SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods – serie

Focus groups are a popular, widely accepted, and legitimate research method to determine attitudes, experiences, perceptions, and knowledge on a wide range of topics in many fields of endeavour. For example, studies have been conducted to examine participants′ favourite pizza toppings, their quality of life following hip replacement surgery and how they feel about human cloning. Focus groups lead to the voicing of attitudes and insights not readily attainable from other qualitative forms of data collection. The spectrum of interest in focus groups covers virtually all disciplines, and the variety of the applications for this technique is extraordinary. In nine parts, Prof. Graham Walden explores what a focus group is, how they are best used, the strengths and weaknesses of focus groups and the ethical issues surrounding focus groups, amongst other things.

The new social contexts formed via the Internet, and the new forms of data made available by the increasing use of diverse forms of computer mediated communication, have challenged researchers to develop approaches which do them justice. At the same time, there has been concern that established principles should be preserved, and that the connection between virtual research methods and more conventional research approaches should not be rejected out of hand. Despite a number of handbooks and textbooks published in recent years there is still a dearth of authoritative works which offer comprehensive coverage of the virtual research methods available to social researchers. In particular, there is none which thoroughly explores the full range of virtual research methods and their antecedents, and which explores the methodological and epistemological ramifications of their development. This multivolume reference collection fills this gap. The collection covers perspectives on the Internet as a social space; research models for the Internet and the skills, techniques and approaches needed to conduct research in a virtual environment; innovations in the research process and reflections on these innovations; and the ethical considerations to take into account when doing research on the Internet.

From the 1980s onwards, there has been what has frequently been described as an auto/biographical turn in the social sciences and also in the arts and humanities. Changes in conceptions of self, society and identity, post-modern, post-structural and post-colonial influences and sensibilities to name but a few have all played their part in focusing attention on to, and valorising the perceptions and experiences of the individual. Now, at a time of exciting development for the subject, this new four-volume set seeks to capture the important articles that have come out of the field over the past decades. Framed by a newly-written introductory chapter, the collection includes work that spans disciplinary boundaries, bringing together a comprehensive resource taht will prove invaluable to scholars in the field.

This four-volume collection presents the key publications which exemplify the participant observation tradition in sociology and social research, an increasingly important method used in qualitative research and ethnography. Such research usually involves a range of methods: informal interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, collective discussions, analyses of the personal documents produced within the group, self-analysis and life-histories.

Volume One covers the origins of participant observation in the ideas of the Chicago School sociologists and the process by which social researchers tried to develop and appropriate method of empirical research alongside the attempt to formulate a satisfactory notion of sociology. Volume Two presents the theoretical and methodological refinement and Volume Three draws on the wide variety of contexts and domains in which participant observation has been used. Finally Volume Four presents contemporary examples of participant observation studies and related approaches from a variety of domains, including system design. With the increasing push toward ethnography in a wide variety of disciplines - from nursing to education - this timely collection will be invaluable to scholars engaged in qualitative research.

Mixed methods research has become one of the major areas of growth in social research methodology in the last 10 years. The divisions between quantitative and qualitative research have increasingly given way to imaginative ways of combining the two approaches and a growing acceptance of adopting a multi-method approach. Much of the literature on mixed-methods research is highly dispersed in a wide variety of journals and other publications. A great deal of it is not well known and quite a lot of it is inaccessible. Alan Bryman, widely recognized as an authority on the subject, brings together the key articles in this important field to form a definitive resource collection. Volume I outlinines the epistemological and ontological issues relating to the debate about quantitative and qualitative research and how these have an impact on the possibility of mixing methods. Volume II is concerned with the combination of different methods within quantitative research and within qualitative research. Volume III addresses the methodological issues involved in combining quantitative and qualitative research - the different ways in which mixed-methods research is actually accomplished. Volume IV continues the kinds of material used in Volume III but will also include some examples of combining quantitative and qualitative research.

