Upcoming seminars - Autumn 2024
1. Critical Realism - A Conversation with Professor Alpesh Maisuria & Dr Grant Banfield
Abstract
Critical Realism is a broad movement within the philosophy of science. Its historical origins lie in the social and cultural upheavals of the post-WWII in the West, which saw science not only pushed in post-positivist directions but also pressed into the questioning of its traditional disciplinary boundaries. However, from these historical conditions of possibility, the unique path taken by critical realism flowed directly (but not exclusively) from the ground-breaking work of Roy Bhaskar and his bold revindication of ontology. For Bhaskar, the ‘holy trinity’ of critical realism (ontological realism, epistemic relativism, and judgemental rationality) made it possible for science to be an emancipatory force: to underlabour scientific practice so that it would (i) recognise and eliminate oppressive social relations and (ii) work to replace such relations with to enable humans to flourish.
In this presentation, Alpesh and Grant will provide an overview of the conceptual and ethical architecture of critical realism. The content will be delivered so that it will appeal to newcomers to critical realism, as well as to those already familiar with it. They will then discuss how they have used critical realism in their respective works and draw on examples from their recent co-edited book: Working with Critical Realism (Routledge, 2023). Finally, they will address the issue of where to now for critical realism/ists to facilitate a progressive historical moment in today’s de-humanised world. In doing so, they will be inviting participants to join in on the conversation.
Speakers
Alpesh Maisuria is Professor of Education Policy in Critical Education, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. Through underlabouring Marxism with Critical Realist philosophy of science, his work examines the ideological and political drivers of policy decisions to critique education in (re)producing forms of inequality. Alpesh is the Joint Deputy Editor of Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (JCEPS) and is an organiser of the International Conferences on Critical Education (ICCE). Alpesh has an extensive publications record and in 2022 he edited the Encyclopaedia of Marxism and Education – the first book of its kind. His co-edited book - Working with Critical Realism (2023) with Grant Banfield was nominated for the Cheryl Frank Memorial prize. Alpesh is also a Academic Parliamentary Fellow in the House of Commons, where he is a specialist in schools' policy. In this role he provides research and information to MPs, parliamentary staff, and the Education Select Committee to effectively scrutinise the executive.
Grant Banfield has been a university academic, educator and activist for more than 35 years. He researches and writes in the fields of sociology and the political economy of education. His particular interests flow from the development of Bhaskarian critical realism as a conceptual underlabourer to Marxian praxis. Critical Realism for Marxist Sociology of Education (Routledge, 2016) and Working with Critical Realism (Routledge, 2023 – with Alpesh Maisuria) are signposts of this work. After retiring in 2019 as a full-time academic at Flinders University Grant took a position as an adjunct scholar at the University of South Australia. His current research projects include: (i) Education for Social Inclusion: Vocational Education and Training Programs in South Australia (with Dr Juan Ramón Rodríguez-Fernández, University of León, Spain) and (ii) Structures of Governance and Indigenous Engagement Strategies in Australian Society (with Mr Tim Agius, Chair of Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation.
2. Leslie Huckfield, Open University Scotland - details TBC
Past Seminars from Current Series: Critical Realism
- Critical Realism and International Development: Some Implications for Research, Policy and Practise - Professor Leon Tikly, University of Bristol
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Critical Realism and International Development: Some Implications for Research, Policy and Practice
Wednesday 01st May 12.00-13.00 GMT - CGD Critical Realism Seminar - Professor Leon Tikly, University of Bristol
The presentation will discuss the relevance of the philosophy of critical realism for international development and explore some of the implications for research, policy and practice. The presentation starts with a critique of dominant research paradigms in international development, including empiricism and interpretivism, and makes the general case for a 'third way' offered by critical realism. In outlining the philosophy of critical realism, attention will focus on how ontology, epistemology, causality, ethics, structure and agency are conceived. Attention will then turn to the implications of the discussion for research, policy and practice in international development. A case will be made for transdisciplinarity and knowledge co-creation between researchers, policymakers, practitioners and the intended beneficiaries of research as a basis for tackling the complex, 'wicked' problems of unsustainable development. In this way, it will be argued research can contribute to more impactful and ethically informed processes of policy and practice.
Event Recording:
Past Seminar Series: Mindfulness
- Mindfulness (-based Cognitive Therapy) for Life Ancient Wisdom meets Modern Psychology in the Contemporary World - Professor Willem Kuyken, University of Oxford
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Mindfulness (-based Cognitive Therapy) for Life Ancient Wisdom meets Modern Psychology in the Contemporary World
Wednesday 22nd November 2023 16.00 GMT - CGD Mindfulness Seminar - Professor Willem Kuyken, University of Oxford.
