Social Measurement Through Social Surveys ─ An Applied Approach

British sociologists and other social scientists on one hand, and on the other mathematicians and other technical professionals who specialize in devising and conducting surveys, explain how surveys can be used to measure certain social elements. They describe measuring family and household variables, crime, political behavior and attitudes, religious behavior, social class, race and ethnicity, sexual behavior, health, social capital, and social attitudes. A final chapter looks at challenges for social measurement. The goal of the anthology is to encourage researchers to use surveys correctly and more often, so many of the approaches and methods described could be applied beyond the examples here. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Martin Bulmer is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey, which he joined in 1995. He was previously Professor of Sociology at the University of Southampton and before that he taught at the London School of Economics for seventeen years. He is an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences and the Director of The Question Bank. His research interests cover the methodology of social research, the history of the social sciences, the study of ethnicity and race, the application of sociology to public policy and the sociology of social care. He has published more than twenty books, most recently Questionnaires (4 vols, Sage, 2004) and Researching Race and Racism (ed with J. Solomos, 2004). Julie Gibbs is Senior Research and Information Officer at the Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees at City University, London and was Content Manager and then Manager of the ESRC Question Bank 2001 a€“ 2008. Laura Hyman is a Research Student in Sociology at the University of Surrey and was a Research Officer for the ESRC Question Bank, 2005-2007.