ABSTRACT
This chapter begins a more specific examination into the explanatory and transformative powers of critical realism, focusing on the problematic of climate change, and in particular on global warming. It will be argued that critical realism can gain in transformative power as a theory, methodology and indeed practiceinforming approach to ameliorative action, by developing a theory of ‘articulation’, borrowed initially from British cultural studies, and also by becoming more aware of the symbolic and political power in how language operates through utilizing critical discourse analysis. The argument will first summarize the advantages of critical realism and then take the current perceived threat of global warming as the starting point to attempt to show, as a thought experiment initially, how we, as critical realists or something very close to it – through our schools, places of work, media, places of worship, secular organizational and institutional life, as well as in our wider cultural practices – may hope to transmit through our scientific and social-scientific research and other practices a more adequate understanding of the problem of global warming and what social action is needed.
