Interpretive Research Humanities And Social Sciences

Interpretive Research Humanities and Social Sciences, Livre de Lyon

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.

Research design is fundamental to all scientific endeavors, at all levels and in all institutional settings. In many social science disciplines, however, scholars working in an interpretive-qualitative tradition get little guidance on this aspect of research from the positivist-centered training they receive. This book is an authoritative examination of the concepts and processes underlying the design of an interpretive research project. Such an approach to design starts with the recognition that researchers are inevitably embedded in the intersubjective social processes of the worlds they study. In focusing on researchers’ theoretical, ontological, epistemological, and methods choices in designing research projects, Schwartz-Shea and Yanow set the stage for other volumes in the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods. They also engage some very practical issues, such as ethics reviews and the structure of research proposals. This concise guide explores where research questions come from, criteria for evaluating research designs, how interpretive researchers engage with "world-making," context, systematicity and flexibility, reflexivity and positionality, and such contemporary issues as data archiving and the researcher’s body in the field.

This textbook offers an essential introduction to survey research and quantitative methods. Building on the premise that statistical methods need to be learned in a practical fashion, the book guides students through the various steps of the survey research process and helps to apply those steps toward a real example. In detail, the textbook introduces students to the four pillars of survey research and quantitative analysis: (1) the importance of survey research, (2) preparing a survey, (3) conducting a survey and (4) analyzing a survey. Students are shown how to create their own questionnaire based on some theoretically derived hypotheses to achieve empirical findings for a solid dataset. Lastly, they use said data to test their hypotheses in a bivariate and multivariate realm. The book explains the theory, rationale and mathematical foundations of these tests. In addition, it provides clear instructions on how to conduct the tests in SPSS and Stata. Given the breadth of its coverage, the textbook is suitable for introductory statistics, survey research or quantitative methods classes in the social sciences.

Foundations of Qualitative Research introduces key theoretical and epistemological concepts replete with historical and current real-world examples. Author Jerry W. Willis provides an invaluable resource to guide the critical and qualitative inquiry process written in an accessible and non-intimidating style that brings these otherwise difficult concepts to life.