Critical Research Design

This student friendly book demonstrates how to take a critical approach to the research design process, to create feasible, original, and critical research works.

The author uses a unique model that incorporates three critical review cycles: methodological design, epistemology, and completed research plan, in order to ensure that readers have critically engaged with various components of the research proposal. Approaching research design as a coherent whole, this book focuses on critically understanding how the various components come together as a cohesive and interconnected design, as well as to explore how the same basic research idea can lead to a number of different research designs. Including sections on both conceptual and methodological designs, readers are equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to take a basic research idea and conceptualize a complete and organic design for a research based on it that can make an original contribution to the existing body of knowledge.

Covering quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches, and addressing the ethical implications of research, this is an essential resource for researchers, instructors, and students across a broad range of disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences and humanities.

Balazs Szanto is a lecturer at the Defence & Security Programme, Rabdan Academy, UAE. He holds a PhD in International and Strategic Studies from the University of Malaya, and an MA in Critical Geopolitics (Merit) from Newcastle University. His research interests include international security and international relations in the Asia-Pacific, primarily China, Japan, and the ASEAN states, and realist interpretations of the role of military power in foreign policy, in particular in the context of maritime disputes in Asia such as the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands disputes. He has published a number of articles and a previous book with Routledge, War and International Relations: A Critical Analysis (2021).

Kenneth Houston lectures in international relations and global affairs at Mahidol University International College, Bangkok, Thailand. His research interests are conflict resolution, regional integration, social power, political discourse, religion and politics. He has published on the subjects of EU relations with religious associations, the role of language and official discourse in the politics of Myanmar, and ASEAN regional integration. He holds a PhD from Ulster University and an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies (Ulster University), as well as postgraduate diplomas in Mediation and Conflict Resolution (UCD) and Education (University of Nottingham).

Robin Ramcharan teaches and conducts research on ASEAN, international law, and intellectual property rights at Mahidol University International College, Thailand. He is a professor of international relations and has taught in Canada, India, and Switzerland over the past two decades, including at the Universities of Toronto and McGill University. He worked for several years in the cooperation for development sector in the World Intellectual Property Organisation. He also worked in the not-for-profit sector.