Using qualitative research data on Mexican/Mexican Americans and their historias de exito that center on Mexican centric concepts such as buen trabajador, bien educado, and buena gente, Octavio Pimentel reveals that when social networks guide personal goals in these communities, goals become community-oriented rather than personally-oriented.

Masculinity, it seems, is in crisis, again. This edited volume critically interrogates the current situation facing contemporary young men. The contributors deconstruct and reject such crisis talk, with its chapters drawing on original research to present a more nuanced reality, whilst also developing a critical dialogue with one another.

Covers the key issues required for students wishing to understand and analyse the core empirical issues in economics. It focuses on descriptive statistics, probability concepts and basic econometric techniques and has an accompanying website that contains all the data used in the examples and provides exercises for undertaking original research.

Unlike most statistical texts, this book breathes real life into multivariate analysis. Starting with a range of actual research examples in the social sciences, it demonstrates how to make the most appropriate choice of technique. The examples are drawn from a broad spectrum of disciplines including: sociology, psychology, economics, political science and international comparative research.

This is a multifaceted approach to understanding one of the nation's largest ethnic communities. Blea incorporates community social history, physical, psychological, and spiritual space. The book strives to teach the student how to do research in an ethnic community. It also describes what is already understood about those communities and defines the nature of the 25 year old discipline of Chicano studies. The use of the Chicana feminist perspective lends not only a gender role analysis, but also demonstrates the structure and function of the balance of personal and social control within the context of the community.

This book demonstrates the power of neural networks in learning complex behavior from the underlying financial time series data. The results presented also show how neural networks can successfully be applied to volatility modeling, option pricing, and value-at-risk modeling. These features mean that they can be applied to market-risk problems to overcome classic problems associated with statistical models.

This book presents a multi-disciplinary investigation into extortion rackets with a particular focus on the structures of criminal organisations and their collapse, societal processes in which extortion rackets strive and fail and the impacts of bottom-up and top-down ways of fighting extortion racketeering. Through integrating a range of disciplines and methods the book provides an extensive case study of empirically based computational social science. It is based on a wealth of qualitative data regarding multiple extortion rackets, such as the Sicilian Mafia, an international money laundering organisation and a predatory extortion case in Germany. Computational methods are used for data analysis, to help in operationalising data for use in agent-based models and to explore structures and dynamics of extortion racketeering through simulations. In addition to textual data sources, stakeholders and experts are extensively involved, providing narratives for analysis and qualitative validation of models. The book presents a systematic application of computational social science methods to the substantive area of extortion racketeering. The reader will gain a deep understanding of extortion rackets, in particular their entrenchment in society and processes supporting and undermining extortion rackets. Also covered are computational social science methods, in particular computationally assisted text analysis and agent-based modelling, and the integration of empirical, theoretical and computational social science.

For the social sciences, the approach and processes in research are quite different. The type of evidence that social scientists can collect is often very dependent on the method that has been used to gather the data. The type of findings that can be discussed are often not straightforward at all, and no easy comparison can be made with the natural sciences, although this is not impossible. The methodology in the social sciences has the same role as technology and lab techniques in the natural sciences as these need to be developed rapidly to account for the increasing complexity of the natural objects to be studied. The methodologies in the social sciences need to go through an intense period of critique, reflection, and reformulation to consider the complexity of social issues under investigation. Therefore, the area of social sciences research and methodologies should continually be studied to advance the field. Approaches and Processes of Social Science Research presents new research methodologies in the social science field and aims at providing a broad introduction to the methodology of social research in its main theoretical foundations as well as in its practical applications. Readers will develop a critical thinking attitude about social problems which in turn will sharpen their analytic approach to research. This book includes four main parts: philosophical perspectives, strategies for conducting research, common approaches for handling and collecting data, and critical aspects of research writing throughout the process. While highlighting topics such as critical theory in research, ethical issues, research processes, data analysis, and more, this book is ideal for researchers in the social sciences and practitioners, stakeholders, academicians, and students interested in deepening their understanding of the ideas and the practices of social science research.

