The Realist Lens - For Researchers Who Keep It Real

What happens when realist approaches meet other research traditions, disciplines and ways of knowing? And how can researchers work across different assumptions about evidence, causation, truth, knowledge and equity without flattening, absorbing or privileging one tradition over another? In this thoughtful conversation, Alejandro is joined by Dr Kenneth Yakubu, whose work sits at the intersection o...

How can realist evaluation help us understand health systems, inequality, and social change in marginalised and ecologically sensitive contexts? And what happens when realist thinking moves beyond academic projects and becomes part of long-term, participatory work with communities? In this insightful conversation, Alejandro is joined by Dr Prashanth N Srinivas, a public health researcher and healt...

How can realist synthesis help us understand digital forums, online communities, and living libraries? And what happens when lived experience, story sharing and peer support take place in dynamic online or hybrid spaces where safety, connection and meaning are constantly being negotiated? In this insightful and reflective conversation, Alejandro is joined by Dr Paul Marshall, Research Associate at...

How can realist evaluation help make sense of government policy, complexity, and decision-making? And what happens when realist ideas move beyond academic journals and into fast-moving, politically shaped, resource-stretched environments where people need answers quickly? In this insightful and practical conversation, Alejandro is joined by Finlay Green, an evaluation and policy practitioner with...

How can realist approaches help us understand culturally safe, community-led healthcare? And how can storytelling, lived experience, and clinical practice come together to make research more responsive and relational? In this rich and reflective conversation, Alejandro is joined by Dr Katherine Zippel, a General Practitioner, DPhil student at the University of Oxford, and researcher working at the...

What role can the arts play in recovery? And how can realist approaches help us understand the deeper processes behind healing, identity, and lived experience? In this creative and thought-provoking conversation, Alejandro is joined by Dr Louisa Peters, a researcher who brings together psychology, community arts, and realist thinking. Louisa’s work draws on her background in musicology, community...

What makes physiotherapy such a complex, context-dependent practice, and how can realist approaches help us better understand what works, for whom, and why? In this insightful and grounded conversation, Alejandro isjoined by Dr Leah Morris, a physiotherapist, senior lecturer, and realist researcher working at the University of the West of England. Leah’s work spans academia, teaching and supportin...

What makes medication management in older people with dementia such a complex challenge, and how can realist approaches help us make sense of it? Alejandro is joined by Professor Ian Maidment, whose career spans over two decades in pharmacy practice, mental health, and dementia care, alongside leading NIHR-funded realist research. Ian shares his journey from NHS pharmacist to realist researcher, e...

What makes realist evaluation so valuable in global health, and what does it take to apply it meaningfully? In this rich and reflective conversation, Alejandro is joined by Assistant Professor Brynne Gilmore, whose career has taken her from community health programmes in East Africa to leading realist research and mentoring PhD students at University College Dublin. Brynne shares how she first dis...

In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Dr Robert Sandler, medical doctor and recent PhD graduate from the University of Sheffield, to explore how realist evaluation can help make sense of major changes in healthcare. Rob shares his doctoral research examining the impact of ETI for people with cystic fibrosis in the UK, a treatment that has rapidly transformed health outcomes a...

In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Michele Wood, art psychotherapist in palliative care and part-time PhD researcher at Lancaster University, to explore what it really means to undertake a realist PhD alongside work, life, and personal commitments. Michele shares her journey into doctoral research after more than 30 years in clinical practice, where her interest in the rol...

In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Dr Gareth Wiltshire, sociologist and critical realist scholar at Loughborough University, to unpack realist thematic analysis, a method designed to move qualitative analysis beyondsurface-level patterns and into causal explanation. Gareth shares his intellectual journey into critical realism and explains how realist thematic analysis emer...

In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Sebastian Lemire, evaluator and methodological pluralist, to explore one of the most contested questions in contemporary realist inquiry: Is the realist trial a methodological impossibility, or a rare but viable unicorn? Drawing on his extensive experience in theory-based evaluation and a review of published realist trials, Sebastian shar...

