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Realist Evaluation: Principles and Practice offers a comprehensive exploration of contemporary realist evaluation, showcasing how skilled practitioners navigate diverse fieldwork contexts.Authored by experts spanning academia and evaluation backgrounds across five continents in fields including climate change, criminology, health, and international development, the book provides a rich tapestry of perspectives. Covering participatory approaches, digital and visual data collection, interpreter-mediated interviews, and innovative methods like refuse data analysis, the authors delve into contemporary social research methodologies while addressing issues such as power, insider/outsider research, the nature of evidence, critical and scientific realism philosophies of science, and confirmation bias in qualitative research. Practical advice is provided in areas such as developing a topic guide, combining a realist review with an evaluation, and managing large, multi-site cross-national projects. This collection underscores the creative nature of the realist imagination, highlighting ongoing innovations by scholars and evaluators.With contributions from an outstanding group of internationally renowned experts in realist evaluation including Nick Tilley, a key figure in the development of realist evaluation alongside Ray Pawson, this is the ideal text for students, researchers and professionals including policy makers, professional evaluators, and those at organisations such as thinktanks and NGOs, who require an accessible guide on how to use realist evaluation methods.

‘Situational Analysis'represents Karl Popper's methodological proposal for the social sciences. Although it has been widely studied and interpreted, this book argues that Situational Analysis remains underestimated and undeveloped and, if properly reformulated, could yet become a broad methodological framework that encompasses both the ‘historical'social sciences and a large section of the ‘theoretical'social sciences.The first part of this book develops this idea by returning to Popper's texts. This book calls for both a reformulation of Situational Analysis and a clarification of the status and role of Popper's ‘Rationality Principle'. This book also develops Situational Analysis by addressing two aspects of the Problem-Situation facing individual actors that are only sketched out in Popper's work: institutions and expectations. The second part of this book utilizes the reformulated version of Situational Analysis to shed light on the core methodological differences across some of the most widespread approaches in contemporary economics and sociology. In particular, by showing that many of these approaches are variants of the reformulated version of Situational Analysis presented in the first part of this book, this book argues that apparent methodological differences across these approaches may be reinterpreted as differences in the way social scientists reconstruct the Problem-Situation facing individual actors.This book will be vital reading for academic economists, sociologists, philosophers of science, and other social scientists interested in methodology.

This volume explores how researchers made innovative use of online technologies to innovate, define, and transform research methodologies in light of the varying impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially those related to the ability to conduct qualitative research.The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a radical shift in the way that people all over the world were/have been able to live, work, study, and conduct their daily lives. Academics and other professionals who routinely engage in research were no exception. The sudden, continued, and uneven need for health mandates calling for physical distancing added a particular layer of complexity for those who used research methods that typically required face-to-face interactions. Continued technological developments associated with the Internet had already given rise to ongoing debates on innovative methodological thinking and practices. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accentuated how indispensable the internet has become for the private and public lives of those with access to it, including for their employment, education, leisure, and social interactions. For those fortunate enough to have access to them, communication software such as Zoom and Google Meet have also become indispensable digital resources for researchers seeking to continue conducting research during lockdowns and quarantines, and beyond. More than ever, researchers are finding it useful, even necessary, to equip themselves with online research tools in order to be able to continue conducting their fieldwork.Drawing on research and case studies from around the world, this volume serves as a guidebook for those interested in attuning their own research methods to a world still struggling to grapple with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent decades social cohesion has emerged as a major concern of states, policymakers and researchers. Social cohesion is represented as a desirable policy goal and as the basis for everything from economic growth to individual well-being. At the same time, it is increasingly presented as a single substance, which can be measured, tracked, and compared across diverse societies. But why should we think of the complex ways in which we can live well together in terms of a single substance? Social Cohesion Contested challenges this way of thinking, suggesting that social cohesion has become a buzzword that obscures more than it illuminates.Dan Swain and Petr Urban trace the rise of the concept through the policy agendas of transnational and international bodies, and analyze the reactions of social researchers to the demands of policymakers for a clear and operationalizable concept. They argue that the term is frequently used in a way that assumes broad understanding and agreement, while in practice it is subject to contradictory definitions and often loaded with various implicit and explicit values, which become masked behind a veneer of scientific authority and normative legitimacy. The more that social cohesion is treated as a single substance with a clear and uncontroversial meaning, the more it narrows the space for debate and contestation around both the policies adopted in its name and the understanding of the social on which it rests. In contrast, if social cohesion is to mean anything it ought to be understood explicitly as a contested concept, and actively subject to contestation. The book thus provides not only a critique of a popular concept, but an example of engaged philosophical criticism of social research and policy.

This timely and informative book reasserts the value of Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR): an approach to participatory action research (PAR) that is informed by critical theories attending to questions of privilege and power, and that generates collaborations focused on challenging structural inequality.The authors, writing explicitly from Minority World perspectives, are experienced researcher-practitioners who have worked with communities in the UK, USA, South Africa, Australia, India, and Colombia over many years. They offer an assessment, exploration, and illustration of CPAR at this point in time, outlining how the approach has evolved over time and space. Exploring its roots in strands of critical thought including postcolonialism, anti-imperialism, feminism, antiracism, queer theory, and Indigenous ontologies, the book asks how PAR is being critically re-engaged to maintain its commitment to greater justice and transformational change. Each chapter provides a rich case study of how these theories inform current collaborations and offers reflection on the entanglements of power that come with attempting CPAR in different institutional and geopolitical contexts. Their examples show that critical interrogation of PAR practices may lead to innovative and impactful outcomes for those involved, as well as new theoretical and substantive research findings.The collection will be of especial interest to students and researchers across the social sciences and humanities, as well as those working outside universities, who are interested in developing or extending their use of CPAR.

