the sociologist made not have the knowledge on the topc
3. social policy and funding
government orientated research enables policy introduction and alteration. Government may fund sociologist to find out about particular areas of concern. Money for research: government, charities and buissness/industry
4. practical factors
practical issues like acess to a social group or organisation may make it difficult to acess data. It makes little or no sense to choose a research topic where is little or no data avalible and little chance of producing it in the future.
5. theoretical position
choice of topic is also influenced by the theoretical position of researcher
