Understanding Social Research Perspectives on Methodology and Practice

In 1991 the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) published Postgraduate Training Guidelines. Throughout the document emphasis was placed on the need for universities to make postgraduate research students aware of the methodological issues that affect their work.

This book explores the relationship between knowledge, methodology and research practice across the broad spectrum of the social sciences, in language that is accessible to researchers at all levels of their research careers. The book explores the diversity of practice and methodology, and suggests that this diversity and variety of methodology and disciplinary focus are signs of the sophistication and complexity of the processes of social research

In 1991 the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) published "Postgraduate Taining Guidelines". Throughout the document emphasis is placed on the need for universities to make postgraduate research students aware of the methodological issues that affect their work.; This text explores the relationship between knowledge, methodology and research practice across the broad spectrum of the social sciences in langage that is accessible to researchers at all levels of their research careers. It follows the themes that there is no single practice or correct methodology, and that the diversity and variety in terms of methodology and disciplinary focus are a sign of the sophistication and complexity of the proceses of social research. The text examines socio-cultural contexts of social research and relates them to contemporary shifts in focus such as feminism, critical theory and postmodernism. The importance of selecting the research methodology most appropriate to the subject discipline concerned is emphasized.

The age of reason or the age of innocence?. Part 1 The nature of the inquiry: telling a story about research and researcher story telling; challenging the power of rationality; becoming economical with politics; family behaviour and the economic method. Part 2 The nature of disciplines: research with discipline of information systems; nursing research - social science?; the case for research into practice; deconstructing statistical questions. Part 3 Research practice: researching social work and social care policies; qualitative approaches to data collection and analysis; grounded theory - its basis, rationale and procedures; action research in information systems; issues in participant observation; enigma variations - uncertainty in social and economic research.