Doing Good Social Science takes readers on a personal and thought-provoking journey and empowers readers to become unshakeable, free-thinking scholars. This book is a compelling read for advanced students, early career researchers, and any academic seeking to develop a more liberated, inventive approach to methods.
Doing Good Social Science takes readers on a personal and thought-provoking journey and empowers readers to become unshakeable, free-thinking scholars.
Drawing from nearly two decades of experience in research and mentorship, this book shares insights gained from creating ‘immersive moments’ to challenge conventional methodology and social theory. In doing so, it integrates ideas from classical and contemporary scholarship across various disciplines, bringing them to life through engaging field notes, interviews, and often humorous examples. The book outlines how to cultivate disciplined and systematic scholarship on complex topics while critiquing the ‘wonky’ practices that often pervade modern academia. Part One advocates for a more scientific approach to social science, offering guiding principles for scholars striving to understand social life. Part Two deepens and complicates these arguments by examining the philosophical foundations of social science, focusing specifically on the ‘in-between’ aspects of the human condition and our social nature. The writing and thinking in the book are distinctive, passionate and brave.
This book is a compelling read for advanced students, early career researchers, and any academic seeking to develop a more liberated, inventive approach to methods.
Part One Foreword to Part One Joseph Maguire Preface
1. Introduction to
Part One
2. What does it Mean to be Immersed in Research?
3. Knowing Stuff:
Lessons from doing Research with the Body
4. Some Problems: Thinking
Critically about Social Science and Introducing Standpoint Epistemologies
5.
Making our Social Science More Scientific: Stop Saying its Messy!
6.
Zombies, Zealots, Ideas and Theory: Developing an Analysis
7. Making our
Social Science More Scientific: Data, Ideas and Evidence
8. Rethinking
Theory: Basic Assumptions, Sensitising Concepts and Academic Tools
9. A
Conclusion: Analysing Complex Problems and Writing about Them
10. Part One
Postscript: Brain Damage in the Field Messed up, but Still Not Messy with
Reem AlHashmi; Part Two Foreword to Part Two Kath Woodward Preface
11.
Introduction to Part Two
12. Philosophy (Not) by Stealth, Understanding and
Some (More) Problems with Theory
13. Thinking about Thinking
14. Moving Past
Either/or Grammar of Thought
15. Grasping the In-between: Thinking in Another
Way
16. Thinking In between Emotion and Rationality
17. Thinking in-between:
Consciousness, Memory, Thought
18. Thinking in-between: The Self as a
Bio-social Accomplishment
19. Tracing Tears in Rain: Feeling, Tuning In,
Catching a Vibe and Dwelling
20. A Conclusion: Social Science that Matters
21. Epilogue: On the Problem with Nerds, the Over-focus on Funding and Some
Other Thoughts
Christopher R. Matthews is a social scientist and epistemologist who specialises in the use of immersive research to understand ideas, people and society. He is a senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, UK.
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