Kuttan Mahadevan and Prameswara Krishnan (eds). Methodology for Population Study and Development. New Delhi: Sage Publications. 1993.

The main concern of this volume is to explore various aspectsof the research methodology relating to population dynamics. The authorsbelong to different disciplines, and in the nineteen contributions herewhich are categorised under five major themes, they examine variousavenues relating to the assessment of population issues from their ownperspectives. The first two papers ("Implicit Theoretical Assumptions inResearch Designs" by Hubert M. Blalock Jr. and "Conceptual Models inPopulation Studies" by K. Mahadevan) emphasise the need for greatersensitisation of the researcher to a broad range of implicit assumptionsin the research design for data analysis, and to the utilisation ofappropriate conceptual frameworks for modern empirical research. Blalockrightly points out the general tendency of researchers to develop whathe terms "intellectual blinders" to overlook the shortcomings of thedesign they adopt, and the tendency to stress the weaknesses of theunfavoured design strategies. He is also concerned about thegeneralisability issues when convenience of choice in the subject'slocation in social psychology is excused on the grounds that it is alsodone by most others. He observes that the exposure of graduate studentsto the methodological literature is brief and, in many cases, it is onlya "nuts and bolts treatment" of measurement issues with "a rather heavyemphasis on whatever technique happens to be fashionable at the time, orat their own universities, rather than a more thorough grounding on thenature of the theoretical assumptions that undergird the particulartechnique. As a result, they know how to use and churn out researchpapers that enable them to display their expertise. But they are notbeing trained to examine the approach in question from the standpoint ofgaining a deeper understanding of the theoretical rationale thatunderlies it". (p. 34).