This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the methodological, theoretical, and meta-theoretical considerations and guidelines involved in undertaking institutional ethnographic work involving people with cognitive and communicative disabilities. It presents a coherent platform for integrating theory and method built on classical and recent anthropological and sociological theory as well as classic and recent methodological considerations within the ethnographic tradition. Furthermore, it introduces readers to the challenging work of understanding the lifeworld of people who cannot express themselves in ordinary ways or who are deeply stigmatised and oppressed by dominating discourses telling them how to understand and define their role in society. It will be of interest to all scholars, students and researchers of disability studies, particularly those who undertake ethnographic research or want to understand the challenges involved in doing so.

The Student Survival Guide for Research Methods in Psychology is designed to support students enrolled in undergraduate or graduate level research methods courses by providing them with the tools they need to succeed. It goes beyond course material to help students engage more fully with research methods content. This survival guide presents clear step-by-step instructions that will help students hone the basic skills to succeed and thrive in their research methods classes and to navigate common pitfalls. The book covers core practical skills, like formatting and writing at an APA standard, understanding research literature (particularly academic journals), using SPSS, and broader skills like how to communicate with your professor, time management, and teamwork skills. It is a highly effective primer text for all psychology students undertaking research methods courses and will also be particularly helpful for students who are currently undertaking these modules and don't feel fully prepared for them.

This volume examines civilizations through the broad lens articulated by the works of Max Weber. In focusing upon his comparative-historical mode of analysis and his causal explanations for the sources, contours, and trajectories of civilizations, this study reconstructs Weber's sociology in a manner that provides clear guidelines to researchers seeking to investigate civilizations systematically. Through detailed interpretations of the West's unique development from Antiquity to the Modern era, precise comparisons to the long-range and singular pathways taken by China and India, and careful demarcations of the "particular rationalisms" of several civilizations, the author addresses Weber's powerful model-building on the one hand and his opposition to organic holism and structural presuppositions on the other hand. Both a broad-ranging conceptual framework and case-based empirical investigations are pivotal to Weber. His research strategy emphasizes further the "subjective meanings" of actors East and West and the deep cultural origins of groups. Finally, this volume masterfully conveys Weber's contextual and multi-causal methodology rooted in a tight interweaving of the present with the past. Max Weber's Sociology of Civilizations: A Reconstruction will appeal to comparative sociologists and historians, as well as to theorists of all persuasions. The social scientist pursuing a cross-civilizational agenda will here discover the distinct contribution of Weber's "interpretive understanding" procedures to the now-essential field of civilizational analysis.

This book looks at the rich and complex history of broadcasting and community broadcasting in the multicultural and multilingual milieu in India. It explores the world of community radio and how community radio broadcasters hear and speak to their audiences under the overarching theme of polyphony. The book discusses the socio-historical contexts which allowed community radio to thrive in India. It highlights its potential to create alternative spaces of representation, and opportunity and its importance in preserving and disseminating local knowledge and traditions. The author weaves together ethnographic research and literature, as well as personal narratives and stories of those involved in the field. Further, the monograph critically examines the impact of development agendas on community projects and processes, discussing in detail the pervasiveness of the development discourse in every aspect of community radio and how it manifests on air. It also illustrates the limitations of community radio, within the context of its participation in the "spectacle of development". Accessible and deeply insightful, this book will be of interest to researchers and students of cultural studies, sociology, social anthropology, media and communication studies, and South Asian studies.

Artful Collaborative Inquiry comprises essays created collectively by a group of scholars and artists, the majority of whom have several decades of experience of working together. The book challenges commonly-held, individualistic beliefs about ownership, authorship and scholarly and artistic ethics and practices. The essays exemplify the entangled kinds of scholarly and artistic works that emerge in a post-human world, where humans, other species, environments, things and other matters, all matter and are of equal concern in the conduct of ethical artful scholarship. Situated at the (messy) crossroads where contemporary scholarship and artistic practice converge, the seamless mo(ve)ment and interplay between text and image make up the main body of the work in this book. The chapters combine the playful use and merging of time, space and place, researcher and researched, to give a unique exemplar of research and creativity in the rapidly emerging field of collaborative scholarship. It will be of particular interest to creative and qualitative scholars wishing to conduct more artful research, and artists engaging with scholarship.

