This critical introduction to the principles of social and educational research draws together a key set of readings which offers a comprehensive approach to the wide range of values and practice in social research. Issues explored include: the relationship between quantitative and qualitative methods; positivism and the role of the natural sciences as a model for social research; the purposes of research - knowledge or the transformation of the social world; issues of race, gender and power in social research; the politics and ethics of data collection; and the validity and relevance of social research.
Social Research is a set book for The Open University course DEH313 Principles of Social and Educational Research.
Introduction
PART ONE: PHILOSOPHY
An Overall View of Positivism - Leszek Kolakowski
Two Traditions - G H von Wright
Qualitative Research and Psychological Theorizing - Karen L Henwood and Nick F Pidgeon
The Elements of Critical Social Science - Brian Fay
Traditions in Documentary Analysis - Victor Jupp and Clive Norris
PART TWO: POLITICS
Decolonializing Applied Social Sciences - Rodolfo Stavenhagen
Towards a Methodology for Feminist Research - Maria Mies
Intervention in New Social Movements - Elim Papadakis
A Political Classification of Evaluation Studies in Education - Barry MacDonald
The Value of Quantitative Methodology for Feminist Research - Toby Epstein Jayaratne
`Race' and Statistics - Waqar I U Ahmad and Trevor A Sheldon
PART THREE: PRACTICE
Research Analysis of Administrative Records - Catherine Hakim
How Official Statistics are Produced - Government Statisticians' Collective
Views from the Inside
`It's Great to Have Someone to Talk to' - Janet Finch
Ethics and Politics of Interviewing Women
Observation and the Police - Maurice Punch
The Research Experience
Increasing the Generalizability of Qualitative Research - Janet Ward Schofield
The Obviousness of Social and Educational Research Results - N L Gage
