Unobtrusive methods in social research
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Unobtrusive methods in social research
（Understanding social research / series editor, Alan Bryman）
Open University Press, 2000
- : hbk
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [144]-164) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780335200511
Description
"a book all self-respecting social researchers should read" SRA News * What are unobtrusive methods in social research?
* How are they undertaken and what are their advantages?
* What are the problems associated with their use?
Webb et al's 1966 classic, Unobtrusive Methods introduced the concept of unobtrusive research. Since then very little else has been written in the field. This book revisits the ground covered by Webb et al, re-contextualizing it for the information age and putting the case for an increased use of unobtrusive methods.
Unobtrusive Methods in Social Research provides an updated discussion of the role of unobtrusive methods in social research. It explores the theoretical underpinnings of Webb et al's approach in order to understand more explicitly how unobtrusive methods are generated and examines some of the wider ethical issues raised by the use of unobtrusive methods in social research. In addition, it offers a discussion of using the Internet as a tool for unobtrusive research.
Unobtrusive Methods in Social Research is a worthy successor to Webb et al. It is up to date, comprehensive and clearly written. It will help undergraduates to understand what has become a standard topic on research methods courses and it is hoped that it will encourage postgraduate students and professionals to make more use of unobtrusive methods in their research.
Table of Contents
Series editor's foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction to unobtrusive methods
Found data
Captured data
Retrieved data
running records
Retrieved data
personal and episodic records
Unobtrusive methods and the Internet
Conclusion
Glossary
References
Index.
- Volume
-
: hbk ISBN 9780335200528
Description
This volume aims to provide an up-to-date discussion of the role of unobtrusive methods in social research, in a comprehensive and clearly written style. It explores how unobtrusive methods can be generated, looks at unobtrusive methods and the Internet, and examines some of the wider ethical issues raised by the use of these methods in social research. Social researchers often collect "self-report" data based on interviews and surveys. There are major problems associated with the "reactive" nature of these data, for example, people are not always honest when asked to supply information on "sensitive issues". Unobtrusive methods produce data that are not elicited in this way. Instead data are "found" in the word, captured from various forms of observation or are retrieved from data repositories of various kinds. The production of unobtrusive methods requires considerable ingenuity on the part of the researcher and this book explores the methods involved and how they are produced. There are also ethical problems associated with unobtrusive methods which are discussed in the book. The Internet promises to be a major source of unobtrusive data and so is discussed in some detail.
Table of Contents
- Generating unobtrusive data
- found data
- captured data
- retrieved data
- unobtrusive methods and the Internet
- analyzing unobtrusive data.
by "Nielsen BookData"