Doing Immersive Research Vol.1
Employed/full price
Please select this option if you, or your workplace are paying for the book and money isn’t tight.
Warning: Brexit has dramatically increased postage outside of the UK. I’m sorry but there’s not much I can do about that (except encourage my students to engage with politics!)
Employed/full price
Please select this option if you, or your workplace are paying for the book and money isn’t tight.
Warning: Brexit has dramatically increased postage outside of the UK. I’m sorry but there’s not much I can do about that (except encourage my students to engage with politics!)
Employed/full price
Please select this option if you, or your workplace are paying for the book and money isn’t tight.
Warning: Brexit has dramatically increased postage outside of the UK. I’m sorry but there’s not much I can do about that (except encourage my students to engage with politics!)
About the book
What happens if you don’t trust words and theory, but you’re a researcher who has to use words and theory?
How can we avoid theory being used in ways that override data?
How can unspoken communication and understandings of the world feature in social scientific accounts?
How can we develop a pragmatic use of social science that gets a job done?
Are there processes that can be put in place to help make social science more scientific?
What are the academic origins of ‘immersive research’ and how might they help us understand the human world?
Where does the researcher’s biography, background and body fit into all this?
How can we effectively analyse and write about complex problems?
In the book I explore all these questions, and much more, by situating myself and my thinking about research at the centre of guiding principles for doing good social science. This involves a methodology that’s emergent, systematic, disciplined, shifting, reflexive and coherent; and an analysis that’s grounded, open, clear, flexible, limited, faithful and confident.
The book outlines key moments in an academic apprenticeship, in doing immersive research, in a sometimes amusing and always deeply personal account. It’s an academic book about methods and theory for someone who doesn’t like academic books about methods and theory.
This is a brave and bold book which encourages you to be the same and to have confidence in doing research. I know Christopher and his work well and in this book I feel that I can really hear his voice. He has lots of experience of both doing immersive research and of guiding students through the process, sympathetically. He knows what the issues are. He provides a realistic practical guide. It’s not didactic but he really knows what he’s talking about. He uses his own experience and mixes examples such as his own work on boxing bodies with a range of well integrated theoretical perspectives. Whether you are a supervisor looking for new ideas or a student who’s under confident and inexperienced, this is a great book, full of fresh ideas.
— Prof Kath Woodward, Emeritus Professor, Sociology
A clear and concise introduction into immersive research, Chris’ first volume reads like a friendly and supportive discussion about key ideas on theory and methods. In so doing – and this won’t surprise you if you know him – he’s ripped up the proverbial rule book and written a text most academics would never dream of doing. This gives the readers an honest, insightful and informed starting point for thinking about and doing immersive, connected, qualitative research about the social world in which they live. You’ll learn a lot about that, and a little about Chris too, in this educational and enjoyable read.
— Dr. Ali Bowes, Senior Lecturer, Sociology of Sport