Universität Wien

210137 UE M2: Methods of Political Science (2024W)

8.00 ECTS (4.00 SWS), SPL 21 - Politikwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work

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Moodle
Mo 11.11. 08:00-11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 35 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Monday 07.10. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 14.10. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 21.10. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 28.10. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 04.11. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 18.11. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 25.11. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 02.12. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 09.12. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 16.12. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 13.01. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 20.01. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock
  • Monday 27.01. 08:00 - 11:15 Hörsaal 2 (H2), NIG 2.Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Contents:
The aim of the course is to enable students to design and conduct qualitative studies. During the seminar, we combine a thematical focus on Mobility with exercises on how to develop qualitative research designs and the application of key methods.

Prerequisites:
No prior knowledge of the subject or experience in the application of qualitative methods is required. However, students must be able to read texts in English and write a seminar paper in either German or English.

Methods: The course is designed as an exercise, which means that most of the teaching is interactive.

Objectives: At the end of this course, students should be able to

- formulate sound research questions,
- create a qualitative research design,
- consider ethical aspects and, if applicable, researcher safety in the research design
- scrutinise their own role in the research process
- demonstrate knowledge of the most important approaches to collecting and analysing qualitative data, and
- design and carry out a research project based on qualitative methods.

Assessment and permitted materials

The grade is made up of three sub-grades:

1. The submission of a total of six of the written preparations for individual course sessions (precise instructions are given on moodle and in the first session); students who submit more than six preparation texts will have the six best grades entered); 30% of the grade
2. Active participation in the individual exercises: 20% of the grade
3. A seminar paper (maximum 6,000 words, to be submitted by 28 February 2025): 50% of the grade

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Please note that for a positive grade, each individual sub-grade mentioned above must be positive.
Regular and active participation by students is required. Positive completion of the course is only possible after attending at least twelve of the fourteen sessions.

The reading marked with ** is obligatory and will be checked in the respective sessions. All texts that are compulsory and recommended for further reading will be made available on Moodle.

The grading scale for the seminar is structured as follows:

100-90 points: Very good (1)
89-77 points: Good (2)
76-61 points: Satisfactory (3)
60-50 points: Sufficient (4)
49-0 points: Unsatisfactory (5)

Examination topics

For the seminar paper, it is necessary to collect new data, e.g. through interviews, focus groups or observation. Analysing existing data (incl. document analysis) is not sufficient. The seminar paper should not exceed 6,000 words (incl. footnotes, excl. bibliography). It must contain the following elements:

1. Introduction: what is the problem that this paper contributes to solving? What is the research question? What have others said about this topic so far (brief overview of the existing literature), and what is still unexplored? [20 points]
2. Methods: explain why the method of your choice is particularly suitable for addressing the research question and how you will apply the method [20 points]
3. Aspects of research ethics [10 points]
4. Empirical part and discussion: Here you present your results and situate them in the context of relevant literature. What is the answer to your research question? [20 points]
5. Summary: What is the contribution of your work to the state of research? [20 points]

Up to an additional 10 points are awarded for formal aspects of the thesis, such as a complete and correctly structured bibliography, etc. You can achieve a maximum of 100 points; to complete the exercise successfully you need 45 points.

Reading list

Literature will be provided in the syllabus and on moodle.

For an overview on research design and methods see:

In English:
Booth, W.C., Colomb, G.G., und Williams, J.M. 2008. The craft of research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Esposito, Jennifer and Venus Evans-Winters. 2022. Introduction to intersectional qualitative research (1st edition). SAGE Publications, Inc.

In German:
Prainsack, Barbara, and Mirjam Pot. 2021. Qualitative und interpretative Methoden in der Politikwissenschaft. utb Politikwissenschaft 5584. Wien: Facultas.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 09.09.2024 15:26