Western societies are calling for speedy change in agriculture and the agrifood industries to incorporate new quality criteria into the goods they produce. To promote these changes what scientists must develop are not universally implementable technical solutions, but self-diagnosis methods to be used by agricultural producers and their advisors. They also need to evolve new procedures for research intervention in collective organisations. There is a need for new individual and collective ...

This book in the QRM series is designed for a wide variety of research methods courses taught in various departments. It will be of most interest to those in Public Policy, Political Science, and Public Administration departments, but will also be of interest to researchers in Sociology, Anthropology, Communication and Education departments, among others. The book fills a gap in the traditional policy analysis coverage, which is usually heavily quantitative. It will also fill a gap in the ...

With increased emphasis on helping readers understand the context in which power calculations are done, this Second Edition introduces a simple technique of statistical power analysis that allows researchers to compute approximate sample sizes and power for a wide range of research designs. Because the same technique is used with only slight modifications for different statistical tests, researchers can then easily compare the sample sizes required by different designs and...

The use of the cognitive interviewing method for survey question testing has proliferated and evolved over the past 30 years. In more recent years the method has been applied to the evaluation of information letters and leaflets and to research consent forms. This book provides a practical handbook for implementing cognitive interviewing methods in the context of applied social policy research, based on the approach used by the authors at the NatCen Social Research (NatCen) where cognitive...

In this comprehensive review of urban ethnography, Steven Lubet encountered a field that relies heavily on anonymous sources, often as reported by a single investigator whose underlying data remain unseen. Upon digging into the details, he discovered too many ethnographic assertions that were dubious, exaggerated, tendentious, or just plain wrong. Employing the tools and techniques of a trial lawyer, Lubet uses original sources and contemporaneous documentation to explore the stories behin...

Questions about immigration and social welfare programs raise the central issues of who belongs to a society and what its members deserve. Yet the opinions of the American public about these important issues seem contradictory and confused. Claudia Strauss explains why: public opinion on these issues and many others is formed not from liberal or conservative ideologies but from diverse vernacular discourses that may not fit standard ideologies but are easy to remember and repeat. Drawing o...

Authors Jerome Kirk and Marc L. Miller define what is—and what is not—qualitative research. They suggest that the use of numbers in the process of recording and analyzing observations is less important than that the research should involve sustained interaction with the people being studied, in their own language and on their own turf. Following a chapter on objectivity, the authors discuss the role of reliability and validity and the problems that arise when these issues are neglected. Th...

Experimental Film and Anthropology urges a new dialogue between two seemingly separate fields. The book explores the practical and theoretical challenges arising from experimental film for anthropology, and vice versa, through a number of contact zones: trance, emotions and the senses, materiality and time, non-narrative content and montage. Experimental film and cinema are understood in this book as broad, inclusive categories covering many technical formats and historical tradit...

This book aims to show the value but also the difficulties encountered in the application of 'insider knowledge' in service user research. Mental health service users in research considers ways of 'doing research' which bring multiple understandings together effectively, and explains the sociological use of autobiography and its relevance. It examines how our identity shapes the knowledge we produce, and asks why voices which challenge contemporary beliefs about health and the role of trea...

Conflict is inherent in virtually every aspect of human relations, from sport to parliamentary democracy, from fashion in the arts to paradigmatic challenges in the sciences, and from economic activity to intimate relationships. Yet, it can become among the most serious social problems humans face when it loses its constructive features and becomes protracted over time with no obvious means of resolution.This book addresses the subject of intractable social conflict from a new vant...

Recent years have witnessed growing concerns about the disengagement of young people from conventional politics both in Britain and internationally. Their non-participation is often viewed as reflecting both a deeper political alienation and 'apathy' amongst young people, and a wider political malaise across western societies. Based upon a wide range of UK and European survey sources, together with qualitative and policy-focused analyses, this volume explores the attitudes of young people ...

Rapid technological advances in devices used for data collection have led to the emergence of a new class of longitudinal data: intensive longitudinal data (ILD). Behavioral scientific studies now frequently utilize handheld computers, beepers, web interfaces, and other technological tools for collecting many more data points over time than previously possible. Other protocols, such as those used in fMRI and monitoring of public safety, also produce ILD, hence the statistical models in thi...