Research data are everywhere. In our everyday interactions, through social media, credit cards and even public transport, we generate and use data. The challenge for sociologists is how to collect, analyse and make best use of these vast arrays of information. The chapters in this book address these challenges using varied perspectives and approaches: The economics of big data and measuring the trajectories of recently arrived communities Social media and social research Researching 'elites', social class and 'race' across space and place Innovations in qualitative research and use of extended case studies Developing mixed method approaches and social network analysis Feminist quantitative methodology Teaching quantitative methods The book provides up to date and accessible material of interest to diverse audiences, including students and teachers of research design and methods, as well as policy analysis and social media.

Education has continued to grow in stature and significance as an academic discipline. In addition to world renowned research studies the growth of education has been seen in the methodology and methods underpinning its research. The BERA/SAGE Handbook of Educational Research provides a cutting edge account of the research and methodology that is creating new understandings for education research, policy and practice. Over two volumes, the handbook addresses educational research in six essential components: Section 1: Understanding Research Section 2: Planning Research Section 3: Approaches to Research Section 4: Acquiring Data Section 5: Analysing Data Section 6: Reporting, Disseminating and Evaluating Research Featuring contributions from more than 50 of the biggest names in the international field, The BERA/SAGE Handbook of Educational Research represents a very significant contribution to the development of education.

First Published in 2004. This challenging and pioneering work aims to provide a measure (a set of standards) for measures (empirical data) in sociological research. It argues that the critique of positivism has resulted in a methodological impasse. Criticism has pulled the rug from under positivist method but left nothing in its place. In a devastating and systematic critique the author rejects phenomenological and relativist objections to sociological measurement. A wholly new model for the empirical substantiation of sociological theory is developed based on an examination of scientific measurement techniques and a reading of realist philosophical principles. Unlike many books heralding a new direction in sociology, A MEASURE FOR MEASURES goes beyond meta-theory, providing detailed examples to show how the 'new realism' can provide a viable empirical method.

Crisis in Sociology presents a compelling portrait of sociology's current troubles and proposes a remedy that is likely to inspire controversy. In the authors' view sociology's crisis has deep roots, traceable to the over-ambitious sweep of the discipline's founders. Lopreato and Crippen argue that the most disabling flaw is the failure to discover even a single general law or principle necessary to systematically organize empirical observations, guide inquiry by suggesting falsifiable hypotheses, and form the core of a genuinely cumulative body of knowledge. Crisis in Sociology invites sociologists to consider that participation in the "new social science," exemplified by thriving new fields such as evolutionary psychology, may help to build a vigorous, scientific sociology.

Widely acclaimed, this updated edition explores the new meaning of the crisis of Western society in a post-9/11 world.

An examination of emerging forms of knowledge creation using Web-based technologies, analyzed from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Maurice Ravel: A Research and Information Guide is an annotated bibliography concerning both the nature of primary sources related to the composer and the scope and significance of the secondary sources which deal with him, his compositions, and his influence as a composer and theorist.