A critical 'post' to critical realism

The aim of this paper is to initiate a dialogue between criticalrealism (CR) and what is termed a ‘post'ist perspective’.This amalgamated perspective is composed of relatively recenttransdisciplinary theoretical approaches such as poststructuralism,deconstruction, feminism and postcolonial theory. Such a conversationbetween CR and post'isms within economics has not been attemptedbefore. I shall argue that this uncommon methodological exchangeis worth pursuing, since it allows us to raise important newquestions. After the initial stage-setting, the dialogue proceedsin two parts. In the first part, aspects of CR are evaluatedusing post'ist insights. In the second part, certain underconsideredtheoretical domains in CR are highlighted. I conclude by sketchingthe outline of a possible non-universalist and strategicallyessentialist way of considering knowledge—as a ContextualSocial Political Economy praxis.