Social Research Methods - Textbooks

Tailored to meet the demands of blended learning, this versatile and accessible textbook is ideal for research students embarking on their research journey, complete with a variety of pedagogical and digital tools to aid learning.

This reader on the theory and practice of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity provides a thorough grounding on the subject. With reviews, commentaries and examples of excellence in aspects including development, funding, evaluation and dissemination, it shows the potential of the approaches and lays the foundations for future scholarship.

Discover the captivating power of fiction in research through this engaging book. With practical insights, this is essential primer will help students embark on their own research-based fiction projects in no time.

This book examines the values of interactive documentary as a social research method, exploring their exciting potential for illuminating and communicating pressing social issues. Providing a template for planning an i-doc, the novel book shows how the planning process alone can open new ways of understanding social research topics.

This concise and accessible guide to designing a dissertation, thesis or other major study helps researchers achieve the best possible outcomes. It sets out approaches that are not limited by conventions, but instead give the researcher the confidence to handle questions, literature reviews, data collection, analysis and other processes.

Encouraging critical consideration of research design, the book guides readers step-by-step through the process of planning and undertaking a research project based on documentary analysis. It covers selecting a research topic and sample through to analysing and writing up the data.

This book provides social science researchers with both a strong rationale for the importance of thinking reflexively and a practical guide to doing it. The first book to build on Pierre Bourdieu's reflexive work, it combines academic analysis with practical examples and case studies. The book will be of interest to researchers and students.

Using two key visual pedagogical tools, this book shows you how to produce vibrant and stimulating in-depth qualitative research that draws on data readily available via the internet. Concise, practical and jam-packed with valuable tips, this book will enable you to complete a successful desk-based research project you can be proud of.

This practical handbook is aimed at students who are new to phenomenograpy - a popular research method for its versatility in understanding people’s perceptions. Enabling readers to decide on the appropriateness of the phenomenographic approach for their own research project, it equips them with the necessary tools to embark on their journey.

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.

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.

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.