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Understanding Research
Planning, undertaking and completing a research project - from dissertations to presentations - can be a daunting undertaking for any student, involving a number of easily taken mis-steps for those without adequate guidance.
The objective of any research project is to gather data, analyse it based on your research question and present your findings and conclusions. For students, having the right approach to these steps can mean the difference between an easily handled process resulting in a well argued and presented project, or panicked flailing, misdirection and confusion.
For those fearful of not getting enough research done, doing it the wrong way, putting it together incorrectly, or unsure of what the end result will be, then Understanding Research is an invaluable guide to getting it right and putting fears to bed.
Successfully completing a research project is a major milestone in most university degrees, and it should be daunting - although not unassailable. This book provides students with the guidance necessary to start, undertake and present their research project in social science or the humanities.
This text addresses:
Where do I start? How do I begin my research and pull it together into a research question? - takes the student through the process of project design, starting research and gaining confidence in their choices
Am I Researching the right things? Is it taking me in the direction I want to go? What direction is it taking me in? - explores the decision making process at all points of a research project and the implications of these decisions in the longer term
Am I researching in the right way - should I be conducting interviews, reading articles or collecting statistical data? - outlines the practical and philosophical conundrums around specific techniques for gathering and analysing data
Focussed explicitly on the needs and exp
eBook
Handbook of research methods and applications in political science
Offering a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art research methods and applications currently in use in political science, this resource combines theory and methodology (qualitative and quantitative), and offers insights into the major approaches and their roots in the philosophy of scientific knowledge. Including a comprehensive discussion of the relevance of a host of digital data sources, plus the dos and don'ts of data collection in general, the book also explains how to use diverse research tools and highlights when and how to apply these techniques. With wide-ranging coverage of general political science topics and systemic approaches to politics, the editors showcase research methods that can be used at the micro, meso and macro levels.
Book
Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science
The central argument of Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science is that Eurocentric blindness is not a moral but a scientific failing. In this wide-ranging critique of Western social science, Anglo-American philosophy and French theory, Williams works on the premise that Japan is the most important political system of our time. He explains why social scientists have been so keen to ignore or denigrate Japan's achievements. If social science is to meet the needs of the `Pacific Century', it requires a sustained act of intellectual demolition and subsequent renewal.
eBook
Political Creativity
Political Creativityintervenes in the lively debate currently underway in the social sciences on institutional change. Editors Gerald Berk, Dennis C. Galvan, and Victoria Hattam, along with the contributors to the volume, show how institutions inevitably combine order and change, because formal rules and roles are always available for reconfiguration. Creative action is not the exception but the very process through which all political formations are built, promulgated and changed.
Drawing on the rich cache of antidualist theoretical traditions, from poststructuralism and ecological theory to constructivism and pragmatism, a diverse group of scholars probes acts of social innovation in many locations: land boards in Botswana, Russian labor relations, international statistics, global supply chains, Islamic economics in Algeria, Islamic sects and state authority in Senegal, and civil rights reform, colonization, industrial policy, and political consulting in the United States. These political scientists reconceptualizeagencyas a relational process that continually reorders the nature and meaning of people and things,orderas an assemblage that necessitates creative tinkering and interpretation, andchangeas the unruly politics of time that confounds the conventional ordering of past, present, and future.Political Creativityoffers analytical tools for reimagining order and change as entangled processes.
Contributors:Stephen Amberg, Chris Ansell, Gerald Berk, Kevin Bruyneel, Dennis C. Galvan, Deborah Harrold, Victoria Hattam, Yoshiko M. Herrera, Gary Herrigel, Joseph Lowndes, Ato Kwamena Onoma, Adam Sheingate, Rudra Sil, Ulrich Voskamp, Volker Wittke.
eBook
The Ethnographic Turn in Political Science: Reflections on the State of the Art
Is there an ethnographic turn in political science research and, if so, what does it contribute to the discipline? As this symposium recounts, methodological approaches to political science research have produced notable debates and disputes within the profession. Schwartz-Shea and Majic suggest this may be a \"late methodological moment,\" in any event, an opportune time to take a fresh look at old battles and, more importantly, take the next steps toward building an understanding of ethnographic strategies, clarifying their use, and considering their contributions. Contributions to this forum provide a glimpse into the state of the art and present examples suggestive of the variety and range of studies that have benefited from the use of ethnographic methods. They also indicate that work remains to be done to clarify and better elaborate these tools of the trade, when, and how they are used. Ethnographic research is presented here as a big tent proposition, with the editors leaving it to authors to define the terms on which they use ethnography and to discuss the types of methods they deploy. This definitional looseness (about which I will say more later) is likely to be problematic over the longer-term; but it may be strategic in the short-term, avoiding splintering an already small subset of political science research and opening new possibilities to consideration.
Journal Article
Political science research methods in action
\"What are the common challenges that researchers face when designing and performing research? What are the choices and trade-offs that social scientists encounter when seeking to implement a fascinating idea? This volume brings together world-leading scholars from a range of political research methodologies and sub-areas in order to show how they have dealt with these challenges during the research process. Looking at every stage of the research process, Political Science Research Methods in Action showcases common problems that affect diverse research approaches and shows how they were encountered and resolved. Aiming to help researchers - whether new or experienced - to take control of their research, this volume brings the research process to life and shows how actual research is 'done' within the frameworks of core methodological principles that guide research design\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
A Mathematics Course for Political and Social Research
Political science and sociology increasingly rely on
mathematical modeling and sophisticated data analysis, and many
graduate programs in these fields now require students to take a
\"math camp\" or a semester-long or yearlong course to acquire the
necessary skills. The problem is that most available textbooks are
written for mathematics or economics majors, and fail to convey to
students of political science and sociology the reasons for
learning often-abstract mathematical concepts. A Mathematics
Course for Political and Social Research fills this gap,
providing both a primer for math novices and a handy reference for
seasoned researchers.
The book begins with the fundamental building blocks of
mathematics and basic algebra, then goes on to cover essential
subjects such as calculus in one and more than one variable,
including optimization, constrained optimization, and implicit
functions; linear algebra, including Markov chains and
eigenvectors; and probability. It describes the intermediate steps
most other textbooks leave out, features numerous exercises
throughout, and grounds all concepts by illustrating their use and
importance in political science and sociology.
Uniquely designed for students and researchers in political
science and sociology
Uses examples from political science and sociology
Features \"Why Do I Care?\" sections that explain why concepts
are useful to practicing political scientists and sociologists
Includes numerous exercises
Complete online solutions manual (available only to
professors)
Selected solutions available online to students
eBook