Description

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Becoming a Social Science Researcher is designed to help aspiring social scientists, including credentialed scholars, understand the formidable complexities of the research process. Instead of explaining specific research techniques, it concentrates on the philosophical, sociological, and psychological dimensions of social research. These dimensions have received little coverage in guides written for social science researchers, but they are arguably even more important than particular analytical techniques. Truly sophisticated social science scholarship requires that researchers understand the intellectual and social contexts in which they collect and interpret information. While social science training in US graduate schools has become more systematic over the past two decades, graduate training and published guidance still fall short in addressing this fundamental need.

About the Author

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Bruce Parrott is Professor Emeritus of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Praise For…

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“Becoming a Social Science Researcher makes the dual contribution of being profound about philosophical matters and being a great how-to manual for helping graduate students launch their careers.”

—George Breslauer, University of California, Berkeley
— George Breslauer

“A terrific addition to literature aimed at assisting doctoral students! Professor Parrott lays out the many existential issues faced by developing scholars in lively, understandable, and erudite ways. Reflecting on these issues and associated debates will help students feel more confident about the choices they must make during their journey.”
—Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, University of Utah
— Peregrine Schwartz-Shea

"Explores the philosophical, sociological, and psychological dimensions of social research, promoting the larger social value of modern scholarship’s endeavors to understand the complexities of the human condition."
— Journal of Economic Literature