Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences – #bookreview

How can you do good research in the midst of runaway ‘info-glut’?

Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences is not a new book, but it still remains relevant, entertaining, and, most of all, useful.

It’s aimed at undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral social science students who are struggling to complete a class project, thesis, dissertation, or book However, the research methods and the conundrums highlighted in Salsa Dancing may also benefit writers currently struggling with articles or books aimed at other fields audiences.

For example, the author describes ways researchers and writers can overcome their fears that the “heart” of their project, thesis, dissertation, or book is still buried somewhere within the piles of interesting materials they have gathered.

I blame my sociologist daughter for gifting me this book. She wanted to show me how social science research often stays mired in its own historical ditches and worn-down ways of gathering data, sometimes deliberately. But the book also represents a not-so-subtle hint that I can update my journalistic and book/screenplay research processes, as well. You might find it helpful, too.

— Si Dunn

Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences

Research in an Age of Info-Glut

Kristin Luker

Harvard University Press

Paperback, ISBN 978-0-674-04821-8