Non-Experimental Data, Hypothesis Testing, and the Likelihood Principle: A Social Science Perspective argues that frequentist hypothesis testing - the dominant statistical evaluation paradigm in empirical research - is fundamentally unsuited for analysis of the non-experimental data prevalent in economics and other social sciences. Frequentist tests comprise incompatible repeated sampling frameworks that do not obey the Likelihood Principle (LP). For probabilistic inference, methods that are guided by the LP, that do not rely on repeated sampling, and that focus on model comparison instead of testing (e.g., subjectivist Bayesian methods) are better suited for passively observed social science data and are better able to accommodate the huge model uncertainty and highly approximative nature of structural models in the social sciences. In addition to formal probabilistic inference, informal model evaluation along relevant substantive and practical dimensions should play a leading role. The authors sketch the ideas of an alternative paradigm containing these elements.

Ideal for graduate students and more seasoned qualitative researchers, this is the first guide to writing and publishing in a range of both scholarly and popular formats--from journal articles and monographs to op-eds and fictional works. Award-winning author Patricia Leavy covers everything from how to develop a unique writer's voice to how to craft a successful book proposal, understand a publishing contract, establish relationships with editors, and much more. The book is filled with effective tools for using data and theory in different genres of writing, building a profile as a scholar, and getting research findings out into the world. Instructive features throughout include “dos and don'ts,'writing prompts, annotated sample letters and proposals, excerpts from published works, and end-of-chapter writing activities.

This edited volume focuses on the changing research methodologies in social science research, prompted by the new social world shaped by the pandemic. It explores adaptations and developments to meet the demands of transforming social circumstances and showcases innovative alternative approaches.Featuring a range of international and interdisciplinary contributors who discuss the context of social science research in the'new normal', the book sets out the need to redesign research to address present-day challenges for the post-pandemic. Chapters share methodological innovations and demonstrate how applicable these new and adapted methodologies are to a world post-pandemic, discussing a wide range of innovative, digital-first research methods with practical analysis. The role of technology and its application in social science research during this transition is explored in particular, alongside new approaches to quantitative and qualitative research that feature innovations in ethnography, online data collection, and ethical protocols for research.Ultimately offering a comprehensive exploration of adaptive and innovative social science research methodologies suited to the current social context, the book will be relevant to researchers, academics, and scholars in the fields of research methods, research technologies, and the sociology of education.

This new edition of the SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research represents the sixth generation of the ongoing conversation about the discipline, practice, and conduct of qualitative inquiry. As with earlier editions, the Sixth Edition is virtually a new volume, with 27 of the 34 chapters representing new topics or approaches not seen in the previous edition, including intersectionality; critical disability research; postcolonial and decolonized knowledge; diffraction and intra-action; social media methodologies; thematic analysis, collaborative inquiry from the borderlands; qualitative inquiry and public health science; co-production and the politics of impact; publishing qualitative research; and academic survival. Authors in the Sixth Edition engage with questions of ontology and epistemology, the politics of the research act, the changing landscape of higher education, and the role qualitative researchers play in contributing to a more just, egalitarian society. To mark the Handbook's 30-year history, we are pleased to offer a bonus PART VI in the eBook versions of the Sixth Edition: this additional section brings together and reprints ten of the most famous or game-changing contributions from the previous five editions. You can bundle the print + eBook version with bundle ISBN: 978-1-0719-2874-5.

In the continuously changing field of social sciences, ethical considerations in anthropological studies pose unprecedented challenges. The book Reviving and Re-Writing Ethics in Social Research For Commoning the Community embarks on a transformative journey, moving beyond historical analysis to address pressing contemporary questions about the norms governing anthropological study. Who guards the guardians? What ethical challenges does the modern era pose for anthropological sciences? These are the critical questions explored in this comprehensive exploration of the ethical landscape of social research. As the ethical foundations of social research shift with political, intellectual, and societal changes, there is a pressing need to reassess the purpose of anthropological knowledge and the responsibility of researchers towards the communities they study. The book raises vital concerns about the evolving nature of ethical considerations, challenging traditional notions of ethical research. It highlights the ethical and axiological dilemmas faced by anthropologists in the modern era, emphasizing the need for a more community-centric approach that actively benefits the studied communities. Reviving and Re-Writing Ethics in Social Research For Commoning the Community does not analyze the problem; it offers a compelling solution. Drawing on historical perspectives and contemporary insights, the book navigates ethical dilemmas, researcher relationships, privacy, authority, and knowledge democracy. It challenges anthropologists to rethink the discipline's ethical foundations and advocates for the inclusion of marginalized voices. By providing practical examples involving migrant laborers in Malaysia and Indigenous communities in Bangladesh, the book guides researchers toward a more equitable and ethical practice of social research. It is a force that reshapes the ethical landscape of social sciences, urging a community-centric approach that aligns with modern moral and ethical standards.

In academia, the quality of research is intricately linked to the methods and tools used in the research process. Linguistics, a field at the forefront of deciphering the intricacies of language, faces a critical challenge in ensuring the robustness and reliability of its research. Without proper attention to the design and validation of research tools, the foundations of linguistic knowledge are at risk of becoming shaky, undermining the very essence of scientific inquiry. Design and Validation of Research Tools and Methodologies is a beacon of hope in the field of linguistic scholarship, enabling a comprehensive solution to the critical issue of research tool design and validation. It presents an extensive exploration of current and groundbreaking methodologies in linguistics, equipping researchers with the knowledge and tools they need to conduct rigorous and dependable research. This book is devoted to the needs of scholars, academics, and practitioners, which brings together diverse perspectives, case studies, and innovative methods. It opens a vibrant dialogue in the linguistic community and paves the way for future advancements in the field. Whether you are an experienced researcher or just beginning your academic journey, Design and Validation of Research Tools and Methodologies is your gateway to elevating the quality of linguistic scholarship, ensuring that the future of linguistics is built on a foundation of methodological excellence.

