Part I Doing Social Research

Introduction This book is a basic introduction to empirical research methods. It examines a range of methods that try to deal with primary sources of information about the social world – actual people and events that can inform us about the processes, practices and ideas in the social world around us. Working with secondary sources – writings and materials produced by other social researchers – is of course a central aspect of being a researcher and doing research. Skills in using secondary sources are an essential complement to empirical research and you can find guidance on this aspect of research in a range of other texts (see, for example, Hart, 1998). As you work through this book you will come to realise that the term 'empirical' has a broad range of meanings. Above I linked it to the use of 'primary sources' – the collections of 'new information' about people and societies. Unfortunately what is counted as useful, relevant, 'reliable' and 'usable' data is not so easy to define. In fact what we will often explore in this book are the ways in which social researchers come to decide what is (and is not) good data. Therefore things other than the topic under study often define 'empirical research'. Very often social scientists rely upon philosophical ideas about 'science' and 'knowledge' to help resolve these questions. For philosophers a focus on the 'empirical' may imply a philosophical position of empiricism which is often connected to positivism. Here the social research methods often rely upon numerical and statistical methods. Such methods are often called 'quantitative' methods. At the other end of the range 'the empirical' is used to denote any methods that are reliant upon primary source information – very often the 'data' is not numerical. Such research does not use statistics and is often called 'qualitative' research. By the time you have worked through this book it should be clear to you that it is possible to engage in empirical research without having to be an 'empiricist'. In other words the philosophical position of empiricism fails to capture the breadth and depth of social science research practice. The book introduces you to some of the key ideas and methods available to contemporary social scientists; it does not attempt to provide a complete introduction to all forms of social research. The intention is to provide you with enough information about research methods …