Gary Henry has provided an excellent little book which discusses not only the basic 'techniques for display and analysis' which are available, but offers some very timely hints for their effective use. His audience is the 'applied researcher'. . . anybody engaged in empirical research at all. . . . He does. . . provide empirically grounded and valuable advice throughout on how best to design effective, accurate and reliable displays. . . . he provides a theoretical framework to guide the design of competent graphical displays. . . . Graphing Data. . . is well worth a good read. --Randy Banks in ESRC Data Archive Bulletin "Graphing Data is an accurate and factual presentation of effective techniques for graphically displaying quantitative data. The ideas postulated within the book represent effective techniques for graphing quantitative data and are consistent with the ideas of contemporary authors about the visual display of quantitative information. Graphing Data provides guidelines for researchers with desktop publishing capability who desire to incorporate graphs displaying quantitative data into research and evaluation reports. . . . The book is worthy of consideration as a course text for the introduction to graphing data or as a supplementary text for an introductory course on statistics where communicating research results are discussed. . . . Graphing Data serves as a legitimate reference for selecting appropriate data displays depending on the type of data and the purpose of data. . . . I would recommend this book for researchers and scholars interested in the effective communication of quantitative data to broad audiences." --Robert C. Branch in a prepublication review for Evaluation and Program Planning How can applied researchers present and analyze their research data more effectively? By using the techniques described in this volume, social scientists will be able to make their data more accessible to nontechnical audiences. This book is packed with examples that illustrate the characteristics of effective graphical displays of data and provides solid techniques for producing graphs. Graphing Data begins with a discussion of what has been learned from the visual perception research that relates to graphing data. It then explores the analysis tasks that apply most often: the use of graphs for data summarization, the display of multiple units, ways to improve tabular displays, graphical alternatives to tables, two-variable scatterplots as graphical support for correlation and regression, how to show variation and summary statistics together, and how to create more effective legends and titles on graphical displays.

This bestselling title has been extensively revised and updated to provide an accurate statistical portrait of the American family as it exists today. Data collected from federal and state government agencies, Gallup polls, professional journals, and research are presented in a single, easily accessible format. Nearly 350 graphs, charts, and figures are provided. The second edition reflects the changing demographics of the American family. Among the issues receiving new or expanded coverage are the amount of time husbands spend doing household tasks, the concept of equal pay for equal work, parents' interaction with children, child abuse, household income, and fathers' participation in child care.

Migrant Capital covers a broad range of case studies and, by bringing together leading and emerging researchers, presents state-of-the-art empirical, theoretical and methodological perspectives on migration, networks, social and cultural capital, exploring the ways in which these bodies of literature can inform and strengthen each other.

This publication provides a wide range of characteristics profiling the demographic, social, and economic status of the Millennial generation. While the Baby Boom generation occupies much of our social and political dialogue, the Millennial generation is actually a larger generation. As the Boomers age, their numbers will decrease while the Millennials will be the driving social and political force in the coming decades. Millennials in America focuses on the those born between 1982-2001. Millennials in America is an invaluable source for helping people understand what the census data tells us about who we are, what we do, and where we live. Benefits of this publication include: *It will fill an information gap due to the difficulty in extracting comparative data from the Census Bureau's American FactFinder dissemination system. *Users will have comparative data in a single reference volume. *It will eliminate the need for the data user to understand and manipulate detailed census data files and consolidate disparate tables in AFF. *This publication utilizes the PUMS data which is the ONLY source of data that can be used to define precise age ranges for the Millennial generation. The age detail available for census summary data simply aren't adequate for defining the Millennials and therefore prohibit compilation of characteristics specific to this important generation. Features of this publication include: *Detailed data on 11 subject areas including race, educational attainment, field of study, income, mobility status, employment status, housing, and more *Each subject area includes data for the United States, the 50 states and the District of Columbia, 622 counties, 331 cities, 381 metropolitan areas and 34 micropolitan areas. *Each part is preceded by highlights, maps, and figures illustrating how areas diverge from the national norm as well as differences among areas.

