Doing research - Daniel Druckman

Doing Research: Methods of Inquiry for Conflict Analysis is the first research methods text devoted to conflict analysis and resolution. It begins with a discussion of the philosophical foundations for doing research, providing guidelines on how to develop research questions and how these questions can be addressed with various methodologies. The book presents a wide-ranging treatment of both quantitative and qualitative approaches to the design and analysis of problems of conflict.

The approaches covered include experiments, simulations and models, surveys, single and comparative case studies, ethnographies, content analysis, narrative analysis, evaluation research, action research, and research consulting. These approaches come alive in a variety of applications culled from the published literature. A concluding chapter provides an integration of the various methodologies, including their complementary strengths. Throughout the book, author Daniel Druckman illustrates the value of a multi-method approach to doing research on conflict analysis and more generally across the social sciences.

Daniel Druckman is a 2004-2005 visiting Professor at the University of Queensland's Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies in Brisbane, Australia. He is the Vernon M. and Minnie I. Lynch Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he hascoordinated the doctoral program at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR). He is also a member of the faculty at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey and has held senior positions at several consulting firms, as well as at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and was awarded a best-in-field prize from the American Institutes for Research for his doctoral dissertation. He has published widely (approximately 150 publications, including 12 authored or edited books) on such topics as negotiating behavior, nationalism and group identity, human performance, peacekeeping, political stability, nonverbal communication, and methodology (including simulation).Heserves asa board member or associate editorfor eight Journals. He received the 1995 Otto Klineberg award for Intercultural and International Relations from the Society for the Psychological Analysis of Social Issues for his work on nationalism, a Teaching Excellence award in 1998 from George Mason University, and an award for the outstanding article published in 2001 from the International Association for Conflict Management.He is the recipient of the 2003 Lifetime Achievement award from the International Association for Conflict Management.

Doing Research is a gem. It provides multiple research methods and models focusing on conflict analysis and resolution that can be used by any student in a variety of social science disciplines or fields of study. I wish this book had been written 20 years ago.
Brian Polkinghorn

Doing Research is the most widely acclaimed book on research methods for conflict resolution students to appear in recent years. The book makes a unique contribution to the conflict resolution field by providing a comprehensive overview of the cutting edge methodological approaches in the field. The book provides a wonderfully rich array of ideas about ways to do research for both the scholar and practitioner--pracademic--enriching the analysis and practice in the conflict resolution field. The author of a diverse intellectual background and experiences bases his contribution to the course on conflict analysis and resolution theory, and empirical evidence experience. He makes a highly valuable contribution to applying multi-methods to concrete examples from the conflict resolution field.
Sean Byrne

"Provides a valuable tool to those dealing with conflict analysis in a variety of disciplines and professions. The first of its kind, this book is expecially suited to conflict studies because Druckman demonstrates the value of multi-methods approches as a research program in a context 'moving vertically form small to large studies and moving horizontally from simulations to case studes'...Doing Research highlights just such complementarity and provides a 'foundation for the way methodologies can be used for social science research'."
Social Justice: Anthropology, Peace and Human Rights