Reviews the place of questionnaires in the social world. This book examines pre-testing questions, types of question, question order, mode effects and further questions the implications of attitudes and behaviour for questions. It also addresses methodological issues and approaches.

Realism is an approach to humanity which recognizes the real existence of social objects as well as physical objects. Thus realism does involve being realistic. But more importantly, it asserts that the things we are studying in social research have some prior existence and would continue to exist even if our knowledge of them was limited. Indeed, sometimes our knowledge is quite wrong, and realists assert that the real world will tend to constrain science so that wrong claims get challenged. Volume One: Practical Realist Ontology covers the nature of the world, the role of the person, the need for social theory, the nature of language, open systems theorizing, and the avoidance of the fallacies of upward and downward conflation. Volume Two: Realist Methods takes up the triangulation debate in some detail as well as querying the nature of quantitative data and of qualitative data. Volume Three: Knowledge and Meta-knowledge in Realism explores the concept of epistemology and the social basis of human knowledge. Volume Four: Realist Empirical Research runs through lessons to be learned from research that has been conducted under explicit realist assumptions in many disciplines in many different countries.

Observation - as a deliberate, organized and systematic form of ′looking′ or ′watching′ - is integral to all scientific inquiry. It is a process that is guided by rational principles and assumptions, and motivated by an interest in obtaining data on occurrences, events, processes, reactions, forms of conduct and relationships. This collection, drawing together key contributions on observation methods in social research, provides comprehensive coverage of the historical development of observational methods and techniques and offers analytic reflection on the various issues involved in the scientific practice of observation. The volumes demonstrate the rich diversity of observational methods, techniques and associated innovations, as well as providing examples of results obtained by studies now considered to be social science classics. The volumes contain important material concerned with the development and refinement of observational methods, as well as the theoretical and philosophical understandings and assumptions integral to observation as a process. Sources that explore the practical matters involved in the stages of preparing for, engaging in, and analysing observations also feature, along with material from classic studies using observational methods. Finally, in addition to critiques of methods of observation, there are sources responding to recent developments within observational methods which utilise the possibilities afforded by contemporary digital and information technology in creative ways.

This research tradition has arisen from a specific set of historical, disciplinary and institutional conditions. The very emergence of ′documentation′ is predicated upon a set of long-term processes in which humans have developed the capacity to use symbols and store knowledge such that it can be exchanged and inter-generationally transmitted.Consisting of an impressive list of contributors, the four volumes discuss the history, development and current debates alive in the field, such as the biographical turn in social science, the theoretical underpinnings to using human documents in social research and the epistemological, substantive and practical concerns with the process of analyzing data from human documentary sources.Comprehensive, illuminating and dynamic, this collection will have appeal across all social science disciplines, especially sociology, social psychology, criminology, politics and international relations, management and business studies, human geography, media and communication studiesVolume One: Human Documents: Perspectives and ApproachesVolume Two: Analyzing Human DocumentsVolume Three: Human Documents in Social ResearchVolume Four: Archival Research and Data Re-Use

Evaluation is an essential characteristic of the human condition, and perhaps the single most important and sophisticated cognitive process in the repertoire of human reasoning and logic. Evaluation serves society by providing affirmations of worth, value and improvement to name just a few, and is a process which permeates all areas of human activity, scholarship and production.  This work is split into four volumes:  Volume One: Contains articles featuring contemporary issues and emerging trends in evaluationVolume Two: Contains articles highlighting recent theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments in quantitative evaluation designsVolume Three: Contains a summation of articles on recent developments in qualitative and mixed methods evaluation practiceVolume Four: Contains a synthesis of articles on enduring issues of evaluation training and practice

