Traditionally, social research is represented as a neutral (objective) search for knowledge as an entity, for which claims of 'reliability', 'validity' and 'credibility' may be made if the researcher follows prescribed techniques of inquiry. From this perspective, techniques of inquiry may cause...

This commentary is a response to a speech addressed to the Economic and Social Research Council which was made, in February this year, by the UK Secretary of State for Education and Employment, David Blunkett. The speech was entitled 'Influence or Irrelevance: can social science improve...

There is growing advocacy for the adoption of computational methods as a substitute for, or complement to, traditional research methods, particularly for examining social phenomena derivative of organised complexity. This paper examines some of the reasons for this advocacy and the specific...

<i>Seven Rules for Social Research</i> teaches social scientists how to get the most out of their technical skills and tools, providing a resource that fully describes the strategies and concepts no researcher or student of human behavior can do without. Glenn Firebaugh provides indispensable practical...

Development has been for long an idea and an ideal that moulded the teleological movement of nations as well as that of individual self-realisation. The present paper looks at such a ‘paradigm of development’ in order to examine its impact on the social science research agenda on...

Маркетинговая деятельность в современном обществе прибрела множество разновидностей, сохраняя существенную связь с процессами обмена. Инновации социального...

In my contribution I want to investigate, from a theoretical point of view but also with methodological and practical consequences, the qualitative role of metaphor in social research. As tool able to improve and facilitate the visualization of complex ideas and states of mind, this rhetorical...

Reflecting on my experience of leading several qualitative research projects to investigate \'sensitive\' topics with potentially \'vulnerable\' participants, this paper considers the impact and consequences of increased ethical regulation in relation to my own research field and social research...