Cargando…

What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation

BACKGROUND: The idea that underlying, generative mechanisms give rise to causal regularities has become a guiding principle across many social and natural science disciplines. A specific form of this enquiry, realist evaluation is gaining momentum in the evaluation of complex social interventions. I...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Dalkin, Sonia Michelle, Greenhalgh, Joanne, Jones, Diana, Cunningham, Bill, Lhussier, Monique
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25885787
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-015-0237-x
_version_ 1782368072088158208
author Dalkin, Sonia Michelle
Greenhalgh, Joanne
Jones, Diana
Cunningham, Bill
Lhussier, Monique
author_facet Dalkin, Sonia Michelle
Greenhalgh, Joanne
Jones, Diana
Cunningham, Bill
Lhussier, Monique
author_sort Dalkin, Sonia Michelle
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The idea that underlying, generative mechanisms give rise to causal regularities has become a guiding principle across many social and natural science disciplines. A specific form of this enquiry, realist evaluation is gaining momentum in the evaluation of complex social interventions. It focuses on ‘what works, how, in which conditions and for whom’ using context, mechanism and outcome configurations as opposed to asking whether an intervention ‘works’. Realist evaluation can be difficult to codify and requires considerable researcher reflection and creativity. As such there is often confusion when operationalising the method in practice. This article aims to clarify and further develop the concept of mechanism in realist evaluation and in doing so aid the learning of those operationalising the methodology. DISCUSSION: Using a social science illustration, we argue that disaggregating the concept of mechanism into its constituent parts helps to understand the difference between the resources offered by the intervention and the ways in which this changes the reasoning of participants. This in turn helps to distinguish between a context and mechanism. The notion of mechanisms ‘firing’ in social science research is explored, with discussions surrounding how this may stifle researchers’ realist thinking. We underline the importance of conceptualising mechanisms as operating on a continuum, rather than as an ‘on/off’ switch. SUMMARY: The discussions in this article will hopefully progress and operationalise realist methods. This development is likely to occur due to the infancy of the methodology and its recent increased profile and use in social science research. The arguments we present have been tested and are explained throughout the article using a social science illustration, evidencing their usability and value.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4408605
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-44086052015-04-25 What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation Dalkin, Sonia Michelle Greenhalgh, Joanne Jones, Diana Cunningham, Bill Lhussier, Monique Implement Sci Debate BACKGROUND: The idea that underlying, generative mechanisms give rise to causal regularities has become a guiding principle across many social and natural science disciplines. A specific form of this enquiry, realist evaluation is gaining momentum in the evaluation of complex social interventions. It focuses on ‘what works, how, in which conditions and for whom’ using context, mechanism and outcome configurations as opposed to asking whether an intervention ‘works’. Realist evaluation can be difficult to codify and requires considerable researcher reflection and creativity. As such there is often confusion when operationalising the method in practice. This article aims to clarify and further develop the concept of mechanism in realist evaluation and in doing so aid the learning of those operationalising the methodology. DISCUSSION: Using a social science illustration, we argue that disaggregating the concept of mechanism into its constituent parts helps to understand the difference between the resources offered by the intervention and the ways in which this changes the reasoning of participants. This in turn helps to distinguish between a context and mechanism. The notion of mechanisms ‘firing’ in social science research is explored, with discussions surrounding how this may stifle researchers’ realist thinking. We underline the importance of conceptualising mechanisms as operating on a continuum, rather than as an ‘on/off’ switch. SUMMARY: The discussions in this article will hopefully progress and operationalise realist methods. This development is likely to occur due to the infancy of the methodology and its recent increased profile and use in social science research. The arguments we present have been tested and are explained throughout the article using a social science illustration, evidencing their usability and value. BioMed Central 2015-04-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4408605/ /pubmed/25885787 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-015-0237-x Text en © Dalkin et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Debate
Dalkin, Sonia Michelle
Greenhalgh, Joanne
Jones, Diana
Cunningham, Bill
Lhussier, Monique
What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation
title What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation
title_full What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation
title_fullStr What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation
title_full_unstemmed What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation
title_short What’s in a mechanism? Development of a key concept in realist evaluation
title_sort what’s in a mechanism? development of a key concept in realist evaluation
topic Debate
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4408605/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25885787
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13012-015-0237-x
work_keys_str_mv AT dalkinsoniamichelle whatsinamechanismdevelopmentofakeyconceptinrealistevaluation
AT greenhalghjoanne whatsinamechanismdevelopmentofakeyconceptinrealistevaluation
AT jonesdiana whatsinamechanismdevelopmentofakeyconceptinrealistevaluation
AT cunninghambill whatsinamechanismdevelopmentofakeyconceptinrealistevaluation
AT lhussiermonique whatsinamechanismdevelopmentofakeyconceptinrealistevaluation