Drawing from forty years of experience, Julia Brannen offers an invaluable account of how research in family studies is conducted and 'matters' at particular times. It covers key developments in the field and vital issues which remain of pressing concern to Britain and the world. Brannen shows how social research is an art as well as a science - a process that involves craft and creativity.

Julia Brannen is Professor of the sociology of the family at UCL Institute of Education and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. With an international reputation for research on the lives of parents, children and young people in families, including work-family life, relations between the generations and food in families, she is well known for her methodological expertise, in particular for advancing mixed methods approaches.