Critical realism as an underpinning philosophy for the implementation of digital twins for urban management

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical realism
• digital twins
• urban management
• focus groups
• philosophical worldviews

Acknowledgements

Special thank you to all focus groups participants for their time and valuable contributions. Research obtained approval from Northumbria University Ethics Review Committee, approval reference 28462.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We appreciate the input of an anonymous reviewer in referring to this definition and how it links improving the technology to enabling better future.

2 Saturation is the point at which no more new insights are gained (Krueger 2014). In this paper, that is when no new philosophical worldviews are articulated.

3 We appreciate the input of an anonymous reviewer in highlighting relational north-south perspective and planetary limits.

4 We appreciate the input of an anonymous reviewer in clarifying the implications of ‘holistic causality’ for theory and practice of digital twins.

5 This argument is inspired by Andrew Collier’s (2004) discussions in Realism, relativism and reason in religious belief.