- Written in a highly accessible manner for those new to user experience research, it guides students through the entire process of designing a study, including explaining multiple qualitative methods that are popular within the tech industry. - Helps both students and instructors trained in traditional research methods to better understand qualitative UX methods by offering frequent parallels between traditional academic research methods and UX methods. - Aligns UX research with other career paths within Media and Communication Studies to demonstrate its relevance, increase its teachability, and help open up additional career paths for graduates in these disciplines.

This book explores how imperialism has been evolving in the neoliberal era, with the aim of providing a systematic and integrative understanding of the inner dynamics and vulnerabilities of the contemporary imperialist system. Asking how it has been possible to sustain an imperialist system that fails to address the problems of unemployment, declining standards of living and globalizing conflicts, the author draws upon theoretical and empirical contributions from the current literature to further recent efforts at re-conceptualizing imperialism under the conditions of neoliberal globalization and advances a critique of the school of transnationalism in global political economy. The author puts forward that contemporary imperialism rests on a triangular structure composed of (a) economic imperialism, which is driven by a neoliberal logic of maximizing monopoly profits at massive societal costs; (b) military imperialism, which is shaped by the neoliberal transformation of the US military-industrial complex with the rise of private armies, the globalization of narcocapitalism, and the weaponization of Islamist terrorism and ethno-religious divides; and (c) cultural imperialism, which is led by the media- and nonprofit-corporate complexes, having weaponized the media and civil society in manufacturing popular consent. The book's arguments are also extended to the current challenges of imperialism embodied in the rise of the BRICS, post-hegemonic forms of regional cooperation, and global popular resistance. As such, it will appeal to scholars of politics and sociology with interests in globalization, imperialism, capitalism, and global power.

Business operations in large organizations today involve massive, interactive, and layered networks of teams and personnel collaborating across hierarchies and countries on complex tasks. To optimize productivity, businesses need to know: what communication patterns do high-performing teams have in common? Is it possible to predict a team's performance before it starts work on a project? How can productive team behavior be fostered? This comprehensive review for researchers and practitioners in data mining and social networks surveys recent progress in the emerging field of network science of teams. Focusing on the underlying social network structure, the authors present models and algorithms characterizing, predicting, optimizing, and explaining team performance, along with key applications, open challenges, and future trends.

* A distinctive feature of the publication is its international representation. The book will include writers from France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA. The publication thus catches and celebrates cultural distinctiveness, while also presenting shared intercultural developments in the profession. * With its global perspective on the arts therapies and its focus on contemporary issues and new initiatives, it will be of interest and relevance not only to those in the arts therapeutic community, but also to a broader audience in related professions - for instance psychology, sociology, the arts, medicine, health and wellbeing and education. * University and professional education and training continue to grow across the world at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Most university programmes are set at Masters level. There is increasing research at Doctorate level and there is a strengthening and concentrated emphasis on building the evidence base of the field.

This book explores the meaning and practice of empowering methodologies in organisational and social research. In a context of global academic precarity, this volume explores why empowering research is urgently needed. It discusses the situatedness of knowing and knowledge in the context of core-periphery relations between the global North and South. The book considers the sensory, affective, embodied practice of empowering research, which involves listening, seeing, moving and feeling, to facilitate a more diverse, creative and crafty repertoire of research possibilities. The essays in this volume examine crucial themes including: * How to decolonise management knowledge * Using imaginative, visual and sensory methods * Memory and space in empowering research * Empowerment and feminist methodologies * The role of reflexivity in empowering research By bringing postcolonial perspectives from India, the volume aims to revitalise management and organisation studies for global readers. This book will be useful for scholars and researchers of management studies, organisational behaviour, research methodology, development studies, social sciences in general and gender studies and sociology.

* A distinctive feature of the publication is its international representation. The book will include writers from France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA. The publication thus catches and celebrates cultural distinctiveness, while also presenting shared intercultural developments in the profession. * With its global perspective on the arts therapies and its focus on contemporary issues and new initiatives, it will be of interest and relevance not only to those in the arts therapeutic community, but also to a broader audience in related professions - for instance psychology, sociology, the arts, medicine, health and wellbeing and education. * University and professional education and training continue to grow across the world at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Most university programmes are set at Masters level. There is increasing research at Doctorate level and there is a strengthening and concentrated emphasis on building the evidence base of the field.

Experimental political science has changed. In two short decades, it evolved from an emergent method to an accepted method to a primary method. The challenge now is to ensure that experimentalists design sound studies and implement them in ways that illuminate cause and effect. Ethical boundaries must also be respected, results interpreted in a transparent manner, and data and research materials must be shared to ensure others can build on what has been learned. This book explores the application of new designs; the introduction of novel data sources, measurement approaches, and statistical methods; the use of experiments in more substantive domains; and discipline-wide discussions about the robustness, generalizability, and ethics of experiments in political science. By exploring these novel opportunities while also highlighting the concomitant challenges, this volume enables scholars and practitioners to conduct high-quality experiments that will make key contributions to knowledge.

