Metatheory for the Twenty-first Century ─ Critical Realism and Integral Theory in Dialogue

In the fall of 2011, Integral Institute and the Integral Research Center hosted the Critical Realism & Integral Theory Symposium at John F. Kennedy University, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The event was dreamed up by Roy Bhaskar and Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, was envisaged with the intention of bring together scholars associated with each approach to explore the points of connection and divergence between Critical Realism and the philosophy of meta-Reality on the one hand, and Integral Theory on the other.

The symposium has catalyzed the re-visioning of Integral Theory in important ways that seem to be fashioning a whole new evolutionary trajectory for the field, and Critical Realism has been impacted as well. There have already been a variety of meaningful collaborative outcomes and engagements between the members of the symposium from both communities, and the momentum is only building.

In short, exciting things are happening and momentum is building as Critical Realism and Integral Theory continue to interface and impact each other in ways that are accelerating the theoretical development and application of both. This volume will highlight the ways in which the planet’s two most sophisticated metatheories are joining forces to transform scholarship and address the most pressing global challenges of the 21st- century—from climate change to the global economic crisis to terrorism and emergent geo-political relations.

Roy Bhaskar (1944-2014) is the chief architect of the philosophy of critical realism. He died while this book was in preparation.

Sean Esbjorn-Hargens is the founder of MetaIntegral, a network of organizations that apply integrative metatheories to global challenges. He is also the executive editor of theJournal 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, where he is conducting emancipatory social research into the philosophical, cultural, and psychological dimensions of climate change.

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