Purpose: Critical realism is an increasingly popular "lens" through which complex events, entities and phenomena can be studied. Yet detailed operationalisations of critical realism are at present relatively scarce. This study's objective here is built on existing debates by developing an open systems model of reality, a basis for…

In times of globalisation of higher education, alternative theoretical and methodological approaches were introduced in the field of comparative higher education research. To stimulate the debate on this issue, this paper firstly addresses them theoretically by combining the concept of institutional isomorphism and the 'glonacal' analytical…

Discusses the recent wave of mass sociopolitical mobilization in Eastern Europe. Argues that the models and methods developed after the 1960s have made it difficult for Western students to understand recent movements in the East. Compares waves of mobilization such as the Civil Rights Movement in the United States with incomplete waves of…