Researching the Social World

Researching the Social World offers a practical and student-centered introduction to social research aimed at first year undergraduates taking their first course in the subject. It is simply structured for maximum ease of use: each of the core chapters is dedicated to a particular method and looks in turn at its purpose and use, its underlying rationale and how it may be applied. A variety of in-text boxes support the reader in understanding important concepts and in focusing on how research works in practice. Rich with activities, examples and study skills support, the book also explicitly engages with the transferable academic skills that may be developed while learning about the theory and practice of social research. Overall, this is a pedagogically sophisticated and engagingly written overview of research methods that is lively in its presentation and thoughtful in its integration of a range of academic considerations.

LEE HARVEY is Director of the Centre for Research and Evaluation at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He is the editor of the international journal, Quality in Higher Education, and has been a quality adviser to universities in New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil and Chile.

MORAG MACDONALD is Director of the Centre for Research into Quality at the University of Central England, UK. Her main field of research, other than research methodology, is prisons, and related health issues, and her research and consultancy work has covered Eastern Europe and Italy as well as the UK.