Novel and Controversial Methods in the Social Sciences: Introduction to Special Issue

摘要: Editing this special issue of Society and Natural Resources was especially challenging, as it forced us to grapple with the ways we – editors, reviewers, scholars read, interpret, ultimately evaluate scientific endeavors engaged in by our colleagues. We suggest that social scientists are now living an era comparative ease regard accumulating quantitative qualitative data from human participants, though, Stedman et al. point out issue, perhaps not via mail surveys. Not only do have easier reaching participants across globe using online crowdsourcing platforms, also many institutions specializing recruiting representative survey samples seemingly limitless population subsets. Furthermore, user generated content media sites, discussion forums, blogs specialized web-based applications allow reach study people where they are, more conveniently than ever before. Yet, does diminish need for or significance smaller-scale case studies methodologies like ethnography community-based participatory research. Such approaches may become even important demonstrating precisely gaps knowledge technologically necessarily methodologically innovative collection sources.