Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century: Critical Realism and Integral Theory in Dialogue

Metatheory for the 21st Century is one of the many exciting results of over four years of in-depth engagement between two communities of scholar-practitioners: critical realism and integral theory. Building on its origins at a symposium in Luxembourg in 2010, this book examines the points of connection and divergence between critical realism and integral theory, arguably two of the most comprehensive and sophisticated contemporary metatheories. The Luxembourg symposium and the four more that followed explored the possibilities for their cross-pollination, culminating in five positions on their potential for integration, and began the process of fashioning a whole new evolutionary trajectory for both integral theory and critical realism. The contributors to this book bring together critical realism and integral theory in order to explore the potential of this collaboration for the advancement of both. Highlighting the ways in which these metatheories can transform scholarship and address the most pressing global issues of the 21st century, this book will be of interest to students, scholars and practitioners in the areas of metatheory, philosophy, social theory, critical realism, integral theory and current affairs more generally.

Roy Bhaskar (1944-2014) was the chief architect of the philosophy of critical realism and the author of many acclaimed and infl uential works, including A Realist Theory of Science, The Possibility of Naturalism, Scientific Realism and Human Emancipation, Reclaiming Reality, Philosophy and the Idea of Freedom, Dialectic: The Pulse of Freedom, Plato Etc., Reflections on meta-reality and From Science to Emancipation. Prior to his death, while this book was in preparation, he was founding chair of the International Centre for Critical Realism and World Scholar at the UCL Institute of Education, University of London.

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens is the founder of MetaIntegral, a network of organizations that apply integrative metatheories to global challenges. He is also the executive editor of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice and editor of the SUNY Series in Integral Theory.

Nicholas Hedlund is executive director of the Integral Research Center (www.integralresearchcenter.org) and a PhD researcher at University College London, Institute of Education (University of London), where he is conducting emancipatory social research into the philosophical, cultural and psychological dimensions of climate change.

Mervyn Hartwig is founding editor of the Journal of Critical Realism and principal author and editor of the Dictionary of Critical Realism.