Simon Clarke is Professor of Psycho-Social Studies and Director of the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England. He is the author of 'Social Theory, Psychoanalysis and Racism', 'From Enlightenment to Risk: Social Theory and Contemporary Society' and 'Emotion, Politics and Society' (co-edited with Hoggett and Thompson). He is a member of the board of directors of the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society and Editor of 'Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society' Paul Hoggett is Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England. He is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist, a member of the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy, Associate Member of the Lincoln and is also an experienced group relations consultant. His books include 'Partisans in an Uncertain World' and 'Emotional Life and the Politics of Welfare'. He is a board member of the Association for Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, and has editorial roles on 'Organisational & Social Dynamics', 'Psychodynamic Practice' and 'Psychoanalysis Culture and Society'

• Researching beneath the surface: a psycho-social approach to research practice and method -- Ways of Knowing -- Experiencing knowledge: the vicissitudes of a research journey -- How to live and learn: learning, duration, and the virtual -- When words are not enough -- The Dynamics of the Research Encounter -- Charting the clear waters and the murky depths -- Fear—and psycho-social interviewing -- The use of self as a research tool -- Methods of Inquiry and Analysis -- Seeing ↔ believing, dreaming ↔ thinking: some methodological mapping of view points -- Autobiography as a psycho-social research method -- Managing self in role: using multiple methodologies to explore self construction and self governance -- Analysing discourse psycho-socially

Since the 1990s, partly due to the impact of feminism, the social sciences have begun to change. Traditional models of human rationality which opposed reason to passion are being challenged. The familiar split between 'individual' and 'society', psychology and sociology, is now recognized as unhelpful to the study of both. And as ways have been sought to overcome such splits psychoanalysis has increasingly appeared in the breach. Psycho-social studies is also informing the development of new methodologies in the social sciences including the use of free association and biographical interview methods, the application of infant observation methodologies to social observation, the development of psychoanalytic ethnography/fieldwork and attention to transference/countertransference dynamics in the research process. Contents-Ways of Knowing-The Dynamics of the Research Encounter-Methods of Inquiry and Analysis