Designing Social Research: A Guide for the Bewildered

Using everyday jargon-free language, Designing Social Research guides you through the jungle of setting up a research study. Ian Greener provides guidance on how to practically plan your research and helps you to understand the underpinning methodological principles that should inform your decisions about the methods you plan to use.

This is the perfect book for beginner students and new researchers looking to design a research project and make sense of and justify the many decisions that go into the research design process. It will help you to assess the appropriateness of a range of methods and to understand the strengths and limitations of different approaches to research.

Greener highlights key debates in the field, both philosophical and practical, and presents them in such a way that they remain constantly relevant to research practice of his readers. Coverage includes:

• Framing an effective research question/problem;
• Examining the jargon of social research;
• The links between theory, methodology and method;
• The role of literature reviewing in research design;
• Managing and planning the research process;
• Sampling;
• Qualitative designs;
• Quantitative designs;
• Mixed methods designs;
• Data analysis.

Designing Social Research will be ideal first reading for undergraduates planning significant research projects for their dissertations. It will also be invaluable to first year PhD students considering how they will go about their research projects.

Ian Greener is a Professor in the School of Applied Social Sciences at Durham University where he leads the provision of research methods teaching on ESRC-accredited courses. Prior to this he worked for a number of UK Higher Education Universities including Manchester and York in Business Schools and Social Science Departments. His main research interest is trying to keep up with the hectic pace of public sector reform both in the UK and internationally, using a range of qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods research strategies to examine continuity and change in public services, and which has led to books on the history of the NHS and public management, and over fifty articles published in a range of international peer-reviewed journals.

Ian lives in York where he spends his time trying to stop his children, Bethany, Emily and Anna, from spending what remains of his money, and walking a spaniel his wife insists he must grow to like. He likes good red wine, Strictly Come Dancing, and computers that work.