A Practical Resource for the Social Sciences: A Book Review of Bruce Friedman’s The Research Toolkit - Problem Solving Processes for the Social Sciences

Bruce D. Friedman provides an invaluable resource for social science researchers and practitioners to add to their “toolkit.” This book provides practical and straightforward guidance for understanding and conducting qualitative and quantitative research. As a social science researcher, sessional instructor, and doctoral student, reading this book answered important questions I had regarding the research process and implications of social science research. This review will discuss the primary tenets of the book as well as the relevance of this toolkit for student-researchers.

Tsugaru Gaku as Area Studies: Research plasticity and researcher hybridity

This review essay speaks to the crisis of Area Studies, offering a view from the field in the form of a review of Tsugaru Gaku (Tsugaru Studies) as a specific Area Studies research case. After presenting an overview of the work of social science researchers working in Japan, both foreign and Japanese, the essay turns to major questions articulated in the literature of Area Studies regarding the purpose, character and future of Area Studies. By reviewing the multi-dimensional and combinative implications in the process and dissemination of his own social science research work together with consideration of the work of Japanese social scientists conducting research in rural Japan and publishing in Japanese, the author positions such ‘domestic,’ place-based sociological and anthropological research as a vital contribution to the future of Area Studies. Capitalizing on social scientific research that can contribute to Area Studies research requires a view of the ‘plasticity of research.’ Further, recognition of the ‘hybridity of the Area Studies researcher,’ both as the trained Area Studies specialist as well as a ‘domestic social science researcher’ capable of theory, methodology and analysis, as well as dissemination of Area Studies research originating in a specific place and in a specific language, is vital to the future of Area Studies research.

Visualiseren van sociale netwerken op basis van kwalitatieve bronnen

Visualizing social networks using qualitative data Visualizing social networks using qualitative data Studying co-offending and group crime has contributed to our understanding of crime. Co-offending and group crime are studied through the analyses of social ties between offenders. Qualitative information on social ties is needed to get more insight in the ways offenders organize crime together. This contribution shows how sociograms of a criminal network can be constructed using qualitative information on social ties derived from court rulings and two journalistic books. Strengths and limitations are discussed and it is argued that a sociogram is a valuable instrument in the toolbox of a (qualitative) social science researcher interested in studying social ties.

Alcohol Advertising: Evidence from Social Science

Alcohol advertising — isn't it a job of simple persuasion? As a social science researcher who has spent more than half a dozen years investigating alcohol advertising — among other forms of media content — I am often asked by lay persons to gauge the ‘effects’ of such advertising. My first inclination is to respond that its effects are likely to be the same as those of any other mass mediated message. After all, the goal of science is to develop and apply broad theories which neatly and parsimoniously encapsulate large amounts of information, and therefore it is somewhat odd to single out alcohol advertising as a ‘peculiar’ type of communication.