Selecting Research Methods provides advice from prominent social scientists concerning the most crucial steps for planning and undertaking meaningful research: selecting the methods to be used. Contributors to the collection address methodological choices in four stages: design, sampling, coding and measurement, and analysis. The volumes provide an integrated approach to methodological choice in two ways. First, the contributions range from the early decisions about design options through the concluding choices about analyzing, interpreting, and presenting results. Second, the collection is integrated because it addresses the needs of projects that collect qualitative evidence, quantitative data, or both.Volume 1 concerns design choice; the articles focus on selecting designs that are effective for answering research questions and achieving the goals of the researcher. Volume 2 is on sampling and includes, in addition to sampling from populations, advice on choosing methods for recruiting informants for interviews, selecting sites for participant observation, and assigning subjects to control and experimental groups. Volume 3 reviews options for coding and measurement; it emphasizes methodological choices that enable researchers to study concepts in ways that enhance the reliability and validity of the research. Finally, the articles included in Volume 4 review the range of choices available among methods to analyze results and interpret the meanings of evidence.

Ethnography is an extremely broad church, and the range of methodological stances adopted by ethnographers extends across theoretical, political and technological divides. As a method it is intense and often makes considerable personal demands on the researcher, but as an academic product, the ethnography can be a vivid document with human resonance impossible to recreate by the application of any other methodology. This collection emphasises something of the range of possibilities by focusing on Ethnography in different settings. Implicit in the text is the very specific problems encountered by ethnographers engaging with these very specific fields. Volume One: The Urban Condition addresses attempts by ethnographers to describe and understand urban life. Volume Two: Work covers a range of employment experiences and highlights issues surrounding the ethnographic penetration of the work environment and the cultures that lay hidden within them. Volume Three: Body, Sport and Leisure considers the sociologies of health, sport and the body. Volume Four: Deviance features the move towards more contemporary forms of transgression in Ethnography itself.

Using Documents and Records in Social Research collects together a body of papers that highlight the different ways in which documents and records have, and can be, approached and studied in a variety of social research contexts. By assembling key papers from studies in fields as diverse as criminology, health, education and organizational research, as well as science and technology studies, the volumes illustrate how documents and records figure in all aspects of the research process from research design, through to data collection, data analysis and report writing.Volume One: Approaches to Content - Documents as a Source of Data and Evidence draws from a mix of 20th century writers who have used letters, diaries, newspapers and related published materials as sources of data. The focus is on the kinds and range of materials that can be collected and the various ways in which the data has been and can be analyzed - ranging from simple content analysis to more involved forms of discourse analysis.Volume Two: How ′Things′ Are Made and Represented in Documentation focuses on papers that emphasize the different ways in which documents and records are assembled and constructed. Volume Three: How People Use and Do Things with Documents investigates how documents have been used in various forms of field work - the kinds of documents that have been studied and the ways in which their study has been integrated into ethnographic descriptions and the like.Volume Four: How Documents Do Things with People examines the ways in which documents can both form part of a network and reflect networks, including more recent work on documentation that invokes ideas drawn from actor-network theory as well as work that has focused on ′ways of reading′, and the transmission of knowledge.

Semiotics, the study of the sign systems that constitute human culture, has since its discovery in the late 19th century and early 20th century, transformed the ways in which we think about culture and communication. It has opened new areas of study and made fruitful connections between established disciplines. This four-volume set offers the most extensive, systematic and in-depth survey of the foundations and development of semiotics as a field. It covers foundational texts in semiotics, from the constitution of the field in the early 20th century, through its blossoming with the advent of structuralism in the 1960s and `70s and the formative dialogue between structuralism and Marxism. It goes on to present a representative selection of central essays in literary semiotics, narratology and poetics, the semiotics of anthropology, myth, art, architecture, music, theatre, film, fashion and other aspects of contemporary culture. Special attention is paid to the development of a poststructuralist, semiotically aware discourse in the analysis of culture and history, to the related areas of deconstruction and psychoanalysis, and to the current controversy over the possibilities and issues raised by a postmodernist semiotics.The anthology offers a unique and valuable research tool for students and scholars alike in all areas of the social sciences and humanities, including linguistics, social and cultural anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, psychology, literature, and media and communication studies.

