Subtle realism is a philosophical position within social science that, along with other forms of realism, stands opposed to naïve realism and various forms of relativism and scepticism.[1][2] The term was coined by Martyn Hammersley.[3]
Its central issue is the relationship between the investigator and the phenomena being studied: are those phenomena and their characteristics independent of the process of inquiry, or is the character of what is investigated determined, structured, or shaped by the research? Subtle realism insists that phenomena are independent, but that knowledge of them is always constructed by the investigator—rather than, for example, being logically derived from sense impressions. It also asserts that social inquiry cannot reproduce phenomena, or capture their essence, but can only produce answers to particular questions about them.[4]
There are many concepts of realism, such as metaphysical realism, epistemological realism, internal realism, and critical realism.[5][6][7] As with these other examples, subtle realism involves a contrast with rejected alternatives, in this case not just with forms of anti-realism but also with naïve realism. The latter is the idea that knowledge must be a direct product of contact between an investigator and an independently existing reality, this contact taking place via the senses or by some other direct means. A corollary of naïve realism is that, without such immediate contact, no knowledge is possible.[8]
^Hammersley, M. (1998) What's wrong with ethnography? Methodological explorations, London, Routledge, Ch 3.
^Hammersley, M. (1992) Reading Ethnographic Research, Second edition, London, Longman, Ch 3.
^See, for example:
Brewer, John (2011) "Ethnography", in Robert L. Miller & John Brewer (eds) The A–Z of Social Research: A Dictionary of Key Social Science Research Concepts (pp. 99–102), London, Sage, p. 101: "What one might call 'post postmodern ethnography' advocates the possibility and desirability of systematic ethnography and remains rooted in weaker versions of realism. The best example would be Martyn Hammersley's notion of 'subtle realism'."
Fincham, B., Langer, S., Scourfield, J., & Shiner, M. (2011) "Lessons for Prevention", in Understanding Suicide (pp. 168–186), London, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 168: "Hammersley (1992) has coined the term 'subtle realism' and Bhaskar 'critical realism' to convey the idea that researchers can convey truths about social phenomena whilst also maintaining a critical perspective on the constructed nature of the available evidence."
MacDonald, R., & Marsh, J. (2005) Disconnected Youth? Growing up in Britain's Poor Neighbourhoods, London, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 45: "Nor, however, would we follow those social theorists who would 'deny there is something beyond the accounts that people give' (May, 1993: 107): that is, the constructionist position that holds that interviews are only really of value in understanding the discursive and conversational techniques used by people to create accounts. Our position is, we think, close to what Hammersley calls 'subtle realism' (1992: 53)."
Mays, N., & Pope, C. (2020) "Quality in Qualitative Research", in Catherine Pope & Nicholas Mays (eds) Qualitative Research in Health Care (pp. 211–233), Fourth edition, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons, p. 216: "The role of qualitative and quantitative research is thus to attempt to represent that reality rather than to imagine that 'the truth' can be attained. Hammersley calls this subtle realism."
Scanlan, L., Douglas, G., Robinson, M. G., Butler, I., & Murch, M. (2003) Divorcing Children: Children's Experience of Their Parents' Divorce, London, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, p. 14: "Shaw suggests that children's accounts must bear some relation to our 'approximate understanding of real social conditions' (p.27), displaying what Martyn Hammersley calls 'subtle realism' (Hammersley 1992)."
^Hammersley, M. (1992) What's Wrong with Ethnography?, London, Routledge, Chs 1 and 3.
^Porter, Sam (2011) "Realism", in Robert L. Miller & John Brewer (eds) The A–Z of Social Research: A Dictionary of Key Social Science Research Concepts, London, Sage.
^Maxwell, Joseph A. and Mittapalli, Kavita (2015) "Realism as a Stance for Mixed Methods Research", in Abbas Tashakkori and Charles Teddlie (eds) SAGE Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social & Behavioral Research, Thousand Oaks CA, Sage.
^Madill, Anna (2012) "Realism", in Lisa M. Given (ed.) The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, Thousand Oaks CA, Sage, pp. 732–735.
^Hammersley, M. (1992) What's Wrong with Ethnography?, London, Routledge, Ch 3.
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