Table Of ContentDO IT YOURSELF SOCIAL
RESEARCH
TH3RIRDD E DEDITIITOIONN
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DO IT YOURSELF SOCIAL
RESEARCH
TH3RIRDD E DEDITIITOIONN
Yoland Wadsworth
Walnut Creek, CA
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LEFT COAST PRESS, INC.
1630 North Main Street, #400
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
http://LCoastPress.com
Copyright © Yoland Wadsworth 2011.
Originally published in Australia by Allen & Unwin in 2011 under ISBN 978-1-74237-063-7.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-61132-107-4 paperback
ISBN 978-1-61132-108-1 electronic
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Cartoons by Simon Kneebone.
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FOREWORD
FOREWORD TO THE
FIRST EDITION
‘Research’ has come to have a capital ‘R’ in too many people’s minds.
We want this guide to make research unders tandable, especially as more and more
people—often without past research experience—are now interested in doing some social
research.
Research is a process legitimated in our society as producing knowledge, and therefore
needs to be in the hands of those who want to use and bene(cid:2) t from it—particularly when
it is information about our own lives.
Most people can bene(cid:2) t from the kind of research process described in this guide—
and most people can do this kind of research, even as an informal daily thing. There are,
however, some particular kinds of people who we thought might (cid:2) nd it specially useful, and
these are listed in the (cid:2) rst chapter.
We wish to thank the Project Of(cid:2) cer, Yoland Wadsworth, for the many hours of work
and years of experience as a researcher that she has put into the development of this
guide. We believe it is unique in putting together both the theory and the practice of
research in an easily understood form. We would like to thank all those other research
workers who put their time into commenting on the draft, as well as the Australian
Bureau of Statistics, which provided us with the section on statistics in the sixth chapter.
None of this would have been possible, however, without the (cid:2) nancial support for the
project provided by the Department of Community Welfare Services (Of(cid:2) ce of Research
and Social Planning).
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We don’t know of any book that has attempted to do quite what this one does and there
are bound to be some things that need to be corrected, edited, added or eliminated. We are
relying on your response to improve this edition and would appreciate any feedback.
Diane Sisely, Melbourne Family Care Organisation
Helen M. Halliday, Victorian Council of Social Service
May 1984
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WHAT’S IN
THIS BOOK
CONTENTS
Foreword to the (cid:2) rst edition ivii
Preface to this edition ixxi
Acknowledgements xxiiii
INTRODUCTION
1 Who and what this book is for 1
Who is it for? 2
What you want it for 2
Some examples of those who might (cid:2) nd this book useful 3
What you thought of (cid:2) rst 4
Some common apprehensions about Research with a capital ‘R’ 5
BEFORE YOU START
2 What is social research? 9
What is knowledge and how do we know? 10
Why do we agree? 12
The rules of the research game 13
To summarise 25
WHERE TO START
3 Why do you want to do it? 26
The parties to the research: ethical considerations 28
Clarifying the purposes of the research 30
To summarise 33
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HOW TO TACKLE IT
4 Managing, timing, budgeting and some common mistakes to avoid 35
Think about timing 36
Think about the resources you have 39
Now think about overall management 41
Finally, think about money 43
To summarise 43
DESIGNS, METHODS AND TECHNIQUES 00
5 How to go about ‘(cid:2) nding out’ 44
PART A: RESEARCH DESIGN 44
Getting a good research design 46
This is what the group’s research design looked like … 53
Designs and realities 57
Further action and unfolding 58
And now for your own research design … 58
PART B: METHODS FOR ‘FINDING OUT’ 58
Introduction: Some general methodologies 58
Technique A: Identifying purposes, clarifying issues and values, and
goal-setting procedures 62
Technique B: Individual interviews 67
Technique C: Group interviews 75
Technique D: Narrative, dialogue and recursive questioning 78
Technique E: Questionnaires and interview schedules 80
Technique F: Sampling 95
Technique G: Participating and observing ((cid:2) eldwork) 99
Technique H: Audiovisual methods 101
Technique I: Written records, accounts and diaries 102
Technique J: Case studies 103
Technique K: Social indicators 103
Technique L: Surveys 105
Technique M: Use of computers 106
Technique N: Community needs studies 109
Technique O: Evaluation 111
Technique P: Action research as an integrating methodology 113
OTHER RESOURCES 00
6 Other resources around 116
Resource Q: Funding 116
Resource R: Experienced researchers 127
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Resource S: The literature 131
Resource T: Statistics 135
Resource U: The internet 142
WORKING OUT WHAT YOU FOUND OUT 00
7 Interpretation and organising ideas 143
Interpretation 144
Analysis and synthesis 145
SAYING WHAT YOU FOUND OUT 00
8 Getting your (cid:2) ndings into action 153
What we want to achieve 155
Who we want to tell 156
Why we want to tell them 156
How to convey our (cid:2) ndings 156
The written report 157
Telling and showing 160
When to present (cid:2) ndings 162
What about follow-up? 163
Keeping going 164
Appendix A: Some examples of good do it yourself social research 165
The examples 166
1 The Knox Women’s Research Group project: ‘What have you been
doing all day’ 167
2 The Footscray local government Children’s Needs Study 168
3 The Nursing Federation’s Let’s Communicate study of child health
care community nursing 169
4 Improving a country rail line using a passenger survey 170
5 A chronic disability organisation’s research and development with its clients 172
Appendix B: Translations of some common research language 175
Short bibliography of more or less accessible research texts for further reading 201
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