This new four-volume major work brings together a wealth of valuable research on the qualitative research methods of grounded theory and its extension, situational analysis. Both approaches draw on poststructural developments in the social sciences and humanities, (re)situating these methods among cutting-edge approaches today. The articles in this collection come from a variety of disciplines, from sociology to science and technology studies, as well as focusing on a broad cross-section of issues relating to race, class and gender amongst others. Framed and contextualised by an introductory chapter, newly-written for the set by the widely-respected editorial team of Adele Clarke and Kathy Charmaz, the collection is clearly divided into the four thematic volumes: Volume One: History, Essentials and Debates in Grounded TheoryVolume Two: Grounded Theory in Disciplines and ResearchVolume Three: Grounded Theory Exemplars Across DisciplinesVolume Four: Situational Analysis: Essentials and Exemplars

The use of visual evidence in social and cultural research is an exciting and stimulating area of growing interest bridging the social sciences and humanities. The burgeoning use of the Internet has given a massive boost to the use of, and interest in, varieties of visual information for research purposes. At the same time, these visual technologies themselves raise all sorts of methodological questions.This collection brings together the contributions of key writers within both the symbolic and empirical research traditions, presenting the most influential statements on visual research methods and the central debates about visual culture in a diversity of fields. These range from art history, to history of photography, film studies, and aesthetics to media and communications studies, sociology and cultural studies, and social anthropology, social psychology and educational research. Part I: Classical Historical StatementsPart II: The Objectivity of the VisualPart III: Visual TechnologiesPart IV: The Visual as Method

Evaluation is a set of research methods and associated methodologies with a distinctive purpose. They provide a means to judge actions and activities in terms of values, criteria and standards. At the same time evaluation is also a practice that seeks to enhance effectiveness in the public sphere and policy making. In order to improve as well as judge, there is a need to explain what happens and would have to be done differently for different outcomes to be achieved. It is in this explanatory mode that evaluation overlaps most directly with mainstream social science.This collection offers a complete guide to evaluations research methods. It is organized in four volumes. Volume 1 focuses on foundation issues and includes sections on the rationale for evaluation, central methodological debates, the role of theory and applying values, criteria and standards.Volume 2 examines explaining through evaluation and covers sections on experimentation and causal inference, outcomes and inputs, socio-economic indicators, economics and cost benefit approaches and realist methods. Volume 3 addresses qualitative methods and includes sections on case studies, responsive, developmental and accompanying evaluation, participation and empowerment, constructivism and postmodernism and multi-criteria and classificatory methods. Volume 4 concentrates on evaluation to improve policy with sections on performance management, systematic reviews, institutionalization and utilization and policy learning and design.The collection offers a unique and unparalleled guide to this rapidly expanding research method. It demonstrates how method and theory are applied in policy and strategy and will be an invaluable addition to any social science library.Elliot Stern is the editor of Evaluation: the International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, and works both as an independent consultant. He was previously Principal Advisor for evaluation studies at the Tavistock Institute, London.

Fundamentals of Action Research brings together, material, much of it hard to obtain, into one collection. It is a foundation resource for individuals and institutions on which to build their action research knowledge bank and will be the first point of reference for action research practitioners and academics. The content includes entries on action research and other methodologies which have developed out of action research. The editors recognize the eclecticism of the field, but have kept a tight focus on the topic, rather than trying to incorporate all forms of applied and/or participatory social research. More than a general overview, the set explores how the material extends and changes our understanding of the development of the field, and the contributions of key people and ideas within it.The book is initially organized into historically sequenced sections but includes sections for various contemporary branches of action research. Subjects covered include: the pre-history, the foundations, unrecognized classics, the development of action research, action research and the workplace, action research and social change, emergent varieties of action research, action research in the 21st century and the limits of action research.It is a foundation resource for individuals and institutions on which to build their action research knowledge bank and will be the first point of reference for action research practitioners and academics.