Depression will directly affect more than 1 billion of the world’s population, is a leading cause of disability adjusted life years, one of the main risk factors for suicide, as well as causing untold human suffering. This presentation will briefly overview the story to date of cognitive-behavioural (CBT) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). This will include the key milestones over >20 years of definition, theory, innovations in research methods, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and implementation. Most importantly, we have learned that CBT is an effective psychological treatment, MBCT provides a cost-effective approach to helping people to prevent depression and that both can be integrated into mainstream mental health services. But we have also seen a growing evidence base suggesting that MBCT can promote mental health and well-being in the wider population and potentially across the lifespan. How can this work best evolve to meet its full potential? How can we unlock all that we have learned to use these psychological approaches as a vehicle to create a world without the devastating effects of depression, where people enjoy mental health and well-being and are resourced to meet the challenges of the next 50 years?
Event Recording:
Recommended additional reading:
Saxbe, D. (2023) 'This Is Not the Way to Help Depressed Teenagers', The New York Times, 18 November. Available here (Accessed 15th February 2024).
- Mindfulness as Political Object and Democratic Opportunity - Dr Will Leggett, University of Birmingham
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Mindfulness as Political Object and Democratic Opportunity
Wednesday 29th November 2023 16.00 GMT - CGD Mindfulness Seminar - Dr Will Leggett, University of Birmingham.
While the Mindfulness phenomenon tends not to be thought of as ‘political’, I present it as exemplifying the politics of individualised social practices. Those who do read Mindfulness politically can be quite polarised: between critics who dismiss it as the embodiment of neoliberal self-help ideology, and advocates who invest it with inherently progressive possibilities. I argue it is perhaps more productive to think of Mindfulness in relation to its broader democratic potential – as a rich resource for cultivating the open-ended democratic subjectivities and spaces within which such ideological contestation – politics – plays out. In this respect, the civic educational potential of Mindfulness is significant.
Event Recording:
- Critical Social Mindfulness: Foundations and Emergent Practices for a New Mindful Deal - Professor David Forbes, City University of New York
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Critical Social Mindfulness: Foundations and Emergent Practices for a New Mindful Deal
Wednesday 06th December 2023 16.00 GMT - CGD Mindfulness Seminar - Professor David Forbes, City University of New York
Progressive social critics call out certain mindfulness practices as McMindfulness—the unmindful focus on individualistic stress reduction, self-regulation, and personal wellness that ignores neoliberal and racist social contexts, and the root sources of the stress, unhappiness, and lack of well-being people experience. These practices unwittingly reinforce a self-centred neoliberal society that regards people as privatized, competitive selves who feel compelled to meet their needs through the market and constantly improve their personal brand, instead of social beings.
This seminar will look at some conventional mindfulness practices in K-12 schools that risk adjusting students to social inequities, rather than working collaboratively to identify, resist, challenge, and transform them. It will explore whether the purpose of mindfulness to adjust people to “the way things are” in society, increase personal happiness, reduce stress, and promote conventional success and productivity? Or is it for the transformation of ourselves and society, to help us recognize our social nature, strive for moral, universal development, and overcome social injustices and end suffering?
In this seminar, I will describe some psychological, social, and moral foundations for an alternative critical social mindfulness in schools and then suggest ways we can address these issues in more transformative ways. As an emergent perspective and practice, a critical social mindfulness sees personal development as inseparable from identifying and challenging social and educational inequities with others, and through the commitment to both personal and social transformation may help us create an evolved, compassionate, equitable society for all.
As a counsellor educator David taught School Counselling in the School of Education at Brooklyn College/CUNY for nineteen years. While there he wrote about his experience teaching and practicing mindfulness with a Brooklyn high school football team in his book, Boyz 2 Buddhas: Counselling Urban High School Male Athletes in the Zone (2004) and was a co-recipient of a Contemplative Program Development Fellowship from the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.
His latest book is Mindfulness and its Discontents: Education, Self, and Social Transformation (2019). He co-edited the Handbook of Mindfulness: Culture, Context, and Social Engagement (Springer, 2016) with Ron Purser, with whom he co-produced the podcast, The Mindful Cranks.
David is a member of the UK-based Mindfulness and Social Change Network from which he is featured on a website, “Being Mindful of our World: A Collection of Social Mindfulness Voices.” He has written and co-written articles in their series on Open Democracy.net/ Transformation: Mindfulness and Social Change. He is a member of the multidisciplinary academic network, Popular Psychology, Self-Help Culture, and the Happiness Industry.
Event Recording: