Four planes of social being: more connections

Adverse mortality and morbidity effects of the huge oil spills in Bayelsa State, Niger Delta, illustrate the value of critical realism’s four planes of social being for organising complex findings and for combining large- and small-scale data sets. These planes cover every aspect of being human: bodies in relation to nature; interpersonal relations; larger social relations and structures; and inner human being in the mental-social-embodied personality. Chapter 5 also considers critical realist approaches to managing data-analysis: laminated systems analysis; interdisciplinary research and policy-making; critical realist theories about interdisciplinarity; overcoming barriers to interdisciplinarity, and interdisciplinary commitments. The detailed examples are about improving the physical health of people with a diagnosis of serious mental illness, and feminist-informed counselling after sexual assault.