Artful Collaborative Inquiry comprises essays created collectively by a group of scholars and artists, the majority of whom have several decades of experience of working together. The book challenges commonly-held, individualistic beliefs about ownership, authorship and scholarly and artistic ethics and practices. The essays exemplify the entangled kinds of scholarly and artistic works that emerge in a post-human world, where humans, other species, environments, things and other matters, all matter and are of equal concern in the conduct of ethical artful scholarship. Situated at the (messy) crossroads where contemporary scholarship and artistic practice converge, the seamless mo(ve)ment and interplay between text and image make up the main body of the work in this book. The chapters combine the playful use and merging of time, space and place, researcher and researched, to give a unique exemplar of research and creativity in the rapidly emerging field of collaborative scholarship. It will be of particular interest to creative and qualitative scholars wishing to conduct more artful research, and artists engaging with scholarship.

Governing Affects explores the neoliberal transformation of state governance in Europe towards affective forms of dominance exercised by customer-oriented neo-bureaucracies and public service providers. By investigating the rise of affective labour in contemporary European service societies and the conversion of state administrations into business-like public services, the authors trace the transformative power of neoliberal political thought as it is put into practice. The book examines new affective modes of subjectivation and activation of public employees, as well as their embodiment of affective requirements, to successfully guide and advise citizens. Neoliberalism induces a double agency in neo-bureaucrats: entrepreneurialism is coupled with affective skills for the purpose of governing clients in their own best interests. These competences are unevenly distributed between the genders, as their affective dispositions differ historically. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of Foucault and Bourdieu, the book offers innovative insights into recent processes of state transformation, affective subjectivation, and changes in labour relations. By combining theory building on governance with empirical research in key areas of state power, the book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in a broad range of disciplines, including political science, political sociology, and critical governance studies.

Explores real research dilemmas around representation of research subjects to offer guidance to researchers as to how they might move past these dilemmas Carefully examines and provides guidance for considering ethics of representing your research subjects, and what issues you might encounter as a researcher Examines particularly research with minority and under-represented groups and individuals

This book summarizes a range of new analytic tools for multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data. Providing an expository yet accessible approach to cutting-edge developments for MTMM analysis, a selection of quantitative researchers reveal their recent contributions to the field including non-technical summaries and empirical examples. The contributions inform quantitative social scientists of some of the most cutting-edge developments for MTMM analysis. A range of developments have emerged over the past decade for MTMM analyses, and this book presents these novel additions to the quantitative community as a cohesive narrative. This book makes these recent MTMM contributions accessible to applied researchers (most MTMM innovations are presented in less approachable journals for applied researchers) by providing non-technical summaries and empirical examples. This book will serve as a stepping stone for applied researchers seeking to adopt MTMM analysis into their program of research, and will be relevant to researchers, both within a professional and academic context, across the social and behavioral sciences.

Research shows that internships are the dominant form of experiential learning used in business schools worldwide, providing practical insight into a job role for students and enhancing their employability. This book provides practical resources that practitioners and students can use to maximize the overall internship experience by explaining business education, internships, skill development, and employment outcomes. It also includes material to assist in the development or enhancement of internship programs to create a high-quality internship course while providing guidance on reflecting and evaluating the learning gained from the experience. Including quizzes and short activities, this book can be used as a companion text for any student participating in an internship, or as a guide that practitioners in this field can use to help design their own internship program and course content. Business schools are increasing their focus on experiential learning and are encouraging faculty to incorporate internships into their existing curriculum. Linking theory, history, and practice, this book is ideal reading for students participating in an internship for academic credit and as a guidebook for business school practitioners who wish to start or improve their existing academic internship program.

The process of European integration and the transfer of political authority from the national to the European level have led to the emergence of a field of EU policy making in Brussels, which attracts professionals and experts from all EU member states. This book contributes to research on the dynamics of social integration unfolding at the heart of this field. Based on in-depth interviews with officials working for the European Commission - the EU's supranational organization - the author explores the perception and negotiation of symbolic boundaries related to their diverse national and regional backgrounds. In line with their cosmopolitan attitudes and role-conception as European civil servants, Commission officials tend to de-emphasize national and regional divisions among them. Nevertheless, subtle symbolic boundaries remain in connection with their diverse organizational cultures, working language preferences, professional values and influence and career prospects. This nuanced account of patterns of social categorization and group-making in a European context will appeal to sociologists with interests in European integration and the emergence of social fields and groups beyond the nation state.

