Bøger i Sage Benchmarks in Social Research Methods serien

Evaluation is a set of research methods and associated methodologies with a distinctive purpose. They provide a means to judge actions and activities in terms of values, criteria and standards. At the same time evaluation is also a practice that seeks to enhance effectiveness in the public sphere and policy making.

This Major Work collection explores a number of substantive methodologies and focuses on generating data, drawing primarily on literature from sociology, social psychology, social anthropology, and education.

CRA is of great substantive importance; distinguished editors, W. Paul Vogt and R. Burke Johnson, have ordered the growing research literature on the use of CRA according to its natural steps. Each step in this logical progression constitutes a volume in this exciting new collection.

In nine parts, Graham Walden explores what a focus group is, how they are best used, the strengths and weaknesses of focus groups as well the ethical issues surrounding focus groups and more.

Framed by a newly-written introductory chapter, the collection includes work which spans disciplinary boundaries, bringing together a comprehensive resource which will prove invaluable to scholars in the field.

This collection considers issues of 'classification', 'cluster analysis' and 'data mining' together, presenting a range of existing work together in an accessible way, and demonstrating a methodological phase-shift in the kind of data analysis that is currently taking place, nationally and internationally.

Organized thematically, this collection provides a selection of the best articles in quantitative methods, taken from SAGE journals.

Edited by a prominent figure in the field, this four-volume set presents a careful selection of the key historical and contemporary works on the the vast range of quantitative and qualitative methods in the social sciences.

Delving into SAGE's deep backlist of qualitative research methods journals, this collection presents research from the past 40 years, and tackles key issues and controversies in the field.

Realism is an increasingly popular specialism as there is a huge advantage to having a philosophy of science which can consistently deal with both nature and society. This set pulls together the key thinking and papers on realist methodology.

This new collection from the definitive reference series, the SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods is edited by the leading names in applied sociology.

This set brings together the essential writings in the emerging field of computational methods, including hard-to-locate literature scattered across the social science disciplines.

This comprehensive collection covers perspectives on the Internet as a social space as well as covering research models appropriate for the Internet, ethical considerations and information about innovation in the field.

This collection extends the value of the critically acclaimed first edition by focusing on key issues in qualitative research.

Mixed methods is one of the major areas of growth in social research methodology. Much of the literature on mixed-methods research is widely dispersed across a variety of journals and other publications resulting in much of it being inaccessible. This volume brings together the key articles in this important field.

Comparative research methods are central to sociology and its associated disciplines. This four-volume set, brings together seventy-seven articles and book chapters from key sources, spanning the history of comparative analysis in the social sciences, from ancient to modern works.

This four-volume Major Work contains texts which explore both the foundations of latent variables and factor analysis, and specific contemporary challenges in the field.

Semiotics, the study of the sign systems that constitute human culture, has since its discovery in the late 19th century and early 20th century, transformed the ways in which we think about culture and communication. It has opened new areas of study and made fruitful connections between established disciplines. This four-volume set offers the most extensive, systematic and in-depth survey of the foundations and development of semiotics as a field. It covers foundational texts in semiotics, from the constitution of the field in the early 20th century, through its blossoming with the advent of structuralism in the 1960s and `70s and the formative dialogue between structuralism and Marxism. It goes on to present a representative selection of central essays in literary semiotics, narratology and poetics, the semiotics of anthropology, myth, art, architecture, music, theatre, film, fashion and other aspects of contemporary culture. Special attention is paid to the development of a poststructuralist, semiotically aware discourse in the analysis of culture and history, to the related areas of deconstruction and psychoanalysis, and to the current controversy over the possibilities and issues raised by a postmodernist semiotics.The anthology offers a unique and valuable research tool for students and scholars alike in all areas of the social sciences and humanities, including linguistics, social and cultural anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, philosophy, psychology, literature, and media and communication studies.

This valuable work brings together the classic sources and the most advanced contemporary examples of causal analysis and methodological discussion.

Attitude Measurement is one of the most essential areas within social psychology. International figures, within this field, Jowell and Roberts bring together the most inclusive collection embracing methodological to theoretical issues.

These volumes advise on planning and undertaking meaningful research and provide an integrated approach to methodological choice.

This set encompass a number of methodological approaches within the social sciences that focus on research taking the individual participant, their lives, experiences and thinking.

Representing Ethnography brings together all the important material on this 'rhetorical turn' in qualitative research, including critiques which are particularly hard to obtain and have never been gathered together in an accessible way.

This four-volume set is brought together by Linton Freeman, founder and editor for 28 years of the key journal in the field, Social Networks. He has collected the very best published work on social network analysis, covering of over forty years of journals and books. It is a key addition to the SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods series.

Includes examples that trace back to the late 19th and early 20th century, the technique came of age during the Second World War through the efforts of Lasswell and others aimed at decoding enemy propaganda. This title brings together the significant methodological contributions and substantive applications.

'What is data analysis?' This is a key question in social research, defined by the foundations of various research models. This four-volume set presents the leading directions in data analysis. It covers both quantitative and qualitative aspects, positivism and empiricism on the one hand, and relativism and interpretivism on the other.

Philosophical considerations and positions underlie all of the natural and social sciences. In the latter case philosophical foundations and their emergent issues have a profound impact on methodology and empirical practice. Design decisions will usually depend on philosophical perspectives or assumptions, such as the very fundamental decision to employ a quantitative design or an interpretive design. The 'philosophy of social research' is thus a subset of the philosophy of social science, but also an important subject area that spans methodology and method. The articles making up this timely collection are the best exemplars of key positions in a very wide disciplinary field. The selection is designed to begin each section with an 'entry level' article to introduce the reader to the topic area and to ground the approach a research problem. Topics covered include science and art in the history of social research, positivism and antipositivism, language and the linguistic turn, realism and anti-realism, theory and theory choice, logic and models, prediction and laws, interpretation, probability and complexity.With the study of the philosophical foundations of methods and methodology gaining increasing priority in university courses, this will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers across the social sciences.

In this four-volume collection, Richie Nimmo brings together the defining research articles on this topic and charts its emergence, development and transformation over time.

From definitions to interdisciplinary methods, this set will address the practical case study by offering a structured selection of some of the best modern and classic writing on the case study in article form, together with a synoptic editorial introduction and overview of the field of research.

The history of internet research methods is, naturally, much shorter than the histories of other research methods in the social sciences, though no less rich or significant as a result. This title begins with some of the earliest works on what was or was to become the internet, moving methodically through to present-day issues.