Fully updated in this second edition, this book introduces students to basic principles in social research. Taking a public health approach the book covers areas such as health promotion, public health and health services management and is aimed at helping a variety of health professionals. The book uses examples from a range of settings to illustrate how qualitative and quantitative methods from the disciplines of sociology, psychology, history and anthropology have been used to understand health related behaviour.Praised for its clarity and breadth, this popular book has been thoroughly updated and now includes: Extended further readingMore indepth chapters reflecting the most current topics in the field of social researchExpanded material on the use of secondary sources More coverage on the usage of studies within larger public health programmes, including mixed methods and integration of dataIncreased number of international examples and updated case studies All chapters have extensive pedagogy to engage readers and bring the theory to life, and is ideal for students taking a real variety of social research modules as part of a health program. It is particularly valuable for public health students.Understanding Public Health is an innovative series published by Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.Series Editors: Rosalind Plowman and Nicki Thorogood.Contributors: Sarah Bernays, John Browne, Tracey Chantler, Mary Alison Durand, Martin Gorsky, Andy Guise, Judith Green, Tim Rhodes and Sarah Smith. "Public health is basically shaped and determined by human actions. The editors and contributors to this book provide clear, authoritative guidance to those who will use social research to understand human actions and promote public health. The book is very evidently grounded in the expertise of authors both as teachers as well as researchers." Ray Fitzpatrick, Professor of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Oxford, UK

Conducting good, ethical global health research is more important than ever. Increased global mobility and connectivity mean that in today's world there is no such thing as 'local health'. How we experience the effects of disease may be shaped by our social and economic differences, but the sick in one part of the world and the healthy in another are connected through economics, politics, media, and imagination, as well as by the infectiousness of disease. Global health research carried out through transnational collaboration is one crucial way in which people from far-flung geographic regions relate to each other. Good global health research and the relationships it creates, therefore, concerns us all. This book is a collection of fictionalised case studies of everyday ethical dilemmas and challenges, encountered in the process of conducting global health research in places where the effects of global, political and economic inequality are particularly evident. Our aim is to create a training tool which can begin to fill the gap between research ethics guidelines, and their implementation 'on the ground'.The case studies, therefore, focus on 'relational' ethics: ethical actions and ideas that emerge through relations with others, rather than in regulations. The case studies are based on stories and experiences collected by a group of anthropologists who have worked with leading transnational medical research organisations across Africa in the past decade. The stories have been anonymised, combined with each other, and substantially altered in order to provide 'stumbling stones' to start discussion, without naming real places or situations. As a collection, these stories offer a flexible resource for training across a variety of contexts, such as medical research organisations, universities, collaborative sites, and NGOs. We hope they will encourage global health researchers to think - and talk - about their everyday experiences and practices, and about ethics, in a new light.