This book investigates why economics makes less visible progress over time than scientific fields with a strong practical component, where interactions with physical technologies play a key role. The thesis of the book is that the main impediment to progress in economics is "false feedback", which it defines as the false result of an empirical study, such as empirical evidence produced by a statistical model that violates some of its assumptions. In contrast to scientific fields that work with physical technologies, false feedback is hard to recognize in economics. Economists thus have difficulties knowing where they stand in their inquiries, and false feedback will regularly lead them in the wrong directions. The book searches for the reasons behind the emergence of false feedback. It thereby contributes to a wider discussion in the field of metascience about the practices of researchers when pursuing their daily business. The book thus offers a case study of metascience for the field of empirical economics. The main strength of the book are the numerous smaller insights it provides throughout. The book delves into deep discussions of various theoretical issues, which it illustrates by many applied examples and a wide array of references, especially to philosophy of science. The book puts flesh on complicated and often abstract subjects, particularly when it comes to controversial topics such as p-hacking. The reader gains an understanding of the main challenges present in empirical economic research and also the possible solutions. The main audience of the book are all applied researchers working with data and, in particular, those who have found certain aspects of their research practice problematic.

Much of our thinking is flawed because it is based on faulty intuition. By using the framework and tools of probability and statistics, we can overcome this to provide solutions to many real-world problems and paradoxes. We show how to do this, and find answers that are frequently very contrary to what we might expect. Along the way, we venture into diverse realms and thought experiments which challenge the way that we see the world. Features: An insightful and engaging discussion of some of the key ideas of probabilistic and statistical thinking Many classic and novel problems, paradoxes, and puzzles An exploration of some of the big questions involving the use of choice and reason in an uncertain world The application of probability, statistics, and Bayesian methods to a wide range of subjects, including economics, finance, law, and medicine Exercises, references, and links for those wishing to cross-reference or to probe further Solutions to exercises at the end of the book This book should serve as an invaluable and fascinating resource for university, college, and high school students who wish to extend their reading, as well as for teachers and lecturers who want to liven up their courses while retaining academic rigour. It will also appeal to anyone who wishes to develop skills with numbers or has an interest in the many statistical and other paradoxes that permeate our lives. Indeed, anyone studying the sciences, social sciences, or humanities on a formal or informal basis will enjoy and benefit from this book.

Undergraduate Research in Architecture: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding research skills, with examples of undergraduate research activities and case studies on projects in the various areas of architecture study. Undergraduate research has become a common degree requirement in some disciplines and is growing rapidly. Many undergraduate activities in music have components that could be combined into compelling undergraduate research projects, either in the required curriculum, as part of existing courses, or in capstone courses centered on undergraduate research. Following an overview chapter, the next seven chapters cover research skills including literature reviews, choosing topics, formulating questions, citing sources, disseminating results, and working with data and human subjects. A wide variety of sub-disciplines follow in the remaining chapters, with sample project ideas from each as well as undergraduate research conference abstracts. The final chapter is an annotated guide to online resources. Included are some inspirational quotations concerning architecture's commitment to research, and some examples of professional research that support the focus of the chapter. All chapters end with relevant questions for discussion.

Undergraduate Research in Architecture: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding research skills, with examples of undergraduate research activities and case studies on projects in the various areas of architecture study. Undergraduate research has become a common degree requirement in some disciplines and is growing rapidly. Many undergraduate activities in music have components that could be combined into compelling undergraduate research projects, either in the required curriculum, as part of existing courses, or in capstone courses centered on undergraduate research. Following an overview chapter, the next seven chapters cover research skills including literature reviews, choosing topics, formulating questions, citing sources, disseminating results, and working with data and human subjects. A wide variety of sub-disciplines follow in the remaining chapters, with sample project ideas from each as well as undergraduate research conference abstracts. The final chapter is an annotated guide to online resources. Included are some inspirational quotations concerning architecture's commitment to research, and some examples of professional research that support the focus of the chapter. All chapters end with relevant questions for discussion.

