Designing Social Research

A Guide for the Bewildered
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84920-190-2
Verlag: SAGE Publications Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 170 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 399 g

Designing Social Research aims to guide students and new researchers using everyday non-jargonised language through the jungle of setting up their own research study. Ian Greener provides readers an accessible combination of guidance on how to practically plan one's research and understand the underpinning methodological principles that should inform the decisions we make about the methods we plan to use.

This is the perfect starter book for anyone looking to design their own research project and make sense of and justify the many decisions that go into the research design process. The goal throughout is to enable students and researchers to assess the appropriateness of a range of methods and to get understanding of the strengths and limitations of different approaches to research.

Greener highlights key debates in the field - both philosophical and practical - and presents them in such a way that they remain constantly relevant to research practice of his readers. Coverage includes:

- Framing an effective research question/problem;

- Examining the jargon of social research;

- The links between theory, methodology and method;

- The role of literature reviewing in research design;

- Managing and planning the research process;

- Sampling;

- Qualitative designs;

- Quantitative designs;

- Mixed methods designs;

- Data analysis.

Designing Social Research will be ideal first reading for M-level students and undergraduates planning significant research projects for their dissertations. It will also be invaluable to first year PhD students considering how they will go about their research projects.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Greener, Ian

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein Empirische Sozialforschung, Statistik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction to Social Research Design - Or What Are You Talking About?

Introduction

Defining terms

Some general points about research questions

Some other general guidelines

Some practical examples of how questions, methods and philosophy combine

What's the problem, and how are you going to research it? A logic of appropriateness

Conclusion

Five things to remember about this chapter

Reviewing What Other People Have Said - Or How Can I Tell If Others' Research is Any Good?

Introduction

Nuts and bolts
The hierarchy of evidence

Reading efficiently and critically, and taking notes
So is the study any good?

Writing a review

Conclusion

Five things to remember about this chapter

Example - 'Qualitative research and the evidence base of policy'

Surveys and Questionnaires - Or How Can I Conduct Research With People at a Distance?
Introduction

The use of questionnaires - the best (and worst) of quantitative (and qualitative) social research

Surveys and questionnaires

Perspectives on questionnaires

Designing questionnaires

Open and closed responses

Getting questions really clear

Common response forms

Questionnaire design

Analysing and reporting questionnaire responses

Reflexivity and questionnaires

Contentious issues

Conclusion - working with the good and bad of questionnaires

Five things to remember about this chapter

Example - The Paradox of Choice

Elements of Quantitative Design: Sampling and Statistics - Or What Can I Do With Numbers?

Introduction

Numbers and their importance

What are numbers good for?

The philosophy of quantitative research

Sampling

Some issues in quantitative analysis - basic descriptive statistics

Conclusion

Five things to remember about this chapter

Example - Super Crunchers

Ethnography as a Research Approach - Or What Do I Gain from Watching People and Talking to Them?

Introduction

What is ethnography?

When would I want to use an ethnography?

What does it mean to conduct an ethnography?

Philosophical debates around ethnography

What do the differences in approach mean for the resulting ethnography?

What kind of research does an ethnographic research project produce?

How can you increase the chance of doing good ethnographic research?

Conclusion - getting close or producing useless knowledge?

Five things to remember about this chapter

Example - Reading Ethnographic Research

Dealing with Qualitative Data - Or What Should I Do With All These Words?

Introduction

The aims of qualitative research

Grounded theory, coding and generalisation

The mechanics of grounded theory

Discourse analysis and its variants

Quantitative approaches to textual analysis

Analysing documents

What are the criteria for a good qualitative analysis?

Truth in social research

Conclusion - finding appropriate methods for dealing with your data

Five things to remember about this chapter

Example - The Body Multiple

Causality in your research - or how deep should ontology go?

Introduction

Ontology and depth

Science, method and causality

Constant conjunction

The world is flat

Going deeper

Levels of analysis

Conclusion - how deep do you need to go?

Five things to remember about this chapter

Example - Rogue Traders and financial losses

Dealing With Time and Control - Or What Time Period Suits My Research, and How Do I Stop the World from Interfering in It?

Introduction

How does Social research deal with time?

Phenomenology and process philosophy - researching the present

History and political science - researching the past

What time frame fits your research, and how does time affect what you can say?

The openness (and closedness) of systems

A way around the problem of the experimental method - scale and sampling

What are case studies for - an aid to generalisation or an analysis of power and expertise?

Conclusion - time and control in social research

Five things to remember about this chapter

Example - accounts of the financial crisis

Ethics - Or What Practices are Appropriate in my Research? 142
Introduction

The importance of ethics in research

The official line - what bodies such as the ESRC have to say

Questioning the official line - or is it even possible to follow all these ethical principles?

The importance of balance and appropriateness in ethics

Different perspectives on ethics

Conclusion - doing what's right and doing what's ethical

Five things to remember about this chapter

Example - 'Teenagers telling sectarian stories'

Writing Up Your Research - Or What Can I Say I've Found?

Introduction

The differences between description, analysis and argument

Making an argument - what have you found out?

The bases of good arguments

Supporting a conclusion

Other concerns with arguments

Deductive and inductive arguments

Structuring a piece of writing to bring out your argument

Conclusion - writing up research so that it is clear to you (and to everyone else)

Five things to remember about this chapter

Writing up reviews and putting together proposals - or can you provide some examples of all of this?

Introduction

Putting together a literature review

The role of the literature review

Doing a literature review

Exclusion and systematic review

Exclusion and realist review

Putting together a research proposal

Conclusion - the skills of being a practising researcher

Five things to remember about this chapter

Conclusion - Or Getting on with Social Research

Introduction

Others' claims as a basis for your own work

Defining the job at hand

Designing research that is appropriate for the job at hand

Mixing methods

Being careful with data and with ethics

Writing it all up

Conclusion - doing research well

Example - Ladbroke Grove

Über Autor(innen)

Greener, Ian
Ian Greener is a Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University where he leads the provision of research methods teaching on ESRC-accredited courses. Prior to this he worked for a number of UK Higher Education Universities including Manchester and York in Business Schools and Social Science Departments. His main research interest is trying to keep up with the hectic pace of public sector reform both in the UK and internationally, using a range of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research strategies to examine continuity and change in public services, and which has led to books on the history of the NHS and public management, and over fifty articles published in a range of international peer-reviewed journals. <p class="MsoNormal">Ian lives in York where he spends his time trying to stop his children, Bethany, Emily and Anna, from spending what remains of his money, and walking a spaniel his wife insists he must grow to like. He likes good red wine, Strictly Come Dancing, and co<a name="_GoBack">mputers that work.</a></p>