Using Documents in Social Research

Front Cover
SAGE, Jun 16, 2003 - Social Science - 195 pages

Using Documents in Social Research

 offers a comprehensive, yet concise, introduction to the use of documents as tools within social science research. The books argues that documents stand in a dual-relation to human activity, and therefore by transmitting ideas and influencing the course and nature of human activity they are integral to the research process.

Key features of the book include:

  • Alerts students to the diversity of social scientific research documents.
  • Outlines the various strategies and debates that need to be considered in order to integrate the study of documents into a research project.
  • Offers a number of examples where documents have been used within a variety of research contexts.

The book is written in an easy and engaging style which makes it accessible to undergraduates and postgraduate students. It will be essential reading for students and researchers across a range of social science disciplines.

 

Selected pages

Contents

Producing Facts
30
Documents in Action I Documents
50
Texts Authors Identities
89
Content Meaning and Reference
107
Doing Things with Words
125
Documents as Evidence Researching
145
Production Consumption and Exchange
165
Bibliography
174
Index
189
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Using Documents in Social Research
Lindsay Prior
Limited preview - 2003
Using Documents in Social Research
Lindsay Prior
Limited preview - 2003
Using Documents in Social Research
Lindsay Prior
Limited preview - 2003
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Common terms and phrases

actant action activities Alzheimer's disease analysis anthropological argued breast cancer Cambridge cancer Chapter chronic fatigue syndrome claim clinic concept concerned consider construction contained content analysis course culture death Derrida diary discourse discourse analysis disease DNA sequence docu documents Down's syndrome Encyclopédie ethnographer everyday evidence example fact focus forms Foucault function fungi genetic human identity illness individual interest interpretation interview investigation involved issues kinds Latour London Malinowski manner matter meaning ments narrative nature nursing assessment objects organizational patients person problems production professional provides qualitative research questions readers records recruited referred relating Rigoberta Menchú risk Rivière role Sage sample scientists script sequence social research social science social scientific research society sociology specific statistics structure suicide Sybil talk things tion Torres Straits University Press visible whilst Woolgar words writing written

References to this book

About the author (2003)

Lindsay Prior is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Queen’s University, Belfast, and visiting Professor in the School of Public Health. He is the author of Using Documents in Social Research (SAGE, 2003) and editor of the 4-volume Using Documents and Records in Social Research (SAGE, 2011). His most recent journal publications—in, Social Science & Medicine, Critical Public Health, Sociology of Health & Illness, have focused on various aspects of public health practice and policy.

Bibliographic information

TitleUsing Documents in Social Research
Introducing Qualitative Methods series
AuthorLindsay Prior
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherSAGE, 2003
ISBN0761957472, 9780761957478
Length195 pages
Subjects › 

Psychology / Research & Methodology
Social Science / Methodology
Social Science / Research
  
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