The life history or biographical research method was popular in the early decades of the twentieth century and, after a period of eclipse caused by the rise of quantitative methods, is enjoying a resurgence of interest. This burgeoning of interest is enough that we can now speak of a biographical `turn′ as the social sciences These four volumes present the first established collection of the biographical method literature and brings together the many diverse strands. The set will serve to set the canon for this re-established research area. The collection is organized around eight themes: the classical statements dominated by the pre-war American `′Chicago School′ of sociology; the neo-classical statements of the first wave of renewed interest in the 1970s; interviewing, including reflexivity, recall and narrative structures; analysis and the principles of selection in generating stories for narrative biographical interviews; biographical concepts such as life courses and generations; transitions and social trauma; biography and social policy; and controversies in biographical research.

Historical methods are at the foundation of research in the social sciences. This synthesizing and integrative project on the methodology of historical social science addresses programmatic objectives, interpretive principles, explanatory logic, and substantive applications to form a unique contribution to the field.Historical Methods in the Social Sciences offers the broadest disciplinary coverage available - with contributions from prominent historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, economists, psychologists, and philosophers - and also features a deeper and broader interdisciplinary engagement with the most pressing issues of theory and method. By republishing many of the most seminal contributions in the field of historical social science, this four-volume set draws together some of the most illuminating reflections on historical-sociological research practices presently available, and should thus serve as an indispensable scholarly source for all those engaged in this interdisciplinary enterprise.

Philosophical considerations and positions underlie all of the natural and social sciences. In the latter case philosophical foundations and their emergent issues have a profound impact on methodology and empirical practice. Design decisions will usually depend on philosophical perspectives or assumptions, such as the very fundamental decision to employ a quantitative design or an interpretive design. The ′philosophy of social research′ is thus a subset of the philosophy of social science, but also an important subject area that spans methodology and method. The articles making up this timely collection are the best exemplars of key positions in a very wide disciplinary field. The selection is designed to begin each section with an ′entry level′ article to introduce the reader to the topic area and to ground the approach a research problem. Topics covered include science and art in the history of social research, positivism and antipositivism, language and the linguistic turn, realism and anti-realism, theory and theory choice, logic and models, prediction and laws, interpretation, probability and complexity.With the study of the philosophical foundations of methods and methodology gaining increasing priority in university courses, this will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers across the social sciences.

Comparative research methods are central to sociology and its associated disciplines. This four-volume set brings together 77 articles and book chapters from key sources, spanning the history of comparative analysis in the social sciences, from ancient to modern works. The selections cover not only explanations of how to carry out comparative analysis in a reliable and creative way, but also exhaustively explore the fields of sociology, political science, anthropology and education.

Qualitative research is a burgeoning field which has attracted a growing amount of self-reflection. Reflecting the growth of interest among qualitative researchers in the nature of their craft, this collection extends the value of the critically acclaimed first edition of Qualitative Research, edited by Alan Bryman and Robert G. Burgess by emphasizing key issues that demand the attention of qualitative researchers.It explores with topics that have come increasingly to the fore in the years since the publication Qualitative Research in 1999. Thus, topics such as visual research, biographical method, narrative analysis, computer-assisted qualitative data analysis, and reflexivity that have become more prominent over the last five years will be given the greater attention they increasingly warrant.Volume I will cover issues to do with the collection of data, including sampling. While covering traditional topics, such as ethnography and qualitative interviewing, it will reflect the greater diversity of approaches to data collection that has arisen since the last set, such as visual ethnography, qualitative evaluation, biographical approaches, and new developments in qualitative interviewing. Volume II will address matters concerned with quality criteria in relation to qualitative research.Volume III deals with issues of representation and generalization and as such will cover topics to do with the issue of realism and how and whether it is possible to provide a definitive representation of social reality. Volume IV contains selections relating qualitative data analysis. It will include discussions of the main approaches to qualitative data analysis (including discourse analysis and conversation analysis) and will reflect the growing interest in and importance attached to computer-assisted qualitative data analysis

