The Sage Handbook of Social Research Methods

Pertti Alasuutari is a sociologist, cultural studies scholar, paterfamilias and a highly significant figure in the development of both Finnish and international qualitative research. His career has gone from strength to strength as regards advancement in Finnish academia, as witnessed by some twenty books, and numerous articles in both Finnish and foreign journals. Yet Professor Alasuutari insists that he did not consciously choose the career of a sociologist. Professor Alasuutari completed his school education in Rovaniemi, Lapland in 1975 and went to study technology at the University of Oulu. But not for long. In 1977 he dropped out and began to dream of becoming a journalist, in the meantime doing supply teaching. In summer I studied journalism at summer university in Lapland and began my military service His days in the army driving a desk led him to another state agency. In autumn 1978 the train from the north arrived in Tampere with the 22-year-old on board. He had gained admission to study sociology. For the first year I only studied journalism, and didn't even set foot in the Department of Sociology, grins Professor Alasuutari. Career development In 1983 the Westermarck Society awarded a prize for a master's thesis to the youthful Alasuutari. The thesis was entitled The Realm of Male Freedom. The ethnographic approach was to describe the alcohol culture of a group of men patronizing a suburban pub. Leonard Bickman, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Public Policy. He is director of the Center for Evaluation and Program Improvement and Associate Dean for Research at Peabody College. He earned his Ph.D. in psychology (social) from the City University of New York, his master's degree in experimental psychopathology from Columbia University and his bachelor's from the City College of New York. Professor Bickman is a nationally recognized leader in program evaluation and mental healthservices research on children and adolescents. He has published more than 15 books and monographs and 180 articles and chapters and has been principal investigator on over 25 major grants from several agencies. He is co-editor of the Applied Research Methods Series published by Sage Publications since 1980. He is also co-editor of the Handbook of Applied Social Research and is collaborating on a new International Handbook of Social Research. He is the co-author of the very popular book Applied Research Design: A Practical Guide. Julia Brannen is Professor of Sociology of the Family at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London. She has carried out research in Britian and Europe for 35 years on families, children and young people, intergenerational relations and work-life issues. She has a special interest in methodology including mixed methods, cross-national research and biographical methods. Co-founder of The International Journal of Social Research she co-edited the journal for 17 years. Author of 17 books including Mixing Methods: Qualitative and Quantitave Research (Aldershot Gower 1992) and numerous articles on methodology, more recently she co-edited The SAGE Handbook of Social Research Methods (2008) and has contributed to The SAGE Handbook of Mixed Methods (2010.)