Social Research Methods

Drawing on evidence from across Europe, Asia and the USA, this accessible book covers how social workers can engage with research and draw on it in practice.

Brilliantly attuned to the demands placed on researchers, this book considers how students, academics and professionals alike can save time and stress without compromising the quality of their research or its outcomes.

Based on deep ethnographic research, this book explores new practices and ideas about activism in the fight against social inequality. The book is both about feminist activists and is an act of feminist activism, with the author’s experiences as a volunteer ethnographer in New Zealand sitting at its heart.

Using history, artistic practice, writing, poetry, autobiography and collaborative ethnography, this book literally and figuratively re-imagines a place, presenting a ‘how to’ for researchers interested in community collaborative research and accessing alternative ways of knowing and voices in marginalised communities.

Drawing on the multinational qualitative study ‘Children’s Understandings of Well-being’ (CUWB), this book offers practical insights into conducting fieldwork across diverse contexts. Featuring experts from 13 countries, the book provides valuable perspectives for researchers across a wide range of academic settings.

Including contributions on qualitative and digital research from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia and the Americas, this volume explores the creative and thoughtful ways in which researchers have adapted methods and rethought relationships in response to challenges arising from crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters or violent conflict.

Drawing on qualitative fieldwork, this book sheds much-needed light on how sustainability-oriented households balance priorities and get things done in day-to-day life, offering crucial insights about eco-conscious living at an individual level.

This original study of the lives of prisoners’ families adds a feminist perspective on the understanding of carceral geography. She relates the testimonies of families as they navigate new challenges, and measures the impact of imprisonment on their emotions, relationships, identities and experiences of spaces, both inside and outside prison.

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.

Offering a fresh look to complement the dominant singular voice of developmental psychology, this unique collection of 12 research projects carried out in the UK and USA is essential reading for anyone studying or working with children at play.

Addressing the contemporary urban eco-justice movement, this book draws on the case studies of two protest groups in Trento, Italy. Analysing the practices and policing of environmental activism during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, this book identifies directions for future critical and green criminological research in the area.

The deaths of Michael Brown and George Floyd at the hands of white police officers uncovered an apparent legitimacy crisis at the heart of American policing. Drawing on interviews with officers, offenders, practitioners and community members, this book explores policing changes in the ‘post-Ferguson’ era and informs future policing practice.