With a clear, engaging writing style and fascinating examples using a variety of real data, this text covers the contemporary statistical techniques that students will encounter in the world of social research. It covers these techniques at an introductory level and carefully guides students through increasingly complex examples without intimidating them. Recurrent examples using four timely topics-health, immigration, income inequality, and everyday harassment-help students understand how the techniques fit together, and how to use the techniques in combination with one another. A superb author-created web resource accompanies the text. How to make clear presentations of research results is also a feature of the text. New to this edition: New research shows how the techniques has changed over time in the academic literature, showing students that social scientists really do use the statistical techniques the book teaches and giving them ample motivation to learn the techniques. Examples throughout the book use the most recent data from the General Social Survey. Four timely topics are threaded throughout the book: immigration, health, income inequality, and everyday harassment. Linneman uses these topics recurrently with different statistical techniques to illustrate how the techniques are related to one another. The new edition more explicitly emphasizes that the various techniques the students are learning are often used in combination with one another. After introducing a new technique and showing how to use it on its own, Linneman then systematically offers examples of how to combine that technique with techniques students learned in previous chapters. Most of the literature examples that end each chapter are new and use very recent research from top academic journals (three quarters from 2015 or later, nearly half from 2019). They feature research that covers timely topics such as Black Lives Matter, transgender health, social media, police behavior, and climate change. The SPSS demonstrations are completely redone, both in the book and on the website's demonstration videos, using more recent data. Linneman applies his experience teaching his own students SPSS (knowing where students get confused) to clarify his explanations in these demonstrations.

Joining the debate about the role of scholarship and research at American universities, this book examines contemporary academic issues, such as the evolution of postmodern concepts of scholarship, scholarship in the late age of print, and incentives for promoting grant writing and scholarly publishing. Contributors, including provosts, faculty development professionals, administrators, editors, and scholars, debate the impact of the German system of research-based graduate study and its faith in the ideal of pure research on American scholarship. Several contributors contend that the legacy of privileging pure research over applied research and pedagogy provides an inadequate model today. Teaching, conducting applied research, and writing works for broad audiences are undervalued, they claim, at many universities. As scholarship becomes more specialized, scholarly writing has become so specialized that few outside the specific discipline can read or understand it.

This volume continues the challenge to the concept of pure research and atheoretical teaching. Contributors demonstrate how postmodern theories and social and economic problems are working to explode the myth of disinterested research. The book goes on to analyze how academics can grapple with the social, political, moral, and pedagogical issues confronting society. It also considers the impact of new technologies, such as online databases and electronic journals, on scholarship. Current research suggests that only 10 to 20 percent of the nation's faculty produce the scholarly literature. This volume explores the changes that could help faculty find their voices as scholars, researchers, and grant writers.

This book foretells of events that will occur in 2012, and into the new millennium. It has a unique yet controversial edge, that involves extraterrestrials arriving on Earth to assist mankind. Actual contact has been made through the medium Gilda. Through her transcripts and questions, she answers details of what will manifest. The public must embrace the reality of their future. Extraterrestrials have announced their arrival and are here to stay. "Will I Survive?," will echo in the mind of all humanity.

As the shift in the racial and ethnic composition of the united States continues, students, researchers, and others will find it important to understand the differences between--and similarities among--racial groups. This volume compiles a broad range of statistical data on important topics across various racial groups. Gathered from authoritative sources, this information offers statistical comparisons on timely subjects, including: educational goals, attitudes about employment, leisure pursuits, marital happiness, attitudes about contraception, religious beliefs, arrest rates, and political party preferences.

This accessible text presents a comprehensive and integrated scheme for preparing research designs and research proposals for students in the social sciences. The book is concerned with planning social research projects rather than how to conduct them and in the process it connects the techniques of research with key methodological issues in the social sciences.

The author places particular emphasis on the formulation of research questions and the selection of appropriate research strategies (logics of enquiry) to answer them. He argues that other design decisions, such as the selection of data sources and methods of data collection and analysis, must be made in the light of the particular ontological and epistemological assumptions associated with each research strategy.

The basic requirements for research designs and research proposals are laid out at the beginning of the book, followed by discussion of the major design elements, and the choices that need to be made about them. Four sample research designs at the end of the volume illustrate the use of the research strategies. The need to achieve consistency in design decisions is stressed throughout the book. The author includes a critical review of some controversial issues, including the use of quantitative and qualitative methods, the role of case studies, the appropriateness of triangulation, the relevance of representative samples, and the limited role for tests of significance.

