We praise those people who do things for others. But the symbolic power of giving means individuals can take advantage of the glow of 'goodness' that charity provides.This book analyses the reality of how charity operates in the social world; how the personal benefits of giving and volunteering are vital for getting charitable acts to happen; how the altruism associated with gifts isn't always what it seems; how charity misbehaviour or bad management gets overlooked; and how charit...

The first book of its kind, this volume brings together a range of experts to review key methodological issues in the study of voluntary action, charitable behaviour and participation in voluntary organisations.Using case studies from around the world – from ethnography to media analysis and surveys to peer research – chapters illustrate the challenges of researching altruistic actions and our conceptualisations of them. Across different fields and methods, authors unpick the metho...

Reflexivity is vital in social research projects, but there remains relatively little advice on how to execute it in practice. This book provides social science researchers with both a strong rationale for the importance of thinking reflexively and a practical guide to doing reflexivity within their research. The first book on the subject to build primarily on the theoretical and empirical contributions of Pierre Bourdieu's reflexive work, it combines academic analysis with practical examp...

Are the dynamics of contention changing? This is the question confronted by the contributors of this volume, among the most influential scholars in the field of social movements. The answers, arriving at a time of extraordinary worldwide turmoil, not only provide a wide-ranging and varied understanding of how social movements arise and persist, but also engender unanswered questions, pointing to new theoretical strands and fields of research.The Future of Social Movement Resear...

The long-awaited concluding volume of Pádraig Yeates' 'Dublin at War' trilogyIn A City in Civil War: Dublin 1921–1924, acclaimed historian Pádraig Yeates turns his attention to Ireland's bloody and hard-fought Civil War and its impact on the capital city and its inhabitants.The fascinating A City in Civil War tells the story of Dublin's troubled passage to independence amidst the acrimony and upheaval of the Civil War, a period in which Dublin became the capital city of an independent Iris...

Designed for students and practitioners, this practical book shows how to do evidence-based research in public health. As a great deal of evidence-based practice occurs online, it focuses on how to find, use, and interpret online sources of public health information. It also includes examples of community-based participatory research and shows how to link data with community preferences and needs. Each chapter begins with specific learning objectives and concludes with practice ex...

Biologists studying large carnivores in wild places usually do so from a distance, using telemetry and noninvasive methods of data collection. So what happens when an anthropologist studies a clan of spotted hyenas, Africa’s second-largest carnivores, up close—and in a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants? In Among the Bone Eaters, Marcus Baynes-Rock takes us to the ancient city of Harar in Ethiopia, where the gey waraba (hyenas of the city) are welcome in the streets a...

InFirst Person Action Research Judi Marshall invites her reader to join her in the rich world of first person inquiry: a reflexive approach to life and to one’s own participation in research and learning.Written as a collage of interrelated chapters, fragments and voices, this is an important meditation on the nature of inquiring action. Judi Marshall’s book provides an accessible introduction to self-reflective practice; exploring its principles and practices and illustra...

Bringing together one of the most important bodies of research into people's working practices, this volume outlines the specific character of the ethnomethodological approach to work, providing an introduction to the key conceptual resources ethnomethodology has drawn upon in its studies, and a set of substantive chapters that examine how people work from a foundational perspective. With contributions from leading experts in the field, including Graham Button, John Hughes and Wes Sharrock...

Demographic trends and patterns provide valuable insights into social structure and behavior, both past and present, and are particularly useful in gauging the effect and extent of social change. While national, state, and local records of pre-1900 demographic information exist, they are often incomplete, inaccurate, or missing altogether. An alternative source of information is genealogical material, which can be used to cross-check the accuracy of demographic directions generalized from ...

This edited volume demonstrates the potential of mixed-methods designs for the research of social networks and the utilization of social networks for other research. Mixing methods applies to the combination and integration of qualitative and quantitative methods. In social network research, mixing methods also applies to the combination of structural and actor-oriented approaches. The volume provides readers with methodological concepts to guide mixed-methods network studies with precise ...

For many students, the experience of learning about and using qualitative methods can be bewildering. This book is an accessible step-by-step guide to conducting interview-based qualitative research projects. The authors discuss the 'hows' and 'whys' of qualitative research, showing readers the practices as well as the principles behind them. The book first describes how to formulate research questions suited to qualitative inquiry. It then discusses in detail how to select and invite rese...