Understanding Social Research: Thinking Creatively About Method - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184860145X ISBN 13: 9781848601451

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2010

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Authors

Jennifer Mason is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester.

Angela Dale is Director of the Census Microdata Unit and Professor of Quantitative Social Research at the University of Manchester.

 

 

From the Back Cover

Focussing on three key areas in the social sciences, this book draws together contributors from a variety of areas who use a range of methodological approaches to present the reader with an inspirational guide to understanding and using methods and approaches in their research.

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 184860145X
• ISBN 13: 9781848601451
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264
• Editor: Mason Jennifer, Dale Angela