Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences
eBook - PDF

Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences

Research in an Age of Info-glut

  1. English
  2. PDF
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences

Research in an Age of Info-glut

About this book

"You might think that dancing doesn't have a lot to do with social research, and doing social research is probably why you picked this book up in the first place. But trust me. Salsa dancing is a practice as well as a metaphor for a kind of research that will make your life easier and better."

Savvy, witty, and sensible, this unique book is both a handbook for defining and completing a research project, and an astute introduction to the neglected history and changeable philosophy of modern social science. In this volume, Kristin Luker guides novice researchers in: knowing the difference between an area of interest and a research topic; defining the relevant parts of a potentially infinite research literature; mastering sampling, operationalization, and generalization; understanding which research methods best answer your questions; beating writer's block.

Most important, she shows how friendships, non-academic interests, and even salsa dancing can make for a better researcher.

"You know about setting the kitchen timer and writing for only an hour, or only 15 minutes if you are feeling particularly anxious. I wrote a fairly large part of this book feeling exactly like that. If I can write an entire book 15 minutes at a time, so can you."

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Yes, you can access Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences by Kristin Luker in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Research & Methodology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. 1 Salsa Dancing? In the Social Sciences?
  3. 2 What’s It All About?
  4. 3 An Ode to Canonical Social Science
  5. 4 What Is This a Case of, Anyway?
  6. 5 Reviewing the Literature
  7. 6 On Sampling, Operationalization, and Generalization
  8. 7 Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty
  9. 8 Field (and Other) Methods
  10. 9 Historical-Comparative Methods
  11. 10 Data Reduction and Analysis
  12. 11 Living Your Life as a Salsa-Dancing Social Scientist
  13. Appendix One: What to Do If You Don’t Have a Case
  14. Appendix Two: Tools of the Trade
  15. Appendix Three: Special Resources for Specific Methods
  16. Appendix Four: Sample Search Log
  17. Notes
  18. Bibliography
  19. Author’s Note
  20. Acknowledgments
  21. Index