Managing Social Research

A Practical Guide

Roger Tarling

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9781134255535
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Projektmanagement

An essential tool for those planning to undertake social research, this exceptional book tackles many of the specific concerns and issues that arise.A well structured text, it offers a comprehensive introduction to a range of important areas in project management, including:

• commissioning research
• preparing a tender or grant application
• risk and stakeholder analysis
• managing the field work and data analysis
• financial management
• ethics, confidentiality and copyright.

This book provides a unique source of guidance for anyone seeking to commission, manage or carry out social research. It will especially benefit researchers working in a variety of different contexts, including those in academia, central or local government, 'quangos', public bodies or private consulting companies.

1 Introduction

The recent Commission on the Social Sciences (2003) found it difficult, if not impossible to define social science other than in the broadest terms. ‘In essence, then, we have come to see the social sciences as about “disciplined curiosity about societies in which we all live”, leading to the creation and sharing of social knowledge.’ The Commission felt the term social science was a misnomer ‘given the huge range of interests, ways of operating, research methodologies and value systems extant’ and had no alternative but to adopt a working definition based on the academic disciplines. The Economic and Social Research Council recognises sixteen disciplines as falling within its remit: area studies; economic and social history; economics; education; environmental planning; human geography; interdisciplinary studies; linguistics; management and business studies; political studies and international relations; psychology; social anthropology; social policy; socio-legal studies; sociology; and statistics, computing and methodology. This classification could be endlessly debated. Where does criminology fall within this schema, and could certain aspects of health care be seen as social rather than medical? Nevertheless, the list does serve to illustrate the breadth and diversity of social science.

If social science is difficult to define because of its heterogeneity, it is not surprising that social research comes in many different shapes and sizes, involving a wide variety of approaches and methodologies. However, a brief description of a not untypical research project that I undertook will help to illustrate the generic issues that arise when managing any social research project. The project was an evaluation of the Dalston Youth Project (a full account can be found in Tarling et al., 2001).

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The Dalston Youth Project (DYP) was conceived to work with young people aged between 11 and 14 who were defined to be ‘at risk’ of dropping out of school and of becoming involved in offending behaviour. It planned to offer them some support during the formative period of early adolescence and to direct them towards a more socially acceptable and safer lifestyle.

The four aims of the project were:

1. to improve basic education skills (literacy, numeracy, life skills) in the target group as well as to increase the group’s motivation to learn
2. to improve social skills and reduce conflict with parents and other adults
3. to reduce offending rates, drug use, truanting or other at-risk behaviour within the target group
4. to establish a team of volunteers in the local community trained and supported by the project to act as mentors to the young people.

There were four main strands to the programme:

Residential weekend This took place at an activity centre at the beginning of the project. Young people and mentors attended, providing an opportunity to meet and identify with the project. The demanding activities were intended to build confidence and self-esteem.

Mentoring component Each young person was paired with a volunteer mentor. Mentors offered guidance and emotional support as well as providing a positive role model.

Educational component Each young person was given six hours of tuition after school during term time, to help develop numeracy and literacy skills.

Parent/guardian component The support and involvement of parents/ guardians was seen as vital, home visits were arranged and parenting skills sessions were organised.

Thirty young people were placed on the programme for one school year, ten from each of three nearby ‘feeder’ schools. The project received initial funding for three years, so three cohorts of thirty young people were recruited to the project. The research project assessed the development of DYP during its inception and its first three years of operation.

The number of staff running the project varied slightly during the three years, but mainly comprised a full-time project manager, three part-time tutors, a part-time mentoring coordinator and some part-time administrative support staff. Oversight of DYP and the evaluation research project was provided by a Steering Committee, comprising representatives of the sponsor (the Home Office), the schools, the local education department and the local youth service, the police, the project staff and the research team. The evaluation team consisted of three researchers, all of whom worked part-time on the evaluation.

The research comprised a process evaluation, describing how DYP evolved and developed, and an impact evaluation, assessing the extent to which the DYP achieved its aims and objectives.

A multi-method approach to data collection was adopted and included:

• a review of the literature produced by DYP describing the programme
• attendance at Steering Committee meetings and ‘awaydays’
• semi-structured interviews with members of DYP staff
• non-participant observation at the residential weekend, mentor training sessions and other activities organised by DYP
• classroom observations of the educational classes
• semi-structured interviews and conversations with young people, mentors and parents/guardians
• site visits to the participating schools
• extraction of information from DYP, school and police records
• administering literacy and numeracy tests and self-completion self-esteem questionnaires.

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From this description of the Dalston Youth Project and the evaluation, several key points emerge which are generic to most social research to some degree or other.

