It is important to notice that realist (or critical realist) evaluation does not supply or even prescribe methodological instruments for data collection and analysis. Pawson and Tilly (1997) emphasise that realist evaluation (and, inevitably, CR evaluation) is a framework, rather than a technique. It is method-neutral and can be applied to a range of research methods and
approaches. At the same time, critical realism, too, is not associated with any specific methods (Fletcher, 2017). It allows for methodological pluralism and even encourages it, and researchers have considerable latitude in choosing methods most suitable for the research objectives (see Porpora, 2016b). Iosifides (2017), for example, argues that both quantitative and qualitative methods of academic inquiry should be applied in CR studies, as they offer different ways of exploring different aspects of a single reality. Quantitative methods are useful for discovering
26 Tendential predictions must not be mistaken for inductive predictions. Multiplicity of causal mechanisms existing and interacting in an open system makes these predictions rather inexact, but as Fleetwood (2014a, p.210) nicely puts it, “it is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong”.
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tendencies and demi-regularities, whereas qualitative methods are needed to explore what causal mechanisms account for these tendencies and how.
Although practically all research methods can be compatible with CR, it remains rather unspecified as to how, exactly, they should be applied to explore the stratified world (Yeung, 1997; Ackroyd and Karlsson, 2014). Indeed, despite a substantial body of literature on CR philosophy and theory, there is little practical guidance on how CR ontology should inform data collection and analysis (see Edwards et al., 2014 for a rare exception).
CRE should begin with a theory and end with a (better) theory. Similarly, Bhaskar (1979, p.6) suggested that CR-informed studies should begin with initial theories that should be then empirically tested, critiqued and refined: “Once a hypothesis about a generative structure has been produced in social science it can be tested quite empirically, although not necessarily quantitatively”. In other words, existent theories are not taken for granted. They are used to form assumptions and expectations that need further elaboration. No single piece of research is
capable of identifying and exploring all causal mechanisms influencing the event (Elder-Vass, 2010a). Instead, researchers should focus on those that seem particularly important (or
interesting) and explain how they operate and intertwine to produce the outcomes. The previous chapters provided a review of existing theories and studies to enhance the
researcher’s understanding of skilled migrants’ careers. It started with an enquiry into works of Margaret Archer and identified reflexivity as the principal mechanism of interest for this thesis. Then other literature27 was considered to identify and discuss a range of structural and cultural mechanisms important for realisation of reflexive career projects. These mechanisms were discussed within two groups – skilfulness and social capital. Also, various agential responses to contextual factors were considered. In effect, the review of the previous studies (Chapter 3) was governed by retroductive and retrodictive reasoning in order to form assumptions about what mechanisms account for skilled migrants’ career projects and how they do it. For example, it was established that degrees in some subjects may be more or less valuable depending on the current supply and demand for skills on the labour market.
The next step is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the research setting (Chapter 5). An extended case study of structural and cultural conditions in which the respondents’
pursued their career interests had been undertaken (Burawoy, 1998). The objective was to locate careers within national, local and historical contexts to “connect the present to the past in
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anticipation of the future” (Burawoy, 1998, p.5). This approach is compatible with the logic of CR: connecting “the present to the past” is an essential element of retroduction and retrodiction. Further, once causal mechanisms are identified and explained, it becomes possible to suggest tendential predictions “in anticipation of the future”. Data from statistical records, industry reports, media, academic works, informal conversations with local recruiting specialists and the researcher’s own experience of life and work in the region was used to gain a more nuanced insight into how the mechanisms operated in the North-East of England and how these shaped career experiences. The main purpose was to track any idiosyncrasies, search for context-specific mechanisms and to overall complete and improve expectations formed at stage one (Chapter 3). The study then proceeded to empirically explore the expectations and to test them against the ‘real’ career stories. Interviews – arguably the most common method in social science – were used to gather intensive data about individual career projects. The interviews were qualitative and semi-structured to ensure an opportunity to retrodict pre-identified mechanisms (explain how they work), whereas also allowing for retroduction (discovery) of new causalities.
Interviews as a research method are not beyond criticism. Kvale (1994) considers ten most common objections to qualitative interviews. Many of these objections are raised from an objectivist standpoint, claiming that interviews are subjective, biased, not scientific, not
generalizable, person-dependent, based upon leading questions, lacking rigour and so on. None of them, however, poses a grave problem from a point of view of CR. Science is not reduced to quantifiable studies and rigour should not be understood exclusively as statistical rigour (see also Harley, 2015). Furthermore, all methods are fallible (see O’Mahoney and Vincent, 2014) and subjectivity is inherent to social science (Sayer, 2011).
As emphasized in this chapter, previous theories, experiences and knowledge (expectations) are not regarded as hindrances, but rather as valuable resources upon which empirical studies rest (see also Bergene, 2007). The task for CR-informed research is not to produce absolute or objective knowledge, but to generate an account of events, experiences, phenomena and causalities underpinning them. How exactly this thesis utilized interviews for this purpose will be elucidated in the upcoming sections. For now, it is enough to stress that interviewing individuals has been accepted as an adequate tool for CR enquiries into a complex and multi- layered social reality (Smith and Elger, 2014). For example, Archer’s two principal books on reflexivity, Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation (2003) and Making Our Way
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intensive qualitative interviews. Having presented the methods of data collection used in this study, this chapter now turns to introduce the interviews participants.