This is an open access book. 2024 10th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research（ICHSSR 2024) will be held on April 26-28, 2024 in Xiamen, China. Except that, ICHSSR 2024 is to bring together innovative academics and industrial experts in the field of Humanities and Social Science Research to a common forum. We will discuss and study about EDUCATION, SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES and other fields. ICHSSR 2023 also aims to provide a platform for experts, scholars, engineers, technicians and technical R & D personnel to share scientific research achievements and cutting-edge technologies, understand academic development trends, expand research ideas, strengthen academic research and discussion, and promote the industrialization cooperation of academic achievements. The conference sincerely invites experts, scholars, business people and other relevant personnel from universities, scientific research institutions at home and abroad to attend and exchange! The conference will be held every year to make it an ideal platform for people to share views and experiences in EDUCATION, SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES and related areas.We sincerely welcome our colleagues worldwide to join us for this conference. We look forward to seeing you in Xiamen for this exciting event!

This fascinating book provides a groundbreaking resource for innovative approaches to qualitative inquiry that address equity and justice and equip readers with tools to enact these approaches in their own work.Comprising contributions from award-winning qualitative scholars, chapters show how methodologies can be employed to address social issues and problems from the social-political milieu including education, COVID-19, racial inequalities, health inequalities, climate change, and debates around gender diversity amongst others. This book offers the new and innovative paradigms, methodologies, and methods a cutting-edge group of scholars has crafted as well as the ‘how to'so readers may employ these approaches in dissertations, grants, and various research team scholarship. Contributors reimagine the next generation of “rigorous” qualitative methodologies by pushing on the boundaries of existing methodological approaches as well as presenting new ways of engaging in research that prioritise innovation, equity and justice.This unique edited volume is aimed at students and researchers studying or using qualitative methodologies and inquiry who wish to be exposed to emergent conceptualizations and innovations regarding qualitative research methodology and its congruent methods.

The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Participatory Inquiry in Transnational Research Contexts illustrates how research guided by the emancipatory epistemology of critical participatory inquiry (CPI) can support social change in transnational contexts, which are inherently laden with unequal power dynamics and colonial structures. It builds on prior volumes in participatory action research, community-based participatory research, and decolonizing methodologies.This edited volume offers cases from across the Global South and Global North and from diverse disciplines including human rights, migration, education, health, youth studies, and development to demonstrate how CPI can fulfill its democratizing and decolonizing potential. Written primarily by new and emerging scholars, practitioners, and community leaders, these cases go on to illustrate how a critical participatory approach to transnational research can enhance the strength of research processes and findings, create more equitable and just experiences for those who participate as co-researchers, and facilitate social change.Providing a valuable framework for transnational CPI and a wealth of examples, it will be an invaluable read for undergraduate and graduate students of Development Studies, Healthcare disciplines, Education, and qualitative research. It will also be of interest to researchers, professionals, community leaders, and even funders and policymakers who want to work toward greater equity and social justice in transnational research contexts.

First published Open Access under a Creative Commons license as What is Online Research?, this title is now also available as part of the Bloomsbury Research Methods series.This book provides a concise and accessible introduction to online research, covering ethics, surveys, focus groups, ethnographies, experiments and the gathering and analysis of naturally occurring digital/big data. It also asks how researchers should use the digital environment to communicate their research and looks forward to the future of the field, asking what the next ten years hold. Online research is rarely well served by the direct translation of onsite methods onto the internet. Rather, researchers need to reflect, adapt and redesign research as they change the mode through which they conduct their research. Featuring an updated glossary, two new chapters and comprehensive updates throughout, this new edition provides new and experienced researchers with the foundation they need to conduct online research projects.

Monitoring and Evaluation of Practice and Methods in Applied Social Research is a comprehensive guide delving into the core concepts, tools, methods, and approaches of monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This book reveals the roots of M&E, illustrating its evolution from academia into a burgeoning field of science across various contexts. The challenge practitioners face lies in the inconsistent terminology used for identical concepts among humanitarian organizations, hindering the growth of M&E through shared learning. Embracing an abductive approach, this book seeks to establish M&E as distinct fields within social research. In doing so, it bridges the philosophical gap between novice and expert social researchers and provides a consolidated resource based on real-world experiences. Written by an expert with over a decade of hands-on experience in applied social research, this book serves as an invaluable tool, offering insights into the diverse landscape of M&E, enabling students and practitioners to navigate various contexts with ease. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), United Nations (UN) bodies, and organizations involved in M&E will also find this book instrumental, creating a bridge of standardized concepts, nomenclature, and approaches.

This practical book offers a guide to finding, choosing, and applying theoretical frameworks to social sciences research, and provides researchers with the scaffolding needed to reflect on their philosophical orientations and better situate their work in the existing landscape of empirical and theoretical knowledge.Using a multifaceted approach, the book provides clear definitions, primary tenets, historical context, highlights of the challenges and contemporary discussion and, perhaps more importantly, concrete and successful examples of studies that have drawn on and incorporated each theoretical framework. The authors define and explain the connections among such concepts as ontology, epistemology, paradigm, theory, theoretical frameworks, conceptual frameworks, and research methodology; describe the process of finding and effectively using theoretical and conceptual frameworks in research; and offer brief overviews of particular theories within the following disciplines: sociology, psychology, education, leadership, public policy, political science, economics, organizational studies, and business. The book also has a dedicated chapter on critical theories, and for each theory, provides a definition, explores how the theory is useful for researchers, discusses the background and foundations, outlines key terms and concepts, presents examples of theoretical applications, and gives an overview of strengths and limitations.This book offers a useful starting point for any researcher interested in better situating their work in existing conceptual and theoretical knowledge, but it will be especially useful for graduate students and early career researchers who are looking for clear definitions of complex terms and concepts, and for an introduction to useful theories across disciplines.

