Matt Henn, Mark Weinstein and Nick Foard 2009
First published 2006
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ISBN 978-1-84860-178-9
ISBN 978-1-84860-179-6 (pbk)
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PREFACE
This is the second edition of our book, and although there are certain features that we have added or updated, we still have the same particular audience in mind those lone researchers who are specifically charged with conducting small-scale research and who have access to a very limited budget with which to carry it out. Such lone researchers might be students or new researchers. It seems to us that whether you are enrolled on an undergraduate or Masters course, starting out on your doctoral programme, or are asked to design and execute a one-off research project at work, there is a need for a book that sensitises you to the essentials of social research, and which helps you to design projects that are realistic, viable, and above all manageable. If you are someone who finds yourself in this position, may we first offer you our sympathies! Conducting a small-scale research project is a very demanding and challenging endeavour, and it can be extremely unnerving. But it can also be immensely rewarding to take ownership of such a project, to identify a research question that no one else has considered, and to design and execute a project that has your hallmark stamped all over it regardless of all the angst that it may create for you along the way. Whatever your experience, we hope our book sheds some light into whats involved in the art and practice of research, and that it offers some insight into how to approach your research project.
The book is based on one of the modules taken from a Masters course in research methods that the three of us have taught for over a decade at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. The module has undergone significant change over this period, and we would like to thank all our students past and present for their (sometimes very frank) views and observations about its content and about our teaching approach. It was initially taught in a traditional classroom setting to Masters and PhD students from different academic disciplines as well as to non-academics in the research practitioner community, and then subsequently rewritten as a distance learning module. In doing so, we have spent considerable time reflecting upon how to engage students through the written word without the benefit of their having face-to-face discussions with tutors about research methods issues and their own research plans. Having invested such effort in the development of this distance learning course, we took little persuasion from colleagues at Sage to take the next step and try our hand at writing it up as a book. We hope that the book that you have in your hands is one that is accessible and instructive in equal measures.
Essentially, this book aims to assist you in becoming a more effective social researcher through a heightening of your research awareness. This contrasts with many other undergraduate research methods books which we feel tend to over-prioritise the design and application of specific techniques. Our book sets out to explore the principles of constructing research projects, the ethical and political issues in the design and conduct of the research process, and the relationship between qualitative and quantitative methods. It also offers a critical assessment of a range of different research techniques and their applications. The intention is to enable readers to explore the circumstances in which a method is most appropriately used, and to allow them to practise and apply the relevant techniques through a series of exercises and tasks.
Our experiences of teaching research methods to university students across numerous disciplines, and to non-academics from diverse backgrounds, has led us to write a book that places a specific emphasis on catering for readers with a variety of different aptitude levels. Given that this is the case, we have adopted an approach that will stretch and challenge the more experienced of you, while at the same time engaging others who are less familiar with some of the themes and concepts so that you can design and conduct projects in an informed and confident way. To this end we have tried to employ an interactive and participative style that we hope will appeal to all readers in a very practical manner. Thus the book contains numerous practical examples from our own research as well as from the research of others this should help to contextualise the research issues discussed. Definition boxes are included to help you grapple with key concepts and themes, and with different research approaches and styles. And at the end of each chapter we have included a short research task which should give you an opportunity to practise a particular research approach or method, and reflect upon your experience in doing so. The only exception is which does not include such a task but several activities, the outcomes to which will form the basis of a research proposal.
The revised edition
We were delighted when colleagues at Sage asked us to revise the book only a year after the first edition appeared on the bookshelves. For us, it meant of course that students and researchers were finding value in our ideas, and this in itself was very satisfying. But to be completely honest, we also enjoyed the buzz that academics get from knowing that people like your work enough to go and seek it out!
Anyone who has seen the previous version of our book will notice that we have changed the title to, A Critical Introduction to Social Research. This is to reflect the critical focus of the text. We hope that it will continue to serve the needs of a variety of readers including postgraduate taught and PhD research students who are particularly interested in the appropriateness, reliability and validity of approaches and methods before deploying them in research projects. Although the title has changed, the broad thrust of the book remains the same to provide guidance to those intending to become more effective social researchers through a heightening of research awareness.