First, there are many stakeholders with very differing interests in the project. Many were represented on the Steering Committee (the sponsor, the schools, the local education department and the local youth service, the police, the project staff and the research team). Other important stakeholders included the young people themselves, their parents/guardians and the mentors.

Second, because of the many aspects to the methodology and the nature and timing of the activities in DYP, the evaluation had to be carefully planned and scheduled. To take an obvious example, the residential weekend could only be observed when it took place. Evaluation team members had specific responsibilities which had to be taken into account when devising the schedule of work. Progress of the evaluation had to be monitored constantly.

Third, there were risks to the research, principally that key stakeholders, the young people, would not participate in the evaluation.

Fourth, a considerable amount of time (and skill) was involved in negotiation, not to overcome any ill-will, but simply because of the number of individuals and agencies involved.

Fifth, research with any subjects, but particularly with young people, raises many ethical issues, such as of informed consent, confidentiality and so on. These have to be addressed and resolved.

Sixth, steps were needed to ensure relevant, useful and reliable data of a sufficient quality was collected.

Aim of the book

It is a reality that anyone who joins the social research community or makes a career of social research will, at some stage, be involved in defining, designing, undertaking or communicating research. Over time the social researcher may act as an intelligent customer to help policy makers, practitioners or funders identify gaps in knowledge and research need. Having diagnosed research need the researcher may be tasked with procuring research and with appointing contractors to undertake it and be asked to review and make judgements on research proposals. On other occasions the researcher will be the research supplier or part of the team that is funded to carry out the work – namely to design and manage the project, collect and analyse the data. Whether sponsor or supplier, throughout the period of the research project and certainly at the conclusion, the findings will need to be reported and disseminated to a variety of different audiences.

The aim of this book is to describe the process of social research and the stages from the inception to the completion of a project. It considers the issues that need to be addressed at each stage, the practices that have been, or might need to be, adopted and the skills required. The book is essentially about the science and art (for it is a mixture of both) of managing social research, a topic which is neglected in most formal educational Research Methods courses, and yet it is a skill that is becoming increasingly important to complement theoretical knowledge and skills in research design and methodology.

Project management is a well-developed subject in its own right and is applied extensively, if not routinely, in the construction, manufacturing and IT industries, and the government too has developed its own project management protocol, PRINCE. A large body of literature is available describing the techniques and procedures that have been developed. A good text of this genre is Field and Keller (1998), which provides greater depth and insights for those who feel they need to know more. However, it is 441 pages in length and yet does not cover all the issues that may be relevant in social research. The view taken here is that managing social research does not warrant this level of sophistication or such in-depth analysis but that social researchers would benefit from greater awareness of project management principles suitably adapted for their circumstances. Furthermore, there are issues (data protection, confidentiality, report writing and dissemination) which require more attention in social research than in other areas like construction, for example. These topics are given more prominence in this book.

Plan of the book

The book is structured to follow the broad sequence of events in undertaking research, from commissioning to writing a report and disseminating the findings. However, there are two limitations to following this schema. First, undertaking research is not an altogether straightforward sequence of activities with one activity beginning when one ends. For example, much of the final report can be written early in the project life cycle. Second, many issues need to be kept under constant review, for example risk, planning and staff management, do not simply arise at one point during the project where they are dealt with and concluded. Nevertheless, books are laid out sequentially and the material of this book has to conform, so while most topics are dealt with as they occur in the project cycle, others, which do not conform to this neat chronology, are interspersed at points that seem most appropriate.

The remainder of this chapter sets the context by defining basic terms, describing the size and structure of what might be called the UK social research industry and by setting out the legal framework in which social researchers operate.

Definitions of project, research and management

If the subject of the book is managing research projects, let us begin by defining those terms. They are considered in reverse order.

Project

A project is a defined piece of work, undertaken for somebody within an agreed timescale and budget, using specific resources for a specific purpose.

This definition draws out the essential features of a project in that a project is a discrete, usually one-off, activity, bound by time and resources. It is undertaken with a particular aim in mind. The three essential parameters of any project are time, cost/resources and quality and in most projects, there is a trade-off between them. Additional resources and/or more time may lead to higher quality, but time and resources are not infinite (and better quality does not always accrue simply from more effort – or a ceiling is reached beyond which additional effort brings only marginal improvements in quality).

Thus when embarking on a project it is imperative to be absolutely clear:

• of the project’s aims and purpose (including the quality standard it is expected to attain);
• who the customer for the project is (which of course may be the researcher);
• the timescale and the resources available.

These three points cannot be emphasised too strongly as they set the boundary and the constraints within which one is working. Of course, any of these parameters may change during the course of a project and it may even be desirable to change some of them if more time or additional resources are required to complete the project. But if this is the case it should be anticipated, planned and negotiated. The project should not simply be allowed to drift unnecessaril...