Murray, Peter (2005) The Pitfalls of Pioneering Sociological Research: The Case of the Tavistock Institute on the Dublin Buses in the early 1960s (NIRSA) Working Paper Series. No.25. Working Paper. NIRSA - National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis.

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Abstract

Some aspects of the history of social science research in Ireland, such as the work of Arensberg and Kimball, have been repeatedly revisited and reappraised. Others have been largely ignored and neglected. This paper revisits one such victim of neglect: a research project on the morale of Dublin busmen carried out by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in the early 1960s within the twin contexts of turbulent industrial relations and fledgling Irish social science research capacity building. This working paper does not focus principally on the theoretical framework, fieldwork methods or empirical findings of the Tavistock study as published in 1967. Instead it examines the abortion of the project as originally conceived at what should have been its half-way stage together with the party political rows and media spinning that took place over its dead body.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Keywords:	Sociological research; research outcomes; pitfalls; Tavistock Institute; Dublin Bus; NIRSA
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Institutes > National Institute for Regional and Spatial analysis, NIRSA Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Item ID:	1169
Identification Number:	25
Depositing User:	NIRSA Editor
Date Deposited:	15 Jan 2009 13:57
Publisher:	NIRSA - National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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