While all oppressions are equal, some are more equal than others. This statement, borrowed from George Orwell's Animal Farm and written and marinated to fit within and without our call for ethical research, helps us to see how contemporary research processes are singular and fail to account for the complex histories, realities and values of marginalized communities. Such a failure to account and re/member has had massive symbolic and material consequences on marginalized communities, illustrated by the number of deaths we continue to witness everyday. Those deaths have been sanctioned and authorized by the ways in which we come to know what we know and how that is imprinted in our policies and everyday existence. This book looks at knowledge production as a process of giving an account of those losses, in ways that help knowledge production to be a mechanism of remembering (cognitive) and re/membering (communi/ity or bring together/solidarity/ a form of epistemological and ontological demonstration). Ethical knowledge production becomes a process of relationship that remembers the histories, values and realities of people in ways that are transformative and political. Such an expression fails to arrive at an end, and rather recognizes knowledge production as endless production of knowledge. Such a process goes against neoliberal mechanism of commodifying knowledge for sale in the market. This edited collection attempts to engage with current qualitative research methodologies and approaches from a critically and ethically reflexive standpoint. This work seeks to unravel colonial practices that continue to hide within qualitative approaches in ways that invite a new reimagining of working within and without qualitative method/ologies. This edited collection therefore seeks to bring to the fore the lived experiences of the studied to their storied life in ways that are ethically and politically congruent. This work therefore seeks to bring forth Foucault's subterranean narratives steeped in contexts and experiences that can critically invert the dominant (colonial, capitalist, state) practices in existing research.

This anthology is a unique compilation of scientific contributions on the topic of measurement and understanding, showing how terms such as number, measurement, understanding, model, pattern are used in a wide variety of disciplines. Based on the results and experiences from their own projects, 23 researchers comment on the potentials and limitations of individual methodological approaches and success factors of interdisciplinary collaboration. In doing so, they sound out the different significance of quantification and empirical evidence for their own disciplines and examine the influence of methodological approaches on existing models and images. The common goal is to want to understand the world; the methods, however, are highly diverse.

What if we recognized that the human sciences collectively investigate a few dozen key phenomena that interact with each other? Can we imagine a human science that would seek to stitch its understandings of this system of phenomena into a coherent whole? If so, what would that look like? This book argues that we are unlikely to develop one unified'theory of everything.'Our collective understanding must then be a'map'of the myriad relationships within this large – but finite and manageable – system, coupled with detailed understandings of each causal link and of important subsystems. The book outlines such a map and shows that the pursuit of coherence – and a more successful human science enterprise – requires integration, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of different methods and theory types, and the pursuit of terminological and presentational clarity. It explores how these inter-connected goals can be achieved in research, teaching, library classification, public policy, and university administration. These suggestions are congruent with, and yet enhance, other projects for reform of the human sciences.This volume is aimed at any scholar or student who seeks to comprehend how what they study fits within a broader understanding.

This book provides an overview of the challenges and opportunities for creating positive systemic change through research for development projects, providing four real-world examples. Practical insights are offered on identifying and cultivating change agents through your projects and programs, increasing the likelihood of enduring success. Understanding and participating in these types of interventions enable researchers and practitioners to become better agents of change themselves.

Avoiding both over-simplification and jargon-riddled complexity, this book is an invaluable, straightforward guide to participatory research for you and your fellow practitioners working with community groups and organisations. The book offers a route map for co-research projects with groups and communities, taking you through each stage of the participatory research process, from planning a project to sharing the findings. Keeping in mind imperatives such as engagement and voice, the book explores how to carry out research in ways that are meaningful for communities. This book includes valuable resources such as reflection points, tasks and further reading lists, offering support to practitioners to plan and undertake participatory research projects with confidence.

Principles and Concepts of Social Research is a text covering the foundations of social science research, outlining the history and core elements of Western social research. The text covers a variety of topics, ranging from the history of scientific beliefs from Ancient Greece to the contemporary world. It outlines the basics of the development of knowledge systems and logic, the definition of science and its processes, the progression of classifying humans, and research ethics, amongst other underlying elements of research.The book has three aims: (1) to develop the reader's knowledge and understanding of social research through modes of social scientific enquiry and an evaluation of techniques of the social, cultural, and political context of its practice; (2) to increase readers'intellectual competence through a critical examination of the social, cultural, and historical characteristics of research traditions; and (3) to improve the competence of social researchers through a critical evaluation of research strategies, the problematization of science and Western social research, the issues posed by social research, and the skills needed to formulate research outputs and engagement.This book will be of use to core research units and training programs that universities provide at postgraduate level, at doctoral level, and for early career post-doctoral researchers, to develop greater understanding of issues surrounding research. In addition to its theory, the contents of the book will include questions for discussion in seminars and small group work.

This book explores how the concept of the commons can be extended through feminist intersectional perspectives. With extensive case studies on the commoning of pastoralists in Ethiopia and Germany, Jill Philine Blau investigates how social categories of difference û especially gender and age - have a structuring effect on the commons, as well as how the commons can be understood more deeply through a broader understanding of reproductivity and care.

