Considerable academic debate surrounds the use of methodological frameworks in the social sciences. Traditionally, the positivist school has been instrumental in structuring the means by which research was conducted. More recently however realist philosophy has been used as the foundation for challenging the differing forms of empiricist research. This paper considers how a realist methodology differs from the traditional school. It highlights how the role of the academic can be extended beyond the collection of basic aggregate data and emphasises the importance of actual events to both observable and non-observable structures.