Selecting Research Methods: Methods to sample, recruit, and assign cases
Selecting Research Methods: Methods to sample, recruit, and assign cases

Author: W. Paul Vogt

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13:

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Selecting Research Methods provides advice from prominent social scientists concerning the most crucial steps for planning and undertaking meaningful research: selecting the methods to be used. Contributors to the collection address methodological choices in four stages: design, sampling, coding and measurement, and analysis. The volumes provide an integrated approach to methodological choice in two ways. First, the contributions range from the early decisions about design options through the concluding choices about analyzing, interpreting, and presenting results. Second, the collection is integrated because it addresses the needs of projects that collect qualitative evidence, quantitative data, or both. Volume 1 concerns design choice; the articles focus on selecting designs that are effective for answering research questions and achieving the goals of the researcher. Volume 2 is on sampling and includes, in addition to sampling from populations, advice on choosing methods for recruiting informants for interviews, selecting sites for participant observation, and assigning subjects to control and experimental groups. Volume 3 reviews options for coding and measurement; it emphasizes methodological choices that enable researchers to study concepts in ways that enhance the reliability and validity of the research. Finally, the articles included in Volume 4 review the range of choices available among methods to analyze results and interpret the meanings of evidence

Bushmanders and Bullwinkles
Bushmanders and Bullwinkles

Author: Mark Monmonier

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2001-04-15

Total Pages: 221

ISBN-13: 0226534251

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For years Mark Monmonier, "a prose stylist of no mean ability or charm" according to the Washington Post, has delighted readers with his insightful understanding of cartography as an art and technology that is both deceptive and revealing. Now he turns his focus to the story of political cartography and the redrawing of congressional districts. His title Bushmanders and Bullwinkles combines gerrymander with the surname of the president who actively tolerated racial gerrymandering and draws attention to the ridiculously shaped congressional districts that evoke the antlers of the moose who shared the cartoon spotlight with Rocky the Flying Squirrel. Written from the perspective of a cartographer rather than a political scientist, Bushmanders and Bullwinkles examines the political tales maps tell when votes and power are at stake. Monmonier shows how redistricting committees carve out favorable election districts for themselves and their allies; how disgruntled politicians use shape to challenge alleged racial gerrymanders; and how geographic information systems can make reapportionment a controversial process with outrageous products. He also explores controversies over the proper roles of natural boundaries, media maps, census enumeration, and ethnic identity. Raising important questions about Supreme Court decisions in regulating redistricting, Monmonier asks if the focus on form rather than function may be little more than a distraction from larger issues like election reform. Characterized by the same wit and clarity as Monmonier's previous books, Bushmanders and Bullwinkles is essential background for understanding what might prove the most contentious political debate of the new decade.