This book is about collecting and analyzing research data, but this does not mean
that it teaches just the techniques of research. Research does indeed involve technical
matters, but they are not in fact very difficult to grasp. What is more important to
social science research than the technical questions is the frame of mind in which
you approach it. Both of us regard empirical research as a part of theory-building,
on the one hand, and of good professional practice on the other. Elsewhere (Smith,
1975), the prerequisite for good research has been described as ‘the methodological
imagination’.