This book examines the role of social process and routinised violence in the use of underaged soldiers in the country now known as South Sudan during the twenty-one-year civil war between Sudan's northern and southern regions. Drawing on accounts of South Sudanese who as children and teenagers were part of the Red Army-the youth wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA)-the book sheds light on the organised nature of the exploitation of children and youth by senior adult figures within the movement. The book also includes interviews with several of the original Red Army commanders, all of whom went on to hold senior positions within the military and government of South Sudan. The author chronicles the cultural transformation experienced by members of the Red Army and considers whether an analysis of the processes involved in what was then Africa's longest civil war can aid our understanding of South Sudan's more recent descent into ethnicised conflict. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and political science with interests in ethnography, conflict, and the military exploitation of children.

Providing an overview of key issues in theory and practice, Replication Research in Education is designed to identify and discuss the benefits and challenges facing replication studies in education. Both clear and practical, this groundbreaking volume covers how to introduce, develop, conduct, report, and discuss these studies, and the issues they raise for policy and practice. Bridging theory and practice, this book considers what replication research should look like, how it should be conducted, and how to judge when it has been successful. It enables researchers to plan and conduct studies successfully, from their earliest stages through to completion. This key text: brings together in a single volume, existing issues, claims and counterclaims, discourses, and practices of replication; introduces, covers, and extends this field of research, indicating its possibilities and limits; expands and adds to existing discussions and practices; will enable researchers to design, conduct, evaluate, and critique studies. The comprehensive and exhaustive coverage of issues and practices within Replication Research in Education make it a 'must read' for all novice and experienced educational researchers who are considering, conducting, and reviewing replication studies in education.

This volume, derived from the 1999 International Tsunami Symposium, presents a unique look at the state of tsunami research at the end of the 20th century. It displays recent progress both in data recovery and reconstructions of historical tsunamis and in detail examination of recent disasters. It shows the tsunami community using both traditional methods of data gathering - searching archives and attempting to simulate past events - and integrating modern technologies - side-scan sonar, GPS, global communications, supercomputers - in the quest to understand tsunamis and improve mankind's ability to mitigate the disastrous consequences of these unpredictable and unstoppable events. It chronicles recent advances in mitigation efforts while illuminating the continuing need for increased efforts. The papers range from descriptive texts for the non-specialists to fairly technical discussions for those familiar with tsunami research. Audience: This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students involved in natural hazards research, physical oceanography, seismology, environmental impact assessment and risk assessment.

This book addresses the application of statistical techniques and methods across a wide range of disciplines. While its main focus is on the application of statistical methods, theoretical aspects are also provided as fundamental background information. It offers a systematic interpretation of results often discovered in general descriptions of methods and techniques such as linear and non-linear regression. SPSS is also used in all the application aspects. The presentation of data in the form of tables and graphs throughout the book not only guides users, but also explains the statistical application and assists readers in interpreting important features. The analysis of statistical data is presented consistently throughout the text. Academic researchers, practitioners and other users who work with statistical data will benefit from reading Applied Statistics for Social and Management Sciences.

Building upon the incorporation of fieldnotes into anthropological research, this edited collection explores fieldnote practices from within education and the social sciences. Framed by social justice concerns about power in knowledge production, this insightful collection explores methodological questions about the production, use, sharing, and dissemination of fieldnotes. Particular attention is given to the role of context and author positionality in shaping fieldnotes practices. Why do researchers take fieldnotes? What do their fieldnotes look like? What ethical concerns do different types of fieldnotes practices provoke? By drawing on case studies from numerous international contexts, including Argentina, Cameroon, Canada, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Kenya, Lebanon, Malawi, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the US, the text provides comprehensive and nuanced answers to these questions. This text will be of interest to academics and scholars conducting research across the social sciences, and in particular, in the fields of anthropology and education.

This book develops an approach to both method and the socio-political implications of knowledge production that embraces our embeddedness in the world that we study. It seeks to enact the transformative potentials inherent in this relationship in how it engages readers. It presents a creative survey of some of the newest developments in critical research methods and critical pedagogy that together go beyond the aims of knowledge transfer that often structure our practices. Each contribution takes on a different shape, tone and orientation, and discusses a critical method or approach, teasing out the ways in which it can also work as a transformative practice. While the presentation of different methods is both rigorously practice-based and specific, contributors also offer reflections on the stakes of critical engagement and how it may play an important role in expanding and subverting existing regimes of intelligibility. Contributions variously address the following key questions: What makes your research method important? How can others work with it? How has research through this method and/or the way you ended up deploying it transformed you and/or your practice? How did it matter for thinking about community, (academic) collaboration, and sharing 'knowledge'? This volume makes the case for re-politicizing the importance of research and the transformative potentials of research methods not only in 'accessing' the world as an object of study, but as ways of acting and being in the world. It will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, critical theory, research methods and politics in general.

