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Do It Yourself Social Research, Third Edition

by: Wadsworth,Yoland

Do It Yourself Social Research, Third Edition

by: Wadsworth,Yoland

ISBN 13:
9781611321074
ISBN 10:
1611321077
Edition: 3rd
Format: Nonspecific Binding
Copyright: 07/15/2011
Publisher: Routledge

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Summary

With the rapid growth of collaborative, indigenous, and community-based research, one of the key challenges researchers face is finding an effective way of involving non-researchers in the research process. Do It Yourself Social Research has been a best-selling methodology guide for action research projects and community groups in Australia for almost three decades. Always emphasizing the importance of a spirit of inquiry, it demystifies the research process, covering where to start, how to manage a research project, what methods, techniques and resources to use, and interpretation, analysis and reporting. This third edition has been thoroughly revised, adding the use of narrative and dialogue in research, rich research design, and what digital technology can (and can't) contribute to the research process. With its hands-on, no-nonsense approach, Do It Yourself Social Research is an essential resource for community groups, college students, and other novice researchers in health, social welfare, education and related areas.

Foreword to the first edition	p. v
Preface to this edition	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction
Who and what this book is for	p. 1
Who is it for?	p. 2
What you want it for	p. 2
Some examples of those who might find this book useful	p. 3
What you thought of first	p. 4
Some common apprehensions about Research with a capital 'R'	p. 5
Before You Start
What is social research?	p. 9
What is knowledge and how do we know?	p. 10
Why do we agree?	p. 12
The rules of the research game	p. 13
To summarise	p. 25
Where to Start
Why do you want to do it?	p. 26
The parties to the research: ethical considerations	p. 28
Clarifying the purposes of the research	p. 30
To summarise	p. 33
How to Tackle It
Managing, timing, budgeting and some common mistakes to avoid	p. 35
Think about timing	p. 36
Think about the resources you have	p. 39
Now think about overall management	p. 41
Finally, think about money	p. 43
To summarise	p. 43
Designs, Methods and Techniques
How to go about 'finding out'	p. 44
Research Design	p. 44
Getting a good research design	p. 46
This is what the group's research design looked like …	p. 53
Designs and realities	p. 57
Further action and unfolding	p. 58
And now for your own research design …	p. 58
Methods for 'Finding Out'	p. 58
Introduction: Some general methodologies	p. 58
Identifying purposes, clarifying issues and values, and goal-setting procedures	p. 62
Individual interviews	p. 67
Group interviews	p. 75
Narrative, dialogue and recursive questioning	p. 78
Questionnaires and interview schedules	p. 80
Sampling	p. 95
Participating and observing (fieldwork)	p. 99
Audiovisual methods	p. 101
Written records, accounts and diaries	p. 102
Case studies	p. 103
Social indicators	p. 103
Surveys	p. 105
Use of computers	p. 106
Community needs studies	p. 109
Evaluation	p. 111
Action research as an integrating methodology	p. 113
Other Resources
Other resources around	p. 116
Funding	p. 116
Experienced researchers	p. 127
The literature	p. 131
Statistics	p. 135
The internet	p. 142
Working Out What You Found Out
Interpretation and organising ideas	p. 143
Interpretation	p. 144
Analysis and synthesis	p. 145
Saying What You Found Out
Getting your findings into action	p. 153
What we want to achieve	p. 155
Who we want to tell	p. 156
Why we want to tell them	p. 156
How to convey our findings	p. 156
The written report	p. 157
Telling and showing	p. 160
When to present findings	p. 162
What about follow-up?	p. 163
Keeping going	p. 164
Some examples of good do it yourself social research	p. 165
The examples	p. 166
The Knox Women's Research Group project: 'What have you been doing all day'	p. 167
The Footscray local government Children's Needs Study	p. 168
The Nursing Federation's Let's Communicate study of child health care community nursing	p. 169
Improving a country rail line using a passenger survey	p. 170
A chronic disability organisation's research and development with its clients	p. 172
Translations of some common research language	p. 175
Short bibliography of more or less accessible research texts for further reading	p. 201
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Do It Yourself Social Research, Third Edition

Do It Yourself Social Research, Third Edition

9781611321074

1611321077

Summary

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Table of Contents

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