Qualitative Researcher Vulnerability provides conceptual, experiential, and practical insights into the vulnerability of the qualitative researcher. Compared to participants'vulnerability, researcher vulnerability has seen limited attention in the qualitative research process, but yet it is an important consideration.Drawing on an interdisciplinary group of authors—across criminology, education, feminisms, geography, health, kinesiology, nursing, management and organisation, policy, political science, psychology, sociology, and qualitative inquiry writ broad—the book explores the ways in which we might understand and work with researcher vulnerability, most notably in relation to ethics, risk, empathy, emotion, and power. Ultimately, the authors suggest researcher vulnerability is a vital component of our research practices throughout the research process, for emerging as well as experienced researchers. Whilst researcher vulnerability can be something to protect against, it is also something to be aware of, explore, learn from, work with, and at times (and with care and consideration) embrace.This book is suitable for undergraduate, postgraduate students, and emerging and established researchers who are utilising qualitative research. It will be especially useful for researchers examining (potentially) sensitive topics, or for those who wish to develop more responsive, responsible, ethical, or reciprocal approaches to qualitative practices.Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.Chapter 11 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

With contributions from over 80 of the biggest names and rising stars of the field, this Handbook is an essential resource for anyone interested in the contemporary, emerging, and evolving practice of mixed methods research and scholarship. Exploring new and novel applications of existing mixed methods research design practices, the handbook provides comprehensive integration guidance while showcasing how design innovations inspire and contribute to investigating previously under-researched social issues and populations. Through its unique focus on design and the diverse contexts in which mixed methods research is being applied, this Handbook prepares researchers for the changing conditions in which they will conduct studies. Newcomers and seasoned mixed methods researchers alike will find this Handbook a go-to source for tools to think and act ‘complexively'and creatively in research design. Using accessible language and illustrative examples, this Handbook is written for those with various roles and experience in mixed methods research design. The in-depth discussions led by the interdisciplinary group of 11 internationally renowned editorial section leads project our collective thinking of mixed methods research design into the future across the following six sections: Section 1: Inspiring Diversity and Innovation in Mixed Methods Design Section 2: The Craft of Mixed Methods Research Design Section 3: Expanding Mixed Methods Design Approaches Section 4: Designing Innovative Integrations with Technology Section 5: Navigating Research Cultures in Mixed Methods Design Section 6: Exploring Design Possibilities and Challenges for Mixed Methods Research

Social Research Methods by Example sharpens students understanding of the research process and the essential research methods and tools that researchers use to perform their work on the cutting edge of the social sciences. The text is broken up into three major sections; the first provides a foundation for conducting research and forming a research question, executing an ethical approach, and drawing upon relevant theories and literature. The second provides a fully illustrated overview of different research methods including qualitative and quantitative design, constructing and administering surveys, and carrying out experiments. The authors conclude the text by considering notable current controversies and methodological changes that are impacting the discipline. The new edition offers expanded content on key statistical packages for conducting social research and takes readers behind-the-scenes of writing and presenting a research paper with annotated examples and step-by-step guidance. Far more than an introduction to the principles of social science research, this book leaves students with the skills and the applied know-how to carry out their own. It is an excellent resource for methods courses across the social sciences.

Becoming a Social Science Researcher is designed to help aspiring social scientists, including credentialed scholars, understand the formidable complexities of the research process. Instead of explaining specific research techniques, it concentrates on the philosophical, sociological, and psychological dimensions of social research. These dimensions have received little coverage in guides written for social science researchers, but they are arguably even more important than particular analytical techniques. Truly sophisticated social science scholarship requires that the researcher understand the intellectual and social contexts in which they collect and interpret information. While social science training in US graduate schools has become more systematic over the past two decades with numerous publications aimed at instruction, training and guidance still fall short in addressing the fundamental needs of this field.

Dissertation Research Methods: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Up Your Research in the Social Sciences focuses specifically on the methodology for planning, writing and submitting your dissertation thesis. Written by two methodology experts in the social sciences, the book provides a step-by-step guide through each stage of the dissertation process. It covers all aspects of the methodological considerations needed, from choosing a topic or research question, developing a literature review, identifying research gaps, accessing potential study participants, utilizing the right sampling strategies, analyzing data and writing up findings. Readers are introduced to the main research methods normally used in dissertations and their characteristics, and they are guided to choose an appropriate research method for their study, provide a substantial description of the selected method and articulate strong arguments in support of it. The book is filled with templates, exemplars and tools to help students write about methodology in their thesis and to equip readers to successfully troubleshoot any methodology challenges they may face. This compact book will be of use to all graduate students and their supervisors in the Social Sciences and Education and Behavioural Sciences who are looking for a guide to working with robust and defensible methodological principles in their dissertation research and theses.

Through a multi-methodology approach, Principles and Methods of Social Research, Fourth Edition covers the latest research techniques and designs and guides readers toward the design and conduct of social research from the ground up. Applauded for its comprehensive coverage, the breadth and depth of content of this new edition is unparalleled.Explained with updated applied examples useful to the social, behavioral, educational, and organizational sciences, the methods described are relevant to contemporary researchers. The underlying logic and mechanics of experimental, quasi-experimental, and non-experimental research strategies are discussed in detail. Introductory chapters cover topics such as validity and reliability furnish readers with a firm understanding of foundational concepts. The book has chapters dedicated to sampling, interviewing, questionnaire design, stimulus scaling, observational methods, content analysis, implicit measures, dyadic and group methods, and meta-analysis to cover these essential methodologies. Notable features include an emphasis on understanding the principles that govern the use of a method to facilitate the researcher's choice of the best technique for a given situation; use of the laboratory experiment as a touchstone to describe and evaluate field experiments, correlational designs, quasi experiments, evaluation studies, and survey designs; and coverage of the ethics of social research including the power a researcher wields and tips on how to use it responsibly.The new edition features: Increased attention to the distinction between conceptual replication and exact replication and how each contributes to cumulative science. Updated research examples that clarify the operation of various research design operations. More learning tools including more explanation of the basic concepts, more research examples, and more tables and figures, such as additional illustrations to include internet content like social media. Extensive revisions and expansions of all chapters. A fuller discussion of the dangers of unethical treatment to research participants. Principles and Methods of Social Research, Fourth Edition is intended for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses in research methods in psychology, communication, sociology, education, public health, and marketing, and further appeals to researchers in various fields of social research, such as social psychology and communication.

