Table 1 The stages in an explanatory research based on critical realism (Danermark et al. 2002 , p 109–111)

Stage 1: Description

An explanatory social science analysis usually starts in the concrete. We describe the often complex and composite event or situation we intend to study. In this we make use of everyday concepts. An important part of this description is the interpretations of the persons involved and their way of describing the current situation. Most events should be described by qualitative as well as by quantitative methods.

Stage 2: Analytical resolution

In this phase we separate or dissolve the composite and the complex by distinguishing the various components, aspects or dimensions. The concept of scientific analysis usually alludes to just this (analysis = a separating or dissolving examination). It is never possible to study anything in all its different components. Therefore we must in practice confine ourselves to studying certain components but not others.

Stage 3: Abduction/theoretical redescription

Here we interpret and redescribe the different components/aspects from hypothetical conceptual frameworks and theories about structure and relations. This stage thus corresponds to what has been described above as abduction and redescription. The original ideas of the objects of study are developed when we place them in new contexts of ideas. Here several different theoretical interpretations and explanations can and should be presented, compared and possibly integrated with one another.

Stage 4: Retroduction

Here the different methodological strategies described above are employed. The purpose is for each one of the different components/aspects we have decided to focus on, to try to find the answers to questions like: What is fundamentally constitutive for the structures and relations(X), highlighted in stage 3? How is X possible? What properties must exist for X to be what X is? What causal mechanisms are related to X? In the concrete research process we have of course in many cases access to already established concepts supplying satisfactory answers to question of this type. In research practice, stages 3 and 4 are closely related.

Stage 5: Comparison between different theories and abstractions

In this stage on elaborates and relative explanatory power of the mechanisms and structures which have been describe by means of abduction and retroduction within the frame of stage 3 and 4. (This stage can also be described as part of stage 4.) In some cases one might conclude that one theory – unlike competitive theories – describes the necessary conditions for what is to be explained, and therefore has greater explanatory power. In other cases the theories are rather complementary, as they focus on partly different but nevertheless necessary conditions.

Stage 6: Concretization and contextualization

Concretization involves examining how different structures and mechanisms manifest themselves in concrete situations. Here one stresses the importance of studying the manner in which mechanisms interact with other mechanisms at different levels, under specific conditions. The aim of these studies is twofold: first, to interpret the meanings of these mechanisms as they come into view in a certain context; second, to contribute to explanations of concrete events and processes. In these explanations it is essential to distinguish between the more structural conditions and the accidental circumstances. This stage of the research process is of particular importance in applied science.