An Invitation to Social Research

Matthew Wall is Associate Professor, Politics, Philosophy and International Relations at Swansea University.

PART I: SETTING THE SCENE
From the outside in: entering the world of social research
An ongoing conversation: how research pieces interest and interact
A tangled web: traditions, theory and methods
The why and how of research: the purpose of research and the nature of data
PART II: EXPLAINING THE SOCIAL WORLD THROUGH NUMBERS
May I ask you a few questions?: survey methods
Society as a laboratory: experimental methods
Lies, damn lies, and statistics: observational statistical methods
From words to numbers: quantitative content analysis
Through a glass, darkly: forecasting and prediction
PART III: EXPLORING THE SOCIAL WORLD THROUGH WORDS
It’s good to talk: the interview method
Group chat: focus groups
Mining text: qualitative analysis of text
Language in context: discourse analysis
Being there: observational methods
PART IV: INTEGRATIVE RESEARCH
The best of both worlds: mixed methods research
Parallel lines: multiple methods research
PART V: CHANGING THE SOCIAL WORLD THROUGH RESEARCH
Beyond the malestream: feminist research methods
Part of the solution: action research methods
Mad world: critical research methods
Judgement calls: evaluative research
PART VI: CONCLUSIONS
Where to from here? From consumer to creator of new knowledge
Do the right thing: research as an ethical practice