CRITICAL SOCIAL RESEARCH

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© Lee Harvey 1990, 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024

Page updated 8 January, 2024

Citation reference: Harvey, L., [1990] 2011, Critical Social Research, available at qualityresearchinternational.com/csr, last updated 8 January, 2024, originally published in London by Unwin Hyman, all rights revert to author.

A novel of twists and surpises

5.11 An Ending
In writing this book I started out with an idea of the nature of critical social research. The more I looked at critical studies and the more I tried to codify the practices the more this conception became modified. This evolving conception led me to select some studies and reject others that I had intended to use. The process of selection of studies, of analysis, of the determination of the nature of critical social research was itself dialectical. There is, however, insufficient space for me to represent this dialectical process but it is important for the reader to understand that my exposition of the nature of critical social research did not emerge inductively from the studies, nor were the studies selected to merely illustrate my preconceptions. Indeed more than half the studies included in the final document were selected and read after I had started writing the book. This meant, apart from other things, that the introductory sections were constantly re-written as my conception of critical social research became clearer.

This book is intended to reaffirm and to endorse a major social research tradition. Although not susceptible to simple methodic prescriptions critical social research lies at the very heart of emancipatory sociological enquiry. This book, through the use of case studies, gives a clearer indication than hitherto of the nature of this fundamental critical methodological process. Unashamedly, critical social research is about the development of a critical attitude. It is a process of constant engagement with 'neutrally' coded messages and taken-for-granted knowledge. The researcher is an active participant in the development of knowledge, not just a recipient of already-constituted knowledge. Fundamentally, the critical social researcher is dedicated to revealing and opposing oppression. If you have taken the trouble to read this book you should never rest easy again.

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