Pragmatist-critical realism as a development studies research paradigm

Pragmatism and critical realism have been proposed as research philosophies that can be used by development studies researchers as alternatives to the dominant but criticized positivism and constructivism. Pragmatism and critical realism themselves have identified shortcomings for which a number of possible responses have been proposed, including the combination of some elements from each. In this paper, we explore what it would mean not to fully integrate the two but to bring together complementary aspects as a new research paradigm: ‘pragmatist-critical realism’. We review the philosophical nature of this complementary form but the main contribution here is to show how it could be operationalized. We outline a four-step operational methodology for pragmatist-critical realism based on the Fairwork action research project that has sought to improve working conditions for platform workers in global South countries. We argue that pragmatist-critical realism could provide a useful foundation for development studies research – particularly action-oriented research – and we encourage other development studies researchers to assess whether it could form a facilitative basis for their future research.