Principles of Sociological Research
Chapter 16  Summary

This chapter introduces the student to the basic principles of doing sociological research and discusses the key concepts and concerns that shape sociological inquiry. We begin by asking what precisely a research question is, and how to formulate clear questions about 'units of observation' (whether these are families, schools, households, occupational groups, organisations or whatever). We show that, depending on the sort of questions sociologists ask, certain types of data-collection techniques may be more suitable than others, whether these are semi-structured interviews, surveys, participant observation or other research instruments. We then look at theoretical approaches to methodology and focus in particular on the idea of a feminist methodology. We conclude with the postmodernist challenge to traditional methodologies.

Students should, by the end of this chapter, have a clear sense of the broad conceptual and methodological issues that need to be addressed in constructing a research programme in sociology and to be able to begin to think through the various stages of designing a research project within the discipline. A summary of these stages might include:

• The objectives of the research and their particular relationship to existing knowledge.
• The rationale for choosing a particular approach and methods.
• How the objectives and methods work together.
• The range of hypotheses/issues to be examined.
• A plan for the organisation of the project.
• How the results of the project might be disseminated to academic and non-academic audiences and so on.