Social Research Methods

Using vivid testimonies and images, Briggs and Monge document the stories and situations of the people who live in Valdemingómez , placing them in a political, economic and social context.

With fascinating ethnographic and interview data, James Alexander explores the disappearance of localised relationships and the rise in youth violence in a South London housing estate. Evaluating the effectiveness of youth work programmes, he considers the impact of the gradual move from neighbourly to professional support for young people.

Available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. This book examines remedies for improving public trust and the legitimacy of science. It reviews policy approaches adopted by governments and offers an original analysis of the political roots of the impact and public engagement agenda, shedding light on the wider connections to democracy.

Demystifying evaluation is an accessible introductory guide explaining the options open to evaluators and how to make appropriate choices of research methods and covering issues such as managing expectations of evaluation, quantitative and qualitative methods, engaging stakeholders and providing action-orientated approaches to help end-users.

The pieces in this Byte raise important questions about what it means to bring our embodied selves into contact with digital media technologies. The selections expand our understanding of what it means to live in and through bodies augmented by digital technologies within a deeply unequal social world.

This is the first book to connect digital media technologies in digital sociology to traditional sociological and offers a much needed overview of it. It includes problems of the digital age in relation to inequality and identity, making it suitable for use for a global audience on a variety of courses.

Chapters in this Byte cover topics such as designing a research framework and how to work ethically as a digital researcher, continually interrogating one’s position as a researcher and reflecting on the process of knowledge creation. Cumulatively, they highlight the value of sociological theory for understanding our digital world.

In this Byte, the contributions consider the way that digitally meditated social processes are transforming institutions. It examines the interconnectedness of institutions and considers digitization across schooling, work, and media, with an eye on inequality.

This concise, informative book analyses impact across the social sciences. Drawing on fifteen interviews with senior academics for a longitudinal view, the author sets out valuable recommendations of how and when scholars can achieve impact.

By exploring a range of social justice issues from first-hand perspectives, this book reframes our understanding of knowledge production. It demonstrates that when lived experience experts lead the way, their knowledge can enrich, transform and decolonise research, teaching and advocacy.

In this book, Daniela Aidley and Kriss Fearon provide a practical introduction to making it easier for everyone to take part in research. It will be invaluable to researchers from a variety of backgrounds looking to increase participation in their research, whether postgraduate students, experienced academic researchers, or practitioners.

Using insights from those with first-hand experience of conducting research in areas of international intervention and conflict across the world, this book provides essential practical guidance, discussion of mistakes, key reflections and raises important questions for researchers and students embarking on fieldwork in violent and closed contexts.