This book will be essential reading for all social researchers, but particularly for postgraduate students. It is a companion to Blaikie's "Approaches to Social Enquiry,"

Product information not available.

Michael Grimes looks at the voluminous scholarly literature published by American social scientists in the twentieth century and provides an overview and critique of the major theories, conceptualizations, and measurements of class inequality. No book published since the late fifties has had such scope. This volume assembles a framework for interpreting and understanding the changing character of the theories and methodologies used by scholars to study class inequality based on two schools of social theory--order and conflict--each with different assumptions about human nature and society, and about the unique role(s) that class plays in society. Grimes contends that theoretical perspectives result from the interaction of the unique biographies of theorists with the sociohistorical, ideological, and disciplinary settings within which they work, and that the relative popularity of perspectives on the subject within the discipline has varied over time as the setting has changed.

Part I of the book assesses the diverse perspectives on class inequality of early American sociologists. Part II examines the rise of functionalism within American sociology and its subsequent application to the issue of class inequality. Two conflict perspectives on inequality--labeled neo-Weberian and neo-Marxist theories--are discussed in Part III, while Part IV provides a summary and concludes that there is evidence of a convergence of sorts among contemporary perspectives on class inequality within the discipline. The colume is organized to facilitate use by graduate students and advanced undergraduate students as well as by professional social scientists--particularly sociologists.

Domestic violence in Asian-American communities remains a rarely discussed, yet pervasive problem. With eight chapters each dedicated to a different Asian-American community, the essays in this volume follow the same general format. Contributors present an overview of the culture, including topics such as migration history, demographics, religious heritage, and views on gender and mental health; they discuss existing research on the prevalence of domestic violence; they present information on typical patterns of help-seeking behavior and coping styles; and, finally, they discuss treatment and policy implications. This unique project will provide an indispensable tool for scholars and researchers in social work and family studies who want to better understand the complexities of serving this growing and diverse population.

This volume explores the use and relevance of qualitative methods for the study of quality of life. It analyzes the role of qualitative researcher and the role of the context and the culture in quality of life studies. It presents the use of qualitative methods in real projects carried out in specific fields: geography, health, community studies, labor life and yoga. Finally, the book proposes the use of mixed methods that are considered as the third methodological approach in social research. The main purpose of using qualitative methods is to understand what it means for participants to be involved in certain events, situations and actions. Such methods help understand the context in which participants act and the influence of that context on their actions. The decision to use a particular methodology implies a philosophic, theoretical and political decision. Qualitative methodology constitutes an approach that is essential for understanding people's experiences of well-being and discovering new issues related to quality of life.

A volume in Studies in the History of Education Series Editor: Karen L. Riley, Auburn University at Montgomery How do people use education to respond to change? How do people learn what is expected of "good citizens" in their communities? These questions have long concerned educational historians, civic educators, and social scientists. In recent years, they have captured national attention through high-profile education reform proposals and civic initiatives. The historian who reviews the relevant literature, however, will discover something odd: most of it focuses on schooling, despite the fact that, prior to the middle of the twentieth century, formal schooling played only a small (but significant) part in most people's lives. What other educational forces and institutions bring civic ideals to bear upon minds and hearts? This question is rarely raised. At issue is a conceptual problem: we, today, tend to equate "education" with "schooling." Do county fairs and farmers' associations have anything to do with civic education? Drawing insights from debates at the time of the "founding" of the history of education as a branch of modern scholarship, this author asserts that they do. Using the life of county fairs, farmers' associations, and farmers' institutes as its central thread, this book explores how prominent town-dwellers and leading farmers tried to use agricultural improvement to grow towns and to shape civic sensibilities in the rural Midwest. Promoting economic development was the foremost concern, but the efforts taught farmers much about their "place" as "good citizens" of industrializing communities. As such, this study yields insights into how rural people of the nineteenth century came to accept the ideal that "town" and "country" were interdependent parts of the same community. In doing so, it reminds educators and historians that much education and learning - particularly of the civic sort - takes place beyond the schoolhouse.