ABSTRACT
The foregoing chapters sketched the major issues and debates that have given rise to contemporary social research methods. Fueling this discussion has been the notion that the investigator plays an active role within social research, making a number of methodological choices that have far-reaching consequences for all aspects of his or her work. In particular, these choices determine the types of questions that can be asked and the forms of knowledge that can be generated. These choices are not always explicit or even well understood by the researcher. Importantly, the less explicit a researcher is with respect to methodological choices, the less aware he or she is of the fundamental limitations of his or her work. Ideally, one strives to conduct social research that is both informed and intentional. This requires researchers who (a) understand (and consciously wrestle with) the methodological choices available to them and who (b) interpret their findings within the limits of these choices.
