In this chapter, we argue that everyone can find out what is going on around them, and that we can all do social research. Unfortunately, social research has often been mystified by sociologists concerned with boosting their credentials as serious scientists or important scholars by making their methodological apparatus more complex and sophisticated at the expense of clarity or usefulness. Here we attempt to take some of the mystery out of social research. We outline what makes good research, and we spell out how it might be done. We suggest some of the steps that anyone who is thoughtful and hard-working can take, and explain how to keep a social research project on track by paying attention to certain basic ethical ideas.

useful links

Australian Bureau of Statistics: Australian social trends
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The Australian Federal Government
http://www.australia.gov.au/

Parliament of Australia Publications
http://www.aph.gov.au/publications/index.htm

National Library of Australia
http://www.nla.gov.au/

Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research
http://gsociology.icaap.org/methods/

Research methods and statistics
http://www.fsu.edu/%7Ecrimdo/soclinks/research.html

Online Dictionary of the Social Sciences
http://bitbucket.icaap.org/

Statistics New Zealand
http://www.stats.govt.nz/default.htm

Part One : What is Sociology?

Part Two: Identity

Part Three: Globalisation

Chapter 4: Doing sociology

Further reading

useful links