New Strategies in Social Research An Introduction and Guide [Paperback]

This book provides a new and innovative introduction to the methodology of social research. The aim of the author is to provide a bridge between recent theoretical debates in the social sciences and methodological issues. It is not just a 'how to' book for social researchers, or simply a description of research techniques. Rather, the work seeks to develop new strategies of research by marrying new perspectives in social analysis to problems of concrete research. The result is a text which is accessible yet sophisticated.

Apart from developing an original argument about research, the book is also designed as a resource text for students and more experienced researchers interested in developing theory from their own field research. It contains overviews of grounded theory and middle-range theory; a research resource map; strategies for developing theory; and guidelines and checklists for field research at the end of chapters.Preface.

1. Research Strategy and Theory Construction.

2. Middle-Range Theory and Research.

3. Grounded Theory and Field Research.

4. Grounded Theory on a Broader Canvass.

5. A Resource Map for Research.

6. Data and Method in Multi-Strategy Research.

7. Research Strategy and Theory Building.

8. Investigating Power, Commitment and Constraint.

9. The Historical Dimension.

10. New Strategies: Some Reflections and a Practical Guide.

References.

Index.

'This is one of the most important books to have been written on social research... equally as able to draw on 'grounded theory' as on 'middle range theory', and to relate these systematically to contingencies ranging from the personal, through the situational, to the institutional and contextual arenas of action as a historically constituted process. ...l“P