Foundations of Multimethod Research

John D. Brewer is President of the British Sociological Association and Sixth-Century Professor of Sociology and former Head of Department (2004-2007) at Aberdeen University, moving from Queen’s University Belfast in July 2004. He was Head of the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Queen’s between 1993-2002. He has held visiting appointments at Yale University (1989), St John’s College Oxford (1992), Corpus Christi College Cambridge (2002) and the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University (2003).  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (elected 1998), an Academician in the Academy of Social Sciences (elected 2003), a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (elected 2004), then only the third sociologist to be elected in the Academy’s 217-year history, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (elected 2008).  He was a member of the Training and Development Board of the ESRC (2005-2007) and has been Chair of the British Sociological Association (2004-2006), a member of the National Committee for Economics and Social Science of the Royal Irish Academy (1997-1999) and a member of the International Assessment Panel of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2002-07). He currently sits on the Council of the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences and is a member of the ESRC′s Research College. In 2001 he became a member of the Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. In 2010 he became a member of the United Nations Roster of Global Experts. Albert Hunter is professor of sociology at Northwestern University, and is affiliated with Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research and the Transportation Center. He has previously taught at the University of Chicago, Wesleyan University, and the University of Rochester. He has held visiting appointments at Yale, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of Paris, and the University of Edinburgh. His teaching and research interests include urban sociology, community, ethnicity, culture and literature, urban politics and civil society, and research methods. Hunter has published numerous books and articles, including Symbolic Communities, The Rhetoric of Social Research: Understood and Believed, Foundations of Multimethod Research, and most recently Pragmatic Liberalism: Constructing a Civil Society. His undergraduate degree is from Cornell and his PhD is from the University of Chicago.

This is a superb resource for anyone undertaking research in the social sciences. Going beyond simple descriptions of how to use each of the individual methods, Brewer and Hunter provide compelling arguments for systematically synthesizing different research styles at each stage of the research process. In doing so, they help us to see social science research as both an art and a science. By focusing our attention on how a multimethod approach can enhance each stage of the research, they avoid the simplistic dichotomy between qualitative and quantitative research and provide us with a much more sophisticated way of looking at the multimethod approach.

• PrefaceHistorical Introduction1. The Multimethod Approach and Its PromiseFour Imperfect But Useful Research MethodsA Broader Multimethod ViewFinding Consensus in a House of Many MansionsA Systematic Approach2. A Healthy Skepticism About Theory and MethodOrienting Theory Toward Research and Vice VersaA Healthy SkepticismAn Assessment of Four Research StylesThe Multimethod Approach: A Fifth Research Style3. Formulating Research ProblemsThe Role of Research Problems in the Research ProcessThe Empirical Unfolding of Research ProblemsThe Role of Theory in Problem Formulation4. Collecting Data With Multiple MethodsA Variety of Data-Collecting MethodsValidation Versus ExplorationCost/Benefit Analyses of Different Methods of Data Collection5. Finding the Objects to StudyThe Dilemma of the Few and the ManyUnits and VariablesTypes of SamplingSampling and Generalization6. Measuring Concepts and Assessing Measurement ValidityDefining Social Scientific MeasurementJudging Measurement’s Success From Facts Rather Than FictionDesigning Validation StudiesWhat to Do if Measurement Fails (and How to Guard Against Failure)7. Explaining Social Phenomena CausallyCausation and Causal ExplanationModes of Causal AnalysisAssessing the Validity of Causal ResearchMultitest Validity8. A Postscript on PostmodernismThe Postmodern CritiqueSome Research ExamplesThe Technology of Method9. Making Research Public: The Social Context of Multimethod ResearchInternal PoliticsExternal PoliticsMultimethod Research in Relation to SocietyReferencesIndexAbout the Authors