Readings: Chapter 2

About ‘More Resources’

Here you can find external resources related to, or expanding on, the material presented in this chapter. Currently included are links to websites, links to online video clips, and suggested readings that you can find in your school or local library. If you would like access to the password-protected video library that accompanies the text, your professor can give you the username, password, and URL needed (and if your professor is not sure how to access the video library, he or she can contact an Oxford University Press sales representative for details).

Website links

International Institute for Qualitative Methodology (University of Alberta)

NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software

SPSS Quantitative Data Analysis Software

StatSoft: Electronic Statistics Textbook

Mixed Methods Research: 2010 Public Lecture by John Cresswell

Multimedia links

Consider looking at this video on ‘Netiquette’ from 1994 from a Document Analysis perspective:

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/lifestyle/etiquette/etiquette-general/netiquette.html

A BBC special on Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment:

Readings: Sociological Research

Bouma, G.D., R. Ling, and L. Wilkinson. (2012). The Research Process (Second Canadian Edition). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

The goal of this book is to provide a general overview of both qualitative and quantitative research processes. It takes the reader through the process as one would engage with it while doing a research project, beginning with what research and theory are and how they relate, through formulating a research question, completing a literature review, selecting a type of research, and doing data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The book uses helpful examples from Canada along with several tables and figures to illustrate the research process.

Carroll, W.K. (Ed.). (2004). Critical Strategies for Social Research. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars Press Inc.

This book provides an in-depth and sophisticated overview of issues within social research, beginning with an examination of the relationship between knowledge, power, and research to wrapping up with an examination of sociological research as a tool for empowerment and greater democracy. The 27 articles include discussions of Indigenous ways of knowing, feminist methodologies, institutional ethnography, discourse analysis, cooperative and community action research, and the relationships between politics, research, and public/social policy.

Frampton, C., G. Kinsman, A.K. Thompson, and K. Tilleczek. (2006). Sociology for Changing the World: Social Movements/Social Research. Black Point, NS: Fernwood Publishing.

This book presents a unique approach to examining research and how research is conducted by Canadian researchers. The relationship between research and social activism is explicit in the book and several articles focus on sociology for the people, research for resistance, and political organizing. Rather than perpetuate the idea that “objective” research is most desirable in social research, this collection of articles explicitly undermines that notion, celebrating instead the important connections between politics, emotions, liberation, and sound, rigorous research. The book ends with some provocative thoughts on new directions for activist research.

Northey, M., L. Tepperman, and P. Albanese. (2012). Making Sense in the Social Sciences: A Student’s Guide to Research and Writing. (Fifth Edition). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

This is a clear and reader-friendly book devoted to helping sociology students navigate the research process in terms of creating their own term or class research projects in ways that are appropriate in depth and scope. The book then provides people with a solid understanding of how to write a paper based on the research.

The Sociological Writing Group. (2013). A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers (Seventh Edition). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

This new edition of a foundational book for all sociology students who are interested in how to carry out their own qualitative or quantitative research, as well as assess other’s research. It is written in a conversational style to easily engage readers and provides real life examples to illustrate concepts and ways to improve one’s own work. This edition includes a great deal of new information for technologically savvy readers to help them to use and critically assess web-based sources and research.