Critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for the implementation of digital twins for urban management
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21159403 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ramy Elsehrawy (0000-0002-4931-2166, Architecture and Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, corresponding author), Bimal Kumar (0000-0002-2539-4902, Architecture and Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK), Richard Watson (0000-0002-5190-4662, Northumbria University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 187-223 |
| Publication date | 2024-03-14 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Critical Realism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1476-7430 • E-ISSN: 1572-5138 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14767430.2023.2301277 |
| OpenAlex | W4390909417 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 41 |
This paper promotes critical realism as a suitable and fruitful philosophical foundation for the development and implementation of urban digital twins. The proliferation of a-theoretical digital twin research and practices, not declaring their philosophical positions, is threatening the scientific soundness of this new paradigm and offers little evidence for reflecting on the knowledge it produces. To address this issue, first, this paper uses focus group discussions to explore digital twin experts’ perceptions of digital twin best practices for urban management and uncover the philosophical worldviews underlying these perceptions. A philosophical worldview is a general orientation about the world that is described in terms of ontological and epistemological assumptions and views on human nature. The inferred philosophical worldviews are then compared with critical realism principles, supporting the argument that critical realism provides a suitable philosophical foundation for digital twin practices in urban management envisaged by participating experts, as well as enhancing current forms of digital twin practice
Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Perception · Philosophical methodology · Philosophical realism · Philosophy of science · Political science · Realism · Sociology · Soundness · Underpinning · Computer Science · Engineering · Law · Philosophy · Public Policy and Administration Research · Smart Cities and Technologies
Economics and Reality
The New Science of Cities
Interdisciplinarity and Climate Change
Prediction, Regressions and Critical Realism
Realism, relativism and reason in religious belief
Reconstructing Sociology
Why Things Matter to People
Why we need theory in the organization sciences
Urban management’ in development assistance
The management of urban development, or the development of urban management? Problems and premises of an elusive concept
New Challenges for Urban Governance
A reflection on critical realism and ethics
Research Design
Explaining Society
Method in Social Science
Realist social theory
A Realist Theory of Science
Data-driven urban management
The Feeling of Numbers
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |