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What is Facet methodology? An inventive research orientation

Speakers:

Bio: Vanessa May is Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives at the University of Manchester. She is Co-Editor of the journal Sociology. Her research interests include the self, belonging, temporality, ageing, family relationships and qualitative methods including biographical methods, narrative analysis and creative methods. Vanessa has published in a number of journals including Sociology, Sociological Review, Time & Society and British Journal of Sociology. She is the author of Connecting Self to Society: Belonging in a Changing World (Palgrave Macmillan) and co-editor of Sociology of Personal Life (2nd edition, Macmillan).

This session introduces the 'facet methodology' approach developed by Jennifer Mason in collaboration with colleagues at the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives at the University of Manchester. Rather than a set of procedures; facet methodology is an approach that encourages an inventive research orientation. Facet methodology entails adopting different theoretical and methodological lenses or facets to shed light on a social phenomenon. The approach differs from what is conventionally known as mixed methods in that although a mixture of methods may be involved; this is not the defining characteristic of facet methodology. This session will outline the key principles of facet methodology and discuss how the approach has been used in empirical research.