Understanding the Social World: Research Methods for the 21st Century

Understanding the Social World: Research Methods for the 21st Century is a textbook for the fast-paced, globally interconnected social world of the new century.  Bestselling author Russell K. Schutt rises to the research requirements of a social world shaped by big data and social media, Instagram and avatars, blogs, and tweets; and he confronts the research challenges created by cell phones, privacy concerns, linguistic diversity and multicultural neighbourhoods.  

Understanding the Social World is visually sleek, taking students across disciplinary and national boundaries and transcending past research debates by emphasizing mixed methods, concern for human subjects, and application of results.  Accessible, with timely examples and engaging exercises, this title brings a new and clear understanding to the practice and process of research.   

Russell K. Schutt, PhD, is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he received the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service and taught from 1979 to 2022. He is also a Clinical Research Scientist I at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a Lecturer (part-time) in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. He completed his BA, MA, and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University. In addition to ten editions of Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research and seven editions of Making Sense of the Social World, with Daniel F. Chambliss, PhD, as well as coauthored versions for criminal justice, psychology, and education, his other books include Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (2011), Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited, 2015), and Organization in a Changing Environment (1986). He has authored and coauthored more than 70 peer reviewed journal articles, as well as more than 30 non-refereed articles and book chapters on social support, mental and physical health, health services, organizations, homelessness, law, and teaching research methods. His research has been funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the National Science Foundation, the Veterans Health Administration, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Fetzer Institute, and state agencies. Details are available at https://blogs.umb.edu/russellkschutt/.