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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies > Research methods
The Meeting of Aesthetics and Ethics in the Academy provides a deep understanding of the nuances of ethics in the creative environment and contributes to the critical exploration of the nature of research ethics in higher education. Written by world-renown academics with a wealth of experience in this field, this volume explores ethical challenges and responses across a range of creative practices and disciplines including design, documentary film making, journalism, socially engaged arts and the visual arts. It addresses the complex negotiations that creative practice researchers in higher education undertake to ensure that the ethical compliance required does not undermine the research integrity and artistic aspirations. By presenting carefully considered challenges to accepted models of research, this book illustrates critical analysis through a variety of case studies and anecdotal examples that provide an insight into improved ethics practices and policies in higher education. This book is perfect for academics, ethics administrators, higher degree research candidates and supervisors looking to engage further in creative practice research and wanting to explore and understand its ethical oversight.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Departing from a concern with certain 'hard' problems in social theory and focusing instead on the theoretical strategies employed in their solution, especially on how these strategies depend on what the author calls the theoretical attitude towards language, this book considers whether these strategies, far from being indispensable guides to thinking, might in fact lead social theorists to misunderstand the concepts constitutive of social life. Making use of the insights and practice of Ordinary Language Philosophy, understood as encompassing the work of Wittgenstein, Ryle, Austin and their followers, Clarity and Confusion in Social Theory reveals the profound logical flaws in some of the central methodological procedures often employed in social theory for dealing with concepts, offering alternative approaches to social scientists and philosophers for tackling the conceptual issues that have so bedevilled social science from its inception. A lucid explication of Ordinary Language Philosophy and the potential that it offers for deepening and re-orienting theoretical work in the social sciences, this volume, apart from being a challenge to the influential Critical Realist paradigm, constitutes a radical critique of social theoretical reason. As such, it will appeal to social theorists and philosophers of social science, those with interests in research methods and theory construction, and anyone interested in thinking clearly about society.
Currently, most books on youth research available on the market focus on 'how to' conduct youth research or the research process itself. This edited collection proposes to take this process a step further and discuss the complexities of youth research from a practical and theoretical context. In total, five themes are examined - conceptualising young people, ethics and consent, the digital, voice, participation and unexpected tensions. In this book, authors from six countries explore the complexities of researching with young people across disciplines and national contexts. Offering a closeup examination of their own research experiences, the authors address the complexities of researching with young people beyond simple questions of protection from harm and coercion by problematising notions of 'resilience', 'participation', 'risk' and 'voice'. This edited collection takes the reader through an exploration of its key themes and, in doing so, presents a cast of candid and insightful accounts from youth researchers situated within the humanities and social sciences.
The Theoretical Framework in Phenomenological Research: Development and Application is an introduction to phenomenology in which the authors overview its origin, main ideas and core concepts. They show the application and relevancy of phenomenological tenets in practical qualitative research, as well as demonstrate how aligning theory and method enhances research credibility. In this detailed but digestible explanation of phenomenological theories, the authors explore the ideas of the main founders pertaining to the meaning of perceived reality and the meaning of being, and how these founders articulated their methodologies. In doing so, The Theoretical Framework in Phenomenological Research fills the well-documented gap between theory and practice within phenomenology by providing a much-needed bridge between the foundational literature and applied research on the subject, focusing equally on theory and practice. The book includes practical demonstrations on how to create theoretical/conceptual frameworks in applied phenomenological research. It also features detailed, step-by-step illustrations and examples regarding how researchers can develop frameworks and use their concepts to inform the development of themes at the data analysis stage. A reliable guide underpinned by foundational phenomenology literature, The Theoretical Framework in Phenomenological Research is an essential text for researchers, instructors, practitioners and students looking to design and conduct phenomenological studies in a manner that ensures credible outcomes.
This stimulating and refreshing study, written by one of the leading commentators in the field, provides novel answers to these crucial questions. "What's Wrong With Ethnography provides a fresh look at the rationale for and distinctiveness of ethnographic research in sociology, education and related fields, and succeeds in slaying a number of currently fashionable sacred cows. Relativism, critical theory, the uniqueness of the case study and the distinction between qualitative and quantitative research are all examined and found wanting as a basis for informed ethnography. The policy and political implications of ethnography are a particular focus of attention. The author compels the reader to reexamine some basic methodological assumptions in an exciting way", Martin Bulmer, London School of Economics.
