Durable social connections are priceless resources for support, companionship, and opportunity. They make life worth living. However, not everyone has equal access to these seemingly free social resources. Like many other valuable things in life, 'social capital' is both a source and a consequence of inequality throughout the population – something that reinforces the status quo and existing social hierarchies. In Friends and Fortunes, the authors painstakingly document that the distributi...

Social sequence analysis includes a diverse and rapidly growing body of methods that social scientists have developed to help study complex ordered social processes, including chains of transitions, trajectories and other ordered phenomena. Social sequence analysis is not limited by content or time scale and can be used in many different fields, including sociology, communication, information science and psychology. Social Sequence Analysis aims to bring together both foundational and rece...

This new edition of Karen O’Reilly’s popular Ethnographic Methods provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the technical, practical and philosophical issues that arise when employing traditional and innovative research methods in relation to human agents.Using a wide range of case studies and source material to illustrate the dilemmas and resolutions that an ethnographic researcher may encounter, this textbook guides the reader from the initial design and pl...

Mapping geographies of power and knowledge in qualitative research“In this foundational tome, Professor Celine-Marie Pascale critiques methodology in relationship to specific qualitative methods and argues cogently that despite good intentions, most of this research is still tethered to the Cartesian paradigm thus limiting its emancipatory potential. This is an impressive book that will likely become a classic!”— Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University,

Undertaking small-scale applied workplace-based research presents a unique set of challenges including how to conduct good research in time pressured situations and how to thrive in unfamiliar work environments. This book will help you to meet these challenges by setting out a step-by-step guide to planning, conducting and delivering top quality small-scale work-based research projects.In addition this book will help you to adapt quickly to your new surroundings. It will provide a ...

Since its first edition in 1985, Patrick McNeill's Research Methods has become a classic introductory text for students of sociology at A level and in undergraduate courses as well as for a range of specialists in education, business, social care and medicine who need a brief but authoritative account of how sociologists set about conducting research.After a brief overview of the history of sociological research which introduces key concepts, this new edition, co-authored ...

`As research guides go, this is probably the best, most readable and encouraging books for nurses that I have come across....I recommend this volume to students and researchers at all levels, and at all stages of their professional careers. It is an excellent read′ -Nursing Standard′[This book] is an ideal reader for someone who is thinking about starting a research project with no or limited previous experience. This is because it outlines the whole resea...

John Goldthorpe is one of Britain's most eminent sociologists and a strong advocate of quantitative sociology. In this concise and accessible book, he provides a new rationale for recent developments in sociology which focus on establishing and explaining probabilistic regularities in human populations. Through these developments, Goldthorpe shows how sociology has become more securely placed within the 'probabilistic revolution' that has occurred over the last century in the natural and s...

Taking the topics of a quantitative methodology course and illustrating them through Monte Carlo simulation, this book examines abstract principles, such as bias, efficiency, and measures of uncertainty in an intuitive, visual way. Instead of thinking in the abstract about what would happen to a particular estimator "in repeated samples," the book uses simulation to actually create those repeated samples and summarize the results. The book includes basic examples appropriate for readers le...

Using detailed, empirical examples, Structural Equation Modeling, Second Edition, presents a thorough and sophisticated treatment of the foundations of structural equation modeling (SEM). It also demonstrates how SEM can provide a unique lens on the problems social and behavioral scientists face.Intended AudienceWhile the book assumes some knowledge and background in statistics, it guides readers through the foundations and critical assumpt...

This book tells the story of how a group of far-sighted, academic researchers came to the aid of an overwhelmed local government. It details the history of the Washington State Census Board, which began in 1943 as part of an emergency measure during a massive wartime in-migration. The narrative also shows the demographic legacy of the Board and, ultimately, provides an unforgettable look into the creation and evolution of applied demography.Inside, readers will discover how Washing...

A specialized presentation of fractal analysis oriented to the social sciencesThis primer uses straightforward language to give the reader step-by-step instructions for identifying and analyzing fractal patterns and the social process that create them. By making fractals accessible to the social science students, this book has a significant impact on the understanding of human behavior.This is the only book designed to introduce fractal analysis to a genera...