ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|87 pages
Big data, big issues
chapter Chapter 2|20 pages
Minority communities in Britain
Pathways to success as revealed by big data
part II|97 pages
Mixing methods
chapter Chapter 6|16 pages
Explanation and empirical social research
Getting beyond description while still making it interesting!
chapter Chapter 7|19 pages
Towards a quantitative feminist sociology
The possibilities of a methodological oxymoron
chapter Chapter 10|16 pages
Making sociology count
Some evidence and context in the teaching of quantitative methods in the UK