This fascinating book gives readers an appreciation of how biomedical research should work and how the reality is all too often seriously flawed. Explaining the logical basis of the different research approaches used by biomedical research scientists and their relative merits, it will help readers to make more realistic appraisal of media reports linking aspects of lifestyle, environment or diet to health outcomes and thus judge whether such claims are a real effect worthy of consideration for behavior change or deserving of further research resources. Key features: increases awareness of research fraud and some of the characteristics of fraudulent science and scientific fraudsters shows that whilst outright fraud may be uncommon, fudging of results to help achieve statistical significance may be more prevalent incorporates real-life case studies highlighting some of the infamous cases of research fraud and major scientific mistakes and the impact that they have had provides a convenient overview of the research process in the biomedical sciences, with a focus on research strategy rather than individual methods find supplemental detail on the author's blog https://drgeoffnutrition.wordpress.com/about/ By raising awareness of the possibility that research data may have been dishonestly generated and outlining some of the signs and symptoms that might suggest data fabrication, Error and Fraud: The Dark Side of Biomedical Research will help students and researchers to identify the strengths and limitations of different research approaches and allow them to make a realistic evaluations of their own and others' research findings.
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.
This book reframes theoretical, methodological and practical approaches to public administration by drawing on complexity theory concepts. It aims to provide alternative perspectives on the theory, research and practice of public administration, avoiding assumptions of traditional theory-building. The contributors explain both how ongoing non-linear interactions result in macro patterns becoming established in a complexity-informed world view, and the implications of these dynamics. Complexity theory explains the way in which many repeated non-linear interactions among elements within a whole can result in processes and patterns emerging without design or direction, thus necessitating a reconsideration of the predictability and controllability of many aspects of public administration. As well as illustrating how complexity theory informs new research methods for studying this field, the book also shines a light on the different practices required of public administrators to cope with the complexity encountered in the public policy and public management fields. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Public Management Review journal.
Coping with complexities is an everyday reality for private, public and third sectors that face intricate, overlapping, obscuring and ever-changing challenges. Developments in technology and systems of value creation are driving a new need to understand, facilitate and manage complexity. The book proposes design and design research as a solution to respond to the complexities associated with the intensifying and rapid changes in societies, technological fields and environments. A four-step design process for managing complexities is introduced in the four parts of this book, spanning from design research in the field to practice-based contexts. This publication collates high-level research and the latest scholarship on this topic, while many of the case studies described herein draw on rich experiences and applications in practice. The ways designers work to overcome complexities through design, and the methods and frameworks presented in the chapters, provide critical insights and form an important scholarly contribution in this subject area.
Achieve Technological Advancements in Applied Science and Engineering Using Efficient Experiments That Consume the Least Amount of Resources Written by longtime experimental design guru Thomas B. Barker and experimental development/Six Sigma expert Andrew Milivojevich, Quality by Experimental Design, Fourth Edition shows how to design and analyze experiments statistically, drive process and product innovation, and improve productivity. The book presents an approach to experimentation that assesses many factors, builds predictive models, and verifies the models. New to the Fourth Edition Updated computer programs used to perform simulations, including the latest version of Minitab (R) Four new chapters on mixture experiments: Introduction to Mixture Experiments, The Simplex Lattice Design, The Simplex Centroid Design, and Constrained Mixtures Additional exercises and Minitab updates A Proven, Practical Guide for Newcomers and Seasoned Practitioners in Engineering, Applied Science, Quality, and Six Sigma This bestselling, applied text continues to cover a broad range of experimental designs for practical use in applied research, quality and process engineering, and product development. With its easy-to-read, conversational style, the book is suitable for any course in applied statistical experimental design or in a Six Sigma program.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Over the past decades, European states have increasingly limited irregular migrants' access to welfare services as a tool for migration control. Still, irregular migrants tend to have access to certain basic services, although frequently of a subordinate, arbitrary, and unstable kind. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Norway, this book sheds light on ambiguities in the state's response to irregular migration that simultaneously cut through law, policy, and practice. Carefully examining the complex interplay between the geopolitical management of territory and the biopolitical management of populations, the book argues that irregularised migrants should be understood as precariously included in the welfare state rather than simply excluded. The notion of precarious inclusion highlights the insecure and unpredictable nature of the inclusive practises, underscoring how limited access to welfare does not necessarily contradict restrictive migration policies. Taking the situated encounters between irregularised migrants and service providers as its starting point for exploring broader questions of state sovereignty, biopolitics, and borders, Migration Control and Access to Welfare offers insightful analyses of the role of life, territory, and temporality in contemporary politics. As such, it will appeal to scholars of migration and border studies, gender research, social anthropology, geography, and sociology.
"This is the best textbook about writing an M.A. thesis available in the market." -Hsin-I Liu, University of the Incarnate Word The Third Edition of How to Write a Master's Thesis is a comprehensive manual on how to plan and write a five-chapter master's thesis, and a great resource for graduate students looking for concrete, applied guidance on how to successfully complete their master's degrees. While research methods and statistics courses may teach students the basic information on how to conduct research, putting it all together into a single project and document can be a challenge. Author Yvonne Bui demystifies this process by integrating the language learned in prerequisite methods and statistics courses into a step-by-step guide for developing a student's own thesis or project.
