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 emerged as a response to longstanding binaries in qualitative research, between positivist and interpretivist approaches, and between descriptive coding and explanatory theory-building.The conversation explores how experiential, inferential, and dispositional themes work together to support generative causal explanation, helping researchers move from what participants say, to what can be inferred, and ultimately to what must exist for those experiences to occur.Drawing on examples from sport, volunteering, and qualitative interviewing, Gareth explains how realist thematic analysis supports methodological coherence, interpretive rigour, and transparency while remaining flexible and usable for applied researchers.This episode is essential listening for anyone grappling with qualitative analysis in realist, critical realist, or complexity informed research particularly PhD students and early career researchers navigating how to analyse data without losing ontological depth.

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