Designing Social Research is a uniquely comprehensive and student-friendly guide to the core knowledge and types of skills required for planning social research. The authors organize the book around four major steps in social research focusing, framing, selecting and distilling placing particular emphasis on the formulation of research questions and the choice of appropriate 'logics of inquiry' to answer them. The requirements for research designs and proposals are laid out at the beginning of the book, followed by a discussion of key design issues and research ethics. Four sample research designs on environmental issues illustrate the role of research questions and the application of the four logics of inquiry, and this third edition includes new material dedicated to social research in a digital, networked age. Fully revised and updated, Designing Social Research continues to be an invaluable resource to demystify the research process for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Together with the authors' Social Research: Paradigms in Action and Blaikie's Approaches to Social Enquiry, it offers social scientists an informative guide to designing social research.

Norman Blaikie is former Professor of Sociology at RMIT University Melbourne, and University of Science, Malaysia.

Jan Priest is former Adjunct Professor at RMIT University Melbourne, and a past Director of research and performance services at InfoServ Pty Ltd.

Designing Social Research is a uniquely comprehensive and student-friendly guide to the core knowledge and types of skills required for planning social research.

The authors organize the book around four major steps in social research focusing, framing, selecting and distilling placing particular emphasis on the formulation of research questions and the choice of appropriate 'logics of inquiry' to answer them. The requirements for research designs and proposals are laid out at the beginning of the book, followed by a discussion of key design issues and research ethics. Four sample research designs on environmental issues illustrate the role of research questions and the application of the four logics of inquiry, and this third edition includes new material dedicated to social research in a digital, networked age.

Fully revised and updated, Designing Social Research continues to be an invaluable resource to demystify the research process for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Together with the authors' Social Research: Paradigms in Action and Blaikie's Approaches to Social Enquiry, it offers social scientists an informative guide to designing social research.

Introduction

1 About the book

2 Preparing Research Designs

3 Four Research Design Tasks

4 Research Ethics

Part 1: Focussing

5 Research Questions and Purposes

Part 2: Framing

6 Logics for Answering Research Questions

Part 3: Selecting

7 Concepts, Theories, Hypotheses and Models

8 Types, Forms, Sources and Selection of Data

Part 4: Distilling

9 Methods for Answering Research Questions: Data Gathering, Generation, Reduction and Analysis

Researching Networked Worlds

10 Design Considerations

11 Ethics Considerations

Illustrations

12 Sample Research Designs

Postscript