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"Computational approaches offer exciting opportunities for us to do social science differently. This beginner's guide discusses a range of computational methods and how to use them to study the problems and questions you want to research. It assumes no knowledge of programming, offering step-by-step guidance for coding in Python and drawing on examples of real data analysis to demonstrate how you can apply each approach, including machine learning and social network analysis, in any discipline. The book also: Considers important principles of social scientific computing, including transparency, accountability and reproducibility. Understands the realities of completing research projects and offers advice for dealing with issues such as messy or incomplete data and systematic biases. Teaches you good habits and working practices that enable you to do programming well. This book is for anyone who wants to use computational methods to conduct a social science research project. Supported by a wealth of online resources, including video tutorials and datasets for practice so you can learn at your own pace, this book equips you with the skills to conduct computational social science research for the first time, with confidence"

"This book draws on the experiences of conducting fieldwork in different contexts and world regions that are relevant to social science and education studies by presenting diverse experiences in research processes and contexts with the goal of giving an authentic and realistic description of how research data are collected, the tools needed to envision some of the challenges that they might face and how to effectively solve them"--

Books reviewed in this article.Claude E. Barfield. Science Policy from Ford to Reagan: Continuity and Change.D.B.T. Kallen et al. (Eds.) Social Science Research and Public Policy‐Making: A ReappraisalDavid Meister. Behavioral Research and Government Policy: Civilian and Defense R & D

Laboratory ethnographies have provided valuable insights in the workings of contemporary science and technology and about facts in the making. Nearly all these ethnographic studies have been conducted at nonprofit research institutes. In this article, the authors argue that it is time for science and technology studies (STS) ethnography to direct its gaze toward for-profit knowledge production sites. The authors do so, based on a long-standing recognition that nonprofit academic laboratories do not have a monopoly on knowledge construction. First, they historicize STS' focus on public knowledge production, distinguishing between two roles for STS. Second, they argue that relationships between industry and society have changed, resulting in increasing corporate transparency. Third, they argue that this change enables STS ethnography to enter corporations and corporate laboratories. The authors conclude by proposing a research agenda for the social study of corporate science.

While social work must be evaluative in relation to its diverse areas of practice and research (i.e., values-informed research), the purpose of this article is to propose that values are within the scope of research and therefore research on practice should make values a legitimate object of investigation (i.e., research-informed values). In this article, the fact/value debate in social work research is considered by offering reflection on the history and philosophy of this debate and by offering summary thoughts on how social work must engage with normativity (i.e., the ought, what matters most to people, and how the world and people matter) so the debate moves beyond mere questions about the relevance of values to the questions we ask, the methodologies we engage, the theories we promote, the interventions we support, our engagements with our many and diverse publics, and the investigation of values as causes.

Theoretical frameworks associated with science and technology studies (STS) are becoming increasingly prominent in social science energy research, but what do they offer? This review provides a brief history of relevant STS concepts and frameworks and a structured analysis of how STS perspectives are appearing in energy social science research and how energy-related research is appearing in social science STS. Drawing from an initial body of 262 journal articles and books with a stratified sample of 68 published from 2009 to mid-2019, the review identifies four major groups of perspectives: (1) STS-related cultural analysis, especially the study of sociotechnical imaginaries; (2) STS-related policy analysis, such as research on the social construction of risks and standards and on the performativity of economic models; (3) STS perspectives on public participation processes, expert-public relations, and mobilized publics; and (4) the study of sociotechnical systems, including large technological systems, the politics of design, and users and actor-networks. Connections among the perspectives and the value for energy social science research are also critically discussed.

Originally published in the International Social Science Journal, 1992, 44, 2.