This book shows students the steps involved in the research process, the various strategies for conducting a valid social inquiry, and most importantly, the persuasiveness and elegance of reliable social research. It highlights the link between academic research and the real world. Included are carefully chosen examples of each of the major methodological techniques-survey, interviews, fieldwork observations, experiments, content analysis, secondary analysis and program evaluation. Also included are selections on sampling strategies, research ethics and both qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

'Perspective' and 'viewpoint' are widely used in everyday talk as well as in the specialist languages of the social, cognitive, and literary sciences. Taken from the field of visual perception and representation, these concepts have acquired a general meaning and significance, as characteristics of human cognitive processing. Since, however, this field is shared by an increasing body of disciplines, perspective terms have also acquired specific and technical meanings. A striking example is the newly introduced use of 'perspectivation' in discourse analysis. This volume on 'perspective and perspectivation' — the first of its kind — will help to fill the gap between the common understanding of perspective and the specifics of its structure and dynamics as they have been elaborated in the human sciences, mainly in psychology and linguistics. The focus is on the structure of perspectivity in cognition and language, and the dynamics of setting and taking perspectives in social interaction and in the construction and understanding of texts. Both topics are presented here in an interdisciplinary way by a group of linguists and psychologists.

Language Contact. An International Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of current topics in research on language contact. Broadly conceived, it stands out for its international approach to language contact, complementing the theoretical state-of-the-art with examples from traditionally eclipsed areas and languages. Next to a thorough introductory overview of the ground-breaking methodological and theoretical approaches that shaped the discipline, ample attention goes to the new and innovative insights on language contact in the 21st century. Combining concise introductory contributions with in-depth treatment of the most relevant case studies in the field, the handbook speaks to both junior and established scholars.

Language and Creativity at Work: A Corpus-Assisted Model of Creative Workplace Discourse explores linguistic creativity at work as well as the role of language in creative processes in the workplace. Using a mixed-methods approach involving corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, this book: Provides a critical comparison of previous studies in language and creativity in a linguistic context as well as in the context of businesses and entrepreneurship, and considers the insights that can be gained from both approaches Argues the case for workplace creativity as a linguistic and discursive phenomenon in addition to a cognitive or relational one Presents a model of creative workplace discourse that integrates creative language, the creative actions involving language, and alignment between speakers Employs spoken corpus data from a range of workplace contexts recorded over a 20-year period; Examines professional practice and creativity in two different professional contexts: a residential care home and a small start-up company, and explores the roles of constraints, leadership and alignment in these contexts Critically interrogates the notion of creativity as an inherently positive phenomenon and analyses instances of problematic creativity in the workplace Demonstrates how corpora can be used to underscore assessments of creativity and its realisations in real dialogic contexts. This book fills an important gap in the literature on creativity within both language and organisational studies, and as such will be key reading for students and researchers of English language, applied linguistics, communication studies and business management.

Thirty years of progress on civil rights and a new era of immigration to the United States have together created an unprecedented level of diversity in American schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. But increased contact among individuals from different racial and ethnic groups has not put an end to misunderstanding and conflict. On the contrary, entrenched cultural differences raise vexing questions about the limits of American pluralism. Can a population of increasingly mixed origins learn to live and work together despite differing cultural backgrounds? Or, is social polarization by race and ethnicity inevitable? These are the dilemmas explored in Cultural Divides, a compendium of the latest research into the origins and nature of group conflict, undertaken by a distinguished group of social psychologists who have joined forces to examine the effects of culture on social life. Cultural Divides shows how new lines of investigation into intergroup conflict shape current thinking on such questions as: Why are people so strongly prone to attribute personal differences to group membership rather than to individual nature? Why are negative beliefs about other groups so resistent to change, even with increased contact? Is it possible to struggle toward equal status for all people and still maintain separate ethnic identities for culturally distinct groups? Cultural Divides offers new theories about how social identity comes to be rooted in groups: Some essays describe the value of group membership for enhancing individual self-esteem, while others focus on the belief in social hierarchies, or the perception that people of different skin colors and ethnic origins fall into immutably different categories. Among the phenomena explored are the varying degrees of commitment and identification felt by many black students toward their educational institutions, the reasons why social stigma affects the self-worth of some minority groups more than others, and the peculiar psychology of hate crime perpetrators. The way cultural boundaries can impair our ability to resolve disputes is a recurrent theme in the volume. An essay on American cultures of European, Asian, African, and Mexican origin examines core differences in how each traditionally views conflict and its proper methods of resolution. Another takes a hard look at the multiculturalist agenda and asks whether it can realistically succeed. Other contributors describe the effectiveness of social experiments aimed at increasing positive attitudes, cooperation, and conflict management skills in mixed group settings. Cultural Divides illuminates the beliefs and attitudes that people hold about themselves in relation to others, and how these social thought processes shape the formation of group identity and intergroup antagonism. In so doing, Cultural Divides points the way toward a new science of cultural contact and confronts issues of social change that increasingly affect all Americans.

The battle between the sexes has raged on for centuries; however, are men and women really from different planets? In The Gendered Society Reader, Fourth Edition, coeditors Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson pull together an array of dynamic voices--both male and female, classic and contemporary--to examine various interpretations of gender. These lively, in-depth readings explore gender discourse over a wide range of disciplines, focusing primarily on two central issues: difference and domination. Thoroughly updated with rich and timely new material, the fourth edition features twenty-one new selections, including three essays in a new section on religion, four new selections on gender and the media, and a new article on non-heterosexual families. This edition is also supplemented by an Instructor's Manual/Test Bank, which includes discussion questions. Michael Kimmel's textbook, The Gendered Society, Fourth Edition (OUP, 2010), provides a perfect complement for classroom use.

Democratic politics involves a series of multi-directional conversations. Effective conversations have the potential to engage, educate, and animate both citizens and governmental officials. On the individual level, discovering successful conversational strategies benefits both political and social interaction. This book offers guidelines for conducting effective conversations personally, politically, and beyond such that readers of this book are unlikely to ever again look at conversation in the same way. New technologies and social trends both challenge and potentially enhance traditional face-to-face and media dominated conversations. Understanding the state, quality and potential of political conversations provides a unique perspective for evaluating and potentially improving government "by the people."