Original, fresh and relevant this is a theoretically-informed practical guide to researching social relations.
The text provides a mixed methods approach that challenges historical divisions between quantitative and qualitative research. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach to social science research, drawing from areas such as sociology, social psychology and social anthropology.
Explicitly addressing the concerns of emergent researchers it provides both a 'how to' account of social research and an understanding of the main factors that contextualize research by discussing 'why do' social scientists work this way.
Throughout the twelve comprehensive chapters procedural (how to) accounts and contextual (why do) issues are usefully applied to major themes and substantive questions.
These key themes include:
(1) Research design
(2) The practices of research and emergent researchers: Beyond ontology, epistemology and methodology
(3) The impact of technology on research
(4) Putting the research approach in context.
A superb teaching text this book will be relished by lecturers seeking an authoritative introduction to social research and by students who want an accessible, enriching text to guide and inspire them.
Industry Reviews
Finally a Social Research textbook that provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the field, one that considers the origins of approaches and addresses epistemological and ethical contexts, and offers thoughtful discussion of and practical guidance on both quantitative and qualitative methods. This book will prove to be an invaluable resource for students and teachers and deserves to become the benchmark for texts in the field Barry Smart Professor of Sociology, University of Portsmouth This book does an important job in providing an excellent methods textbook which is organized around Charles Ragin's distinction between case and variable centred methods and draws explicitly on the social realist frame of reference in presenting arguments and instruction. Those of us who teach undergraduates on research methods courses now have available a textbook which in an accessible way takes students through the repertoire of social research approaches drawing on the most innovative ways of thinking about what social research is trying to achieve Professor David Byrne School of Applied Social Sciences, Durham University This is an ambitious book that delivers the goods. It provides a comprehensive overview of a wide range of the main approaches to social science research. It avoids the simplistic quantitative/qualitative divide and provides a useful way of thinking about the various research approaches. It achieves that difficult balance between a practical, how-to book and one which provides a deeper understanding of what the research approaches are doing. The breadth provided in this book will enable researchers to wisely chose between research approaches according to the nature of the problem and the understanding they seek to achieve Professor David de Vaus Executive Dean, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Queensland
