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Research Methodology in Sociology

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The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain

Abstract

Despite rated second only to America in the national sociology stakes by the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC’s) 2010 International Subject Benchmarking Review, UK sociology has a track record of being more concerned, and confused, about research methodology than other social sciences. At the heart of this paradox is that today’s ‘big tent’ discipline is still recovering from being the new kid on the block. British sociology, and therefore British sociological research, developed ‘late’ (Chapter 8). This institutional framework determined what research was done, how it was conducted, and which ‘methods’ became routinised, when the small and relatively new discipline of sociology suddenly expanded in the 1960s. It was the combination of a small base with an extraordinarily large and rapid university expansion, at a unique point in intellectual history, which shapes our perceptions and practice of sociological research, and our uncertainties about it.

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  1. Geoff Payne
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nottingham, UK

    John Holmwood

  2. University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    John Scott

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© 2014 Geoff Payne

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Payne, G. (2014). Research Methodology in Sociology. In: Holmwood, J., Scott, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sociology in Britain. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137318862_19

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