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This book offers a comprehensive and rounded view of research as a tool for logical problem-solving. It is built on the philosophical-pragmatic foundation that the value of knowledge and research methodologies lies in their usefulness in engaging with the real world. Synthesizing both positivist and non-positivist methodologies, this book is for students who are undertaking their first social science research course or their first research project. The techniques are basic ones, but many masters and doctoral research studies use them. From an experiential base, students would be able to build a more advanced conceptual and theoretical understanding of research through further reading and practice.

Gerard Guthrie has been Managing Director of Guthrie Development Consultancy Pty Ltd., Canberra since 2004. He is a Doctor of Philosophy in Education. An educationalist with around 40 years of experience, his career has had two main parts: one as an academic, and the other as a governmental aid official. He has worked in universities, aid management and aid consultancy in Asia, Africa and the South Pacific, particularly China and Papua New Guinea, and also, briefly, in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Botswana, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Dr Guthrie has a background in development theory and practice and in social science research. He has postgraduate degrees in geography, social science and education, with over 180 publications and papers to his name. His own research has included major projects on migration, teacher education and crime victimisation, as well as aid activity design and evaluation. His publications include: Cherbourg: A Queensland Aboriginal Reserve (1977); Mt. Hagen Community Crime Survey, 2006, co-authored with F. Hukula and J. Laki (2007); Urban Crime Victimisation in Papua New Guinea, 2004-2008: A Synthesis (2008); and The Progressive Education Fallacy in Developing Countries: In Favour of Formalism (2010).