Peircean pragmatic approach—abductive hypothesis formation followed by deductive and inductive testing/confirmation—with limited theorizing properties. This paper contributes to the field of mixed methods research in social sciences by explicating a two-way interaction process between mixed methods data and [social] theory in a pluralistic inferencing approach espoused by critical realism—retroductive theorizing. The paper further illustrates how through retroductive theorizing, critical realism offers a more epistemologically and ontologically grounded alternative for integrating qualitative and quantitative methods compared to pragmatism.

Examining the Application of Retroductive Theorizing in Realist-Informed Studies

“…Umberto Eco (1932–2016) later conceptualized four types of abduction: over-coded, under-coded, creative, and meta-abduction (Dobson et al, 2012), which are useful at different stages in realist retroductive theorizing (Mukumbang, 2021). Over-coded abduction consists of spontaneous interpretations, whereby the underlying hypothesis is seemingly obvious based on existing knowledge.…”

“…Retroductive theorizing, as an overarching interpretive strategy, also adopts a pluralistic approach requiring an interplay of abduction, deduction, and induction but these are inextricably intertwined with both the developing theory and the data. With transcendental realism—the existence of causal powers governed by universal laws of nature—accentuating an overarching epistemological framework for realist-informed theoretical explanations, abduction provides a suitable approach to inferencing providing leverage for retroductive theorizing (Mukumbang, 2021).…”

“…While Pawson and Tilley (1997) concur with the notion of applying heuristic tools, they suggested that these heuristic tools are “ugly circumlocution” with their parts dependent on the whole. Therefore, while applying these models to analyze social situations or programs, researchers should consider their true value (Mukumbang, 2021). Most realist-informed heuristic analytic frameworks have elements of Interventions (for intervention evaluations) and social structures possessing activated generative powers—mechanisms, or the reasoning (mechanism) of targeted actors, observed outcome(s), and context elements.…”

“…In such mechanism-based theorizing, retroduction seeks to “theorize and test these hidden mechanisms, while abduction is that inventive thinking required to imagine the existence of such mechanisms” (Jagosh, 2020:122). Therefore, retroductive theorizing is typically associated with the different forms of abductive reasoning as the researcher moves back and forth between deductively and inductively obtained evidence (Mukumbang, 2021). In tandem, abduction and retroduction contribute to formulating theoretical explanations in realist-informed research based on evidence obtained using various relevant research methods.…”

Launch of the JHTR Featured Section “Insight & Foresight”: Inspire “Homegrown” Theorizing in Hospitality and Tourism Research

“…The process of creating kernel theorizing is ontologically akin to what Downward and Mearman (2007) called retroductive theorizing. Retroduction is an overarching logical method, and an empirical process of formulating a theory through collecting concrete phenomena to reconstruct the basic conditions for causal understanding (Lawson, 1997; Meyer & Lunnay, 2013; Mukumbang, 2021). Retroductive theorizing entails: (1) the emergent theory gleaning phase when interpretations of meanings (conceptual) are attributed to observations (descriptive); and (2) the construction theory developing phase when relationships among elements are identified through deduction and induction to refine the theory.…”