`With this book David de Vaus has written one of the best general research methods textbooks around. The use of different types of research design as the point of departure is a different and very helpful approach to take, especially since many textbooks confuse issues of method and design. The author outlines with great clarity a wide variety of issues, including testing theories, causation, data analysis, and the main considerations involved in using the different research designs covere...

David de Vaus' classic text Surveys in Social Research provides clear advice on how to plan, conduct and analyse social surveys. It emphasises the links between theory and research, the logic and interpretation of statistics and the practices of social research. This sixth edition has been completely revised and updated, and contains new examples, data and extensive lists of web resources.As well as explaining how to conduct good surveys, de Vaus shows how to become a crit...

An essential A-Z guide to the full range of sociological thought, Sociology: The Key Concepts is an important addition to the established and successful Key Concepts series.Fully cross-referenced with an extensive glossary, this accessible text also includes:alphabetical listings of key concepts for ease of usesuggestions for further reading to enhance understanding of areas coveredentries on ‘traditionalism’ ‘race and racialization’ and ‘...

The information world has undergone drastic changes since the publication of the 3rd edition of The Oxford Guide to Library Research in 2005, and Thomas Mann, a veteran reference librarian at the Library of Congress, has extensively revised his text to reflect those changes. This book will answer two basic questions: First, what is the extent of the significant research resources you will you miss if you confine your research entirely, or even primarily, to sources available on th...

This sharp, innovative book champions the rising significance of ethnographic research on the use of digital resources around the world. It contextualises digital and pre-digital ethnographic research and demonstrates how the methodological, practical and theoretical dimensions are increasingly intertwined.Digital ethnography is central to our understanding of the social world; it can shape methodology and methods, and provides the technological tools needed to research society. Th...

Covering the life, work, ideas and impact of some of the most significant thinkers in sociology, Fifty Key Sociologists: The Formative Theorists concentrates on figures in the field writing principally in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Including entries on Jane Addams, Theodor Adorno, George Lukács, Max Weber and Pitrim Sorokin, this practical text:is presented in an accessible A–Z format for maximum ease-of-useprovides full cross-refe...

Public sociology—an approach to sociology that aims to communicate with and actively engage wider audiences—has been one of the most widely discussed topics in the discipline in recent years. The Handbook of Public Sociology presents a comprehensive look at every facet of public sociology in theory and practice. It pays particular attention to how public sociology can complement more traditional types of sociological practice to advance both the analytical power of the discipline and its a...

This study analyses the major intellectual positions in the philosophical debate on Islamic law that is occurring in contemporary Iran. As the characteristic features of traditional epistemic considerations have a direct bearing on the modern development of Islamic legal thought, the contemporary positions are initially set against the established normative repertory of Islamic tradition. It is within this broad examination of a living legacy of interpretation that the context for the conc...

`The authors make excellent use of illustrative examples′ - Reference ReviewsThe SAGE Dictionary of Statistics provides students and researchers with an accessible and definitive resource to use when studying statistics in the social sciences, reading research reports and undertaking data analysis. Written by leading academics in the field of methodology and statistics, the Dictionary will be an essential study guide for the first-time researcher a...

Auguste Comte is widely acknowledged as the founder of the science of sociology and the 'Religion of Humanity'. In this fascinating study, the first major reassessment of Comte’s sociology for many years, Mike Gane draws on recent scholarship and presents a new reading of this remarkable figure.Comte’s contributions to the history and philosophy of science have decisively influenced positive methodologies. He coined the term ‘sociology’ and gave it its first content, and he is reno...

This book, first published in 1989, addresses an issue that stood at the centre of sociological concern – the changing character of industrial societies.The authors examine the nature of the industrialization process, in terms of its impact upon and development within both state socialist and capitalist societies. Is ‘industrialism’ a constant phenomenon within both kinds of society, or are distinctive differences apparent? In the 1960s, it did seem that economic growth and technol...

This book explores the development of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from a liberation movement to a national authority, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).Based on intensive fieldwork in the West Bank, Gaza and Cairo, Nigel Parsons analyzes Palestinian internal politics and their institutional-building by looking at the development of the PLO. Drawing on interviews with leading figures in the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, delegates to the negotiations wit...