Reflexivity: The Essential Guide

Reflexivity – the critical examination of how we see the world – is integral to good research practice. From this state-of-the-art, accessible tour of its history and contemporary relevance, readers will learn of its importance to social research and to society generally. The text introduces a host of influential thinkers and their key ideas on reflexivity, and incorporates examples from a range of disciplines and research settings. Drawing on the authors’ extensive experience of real research settings, this book: Pinpoints the importance of reflexivity in social research Demonstrates its relevance to everyday life Firmly locates the concept in the history of ideas Explores key questions about the bases of knowledge and understanding Presents key thinkers, concepts and issues in easy-to-understand learning boxes The result is a book that provides students and researchers in the social sciences with the knowledge and understanding necessary not only to examine the role of reflexivity in contemporary life, but to apply it in their own research practice.

Table of Contents:
Introduction What is reflexivity? The structure of the book The reflexive difference Chapter 1: Thought and Knowledge in the History of Ideas Introduction In search of certainty Context matters Enduring concepts: reason and scepticism return Summary: reflexivity rooted Chapter 2: Will, Interpretation and Being Introduction The will and representation Facts, values and interpretations Interpretation and being Summary: reflexivity matters Chapter 3: Pragmatism, Practice and Language Introduction Thought, action and the self Thought, action and other minds Language, meaning and everyday speech Summary: reflexivity embedded Chapter 4: Critique and Transformation Introduction Critical theory Recovering the promise of reason Critiquing critique Summary: Reflexive relations Chapter 5: Power and Action Introduction Power and the subject A Realpolitik of reason Standpoints and difference Summary: Reflexive limits Chapter 6: The Dynamics of Science in Society Introduction Co-producing society ′New′ modes of knowledge production Co-producing research Summary: Reflexivity centred Chapter 7: Reflexive Practice Introduction The work of making context The context of making work Reflexive research design Summary: Reflexive messes Chapter 8: Reflexivity Realised Introduction Who am I? How do I relate to others? Why and how might I practice? Final words

About the Author :
Tim May is a professor of Social Science Methodology in the Sheffield Methods Institute. Tim originally trained and worked as an agricultural engineer and then studied at the LSE, Surrey, and Plymouth universities. In addition to teaching across a range of subjects, his research has been funded by national and international research councils and the public, voluntary, and private sectors, including universities. He has written and edited 17 books, including new editions, edited a book series, and written over 180 articles, book chapters, research reports, and policy briefings on topics that include social research; reflexivity and research methodology; management and organizational change; knowledge, universities and urban development and knowledge exchange and policy. Professor Beth Perry is Professorial Fellow in the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. Beth joined the Urban Institute in September 2016, following her appointment as a Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Social Sciences. Since 2010 she has been the UK Programme Lead for the Mistra Urban Futures Centre, with headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden and sits on the International Board. Beth’s research focuses on critically interrogating and developing pathways to more just sustainable urban futures. She focusses on urban governance, transformation and the roles of universities, with an emphasis on socio-environmental and socio-cultural transitions. She has written widely on these issues and is currently working with Prof Tim May at the Sheffield Methods Institute on two co-authored monographs on reflexive social scientific knowledge production and the changing relationships between cities and knowledge. She is working with Tim on two major ESRC grants as well as the delivery of an international programme of work on Realising Just Cities. Jam and Justice: Co-producing Urban Governance for Social Innovation is a three-year project funded by the ESRC Urban Transformations programme, with partners at the Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisation and the Universities of Manchester and Birmingham. Whose Knowledge Matters? Competing and Contesting Knowledge Claims in 21st Century Cities is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield and the University of Twente in the Netherlands funded by the Open Research Area initiative and focussed on citizen knowledges in sustainable urban development projects. Beth leads a team of researchers at the Urban Institute working across these projects.

Review :
"Finally, a sensible, detailed and complex analysis of reflexivity in all its guises. Both intellectually rigorous and practically applicable, this book is essential reading for students across the social sciences." Spanning philosophy and social science, disciplined inquiry and individual reflection and theory and practice, this new work provides an invaluable overview of the key thinkers, ideas and issues involved in the reflexive turn in social inquiry. One marvels at its comprehensiveness, precision, and lucidity. Highly useful for students and established scholars alike. In their book, "Reflexivity. The Essential Guide", Tim May and Beth Perry provide an extensive examination of the role of reflexivity in social research. Drawing on insights from a wide range of disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, linguistics, and above all, philosophy, the authors propose an enriching intellectual journey for social researchers and lay audience alike.