Written by internationally renowned experts, each chapter provides a full introduction to a key aspect of research methodology. From starting out to generating, analysing, and presenting data, this new edition covers foundational concepts in social research while also keeping students on the pulse of topics like digital social research, social surveys, and big data. Packed with international examples from across the social sciences, it shows how to interpret and work with data generated from real-world research. It gives you the tools to: - Design the right research question for your project - Access, understand, and use existing data - Effectively write up projects and assignments - Be confident in the A to Z of the research process Supported by an interactive website with videos, datasets, templates, and additional exercises, this book is the perfect hand-holder for any social science student starting a methods course or project.

Society and culture are, together, the sea of people and institutions all around us that we sometimes call our "community. The society and culture of our local community might be made up of all the ways of small-town or suburban life, or perhaps all the ways of city life, or even the society and culture of a local neighbourhood in which we live. Culture consists of the beliefs, behaviours, objects, and other characteristics common to the members of a particular group or society. Through culture, people and groups define themselves, conform to society's shared values, and contribute to society. Thus, culture includes many societal aspects: language, customs, values, norms, mores, rules, tools, technologies, products, organisations, and institutions. Cultural Studies is an emerging area of research and teaching that brings in new perspectives to the study of culture and society. Cultural studies is an innovative interdisciplinary field of research and teaching that investigates the ways in which culture creates and transforms individual experiences, everyday life, social relations and power. Research and teaching in the field explores the relations between culture understood as human expressive and symbolic activities, and cultures understood as distinctive ways of life. Cultural life is not only concerned with symbolic communication, it is also the domain in which we set collective tasks for ourselves and begin to grapple with them as changing communities. This book is devoted to understanding the processes through which societies and the diverse groups within them come to terms with history, community life, and the challenges of the future. Combining the strengths of the social sciences and the humanities, this monograph draws on methods and theories from literary studies, sociology, communications studies, history, cultural anthropology, and economics. Cultural studies address new questions and problems of todays world. Rather than seeking answers that will hold for all time, cultural studies develops flexible tools that adapt to this rapidly changing world. This book is valuable to students navigating the dynamic debates and intellectual challenges of cultural studies. Its breadth and unparalleled coverage of cutting-edge theory will also ensure that it is read by anyone interested in questions of materiality and culture.

Introduces a range of approaches and methodological tools available for undertaking critical research. This book shows how cultural studies transcend traditional divisions between qualitative and quantitative methods and between social sciences and humanities.

"Too often cultural studies discourse seems cut off from wider developments in social theory. As a sociologist with a strong cultural studies sensibility, David Oswell is ideally placed to put this right. Through a series of well-judged and historically nuanced readings of cultural, social theory and critical philosophy, this book provides just the bridge between cultural studies and wider debates that we need" - Nick Couldry, London School of Economics and Political Science David Oswell has written a comprehensive introduction to cultural studies that guides the reader through the field′s central foundations and its freshest ideas. This book: Grounds the reader in the foundations of cultural studies and cultural theory: language and semiology, ideology and power, mass and popular culture. Analyzes the central problems: identity, body, economy, globalization and empire. Introduces the latest developments on materiality, agency, technology and nature. Culture and Society is an invaluable guide for students navigating the dynamic debates and intellectual challenges of cultural studies. Its breadth and unparalleled coverage of theory will also ensure that it is read by anyone interested in questions of materiality and culture.

Society and Culture reclaims the classical heritage, provides a clear-eyed assessment of the promise of sociology in the 21st century and asks whether the `cultural turn' has made the study of society redundant. Sociologists have objected to the rise of cultural studies on the grounds that it produces cultural relativism and lacks a stable research agenda. This book looks at these criticisms and illustrates the relevance of a sociological perspective in the analysis of human practice. The book argues that the classical tradition must be treated as a living tradition, rather than a period piece. It analyzes the fundamental principles of belonging and conflict in society and provides a detailed critical survey of the p

This landmark text represents essential reading for students and researchers with an interest in the cultural dimension of social science."--BOOK JACKET.

′This is an Excellent textbook and a valuable addition to the growing field of ′how to′ books providing advice and guidance for practitioners and students wishing to undertake fieldwork of an ethnographic nature.... this books deserves to be high on your reading list′ - Active Learning in Higher Education `Gray′s book tells us an important story, starting from the epistemological and methodological background of a number of key studies in the Birgmingham tradition, it explores how to make use of these research experiences and how to deploy "experience" as a tool for research′ - Roberta Sassatelli, School of Economic and Social Studies, University of East Anglia How is culture `lived′? What are the best ways of investigating cultural life? This timely, assured and accessible book has three objectives. First, it seeks to give a critical selective account of the main ethnographic methods that have influenced cultural studies. Second, it offers practical guidance on the craft of research, from formulating a topic to presenting it in written form. Third, it provides help with key questions of evaluative criteria and values in the research process. This is one of the first cultural studies books to address the question of the research process in detail. Students who want to do empirical research will find the book to be an indispensable resource that will enable them to focus on the correct issues and ask the right questions for effective research. The book develops a set of research practices that are appropriate to a critical understanding of culture, power and everyday life. It will rapidly establish itself as the lecturer′s stand-by and the student′s friend for all issues relating to qualitative research in cultural studies.

Questions about change in social and personal life are a feature of many accounts of the contemporary world. While theories of social change abound, discussions about how to research it are much less common. This book provides a timely guide to qualitative methodologies that investigate processes of personal, generational and historical change. The authors showcase a range of methods that explore temporality and the dynamic relations between past, present and future. Through case studies, they review six methodological traditions: memory-work, oral/life history, qualitative longitudinal research, ethnography, intergenerational and follow-up studies. It illustrates how these research approaches are translated into research projects and considers the practical as well as the theoretical and ethical challenges they pose. Research methods are also the product of times and places, and this book keeps to the fore the cultural and historical context in which these methods developed, the theoretical traditions on which they draw, and the empirical questions they address. Researching Social Change is an invaluable resource for researchers and graduate students across the social sciences who are interested in understanding and researching social change.

This collection explores the contested meanings and diverse practices of social research in the context of contemporary theoretical debates in cultural and social theory, addressing fundamental questions facing those working in the social and human sciences today.