Research

Understanding Qualitative Research and Ethnomethodology provides a discussion of qualitative research methods from an ethnomethodological perspective. Detailed yet concise, Paul ten Have's text explores the complex relation between the more traditional...

Survey Research can be used as an independent guide or as a workbook to accompany Keith F Punch's bestselling Introduction to Social Research (SAGE, 1998). It represents a short, practical `how-to' book on a central methodology technique aimed at the...

Public sociology-an approach to sociology that aims to communicate with and actively engage wider audiences-has been one of the most widely discussed topics in the discipline in recent years. The Handbook of Public Sociology presents a comprehensive look...

The literature on methodological individualism is characterized by a widely held view that if the doctrine were stated with sufficient care it would be seen to be trivially true. Professor Bhargava questions this view. He begins by carefully...

Learn how to conduct a robust text analysis project from start to finish--and then do it again. Mining is the dominant metaphor in computational text analysis. When mining texts, the implied assumption is that analysts can find kernels of truth--they...

Single system, or single case, design studies are a convenient method for evaluating practice, allowing professionals to track clients' response to treatment and change over time. They also allow researchers to gather data where it might be difficult to...

During the last decade there have been major advances in research in child welfare, the largest specialty within social work. The focus of this research has been on improving current child welfare practices and programs that protect children from abuse...

The social sciences have seen a substantial increase in comparative and multi-sited ethnographic projects over the last three decades. Yet, at present, researchers seeking to design comparative field projects have few scholarly works detailing how...

The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Policing, Communication, and Society brings together well-regarded academics and experienced practitioners to explore how communication intersects with policing in areas such as cop-culture, race and ethnicity,...

`As a companion to Foucault′s original texts, carefully showing what he′s done and why - and how that could be applied elsewhere - it′s outstanding′ - www.theory.org.uk `Very much a `hands-on′ tool kit of a book, scholarly but accessible.... a very...

SPSS for Windows is the most widely used computer package for analyzing quantitative data. In a clear, readable, non-technical style, this book teaches beginners how to use the program, input and manipulate data, use descriptive analyses and inferential...

`If there is a single question that presses upon the intellect of the current generation of social scientists, it is surely: "what do the great insights of social theory imply for the way we conduct research and write about the social world?"...

An essential companion for students across the social and health sciences, this text provides a wide-ranging coverage of qualitative methods complemented by extended illustration from the array of academic disciplines in which qualitative research is...

This is a book for any researcher using any kind of survey data. It introduces the latest methods of assessing the quality and validity of such data by providing new ways of interpreting variation and measuring error. By practically and accessibly...

This book represents a major contribution to the development and increasingly accepted importance of involving service users in research. It argues that this development is neither a fad nor a cure-all, and highlights the strengths, weaknesses, benefits...

This exciting collection is both useful and timely. It clearly lays out the problems, strategies and resources associated with the teaching of quantitative methods in modern universities. Addressing the perceived 'crisis of number' in a practical and...

The United States census provides researchers, students, and the public with some of the richest and broadest information available about the American people. Exploring the U.S. Census by Frank Donnelly gives social science students and researchers alike...

Publishing research content can be a difficult task to undertake along with other academic activities. This book addresses how newer researchers can proactively plan, write, promote and disseminate their work, and increase their chances of both academic...

A timely manual in the current climate of increasingly underfunded departments and institutions, this book offers insight into how to secure, manage and effectively research funding in the changing order of global economy and competing research...

The amount of data produced, captured and transmitted through the media has never been greater. But for this data to be useful, it needs to be properly understood and claims made about or with data need to be properly scrutinized. Through a series of...

Mentorship can be a rewarding experience for both the mentor and the mentee. Within this context, this book provides guidance on how to set up mentorship programmes in your institutions, and the skills of an effective mentor, including: * Mentorship...

Reflecting the latest developments in the field, The Practice of Health Program Evaluation, Second Edition provides readers with effective methods for evaluating health programs and offers expert guidance for collaborating with stakeholders involved in...

In Using Conversation Analysis, David Greatbatch and Timothy Clark introduce the key elements of conversation analysis, an increasingly prominent form of business research analysis, which involves analysing audio and visual recordings of naturally...

Written by internationally renowned experts, each chapter provides a full introduction to a key aspect of research methodology. From starting out to generating, analysing, and presenting data, this new edition covers foundational concepts in social...

Focused on actively using systematic review as method, this book provides clear, step-by-step advice on the logic and processes of systematic reviewing. Stressing the importance of precision and accuracy, this new edition carefully balances a need for...

For experienced and inexperienced researchers and practitioners alike, this engaging book opens up new perspectives on conducting fieldwork in the Global South. Following an inter-disciplinary and inter-generational approach, Understanding Global...

Reflexivity - the critical examination of how we see the world - is integral to good research practice. From this state-of-the-art, accessible tour of its history and contemporary relevance, readers will learn of its importance to social research and to...

This is a clear introduction to the methodological and philosophical debates in the field of education research. It sets out the key ideas, questions, and dilemmas which inform all research and then, through the careful use of case studies and practical...

Discourses and narratives are crucial in how we understand a world of rapid changes. This textbook constitutes a unique introduction to two major influential theoretical and methodological fields - discourse and narrative methods - and examines them in...

How do you turn a really good idea into a really good question, and how do you turn this into successful research? Barbara Fawcett and Rosalie Pockett use their expertise as supervisors and researchers to provide you with the frameworks and the...

Fresh, insightful and clear, this exciting textbook provides an engaging introduction to the application of qualitative methodology in the real world. Expert researchers then trace the history and philosophical underpinnings of different methodologies,...

In the new edition of Introduction to Social Research, Keith Punch takes a fresh look at the entire research process, from formulating a research question to writing up your research. Covering qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods, the book focuses...

A Companion to Survey Research provides a critical overview and guide to survey methods. Rather than a set of formulas, survey design is understood as a craft where the translation of research questions into a questionnaire, sample design and data...

The second edition of Interpreting Quantitative Data with IBM SPSS Statistics is an invaluable resource for students analysing quantitative data for the first time. The book clearly sets out a range of statistical techniques and their common...

Integrating Analyses in Mixed Methods Research goes beyond mixed methods research design and data collection, providing a pragmatic discussion of the challenges of effectively integrating data to facilitate a more comprehensive and rigorous level of...

The SAGE Handbook of Survey Development and Application provides a practical resource that researchers can go to for cutting-edge tools to ensure they are employing the best survey research techniques. This handbook not only covers the classic and...

The development and widespread use of Web surveys have resulted in an outpouring of research on their design. In this volume, Tourangeau, Conrad, and Couper provide a comprehensive summary and synthesis of the literature on this increasingly popular...

Social movement studies have grown enormously in the last few decades, spreading from sociology and political science to other fields of knowledge, as varied as geography, history, anthropology, psychology, economics, law and others. With the growing...

Offering students and researchers in the behavioural and social sciences a brief and accessible introduction to the comparative method, it is ideal for students of public administration, policy, sociology, political science, social psychology, and...

How can programs and organizations ensure they are adhering to core principles--and assess whether doing so is yielding desired results? From evaluation pioneer Michael Quinn Patton, this book introduces the principles-focused evaluation (P-FE) approach...