Book review: 'Researching society and culture' by Clive Seale (ed.)

Reviews the book 'Researching society and Culture' by Clive Seale (ed.) (2004). This new edition provides a multimethod overview and methodological contextualization of research for students of sociology and other disciplines. In his introduction Seale claims the text avoids the pitfalls of toolbox methods book approaches by addressing both methodology and method and also interlinking this discussion with philosophy, theory and practice in the social sciences. The text provides its own definitions of relevant contexts by including eleven chapters on relevant contexts for research including philosophy of social science, politics and identities, and history. Given the catholic audience of novice researchers of society and culture that the text attempts to address, it is perhaps not surprising that discourse analysis per se does not feature extensively in the text. The collection will provide a good exemplification of what researchers of other methodological persuasions see as relevant in understanding society and culture.