Chen, He and Yan present a range of applications of multiple-source big data to core areas of contemporary sociology, demonstrating how a theory-guided approach to macrosociology can help to understand social change in China, especially where traditional approaches are limited by constrained and biased data. In each chapter of the book, the authors highlight an application of theory-guided macrosociology that has the potential to reinvigorate an ambitious, open-minded and bold approach to sociological research. These include social stratification, social networks, medical care, and online behaviours among many others. This research approach focuses on macro-level social process and phenomena by using quantitative models to statistically test for associations and causalities suggested by a clearly hypothesised social theory. By deploying theory-oriented macrosociology where it can best assure macro-level robustness and reliability, big data applications can be more relevant to and guided by social theory. An essential read for sociologists with an interest in quantitative and macro-scale research methods, which also provides fascinating insights into Chinese society as a demonstration of the utility of its methodology.

Undergraduate Research in Theatre: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding research skills alongside examples of undergraduate research in theatre and performance scholarship. The book begins with an overview of the necessity of framing theatre as undergraduate research and responding to calls for revolutionizing the discipline toward greater equity, diversity, and inclusion. Dedicated chapters for the research, skills, and methods employed by each theatre area follow: scripted theatre; devised and new works; applied theatre; scenic, costume, sound, and lighting design; and theatre theory and interdisciplinary studies. Throughout the book, undergraduate research activities are demonstrated by 36 case studies authored by undergraduates from six countries about diverse areas of theatre study. Suitable for both professors and students, Undergraduate Research in Theatre is an ideal resource for any course that has an opportunity for the creation of new knowledge or as an essential interdisciplinary connection between theatre, performance, and other disciplines.

Undergraduate Research in Theatre: A Guide for Students supplies tools for scaffolding research skills alongside examples of undergraduate research in theatre and performance scholarship. The book begins with an overview of the necessity of framing theatre as undergraduate research and responding to calls for revolutionizing the discipline toward greater equity, diversity, and inclusion. Dedicated chapters for the research, skills, and methods employed by each theatre area follow: scripted theatre; devised and new works; applied theatre; scenic, costume, sound, and lighting design; and theatre theory and interdisciplinary studies. Throughout the book, undergraduate research activities are demonstrated by 36 case studies authored by undergraduates from six countries about diverse areas of theatre study. Suitable for both professors and students, Undergraduate Research in Theatre is an ideal resource for any course that has an opportunity for the creation of new knowledge or as an essential interdisciplinary connection between theatre, performance, and other disciplines.

Find the answers to disaster and emergency management research questions with Disaster and Emergency Management Methods. Written to engage students and to provide a flexible foundation for instructors and practitioners, this interdisciplinary textbook provides a holistic understanding of disaster and emergency management research methods used in the field. The disaster and emergency management contexts have a host of challenges that affect the research process that subsequently shape methodological approaches, data quality, analysis and inferences. In this book, readers are presented with the considerations that must be made before engaging in the research process, in addition to a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches that are currently being used in the discipline. Current, relevant, and fascinating real-world applications provide a window into how each approach is being applied in the field. Disaster and Emergency Management Methods serves as an effective way to empower readers to approach their own study of disaster and emergency management research methods with confidence.

Defence from Floods and Floodplain Management discusses all aspects of floodplain management related to defence from floods, including specific issues such as the maintenance of flood defences, and reveals many aspects of a more holistic approach to the management of flood risk, expanding the structural/non-structural debate into prevention and cure in the floodplain and its catchment. Recent experience in many countries is recounted by experts from Hungary, Austria, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, the UK and the USA.

Unique in its intergenerational approach to understanding motherhood in China, this book sets out to study Chinese mothers' experiences of childrearing, emphasising that gender is not immutable and that motherhood is not isolated from other social domains. The author adopts an historical and sociological design with a case study approach to investigate three living generations of women from 12 families of varied social-economic backgrounds in China. By comparing three aspects of these mothers' lives - namely the growing-up experiences, mothering experiences and intergenerational transmission between mothers and daughters - this research provides an invaluable opportunity to 'observe' how changing structural elements shaped mothers' varied subjectivities similarly or differently. It also addresses the continuities of the women's experiences, highlighting the gendered and devalued roles in childcare that existed across three generations, reflecting the complex dynamic relationship between women's agency and China's social structures. This is an essential read for researchers, students, professionals and practitioners in the fields of sociology of families, childhood and education, gender studies, motherhood/parenthood studies, narrative studies, social policy and development studies.

