ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with an important aspect of research practice which is commonly under-emphasized in methodological texts. Empirical research in the social sciences generally requires access to data and to research subjects. Agencies vary in their openness to change and more particularly in their willingness to look critically at their own activities. How they perceive ‘research’ is influenced by previous experience of investigations of various sorts. The research student may have a number of particular issues to handle, depending upon whether they are employed by the agency concerned and wish to carry out a piece of practice-based research or whether they are outsiders wanting to investigate that particular aspect of the ‘real world’. The would-be researcher needs to be or to become familiar with the agency, including any formal procedures for considering research proposals.