By exploring how the religious beliefs, scientific knowledge, and social surroundings of African-American sufferers of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) impacts their understanding of the condition, this book develops a new model of effective adult learning. Presenting the findings of rigorous qualitative research undertaken with five individuals with T2DM, this volume considers how individuals' educational background, their personal experiences, and their relationship with African-American theism have impacted on their efforts to understand and manage the disease. Identification of the social and spiritual dynamics which govern adults' acceptance of a chronic condition such as diabetes, and their ability to manage the illness according to modern medical principles, informs the development of a new theory of adult learning known as permeated learning. This model, which extends beyond transformative learning to recognize the influence of social constructs specific to African-American communities, will have broad application to adult education and the management of chronic diseases. This scholarly text will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, researchers, academics, and policymakers in the field of adult education, African-American education, transformative learning, lifelong learning, and multicultural education.

This is a book on methods, how scholars embody them and how working within, from or against Constructivism has shaped that use and embodiment. A vibrant cross-section of contributors write of interdisciplinary encounters, first interactions with the 'discipline' of International Relations, discuss engagements in different techniques and tactics, and of pursuing different methods ranging from ethnographic to computer simulations, from sociology to philosophy and history. Presenting a range of voices, many constructivist, some outside and even critical of Constructivism, the volume shows methods as useful tools for approaching research and political positions in International Relations, while also containing contingent, inexact, unexpected, and even surprising qualities for opening further research. It gives a rich account of how the discipline was transformed in the 1990s and early 2000s, and how this shaped careers, positions and interactions. It will be of interest to both students and scholars of methods and theory in International Relations and global politics.

Negotiating the Complexities of Qualitative Research in Higher Education illuminates the complex nature of qualitative research, while attending to issues of application. This text addresses the essentials of research through discussion of strategies, ethical issues, and challenges in higher education. In addition to walking through the methodological steps, this text considers the conceptual reasons behind qualitative research and explores how to conduct qualitative research that is rigorous, thoughtful, and theoretically coherent. Seasoned researchers Jones, Torres, and Arminio combine high-level theory with practical applications and examples, showing how research in higher education can produce improved learning outcomes for students, especially those who have been historically marginalized. This book will help students in higher education graduate programs to cultivate an appreciation for the complexity and ambiguity of the research and the ways to think through questions and tensions that emerge in the process. New in This Edition: Emphasis on participant representation and researcher reflexivity and positionality Additional conceptual frameworks that ground qualitative work in higher education and analyze power to reveal structural inequities A wider array of approaches including Participatory Action Research, Critical Discourse Analysis, and visual methodologies and methods A new chapter on writing that covers getting started, writing as analysis, writing to capture complexity, and positioning oneself in writing Updated citations and content throughout to reflect the newest thinking and scholarship New end-of-chapter discussion questions and activities to bolster accessibility of theory and help instructors support students' work on their course research projects.

This book is a vital new resource in the sociological study of family life in the 21st century. The chapters in this volume explore a diverse range of family and intimate life experiences, such as personal choices about reproduction and how life choices and family forms are mediated by factors including geographical location, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, income and government policy. Through a series of evidence-based chapters, leading sociologists explore a diverse range of family and intimate life experiences and the contexts within which they are lived and experienced. Each chapter delves into the lives and experiences of people whose choices in some way seem to disrupt normative and traditional ideas of family, parenting and childhood. Family patterns and experiences of living apart together, troubled families, children in care, culture, coupledom, same-sex families and digital technology are covered and examined innovatively through theoretical engagement. Chapters also incorporate innovative technologies and their use within family spaces that shape the nature of human relationships and interactions. These negotiations within the family are globally contextualised within the political and ideological frameworks of societies at any given moment in time. The work recognises the sensitivity of family and personal lives and incorporates the increasing need of the impact of emotionality that forms part of knowledge production. Additionally, innovative methods are showcased in chapters on researching the family through socially just methods, researcher emotionality and visual data. By bringing together thought-provoking research findings and innovative methodological and theoretical approaches, this collection of essays raises and articulates relevant, timely and future thinking for its readers. This book will therefore be indispensable for students and researchers as well as professionals and policymakers interested in understanding family life in the 21st century.