A state-of-the-art approach to evaluating research design for students and scholars across the social sciencesAssessing the properties of research designs before implementing them can be tricky for even the most seasoned researchers. This book provides a powerful framework—Model, Inquiry, Data Strategy, and Answer Strategy, or MIDA—for describing any empirical research design in the social sciences. MIDA enables you to characterize the key analytic features of observational and experimental designs, qualitative and quantitative designs, and descriptive and causal designs. An accompanying algorithm lets you declare designs in the MIDA framework, diagnose properties such as bias and precision, and redesign features like sampling, assignment, measurement, and estimation procedures. Research Design in the Social Sciences is an essential tool kit for the entire life of a research project, from planning and realization of design to the integration of your results into the scientific literature.A must-have resource for current and future researchers who want to learn about the properties of their designs before they implement themIncludes a library of the most common designs in the social sciencesProvides a complete declaration of the canonical design for each library entry, describes the circumstances under which the design can be strong or weak, and explores the consequences of the choices under the research designer's controlAccompanied by online resources that can be used in conjunction with the bookAn ideal textbook for graduate students and advanced undergraduates

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. This book explores analytic induction, an approach to the analysis of cross-case evidence on qualitative outcomes that has deep roots in sociology. A popular research technique in the early decades of empirical sociology, analytic induction differs fundamentally as a method of social research from conventional variation-based approaches. In Analytic Induction for Social Research, Charles C. Ragin demonstrates that much is gained from systematizing analytic induction. The approach he introduces here offers a new template for conducting cross-case analysis and provides a new set of tools for answering common research questions that existing methods cannot address.

This book is a practical guide on how to write conceptual papers and use conceptual generalization as a research methodology. Divided into two parts, the book first focuses on the scientific foundation for conceptual generalization, to identify what is a conceptual model and how conceptual models can be developed. Part two focuses on how to write a winning conceptual thesis, covering conceptual generalisation and empirical generalisation, and discusses research problems and questions, and how to analyse them.The authors cover different conceptual and analytical models to offer students a multitude of tools to visualize, interpret and uncover relationships and patterns. For example, they explore the thought experiment, analytical models, empirical causal models, analytical forms and data mining models, and outline a strategy for developing conceptual models to assist with students who wish to design their own conceptual paper. Students gain a clear understanding of the driving forces in the research process, how to define a research problem, how to analysis the problem and develop research strategies. Moving from concepts to hypotheses, the book also covers the main types of errors that may be encountered as students learn about understanding the development of models and how to develop a theory.Also including a checklist for students, and a list of definitions and concepts, this is the ideal resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students, and researchers, in the social sciences.

Visual Research: A Concise Introduction to Thinking Visually, Second Edition, provides an accessible introduction to doing visual research in the social sciences. Beginning with ethical considerations, this book highlights the importance of thinking visually before engaging in visual research. Further themes involve creating, organizing, and using images and are presented so as to help readers think about and work with their own visual data. This fully updated second edition includes new case studies, updated discussions regarding the ethics of social media and online content, new technology, and an expansion to include new material on museum, public, and applied work.Concise and highly focused, Visual Research is an invaluable resource for visual, media, and communications students and researchers, and others interested in visual research in the social sciences.

This reintroduction to the life and work of Marcel Mauss highlights his coherent and original thought both as an academic and an engaged intellectual of his time. Since his work regained attention in social sciences in the later 20th century, Reintroducing Marcel Mauss also emphasises the progression of research on Mauss's thought, bringing to light various neglected aspects of his scientific project, including his political commitment and writings. With a review of the contemporary research on Mauss's legacy, it offers a fuller understanding of the questions with which he was concerned – questions which converged in the challenge of working out alternative ways for a social life that promotes a genuinely social society inspired by socialist and cooperative values. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology with interests in the history and development of sociology, and the contemporary importance of classical social theory.

A comprehensive and cutting-edge introduction to quantitative methods of causal analysis, including new trends in machine learning.Reasoning about cause and effect—the consequence of doing one thing versus another—is an integral part of our lives as human beings. In an increasingly digital and data-driven economy, the importance of sophisticated causal analysis only deepens. Presenting the most important quantitative methods for evaluating causal effects, this textbook provides graduate students and researchers with a clear and comprehensive introduction to the causal analysis of empirical data. Martin Huber's accessible approach highlights the intuition and motivation behind various methods while also providing formal discussions of key concepts using statistical notation. Causal Analysis covers several methodological developments not covered in other texts, including new trends in machine learning, the evaluation of interaction or interference effects, and recent research designs such as bunching or kink designs.Most complete and cutting-edge introduction to causal analysis, including causal machine learning Clean presentation of rigorous material avoids extraneous detail and emphasizes conceptual analogies over statistical notationSupplies a range of applications and practical examples using R

Kniha popisuje vývoj systematického výzkumu společnosti na území dnešního Česka a Slovenska, s přesahem do dalších zemí středu Evropy. Autoři jednotlivých kapitol představují významné etapy tohoto výzkumu s důrazem na dění v rámci sociologie, ovšem s vědomím, že sociální výzkum se často rozvíjel na hranicích tohoto oboru či zcela mimo něj. Popisují, jak byly prováděny významné výzkumy či jakým způsobem fungovaly výzkumné instituce. Tyto procesy jsou zasazeny do širších souvislostí vývoje oboru.