In this episode of The Realist Lens, Alejandro is joined by Dr Kerryn O’Rourke, public health researcher, realist evaluator, and Co-Lead of the Realist Research, Evaluation and Learning Initiative at Charles Darwin University, to explore what it really means to do realist work across cultures ethically, methodologically, and epistemologically. Kerryn shares her journey from nursing and frontline p...

In this episode, Alejandro is joined by Dr Pragati Hebbar, dentist, public health researcher, realist evaluator, and Assistant Director at the Institute of Public Health, Bangalore to explore what it looks like to transition from clinical practice into policy, embrace complexity, and use realist approaches to make sense of real-world implementation. Pragati walks us through the journey that led he...

In this episode, Alejandro is joined by Dr. Sara Dada, global health researcher, newly appointed Ad Astra Fellow at University College Dublin, and the mind behind a truly ambitious realist PhD. Sara walks us through what it means to build an entire doctoral thesis around realist principles: from developing initial programme theories, to conducting a realist review and realist evaluation in Zambia,...

In this episode, Alejandro sits down with Professor Joanne Greenhalgh, one of the core members behind the RAMESES standards — the evolving benchmarks that have shapedrealist evaluation and realist synthesis across the world. Joanne shares the story of how the standards came to life, their role in guiding quality and reporting in realist work, and why they were designed to evolve rather than prescr...

Alejandro sits down with Dr Esther de Weger and Dr Natascha van Vooren to unpack the evolving world of realist configurations, from the classic CMO (Context–Mechanism–Outcome) to newer variations like SCMO, ICMO, and beyond. Following on from last week's episode on CMOs, in this lively, reflective conversation, Esther and Natascha draw on their PhD experiences and current research to explore h...

Alejandro sits down with Andrew Harding, Lecturer in Health Inequalities at Lancaster University, to unpack one of realist research’s most defining ideas: Context–Mechanism–Outcome (CMO) configurations. In this lively and practical conversation, Andy reflects on his decade-long realist journey, from PhD student to supervisor, sharing how CMOs have evolved from textbook theoryto hands-on analytic t...

Alejandro sits down with Ray Pawson, Emeritus Professor at the University of Leeds and one of the founding thinkers behind realist evaluation and realist synthesis. In this landmark conversation, Ray reflects on nearly three decades of realist evaluation and realist synthesis, from its beginnings in the 1990s to its role today across healthcare, policy, and social research. Together, they explore...

Alejandro sits down with Suzanne Jackson, Associate Professor Emerita at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. Suzanne has been a pioneer in participatory research for decades, and her work has shaped how realist approaches can be applied in complex community and health promotion contexts. Together, they dive into the art (and challenge) of linked coding of context–mechani...

Alejandro sits down with Zoe McCormack, a PhD researcher at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, whose very first PhD paper, a realist review , has just been published. Together, they dive into the art (and challenge) of building programme theory in realist research. From defining what programme theory really means, to navigating the messy process of scoping and refining ideas in complex educ...

How do you choose the right analytical strategy for a realistevaluation — and why does it matter so much? In this thoughtful and practical conversation, Alejandro isjoined by Steffen Bohni, Director General of Denmark’s National Research Centre for the Working Environment, to explore the critical role of analytical strategies in realist evaluation and synthesis. With over 25 years in evaluation, S...

What does it really mean to generalise in realist research? How do we move from rich, contextual description to insights that are genuinely transferable? In this mind-expanding episode, Alejandro is joined by Assistant Professor Dimitri Renmans — health systems researcher and co-founder of the All-Realist Group — to unpack the challenge of generalisation without falling into the trap of purely sta...

What is a realist interview, really? How do we design interviews and focus groups that go beyond collecting stories to actually testing and refining theory? In this engaging and thought-provoking episode, Alejandro is joined by Professor Ana Manzano — a leading thinker in realist methodology — to unpack exactly that. From the roots of theory-driven interviewing to the practical realities of asking...