Featuring a practical approach with numerous examples, the second edition of Categorical Data Analysis for the Behavioral and Social Sciences focuses on helping the reader develop a conceptual understanding of categorical methods, making it a much more accessible text than others on the market. The authors cover common categorical analysis methods and emphasize specific research questions that can be addressed by each analytic procedure, including how to obtain results using SPSS, SAS, and R, so that readers are able to address the research questions they wish to answer. Each chapter begins with a "Look Ahead" section to highlight key content. This is followed by an in-depth focus and explanation of the relationship between the initial research question, the use of software to perform the analyses, and how to interpret the output substantively. Included at the end of each chapter are a range of software examples and questions to test knowledge. New to the second edition: The addition of R syntax for all analyses and an update of SPSS and SAS syntax. The addition of a new chapter on GLMMs. Clarification of concepts and ideas that graduate students found confusing, including revised problems at the end of the chapters. Written for those without an extensive mathematical background, this book is ideal for a graduate course in categorical data analysis taught in departments of psychology, educational psychology, human development and family studies, sociology, public health, and business. Researchers in these disciplines interested in applying these procedures will also appreciate this book's accessible approach.
The Routledge International Handbook of Interactionism demonstrates the promise and diversity of the interactionist perspective in social science today, providing students and practitioners with an overview of the impressive developments in interactionist theory, methods and research. Thematically organized, it explores the history of interactionism and the contemporary state of the field, considering the ways in which scholars approach topics that are central to interactionism. As such, it presents discussions of self, identity, gender and sexuality, race, emotions, social organization, media and the internet, and social problems. With attention to new developments in methods and methodologies, including digital ethnography, visual methods and research ethics, the authors also engage with new areas of investigation that have emerged in light of current societal developments, such as policing and police violence, interactionism beyond binaries and social media. Providing a comprehensive overview of the current state and possible future of interactionist research, it will appeal to interactionist scholars, as well as to established sociologists and students of sociology who have an interest in latest developments in interactionism.
Featuring a practical approach with numerous examples, the second edition of Categorical Data Analysis for the Behavioral and Social Sciences focuses on helping the reader develop a conceptual understanding of categorical methods, making it a much more accessible text than others on the market. The authors cover common categorical analysis methods and emphasize specific research questions that can be addressed by each analytic procedure, including how to obtain results using SPSS, SAS, and R, so that readers are able to address the research questions they wish to answer. Each chapter begins with a "Look Ahead" section to highlight key content. This is followed by an in-depth focus and explanation of the relationship between the initial research question, the use of software to perform the analyses, and how to interpret the output substantively. Included at the end of each chapter are a range of software examples and questions to test knowledge. New to the second edition: The addition of R syntax for all analyses and an update of SPSS and SAS syntax. The addition of a new chapter on GLMMs. Clarification of concepts and ideas that graduate students found confusing, including revised problems at the end of the chapters. Written for those without an extensive mathematical background, this book is ideal for a graduate course in categorical data analysis taught in departments of psychology, educational psychology, human development and family studies, sociology, public health, and business. Researchers in these disciplines interested in applying these procedures will also appreciate this book's accessible approach.
This book offers the first methodological synthesis of digital food studies. It brings together contributions from leading scholars in food and media studies and explores research methods from textual analysis to digital ethnography and action research. In recent times, digital media has transformed our relationship with food which has become one of the central topics in digital and social media. This spatiotemporal shift in food cultures has led us to reimagine how we engage in different practices related to food as consumers. The book examines the opportunities and challenges that the new digital era of food studies presents and what methodologies are employed to study the changed dynamics in this field. These methodologies provide insights into how restaurant reviews, celebrity webpages, the blogosphere and YouTube are explored, as well as how to analyse digital archives, digital soundscapes and digital food activism and a series of approaches to digital ethnography in food studies. The book presents straightforward ideas and suggestions for how to get started on one's own research in the field through well-structured chapters that include several pedagogical features. Written in an accessible style, the book will serve as a vital point of reference for both experienced researchers and beginners in the digital food studies field, health studies, leisure studies, anthropology, sociology, food sciences, and media and communication studies.
This edited volume examines the diverse Latinx/a/o student populations in higher education. Offering innovative approaches to understand the asset-based contributions of Latinx/a/o students and the communities they come from, this book showcases scholars from various disciplines, including, psychology, sociology, higher education, history, gender studies, and beyond. Chapter authors argue that various forms of knowledge and culturally relevant methodologies can help advance and promote the success and navigation of Latinx/a/o students. The contributors of this book challenge the deficit framing often found in higher education, and expand conceptualizations, theories, and methodologies used in the study of Latinx/a/o student populations to incorporate AfroLatinx/a/o perspectives, center Central American students in research, and bring Undocumented Critical Theory into the conversation. This important work provides a guide for higher education and student affairs scholars and practitioners, helping create knowledge to better understand Latinx/a/o student populations in higher education. |
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