Constructing Social Research Objects : Constructionism in Research Practice

Constructing Social Research Objects is the third volume on theoretically driven methodology in the social sciences edited by Håkon Leiulfsrud and Peter Sohlberg. This essential new volume explains how to identify sociological research objects, and explores the art of living theory.

Theoretical concepts such as social structure, the Global South, social bonds, organizations and management are examined and developed by a broad range of the discipline's most influential authors. The methodological chapters―including critical notes on sociology and the uses of statistics, the value of thought experiments in sociology, how to research subjects in time and space, and the academic 'star war' between Pierre Bourdieu and Dorothy E. Smith―offer indispensable insights for researchers and students interested in theoretical construction work in the social sciences.

Contributors are: Göran Ahrne, Michela Betta, Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen, Michael Burawoy, Raju Das, David Fasenfest, Raimund Hasse, Johs Hjellbrekke, Håkon Leiulfsrud, Emil A. Røyrvik, John Scott, Peter Sohlberg, Karin Widerberg and Richard Swedberg.

Håkon Leiulfsrud is Professor in Sociology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has published his work in the field of sociology with a special interest in social inequality, class and social stratification, labour market, and welfare state issues. He has been teaching sociological theory, courses in social inequality and welfare state, and research methods in Trondheim since the mid 1990s.

Peter Sohlberg is Professor in Philosophy of Social Science and Sociology at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has published his work in the fields of philosophy of science, sociology, and social psychology. He has been teaching social theory and philosophy of social science since the early 1990s in Uppsala, Stockholm and Trondheim. His most recent book is Functionalist Construction Work in Social Science. The Lost Heritage.