This article aims to contribute to the methodological discussion initiated by Pawson and Manzano-Santaella (2012). It proposes a possible elaboration of the ‘trio of explanatory components’ (Pawson and Tilley, 1997: 77) used as a strategy in realist evaluation – the Context-Mechanism-Outcome configuration (CMOc). This temporarily diverts attention away from social programs to focus on the pre-existing context of action and related mechanisms that may be operating within it. It draws on the conceptual and theoretical guidance offered in Roy Bhaskar’s Transformational Model of Social Action (TMSA) and elaborated later by Margaret Archer in Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. The article concludes by articulating how the CMOc elaboration complements the work on realist evaluation.
Al-AmoudiIWillmottH (2011) Where constructionism and critical realism converge: interrogating the domain of epistemological relativism. Organization Studies32 (1): 27–46.
2.
ArcherMS (1985) The myth of cultural integration. The British Journal of Sociology36: 333–53.
3.
ArcherMS (1995) Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4.
ArcherMS (1996) Culture and Agency: The Place of Culture in Social Theory (Revised Edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ArcherMS (1998b) Addressing the cultural system. In: ArcherMBhaskarRCollierALawsonTNorrieA (eds), Critical Realism: Essential Readings. London: Routledge, 503–43.
7.
ArcherMS (2000) Being Human: The Problem of Agency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8.
ArcherMS (2003) Structure, Agency and the Internal Conversation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
9.
ArcherMS (2005) Structure, culture and agency. In: JacobsMDHanrahanNW (eds), The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Culture. Oxford: Blackwell, 17–34.
10.
ArcherMS (2007a) The trajectory of the morphogenetic approach: an account in the first-person. Sociologia: Problemas e Práticas54: 35–47.
11.
ArcherMS (2007b) Making Our Way through the World: Human Reflexivity and Social Mobility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
12.
ArcherMS (2010a) Morphogenesis versus structuration: on combining structure and action. The British Journal of Sociology61(S1): 225–52.
13.
ArcherMS (2010b) Conversations about Reflexivity. London: Routledge.
14.
ArcherMSElder-VassD (2012) Cultural system or norm circles? An exchange. European Journal of Social Theory15: 93–115.
15.
AstburyBLeeuwF (2010) Unpacking black boxes: mechanisms and theory building in evaluation. American Journal of Evaluation31(3): 363–81.
16.
BarnesMMatkaESullivanH (2003) Evidence, understanding and complexity: evaluation in non-linear systems. Evaluation9(3): 265–84.
17.
BhaskarR (1998) The Possibility of Naturalism: A Philosophical Critique of the Contemporary Human Sciences, 3rd edn.Florence, KY: Routledge.
18.
BhaskarR (2008) A Realist Theory of Science. New York: Routledge.
19.
BhaskarR (2011) Reclaiming Reality: A Critical Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy. London: Routledge.
20.
ByngRNormanIRedfernS (2005) Using realistic evaluation to evaluate a practice-level intervention to improve primary healthcare for patients with long-term mental illness. Evaluation11(1): 69–93.
21.
CleggS (2005) Evidence-based practice in educational research: a critical realist critique of systematic review. British Journal of Sociology of Education26(3): 415–28.
22.
CollierA (1994) Critical Realism: An introduction to Roy Bhaskar’s Philosophy. London: Verso.
23.
ConnellyJB (2007) Evaluating complex public health interventions: theory, methods and scope of realist inquiry. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice13: 935–41.
24.
MarchalBDedzoMDKegelsG (2010) A realist evaluation of the management of a well-performing regional hospital in Ghana. BMC Health Services Research10: 24.
25.
MarchalBVan BelleSVan OlmenJHoeréeTKegelsG (2012) Is realist evaluation keeping its promise? A review of published empirical studies in the field of health systems research. Evaluation18(2): 192–212.
26.
McGrailE (2006) ‘It’s a double-edged sword, this technology business’: Secondary English teachers’ perspectives on a schoolwide laptop technology initiative. Teachers College Record108(6): 1055–79.
27.
PawsonR (2002) Evidence-based policy: the promise of ‘Realist Synthesis’. Evaluation8(3): 340–58.
28.
PawsonR (2006) Evidence-Based Policy: A Realist Perspective. London: SAGE.
PawsonRGreenhalghTHarveyGWalsheK (2005) Realist review – a new method of systematic review designed for complex policy interventions. Journal of Health Services Research and Policy10(S1): 21–34.
34.
PorporaDV (2007) On Elder-Vass: refining a refinement. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour37: 195–200.
35.
PorterSO’HalloranP (2012) The use and limitation of Realistic Evaluation as a tool for evidence-based practice: a Critical Realist perspective. Nursing Inquiry19(1): 18–28.
36.
SayerA (1992) Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach. London: Routledge.
37.
SayerA (1997) Critical realism and the limits to critical social science. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour27(4): 473–88.
38.
WillmottR (2000) The place of culture in organization theory: introducing the morphogenetic approach. Organization7(1): 95–128.
