How to Study Social Life

Russell Hitchings was a Professor of Human Geography at University College London. His research focused on everyday practice, energy consumption and nature experience and he had been lucky to study these themes in a variety of contexts all around the world. He was particularly interested in how we use talk to examine these topics, having done a lot interviewing about them. He also used focus groups, solicited diaries, observation, and survey methods when that seemed like a good idea. Originally from South Wales, he spent many years at UCL, London. Alan Latham is another Professor of Human Geography at University College London. His research focuses on sociality, social infrastructure, and the public life of cities more generally. He’s studied those themes in all sorts of places around the world too. In undertaking this work, he’s explored a range of research approaches – including the use of photo-diaries, diary-interviews, social contact logs, and video recording and analysis. He’s interested in doing whatever works to get as close as possible to the realities of people’s experience. Originally from New Zealand, he’s also been in London, and UCL, for quite a long time too.

Chapter 1. Introduction: What is the point of this book and how to use it
Chapter 2. Warrants: Starting with what you want your study to achieve
Chapter 3. Observing: On learning to learn from different social scenes
Chapter 4. Taking part: Considering the benefits of getting involved ourselves
Chapter 5. Staging talk: How to do and imagine interviews
Chapter 6. Engaging people: Seeing social research as a relationship
Chapter 7. Asking questions: Exploring a basic act that features in many methods
Chapter 8. Playing with words: Strategies for seeing and exploring patterns
Chapter 9. Looking at pictures: Ways of getting drawn into social worlds
Chapter 10. Choosing: How thinking about cases and samples can make for innovative projects
Chapter 11. Writing: How to present the material we’ve collected