It is now widely agreed that in latter part of the 20th century sociology has taken a ′linguistic turn′. One of the approaches to emerge out of the linguistic turn is conversation analysis, which is now recognized as one of the most distinctive and genuinely original approaches to the study of language, communication and social interaction to have emerged during the last forty years. Research in conversation analysis over the past 30 years has shown how these and other technical aspects of talk-in-interaction are structured, socially organized resources - or methods - whereby participants perform and coordinate activities through talking together. Conversational interaction is the primordial site of human sociality. Thus these methods are the technical bedrock on which people build their social lives, and construct their social relations with one another.This comprehensive collection, brought together by two of the leading figures in conversation analysis, will be indispensable to researchers in not only linguistics but sociology, social psychology, communications, and health sciences whose work involved the language and linguistic features of social action.Volume 1: Foundations, and the principal organizations of conversationVolume 2: The methodology of conversation analysisVolume 3: Language and social actionVolume 4: Interaction in institutional and workplace settings

′What is data analysis′ is a key question in social research, defined by the foundations of various research models. This four-volume set presents the leading directions in data analysis and published in the ′classic′ articles in the field. It brings together the most outstanding ′vintage′ and contemporary work that have helped define and demarcate data analysis. It covers both quantitative and qualitative aspects, as centred around realism, positivism and empiricism on the one hand, and relativism and interpretivism on the other. Volume One: covers qualitative data analysis: choosing and processing data, approaches to analysis and analytic techniques.Volume Two: focuses on mixed methods: mixed method approaches and techniques, and the integration of findings.Volume Three: moves to quantitative data analysis: analysing survey data, text, structure and sequences, testing and multivariate analysis.Volume Four: concludes with issues surrounding the quality of research outcomes.

The field of attitude research has long been recognised as one of the most important and influential within social psychology. But the ever-increasing popularity of survey research as a source of what the public thinks and feels about a wide range of issues has brought the subject into the popular arena, heightening the relevance of the theory and practice of attitude measurement. Roger Jowell and Caroline Roberts, acknowledged leaders in this area of research, have combed the literature to bring together the most comprehensive collection available. The four volumes cover key advances since serious study of the subject began to appear (in the 1920s), with a selection of the articles and papers which present the key figures, the major steps forward in theory or practice and some of the most creative and ingenious methodological work in the social sciences. This set will provide a rich reference source that should appeal to academics and practitioners alike.

Interviewing has a strong claim to be the most widely-practised social science research methods. The ubiquity of this basic activity means that this field has one of the most developed bodies of methodological literature having ramifications throughout the social sciences. Nigel Fielding, the acknowledged expert in the field, has again collected together a set of contemporary classic readings. Interviewing has been established as the authoritative and balanced research resource in this subject. It is comprehensive and generic; however, its coverage does not entirely reflect the apportionment of intellectual effort and interest in the field. Interviewing II delves further into the subject and concentrates on on articles representing topics that have proven controversial and thus attracted many contributions.

Part One: IntroductionPart Two: Asking the Right QuestionsPart Three: Researching Media Institutions, Organizations, Professionals and ProductionPart Four: Researching Media Content and RepresentationPart Five: Researching Media and Communication in Society: Consumption, Audiences, Politics, Problems and PleasuresPart Six: Doing Communication Research

Content Analysis is a popular social science technique for the analysis of text data. While early examples trace back to the late 19th and early 20th century, the technique came of age during the Second World War through the efforts of Lasswell and others aimed at decoding enemy propaganda. This major work brings together the most significant methodological contributions and substantive applications ever published on Content Analysis. Students and scholars in sociology, political science, journalism and mass communication, and business and management will find in this major work a unique and comprehensive overview of the technique and its applications.