- Title
- Dialectical critical realism and cultural historical activity theory (CHAT): Exploring and expanding learning processes in sustainable agriculture workplace contexts
- Creator
- Mukute, Mutizwa
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- text
- Type
- book chapter
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/436996
- Identifier
- vital:73322
- Identifier
- ISBN 9781315660899
- Identifier
- https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Realism-Environmental-Learning-and-Social-Ecological-Change/Price-Lotz-Sistka/p/book/9780367597689
- Description
- Sustainable agriculture (its learning, practice and development) is becoming increasingly important in Africa and globally be-cause of its potential to reduce social ecological risks while simultaneously enhancing related sustainability and resilience. Against this background, the objectives of the study forming the basis of this chapter were to explore and expand the learn-ing and practice of sustainable agriculture in three research sites in southern Africa. This paper focuses on how the author worked with critical realism to underlabour Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to address the research objectives. Us-ing a multiple case study approach, the author worked with 80 farmers, extension workers, sustainable agriculture facilitators and researchers and organic marketers to explore and expand their learning and practice of three kinds of sustainable agricul-ture: permaculture, organic farming and the Machobane Farm-ing System (MFS). In particular the author made use of critical realism’s dialectics, multiple layers of reality and causal expla-nation, double hermeneutics, and modes of inference to deep-en data generation, analysis and use. Working with critical real-ism enabled the study to: (a) pay attention to causal mecha-nisms and power relations; (b) provide explanatory critique; (c) achieve in-depth ‘exploration’ through inductive, abductive and retroductive analysis; and (d) overcome the constructivist limi-tations of CHAT. Critical realism also enabled the mobilization of research participants’ agency and reflexivity to respond to the socio-ecological issues and risks that they were facing. The author concluded that critical realism can be effectively used to underlabour constructivist and epistemological theo-ries for ontological depth; and to help understand and tackle contemporary social ecological issues.
- Format
- 22 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Routledge
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Mukute, M., 2015. Dialectical critical realism and cultural historical activity theory (CHAT): Exploring and expanding learning processes in sustainable agriculture workplace contexts. In Critical realism, environmental learning and social-ecological change (pp. 190-211). Routledge
- Rights
- Publishers
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)
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