The 2002 reprint of the 1999 edition, now including the Moonstats
statistical software on CD-ROM.

This book facilitates systematic study of each phase of the research process in sequence. It aims to ground research methodology in terms of practical outcomes, and to equip students both with applied technical know-how and with the conceptual tools to evaluate and contextualise their work in terms of larger social and philosophical issues.

This text incorporates new trends in research methodology. Practical experiences drawn from southern African experience elucidate the research approaches and techniques studied in this text and the phases in the research process are broken down into conceptual tools to be used in evaluating social issues.

• The research process: histories of the present - social science research in context
• doing an information search
• research design
• putting design into practice - writing and evaluating research proposals
• quantitative proposals
• quantitative analysis
• interpretative methods
• social constructionist methods
• publish or perish - disseminating your research findings. Research in action: jobs and careers in social science research
• programme evaluation
• participatory action research - a practical guide for realistic radicals
• researching public policy
• research methods in clinical research
• survey methods in market and media research
• assessment research. Advance techniques and approaches: sound conclusions - judging research designs
• jumping to conclusions - an overview of inferential statistical methods
• reducing and understanding complexity - multivariate data analysis
• from encounter to text - data-gathering in interpretative research
• hermeneutics in action - empathy and interpretation in qualitative research
• calling it a day - reaching conclusions in interpretive research
• standpoint methodologies - Marxist, feminist and black scholarship perspectives
• postmodernism - a critical practice?