Dissemination is a key component of the research process. While several fields have developed resources dedicated to training and supporting their scientists and practitioners as they are encouraged to disseminate within their fields and to the larger public audience, there has been a lack of formal guidance for dissemination within the behavioral sciences. Disseminating Behavioral Science aims to fill that gap, providing guidance across modalities for topics ranging from the peer-review process to conference presentation to nontraditional avenues for dissemination. The contents of this edited text, divided across six sections, serves as a roadmap for students, junior researchers, and senior scholars. The first section includes types of academic scholarship, types of dissemination, and strategies to ensure ethical dissemination. The second reviews traditional publication preparation, including tips for the writing process and key components to include in each section of a scientificmanuscript. Section Three explores publication within a traditional peer reviewed journal. Section Four outlines additional strategies to get research publicly recognized through conference presentations, social media and popular media sources, and white and grey literature. Sections Five and Six offer a consolidated glossary of all key terms in the text and combined reference list.

This volume brings together accounts from facilitating or'brokering'researchers in three settings afflicted by armed conflict, including DR Congo, Sierra Leone and Jharkhand, India. Indispensable to the research practice carried out by so-called'contracting researchers', who are often based in the Global North, it is these facilitating researchers who truly regulate the access and flow of knowledge, and yet are often referred to merely as'fixers', with their contributions systematically erased in the final research texts. This book recounts first-hand the varied and crucial roles played by such researchers, meanwhile bearing witness to the insecurities and scarce resources navigated by them in order to facilitate the research of others. By listening to and learning from their experiences, the book outlines different routes towards a more equitable fieldwork, and a more collaborative process of knowledge production.

Positioned within and against our changing pandemic conditions, Global Shifts in Qualitative Inquiry highlights multidirectional pathways between and across moments, formations, and interpretive communities within qualitative research. Contributors focus on a range of prevailing and emerging approaches that are held together by a commitment to a critical, performative, social justice inquiry—to method as praxis, method as a tool for social change, method to effect change in the world by creating texts that move persons to action, that move from personal troubles to public institutions. These include art as research, story as research, collage as method, performance, posthumanism, Indigenous methods, and the use of absurdity to counter oppression. Global Shifts in Qualitative Inquiry will resonate with faculty and students alike who are interested in forging new directions for qualitative inquiry in our ever-evolving pandemic times.

Behind the Scenes in Social Research discusses the informal, adaptive, and real-life process of doing social science research. It complements the material in standard methods texts that describe the basics—how to choose topics and ways of obtaining and analyzing data—but in doing so miss out on many of the obstacles and practicalities of doing research. Researchers may find themselves adrift when they start their research and discover that what confronts them doesn't precisely match exactly what is described in the basic textbooks, such as the obstacles that frequently occur, the logistical matters that must be handled, and the improvisations in research design and data gathering techniques that successful projects require. This book covers this material, while also paying attention to the ways in which the personal characteristics of those doing the research affect how projects are designed and data gathered. In addition, it explores the manner in which doing research affects the researchers themselves, affecting self-images, altering political or social views, or providing skills that extend beyond the research enterprise. Based on the author's own experiences and interviews with senior researchers in a variety of social science fields, Behind the Scenes in Social Research explores the practical problems that arise in undertaking a research project while showing how these problems can be overcome through perseverance and improvisation. It will therefore appeal to scholars and students across the social science with interests in research methods and the practical issues that arise during any research project.

This timely book provides a methodological guide for how to conduct and theorise research in human-animal studies. In response to critiques of the anthropomorphic slant to human-animal research and the increasing political relevance of animals in contemporary environmental debates, this book emphasises methods which bring to light the animal side of multispecies encounters. Drawing from the interdisciplinary strength of human-animal studies, this book contains contributions from practitioners and scholars working in sociology, anthropology, ethology and geography. Each chapter uses a case-study approach to present a theoretical framework and empirical application of cutting-edge methods in human-animal studies, from creative writing in multispecies ethnographies to visual methods like videography and body mapping. Organized in three parts – theorizing; collaborating; visualizing – the book equips readers with methodological tools to conduct human-animal studies research attentive to animal lives. Furthermore, chapters reflect on the opportunities, limitations and ethical considerations of research that seeks to understand our more-than-human worlds. The book is aimed towards undergraduate and graduate students in human-animal studies and scholars investigating human-animal relations. It will also be of interest to practitioners and policy-makers who engage with conservation, wildlife management or the human-animal interface of urban and regional planning.

Politics, Violence, Memory highlights important new social scientific research on the Holocaust and initiates the integration of the Holocaust into mainstream social scientific research in a way that will be useful both for social scientists and historians. Until recently social scientists largely ignored the Holocaust despite the centrality of these tragic events to many of their own concepts and theories. In Politics, Violence, Memory the editors bring together contributions to understanding the Holocaust from a variety of disciplines, including political science, sociology, demography, and public health. The chapters examine the sources and measurement of antisemitism; explanations for collaboration, rescue, and survival; competing accounts of neighbor-on-neighbor violence; and the legacies of the Holocaust in contemporary Europe. Politics, Violence, Memory brings new data to bear on these important concerns and shows how older data can be deployed in new ways to understand the'index case'of violence in the modern world.

