ABSTRACT
The concern of this opening chapter and of this book as a whole, is with research as an activity. We are concerned with the process, procedures, theories and practicalities of doing research. The style we shall adopt, therefore, is an active style which seeks to take the reader through the various stages of social research, not in an uncritical, step-by-step way which assumes that research is always neat and tidy, but in a way that shows that research can be challenging, confusing, frustrating but above all very rewarding.