Transformative Strategies is based around the idea that strategic thinking is critical for organizational success in today's environment. The financial crisis, continuing economic uncertainty, digitalization, environmental issues, and social issues involved in globalization present strategic problems for enterprises. Unlike other textbooks that take a standard solutions-based approach, Transformative Strategies provides readers with a way to develop strategies that fit their own complex situations and shows how models may be applied in different ways to different problems. Each of the four key elements affecting the business environment (globalization, disruption, collaboration, and responsibility) are addressed as a set of tensions in eight areas: global competition, business model innovation, digital strategizing, business eco-systems, corporate social responsibility, top management teams, and trans-cultural leadership in a globalized world. This tension-based pedagogy enables readers to shift from dichotomized thinking (such as exploring or exploiting) to transformative thinking (such as exploring and exploiting; exploring through exploiting) and readers are challenged to solve real problems that companies face, encouraging them to acknowledge the broader context in which organizations operate and to analyze the problem from multiple perspectives. Each chapter is structured to aid engagement and discussion, including a discussion of the tension tied to the chapter's topic, learning objectives, theoretical frameworks, real life case studies, exercises and reflective questions. A highly practical book that encourages readers to develop solutions that fit their own complex problems, it will be particularly suitable for those studying strategic management as part of an MBA, MA or MSc in Management, as well as those in executive education. It will also appeal to all those interested in learning how to lead and transform organizations towards impact, purpose and relevance. Online resources include discussions of the case studies, supplementary problems for class discussion, and an instructors' manual outlining the pedagogical approach.

This book explores how fieldwork has been used to research Chinese history in the past and new ways that others might use in it the future. It introduces the previous generations of scholars who ventured out of the archive to conduct local investigations in Chinese cities, villages, farms and temples. It goes on to present the techniques of historical fieldwork, providing guidance on how to integrate oral history into research plans and archival research, conduct interviews, and locate sources in the field. Chapters by established researchers relate these techniques to specific types of fieldwork, including religion, the imperial past, natural environments and agriculture. Combining the past and the future of the craft, the book provides a rich resource for scholars coming new to fieldwork in the history of China.

Developed in response to the theoretically driven mainstream sociology, institutional ethnography starts from people's everyday experiences, and works from there to discover how the social is organized. Starting from experience is a central step in challenging taken-for-granted assumptions and relations of power, whilst responding critically to the neoliberal cost-benefit ideology that has come to permeate welfare institutions and the research sector. This book explicates the Nordic response to institutional ethnography, showing how it has been adapted and interpreted within the theoretical and methodological landscape of social scientific research in the region, as well as the institutional particularities of the Nordic welfare state. Addressing the main topics of concern in the Nordic context, together with the way in which research is undertaken, the authors show how institutional ethnography is combined with different theories and methodologies in order to address particular problematics, as well as examining its standing in relation to contemporary research policy and university reforms. With both theoretical and empirical chapters, this book will appeal to scholars and students of sociology, professional studies and anthropology with interests in research methods and the Nordic region.

Practice Methodologies in Education Research offers a fresh approach to researching practice in education. Addressing a major gap in research methodology scholarship, it highlights how integral practice theory is to the transformational agendas of education research, introducing a theory of activist practice methodologies informed by expansive theories of practice. With contributions from leading education researchers drawn from across the world, the book confronts onto-epistemological dilemmas for doing research that arise from taking practice theory seriously, including the theories of Bourdieu, de Certeau, Deleuze, Haraway, Latour, Taylor, and Vygotsky. A defining feature of the chapters is their activist axiologies and their experimental approach to researching practice in education, in fields as diverse as educational leadership, schooling, higher education, adult and workplace education and training, professional practice, and informal learning. Practice Methodologies in Education is essential reading for education academics and postgraduates engaged in critical research using practice theory.