Methods of Discovery: Heuristics for the Social Sciences

by Andrew Abbott, Jeffrey C. Alexander (Series Editor)

Methods of Discovery is organized around strategies for deepening arguments in order to find the best ways to study social phenomena. Abbott helps social science students discover what questions to ask. This exciting book is not about habits and the mechanics of doing social science research, but about habits of thinking that enable students to use those mechanics in new ways, by coming up with new ideas and combining them more effectively with old ones.

Abbott organizes his book around general methodological moves, and uses examples from throughout the social sciences to show how these moves can open new lines of thinking. In each chapter, he covers several moves and their reverses (if these exist), discussing particular examples of the move as well as its logical and theoretical structure. Often he goes on to propose applications of the move in a wide variety of empirical settings. The basic aim of Methods of Discovery is to offer readers a new way of thinking about directions for their research and new ways to imagine information relevant to their research problems.

Methods of Discovery is part of the Contemporary Societies series.

Genres: Sociology, Academia, Nonfiction, Social Science, Grad School, Writing, Research

261 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2004

Reviews

[Eren Buğlalılar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sosyal bilimler içindeki ekolleri, eğilimleri birbirine kırdırarak yaratıcı olma kılavuzu. Abbott'ın dalgacı üslubu da cabası.

Sosyal bilimciler yüz yıldır "olaya bir de bu açıdan bakalım" diyerek ekmeğini kazanıyor. Abbott da tüm açıların bir listesini çıkarmış ve onları harmanlayarak, birinin varsayımlarına diğeriyle meydan okuyarak bizim nasıl yeni bakış açıları oluşturabileceğimize bakıyor. Bunu da sosyal bilimler tarihinin kayda değer tartışmalarından örneklerle desteklemiş.

Çok şükür ki, sosyal bilim cemaati sürekli birbirinin ayağını kaydırmaya, kabullerinin temelsizliğini göstermeye adanmış bir fesat kazanı. Kültürelci yapısalcının boğazına yapışmış ama bir yandan da yerde yatan "metodolojik bireyselci"yi tekmeliyorlar birlikte. Abbott ise pragmatik: Bir tarafın yanında kavgaya girmeden evvel, mümkün olduğunca farklı alandan, farklı perspektiflerden açık fikirlilikle bir şeyler okuyarak kendi yaklaşımımızı inşa etmemizi öneriyor.

Kitabın son bölümü, iyi bir araştırmacının sahip olması gereken kişilik özellikleri bölümü çok iyiydi. Gözlem gücü yüksek, bunu da etkili bir şekilde yazıya dökebilen bir yazar Abbott. Tek eleştirim, Abbott'ın sosyal bilimin kendine vurgun bir insan olması. Biliminsanının eşitlik, özgürlük vs. uğruna verilen bir mücadeleye girmesi ve bu uğurda sosyal bilimi bir araç olarak kullanması onu huzursuz ediyor.

Tamam "sanat sanat için midir" tartışmasını yapalım da... Sosyal bilim? O kadar da uzun boylu değil Abbott hocam.

[Elari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice. Abbott introduces his target audience to heuristics that enable creative thinking, research, and discovery. As someone who's completely new to social science methods, I like that Abbott wasn't biased towards this or that school of thought (quantitative vs. qualitative, realist vs. constructionist, etc.). Instead, he made sure to give "excellent examples" (his words) of research for each method/heuristic introduced. Too bad I had to speed-read this, and probably everything else for the next few months/ (years?). Hello grad life.

[Jan D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful book. A collection of heuristics for analysis and theory. It also offers a broad introduction to different schools of thought, compares their concerns and world views and gives example books and articles for them.

[Dionna · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this to prep for grad school (in case it wasn’t obvious)

found one of my professors reviews on it when reading through the reviews and it prompted me to leave one too when originally i was not going to

i took my time with this one, taking extensive notes, rereading passages, and contemplating how it will aid me on my grad school journey (hence how long it took me to read it)

very interesting perspective on the social world and how to cultivate ideas — i will probably be reading this book again … multiple times but for now i shall sit on it and ponder

[fabio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendously useful, with examples from a wide range of the social sciences to extract little figures of thought and tricks to instigate new ideas about social reality.

