Book Review: Jayadeva Uyangoda, Social Research: Philosophical and Methodological Foundations

Rambukwella, H.

dc.contributor.author	Rambukwella, H.
dc.date.accessioned	2018-12-11T09:07:19Z
dc.date.available	2018-12-11T09:07:19Z
dc.date.issued	2016-06
dc.identifier.issn	1800-363X
dc.identifier.uri	http://220.247.247.85:8081/handle/123456789/8015
dc.description	Social Research is an ambitious book. It spans 10 sections, 27 chapters and is an intimidating 657 pages long. While it is intended to be a teaching-learning guide and an introduction to social sciences research methodologies for students of various disciplines, it is not essentially structured as a quick access guide. Most books of this nature are designed for ‘quick fixes’ – offering quick-fire solutions for undergraduate or postgraduate students trying to figure out a systematic approach to research that will be recognized as legitimate within their disciplines. The ambition of Uyangoda’s Social Research lies elsewhere as a close reading of the text suggests. Rather than a ‘dry’ account of methodologies and methods it provides a richly contextualized understanding of a range of approaches to research. It is this aspect that makes the book unique. Instead of offering a narrow and utilitarian vision of research, the book impels its reader to confront the ideological and political implications of research in the social sciences. Social Research questions the data-driven, empiricist and positivist orientation of much social science research today. It critically examines the humanistic traditions from which social sciences originally evolved, the rise of positivism, and the current turn from positivistic research towards qualitative approaches, and contextualizes these changes in the epistemological orientation of social research within debates in intellectual history about the nature of knowledge and means of knowledge production. For those approaching this text from current utility-driven discourses of education, this might appear to be a weakness because the text may not seem ‘practical’ – for instance, it does not directly deal with how to design a research study, how to frame research questions, choose between qualitative and quantitative approaches, etc. However, it is precisely the avoidance of this ‘practicality’ in favor of a conceptually rich introduction to the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of research that this reviewer finds admirable about the text. This is not to suggest that the book has limited utility value. It is written in a very accessible manner and deftly explains complex philosophical issues with clarity and economy of style. Each chapter provides a summary of its content at the end and also includes suggestions for further reading. It also provides a very useful glossary at the end which provides easy access to a range of key concepts and terms used in the social sciences and humanities.	en_US
dc.language.iso	other	en_US
dc.publisher	Faculty of Management & Finance, University of Colombo	en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries	Volume. 07, No. 01;
dc.title	Book Review: Jayadeva Uyangoda, Social Research: Philosophical and Methodological Foundations	en_US
dc.type	Article	en_US
dc.identifier.accno	16527	en_US