Business of Research

The practice of research has long become more a business activity than scholarly pursuit. It takes particular know-how, not merely to secure financial backing and thence deliver to order, but to manage and keep control of an entire intervening research operation. Yet these are activities academics are not normally trained in or formally prepared for.
This collection breaks new ground in its offer of frank commentary on aspects of the research process - as supplied by experienced academics together with a senior representative of one key funding agency - based on first-hand experience and observation of the management of social science projects from within Britain/the EU.

The collection is also conspicuous for the variety of research projects covered. Most contributors are reporting with reference to a particular "case-study" experience. But these range from the most localised to the most multi-national; from the most specialised to the most multi-disciplinary undertakings.

1. Editorial Introduction: Catherine Jones Finer and Gillian Lewando Hundt. 2. Funding Social Science Research in Academia: Janet Lewis.
3. The Politics of Partnership in Tropical Public Health: Researching Tuberculosis Control in India: Jessica A. Ogden and John D. H. Porter.
4. Recognizing Diversity and Group Processes in International, Collaborative Research Work: A Case Study: Elizabeth Ettorre.
5. Integrating Participation into Research and Consultancy: A Conservation Example From Arabia: Dawn Chatty.
6. Multiple Scripts and Contested Discourse in Disseminating Research Findings: Gillian Lewando Hundt.
7. Researching a Contemporary Archive: Catherine Jones Finer.
8. Researching Homelessness and Rough Sleeping in the Scottish Context: Hilary Third.
9. Researching Risk in the Probation Service: Hazel Kemshall.
10. Synthesizing Research and Practice: Using the Action Research Approach in Health Care Settings: Paul Bate.
11. Balncing Research and Action: Reflections on an Action Research Project in a Social Services Department: Jan Waterson.