Methods of Social Study

In this book, Sidney and Beatrice Webb describe in detail how they conducted their investigations into social history and institutions.

Sidney Webb (Author), Beatrice Webb (Author), T. H. Marshall (Introduction by)

9780521134590, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 11 March 2010

308 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.39 kg

In Methods of Social Study Sidney and Beatrice Webb describe in detail how they conducted their investigations into social history and institutions - from the collection, recording and classification of the data (both documentary and oral), through the processes of hypothesis and analysis, down to the preparation of the final report. The Webbs were in many respects pioneers, and what they achieved and the way in which they achieved it are of an importance that has been increasingly recognised as the passage of times gives us perspective. Their constant concern was to ensure that their work would be 'scientific'. They stress the need in scientific research for complete objectivity, to be achieved in their case by keeping their historical and sociological studies wholly separate from their political writings. Because the first drafts for the book were made by Beatrice in 1921 and the final text was written by Sidney in 1931/2, one can also see expressed here, more clearly than elsewhere, the different temperaments of the two collaborators.

Introduction to this edition by T. H. Marshall
Preface
1. The province of sociology determined
2. The mental equipment of the social investigator
3. How to study social facts
4. The art of note-taking
5. The written word
6. The spoken word
7. Royal commissions and committees of enquiry as sources for the investigator
8. Watching the institution at work
9. The use of statistics
10. Verification
11. Publication
12. The relation of science to the purpose of life
Index.

Subject Areas: Sociology & anthropology [JH]