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Research is a Messy Business: An Archeology of the Craft of Socio-Legal Research

Herbert M. Kritzer
University of Minnesota Law School

CONDUCTING LAW AND SOCIETY RESEARCH: REFLECTIONS ON METHODS AND PRACTICES, Simon Halliday and Patrick Schmidt, eds., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009
William Mitchell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 101

Abstract:
This paper is the concluding chapter in Simon Halliday and Patrick Schmidt (eds.), Conducting Law and Society Research: Reflections on Methods and Practices (New York: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2009). The book consists of a series of interviews with accomplished law and social science scholars reflecting on one or more major studies each of those scholars has conducted. This chapter considers several themes found in the interviews: Type III error (asking the wrong question), the challenges of collecting original data, the connection between data analysis and writing, the dilemmas of working collaboratively, the growing challenges of conducting surveys, and the problems presented by increasing demands from and strictures imposed by institutional review boards.

Keywords: research methods, qualitative research, quantitative research, data collection

Accepted Paper Series

Date posted: October 26, 2008 ; Last revised: October 31, 2008

Suggested Citation

Kritzer, Herbert M., Research is a Messy Business: An Archeology of the Craft of Socio-Legal Research (October 25, 2008). CONDUCTING LAW AND SOCIETY RESEARCH: REFLECTIONS ON METHODS AND PRACTICES, Simon Halliday and Patrick Schmidt, eds., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009; William Mitchell Legal Studies Research Paper No. 101. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1288063

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Contact Information

Herbert M. Kritzer (Contact Author)

University of Minnesota Law School ( email )

229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
United States