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Understanding Social Research
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Understanding Social Research
Thinking Creatively about Method

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December 2010 | 264 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Jennifer Mason and Angela Dale's book seeks to set out cutting-edge developments in the field of social research and to encourage students and researchers to consider ways of learning from different approaches and perspectives in such a way as to make their own research richer, more insightful and more rewarding.

Social Researching brings together a wide variety of research methods - both qualitative and quantitative - to help students and researchers to consider the relative benefits of adopting different approaches for their own research work.

The authors clearly identify the most appropriate methods for different research questions and also highlight areas where it might be fruitful to compliment different methods with each other or exploit creative tensions between them. The book is therefore a highly practical guide which also seeks to draw readers outside their methodological comfort zones.

This book includes:

- Critical coverage of issues in research design;

- Expert experience in many methodological fields;

- An overview of the many different ways to approach similar research problems;

- Coverage of the tensions between different methodological approaches;

- Examples of excellence in research design and practice;

- An examination of how to turn methodological tensions into richer research practice.

The methods covered include highly innovative, 'cutting-edge' approaches and they are demonstrated in terms of their transferability between the different social sciences. This inter-disciplinary approach is complimented by a wide range of strategically chosen examples which demonstrate the authors' pragmatic and creative take on research design.

Jennifer Mason and Angela Dale
Creative Tensions in Social Research: Questions of Method
 
PART ONE: RESEARCHING RELATIONSHIPS AND PERSONAL LIFE
Jennifer Mason and Katherine Davies
Experimenting with Qualitative Methods: Researching Family Resemblance
Stephen Frosh and Lisa Saville Young
Using Psychoanalytic Methodology in Psychosocial Research: Researching Brothers
Rachel Thomson
Using Biographical and Longitudinal Methods: Researching Mothering
Nick Crossley
Using Social Network Analysis: Researching Relational Structure
Angela Dale
Using Survey Data: Researching Families and Households
 
PART TWO: RESEARCHING PLACE
Penny Harvey and Hannah Knox
Ethnographies of Place: Researching the Road
Simon Guy and Andrew Karvonen
Using Sociotechnical Methods: Researching Human-Technological Dynamics in the City
Sarah Salway, Kaveri Harriss and Punita Chowbey
Using Participatory, Observational and 'Rapid Appraisal' Methods: Researching Health and Illness
Danny Dorling and Dimitris Ballas
Innovative Ways of Mapping Data about Places
 
PART THREE: RESEARCHING CHANGE
Mike Savage
Using Archived Qualitative Data: Researching Socio-cultural Change
Jeffrey Weeks
What's History Got to Do with It? Researching Sexual Histories
Anne Rogers
Using Qualitative Methods to Complement Randomized Controlled Trials: Researching Mental-Health Interventions
Jane Elliott
Exploring the Narrative Potential of Cohort Data and Event History Analysis
James Nazroo
Using Longitudinal Survey Data: Researching Changing Health in Later Life

Nice broad coverage of social science methods

Professor Toby Ten Eyck
Sociology Dept, Michigan State University
December 3, 2013

Excellent approach for student learning.

Professor Barb LaRue
Health Human Services Programs, Baker College of Port Huron
May 26, 2011

Good overview of method.

Dr Paul Shelton
Schl of Business, George Fox Univ
March 21, 2011

For instructors

Please contact your Academic Consultant to check inspection copy availability for your course.

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ISBN: 9781848601451
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SAGE Research Methods is a research methods tool created to help researchers, faculty and students with their research projects. SAGE Research Methods links over 175,000 pages of SAGE’s renowned book, journal and reference content with truly advanced search and discovery tools. Researchers can explore methods concepts to help them design research projects, understand particular methods or identify a new method, conduct their research, and write up their findings. Since SAGE Research Methods focuses on methodology rather than disciplines, it can be used across the social sciences, health sciences, and more.

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