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This sociological collection advances the argument that the concept of a “turning point" expands our understanding of life experiences from a descriptive to a deeper and more abstract level of analysis. It addresses the conceptual issue of what distinguishes turning points from life transitions in general and raises crucial questions about the application of turning points as a biographical research method. Biography and turning points in Europe and America is all the more distinctive and significant due to its broad empirical database. The anthology includes authors from ten different countries, providing a number of contexts for thinking about how turning points relate to constructions of meaning shaped by globalization and by cultural and structural meanings unique to each country. The book will be useful across a wide range of social sciences and particularly valuable for researchers needing a stronger theoretical base for biographical work.
Systemic Action Research works with real social and organisational issues to uncover their complex dynamics, often revealing unexpected opportunities. This book shows how this process can be integrated, in any context, to the process of social and organisational development and change. The book explains how systemic thinking works and how Systemic Action Research can be embedded into organisational structures and processes to catalyse sustainable change and critical local interventions. Practically written, it details how to design a programme and build it directly into policy and practice development, extending the possibilities of action research beyond the 'individual' and the 'group' to work across whole organisations, multi agency governance arenas, and networks. The book is filled with illustrative stories and pictures which bring the concepts to life enabling the reader to develop a clear picture of how to put it into practice.Systemic Action Research programmes are now being adopted in Government and local governance contexts as well as in national and international NGOs. This book will be invaluable for experienced action researchers as well as social science and social policy researchers who will benefit from an approach to qualitative research which is participative, grounded in practice and allows systemic understandings of complex problems. Policy makers and practitioners will appreciate a process which generates meaningful evidence about the dynamics of change and offers a tangible system for continuously integrating that learning into both formal and informal decision-making.
This book examines the role of participants in research and how research ethics can be put into practice. Specifically, It:
discusses the ethical regulations and guidance governing researchers in different disciplines;
analyses case studies of innovative research projects where ethics have been central to the researcher-subject relationship;
assesses the impact of ethics on research methods and approaches;
provides useful comparisons of research conducted by professionals and service-users;
offers a unique insight into research participants’ perspectives, which are so often absent in discussions of research ethics.
This book is essential reading for researchers who are concerned about the ethical quality of their interactions with their subjects, research funders and those engaged in research governance.
With foreword by Kenneth J. Gergen and Mary M. Gergen.
Creative research methods can help to answer complex contemporary questions, which are hard to answer using traditional methods alone. Creative methods can also be more ethical, helping researchers to address social injustice.
This accessible book is the first to identify and examine the four areas of creative research methods: arts-based research, research using technology, mixed-method research and transformative research frameworks. Written in a practical and jargon-free style, with over 100 boxed examples, it offers numerous examples of creative methods in practice, from the social sciences, arts, and humanities around the world. Spanning the gulf between academia and practice, this useful book will inform and inspire researchers by showing readers why, when, and how to use creative methods in their research.
From the vantage point of forty years in social research and the study of families, Julia Brannen offers an invaluable account of how research is conducted and ‘matters’ at particular times. This fascinating work covers key developments in the field that remain of vital concern to society and demonstrates how social research is an art as well as a science – a process that involves craft and creativity.
In a neoliberal academia dominated by masculine ideals of measurement and performance, it is becoming more important than ever to develop alternative ways of researching and writing.
This powerful new book gives voice to non-conforming narratives, suggesting innovative, messy and nuanced ways of organizing the reading and writing of scholarship in management and organization studies. In doing so it spotlights how different methods and approaches can represent voices of inequality and reveal previously silenced topics.
Informed by feminist and critical perspectives, this will be an invaluable resource for current and future scholars in management and organization studies and other social sciences.
Exploring various aspects of social work from an anthropological perspective, this original book uses an ‘outsider’ position to develop a reflexive dialogue with social workers from England and elsewhere in Europe.
Bell, an anthropologist, worked alongside social work educators and social workers for many years. She widens our insights into social work by offering thought-provoking examples suggesting how social work practitioners view their occupation and their practice, and how wider society views them.
Blending research and personal reflection to critically examine social workers’ preoccupations and contributions to society, the author explores identities and definitions in social work, making this book refreshing reading for academics, researchers, students and practitioners.
Research Justice (RJ) is a strategic framework and methodological intervention that seeks to transform structural inequities in research. Research Justice: Methodologies for Social Change builds upon the methodological frameworks developed by the national non-profit organization, DataCenter Research for Justice and is the first book to take a radical approach to socially just, community centred research. Challenging traditional models for conducting social science research within marginalized populations, it examines the relationships and intersections between research, knowledge construction, and political power/legitimacy in society.
Presenting a new and highly innovative concept of Collective Ceremonial Research Responsiveness, it envisions equal political power and legitimacy for different forms of knowledge including the cultural, spiritual and experiential. The book examines how the co-existence of these various forms of knowledge can lead to greater equality in public policies and laws that rely on data and research to produce social change.
Offering a much-needed analysis of the intersections between Research Methods, Public Policy, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, and Sociology, this unique book will be of wide interest to researchers and students in a variety of disciplines
The figure of the imposter can stir complicated emotions, from intrigue to suspicion and fear. But what insights can these troublesome figures provide into the social relations and cultural forms from which they emerge?
Edited by leading scholars in the field, this volume explores the question through a diverse range of empirical cases, including magicians, spirit possession, fake Instagram followers, fake art and fraudulent scientists.
Proposing ‘thinking with imposters’ as a valuable new tool of analysis in the social sciences and humanities, this revolutionary book shows how the figure of the imposter can help upend social theory.
Including the voices of key protagonists in the development of the public health workforce, this book is an important addition to the history of public health in England. It charts events leading to the unique achievement, from 2003, of specialist status, equivalent to public health medical consultants, for those from non-medical backgrounds. Setting these changes in context it discusses implications for practitioners and the wider UK public health workforce. A lively and comprehensive review of policy change, Multidisciplinary public health: Understanding the development of the modern workforce concludes with a reflection on the new public health system under way in England, making useful comparisons with the rest of the UK. This is an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in public health, including public health academics and relevant postgraduate students.