I really like the way Abbot writes and guides the reader through sometimes complicated methodological debates and simplifies it all from the vantage point of an experienced sociologist. I'd recommend it for a methods course if I could.

[Anand Gopal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book full of heuristics, or mental strategies, to generate new ideas for social science research. While Abbott presents many heuristics that are common sense or that you may have seen elsewhere, there are a number of innovative approaches in here. For example, he takes the usual debates about the social world (positivist vs interpretive, realism vs social construction, etc) and recasts them as heuristics: e.g., if a subject has usually been studied using positivist methods and assumptions, make an interpretivist turn and see if that generates new insights.

The book is useful for anyone seriously interested in social science (sociology, economics, history, political science, anthropology) research.

[Silvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

"It is now for you to find the excitement that comes with inventing your own heuristics and reimagining the social world." The closing remark of Andrew Abbott's Methods of Discovery. A compelling book, that couldn't have arrived on my lap at a better moment. Now I can finally reshuffle my torturous experiences into de facto progress :). Kudos!

[Jake]

Abbott is funny, instantly likable and very sympathetic to the plight of the grad student. The book is really just a big list of cool mental tricks you can use to come up with social science research questions. He's a sociologist but the book is intended for all social scientists.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was fantastic - wonderful thoughts about why social science ideas are interesting and really insightful heuristics for how to think more creatively about the social world.

[Mohammed AL MASRI · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bible for academics in the field of social sciences

[Liam Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still can’t describe this. But stuff to chew on

[Fishpiss_ Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important encyclopaedic heuristic book.

More importantly, it struck me at the right time, just before embarking upon my undergraduate thesis. In that manner, I am his intended audience and feel obliged to write this review. henceforth, I must say I liked it. The dilemmas and different schools of thought and methods were put forth in an ecumenical manner, and allowed the assumed undergraduate to choose their own path. Moreover, what stuck with me the most was not the encyclopaedic lessons on debates, methods and planes of analysis, but on certain social scientific acculturation and development of "taste". And I believe he is truly right here, given how much slop some sectors of the social sciences are producing these days the only thing one can do is not to sour our palates (or perhaps thats your taste, who knows).

A shoutout to George Polya's How to Solve It, which he used as his inspiration to produce this book. I, too, am slogging and manoeuvring through that book and enjoying it.

[Daniela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book.

I am currently working on the thesis for my master's degree (research) and this book was very helpful.
The best job that this book has done for me is not to worry, because there are so many ways of how research can be done. It was very insightful in terms of how research actually works.
Other than that it actually does what is promises: Helping you to rethink your ideas and problems.

Furthermore, there were so many examples used from so many different subjects in social sciences that I both learned a lot and got some good references for general reading.

Highly recommended to researchers at all stages.

[Sarah Somehagen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure the author is very well respected in his field, but he cannot explain matters in a simple way to save his life. When a group of university students have to spend hours in discussion trying to figure out a passage of the book, and STILL not understand what it's about, then the guy is doing something wrong.

[Nick Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredibly good book. Should be required reading for anyone interested in doing social science research. It does precisely what it sets out to do: provides students and scholars with practical tools that can be used to generate new ideas about the social world. A very inspiring read.

[Oscar Alfonzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un libro increíble para las ciencias sociales, hace un análisis detallado del poder heuristico de cada metodología y lo explica de forma clara y valiosa. Sin duda de lo mejor que leí en el año y para mi tesis de Doctorado. Imprescindible para los que inician en ciencias sociales.

[Jesse Ofner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has helped me bring new ideas forward on how to look at and explain and think about the world of work. I loved it.

[Milja Von Lerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has thoroughly shaped my thinking in distinct ways. The main thing it teaches is how to ask good questions. And that is not a useless skill at all.