Summary
Contents
What is qualitative secondary analysis? How can it be most effectively applied in social research? This timely and accomplished book offers readers a well informed, reliable guide to all aspects of qualitative secondary analysis. The book: Defines secondary analysis. Distinguishes between quantitative and qualitative secondary analysis. Maps the main types of qualitative secondary analysis. Covers the key ethical and legal issues. Offers a practical guide to effective research. Sets the agenda for future developments in the subject. Written by an experienced researcher and teacher with a background in sociology, the book is a comprehensive and invaluable introduction to this growing field of social research.
Methods and Methodologies
Methods and Methodologies
Methods are the specific techniques used in social research whereas, although strictly meaning studies of methods, the term, ‘methodologies’ is usually employed to indicate the sets of conceptual and philosophical assumptions that justify the use of particular methods.
Section Outline: Methods as ‘tools’: correct selection and use. Methodological pluralism. Explaining the use of methods. Methods and their conceptual baggage: assumptions about the nature of the social world. Methodologies as the study of methods. Incorrect use to mean just ‘methods’ or to signal philosophical stance. Topics often dictate methods choice. Example: social mobility rates. But what determines choice of topic? Interests; fashion; collective and individualist orientations.
Methods of social research are the technical practices used to identify research questions, collect and analyse data, and present ...