This book Includes chapters from many of the leading figures in museum anthropology, as well as from outstanding early-career researchers This volume presents a diverse range of international case studies that bridge the gap between theory and practice. It demonstrates that ethnographic collections and the museums that hold and curate them have played a central role in the value creation processes that have changed attitudes to cultural difference. The essays engage richly with many of the important issues of contemporary museum discourse and practice. They show how collections exist at the ever-changing point of articulation between the source communities and the people and cultures of the museum and challenge presentist critiques of museums that position them as locked into the time that they emerged. The book will be of great interest to researchers and students engaged in the study of museums and heritage, anthropology, culture, Indigenous peoples, postcolonialism, history and sociology. It will also be of interest to museum professionals.

Mentoring African American Males provides important black male research and student performance data to guide the efforts of those who accept the enormous task of standing in the gap to increase black male achievement. Dr. Ross provides guidance for individuals and institutions embracing the important role of developing mentoring programs or serving as a mentor to youth. However, what makes Dr. Ross' work such a critically important book for any individual or institution considering such a role is its insight into the social-cultural framework within which mentoring must occur at every level from elementary school through college. Equally insightful is the structure that such programs must take in response to the socio-cultural constructs of the families, communities, and institutions where they will occur. There are far more quantitative studies than qualitative on the topic of mentoring. This text addresses that discrepancy and provides the results of several qualitative studies on African American males. There is hardly any that offer a mixed method perspective that combine quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches. This text reports on the research results that are qualitative in nature in addition to some that are from a quantitative and mixed method approach.

* Provides global case studies to consider how researchers thinking critically about ethics in a variety of different social and national contexts * Helps researchers understand the relevance of different approaches to ethical thinking to empower participants * Gives examples of researchers critically reflecting on practice with a variety of qualitative online and visual research methods

Data Analytics for the Social Sciences is an introductory, graduate-level treatment of data analytics for social science. It features applications in the R language, arguably the fastest growing and leading statistical tool for researchers. The book starts with an ethics chapter on the uses and potential abuses of data analytics. Chapters 2 and 3 show how to implement a broad range of statistical procedures in R. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with regression and classification trees and with random forests. Chapter 6 deals with machine learning models and the "caret" package, which makes available to the researcher hundreds of models. Chapter 7 deals with neural network analysis, and Chapter 8 deals with network analysis and visualization of network data. A final chapter treats text analysis, including web scraping, comparative word frequency tables, word clouds, word maps, sentiment analysis, topic analysis, and more. All empirical chapters have two "Quick Start" exercises designed to allow quick immersion in chapter topics, followed by "In Depth" coverage. Data are available for all examples and runnable R code is provided in a "Command Summary". An appendix provides an extended tutorial on R and RStudio. Almost 30 online supplements provide information for the complete book, "books within the book" on a variety of topics, such as agent-based modeling. Rather than focusing on equations, derivations, and proofs, this book emphasizes hands-on obtaining of output for various social science models and how to interpret the output. It is suitable for all advanced level undergraduate and graduate students learning statistical data analysis.

* Provides global case studies to consider how researchers thinking critically about ethics in a variety of different social and national contexts * Helps researchers understand the relevance of different approaches to ethical thinking to empower participants * Gives examples of researchers critically reflecting on practice with a variety of qualitative online and visual research methods

* A personal and intimate look at the lived experience of black motherhood * Examines through black feminist theory strategies for resisting entrenched social racism and sexism * The autoethnographic method shows not just theorising about experiences of black mothers but how that looks in lived practice

* A personal and intimate look at the lived experience of black motherhood * Examines through black feminist theory strategies for resisting entrenched social racism and sexism * The autoethnographic method shows not just theorising about experiences of black mothers but how that looks in lived practice

Semantic Network Analysis in Social Sciences introduces the fundamentals of semantic network analysis and its applications in the social sciences. Readers learn how to easily transform any given text into a visual network of words co-occurring together, a process that allows mapping the main themes appearing in the text and revealing its main narratives and biases. Semantic network analysis is particularly useful today with the increasing volumes of text-based information available. It is one of the developing, cutting-edge methods to organize, identify patterns and structures, and understand the meanings of our information society. The first chapters in this book offer step-by-step guidelines for conducting semantic network analysis, including choosing and preparing the text, selecting desired words, constructing the networks, and interpreting their meanings. Free software tools and code are also presented. The rest of the book displays state-of-the-art studies from around the world that apply this method to explore news, political speeches, social media content, and even to organize interview transcripts and literature reviews. Aimed at scholars with no previous knowledge in the field, this book can be used as a main or a supplementary textbook for general courses on research methods or network analysis courses, as well as a starting point to conduct your own content analysis of large texts.