En el proceso formativo de los jóvenes estudiantes de ciencias sociales son varias las aristas que inciden en las habilidades para confrontar el aprendizaje adquirido en las aulas con la realidad de la vida cotidiana. Parafraseando a María Luisa Tarrés, la capacidad para observar, escuchar y comprender es fundamental para quienes se adentran al estudio de la subjetividad social. Mediante un acercamiento constante y sistemático al entorno de lo cotidiano se abre un panorama amplio de interpretación de la realidad social, por ello los enfoques cualitativos de investigación se tornan importantes en la formación académica y profesional del nivel estudiante de ciencias sociales.

Visual Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Awakening Visions is an indispensable resource for students, researchers and teachers seeking to use visual sources in their research and understand how images work. This fully updated edition adds questions and activities for studies and many new images and models as well as additional exploration of social and theoretical contexts and examples of current visual and multimodal research.Due to the proliferation of image-centric social media and the growing potential for ‘fake news', being able to critically assess media and other visual messages is more important than ever. For researchers embarking on visual research this book offers useful practical guidance and real-world examples from seasoned researchers exploring cultures as varied as: religious cults in Venezuela, the Beer Can Regatta in Darwin, Mapuche Indians in Chile and graffiti artists in Sheffield. It offers an integrated approach to visual research, building compelling case studies using a wide range of visual forms, including: archive images, media samples, maps, objects, video, photographs and drawings alongside traditional qualitative approaches. Examples of the visual construction of ‘place', representations of social identities and different approaches to analysis are explored in the first section of the book, whilst the essays in the second section highlight the creativity and innovation of four leading visual researchers.This new edition will prove valuable for both experienced visual researchers and those embarking on visual research in the social sciences for the first time.

Researcher Coach has been written with a sole purpose in mind: to give researchers sufficient theoretical and practical support so that they gain a sense of self-direction and autonomy in the process of formulating and conducting their research. From the core notions of paradigm, ontology, epistemology, axiology, methodology, methods, and research questions; researchers are guided through the fundamental elements involved in planning and executing their research. This book is not only concerned with supporting researchers in the process of formulating a valid and sound inquiry that is viable and methodologically rigorous, but it also emphasizes the importance of community impact. The reader will learn how to conduct the literature review that grounds their inquiry as well as provides context and justification for the execution of the study. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including methods and data analysis techniques, are presented in great detail as well as describing the sequential approach for presenting the study's results and how to support those with tables and/or figures. The book closes with chapters devoted to the interpretation and discussion of the results, as well as general items related to formatting and project completion for publication.

Der Band bietet Einblicke in die Entstehungsgeschichte und die Grundgedanken der Rekonstruktiven Sozialforschung, insbesondere der Dokumentarischen Methode und ihrer Grundlagentheorie, der Praxeologischen Wissenssoziologie. Dies wird in der Form eines Dialogs und partiell in erzählerischer Form entlang der Biografie Ralf Bohnsacks entfaltet und eröffnet einen lebendigen Zugang zu methodischen und theoretischen Fragen gerade auch für deren Vermittlung in der Lehre. Im Zentrum steht dabei die Bedeutung der Praxis: Damit ist sowohl die Forschungspraxis, inkl. der Lehrforschung, gemeint als auch die Praxis derjenigen, die Gegenstand der Forschung sind. Erläutert wird dies an Beispielen aus den Forschungsbereichen Jugend, Jugendkriminalität und Jugendgewalt sowie Organisation und Professionalisierung. Im Zentrum stehen dabei die Forschungsmethoden der Gesprächsanalyse, der Bildinterpretation sowie der Video- und Filmanalyse.

La incertidumbre que caracteriza los tiempos actuales y venideros y las múltiples consecuencias de su influencia (a nivel individual y colectivo) se constituyen en fuente de formación y confrontación para los investigadores. De manera particular, las facultades de educación, comprometidas con la formación de doctores en este campo, tienen como desafío propiciar el desarrollo de propuestas que contribuyan a transformar la compleja crisis de las certezas desde la investigación, desarrollo e innovación de las dinámicas sociales, económicas, políticas, comunicativas y culturales. En atención a este desafío, este texto plantea una propuesta para la comprensión y construcción teórica de las demandas sociales que caracterizan nuestro tiempo desde una práctica narrativa, reflexiva y crítica basada en anclajes didácticos, necesarios para transitar de una construcción teórica a una autonomía de pensamiento epistémico. Así mismo, se propone una alternativa para el desarrollo de habilidades y capacidades científicas en la formación doctoral desde la pregunta ¿cómo potenciar la actitud resolutiva de los problemas de la educación y la sociedad desde la construcción de marcos teóricos?

This approachable guide meets health and social sciences scholars at their level--either as a reference text or as an enchanting but practical read--and walks them through each stage of their academic publishing journey. Drawing on a wealth of examples from his own experience mentoring others and publishing 300+ articles, Dr. Schwartz engages early, mid-, and senior-level professionals as well as graduate students and postdoctoral fellows alike, to demystify each stage of the writing and publishing process. Employing a reader-friendly, accessible voice, Dr. Schwartz's style captivates readers across disciplines, with a refreshing, can-do perspective. Before diving in, the author relates his own personal story in scholarly publishing, inviting all academics to unlock the high-impact writer within. The next set of chapters tackle the nuts and bolts of the academic publishing process, with basics such as topic selection, data analysis for publication, writing preparation, drafting and editing manuscripts, and journals submissions. The book advances into more innovative topics that can be simultaneously intimidating and rewarding, including recruiting and collaborating with coauthors, developing a network, navigating the peer review process, publishing nonempirical papers, getting creative with rejected manuscripts, foraying into Open Access and fee-based publishing, and even how to publish a book or book chapter. Designed as a digital mentor, The Savvy Academic is the ultimate tool for students, fellows, and scholarly professionals of a broad range of experiences in the health and social sciences who are looking to launch or elevate their scholarly publication career.