400019 SE SE Methods for Doctoral Candidates (2014S)
Research Design
Continuous assessment of course work
Labels
Institut für Höhere Studien - Institute for Advanced Studies
Stumpergasse 56, 1060 Vienna, AustriaAnmeldung bei Prof. Johannes Pollak: pollak@ihs.ac.at bis Ende Februar
Stumpergasse 56, 1060 Vienna, AustriaAnmeldung bei Prof. Johannes Pollak: pollak@ihs.ac.at bis Ende Februar
Details
max. 15 participants
Language: English
Lecturers
Classes
Institut für Höhere Studien - Institute for Advanced Studies
Stumpergasse 56, 1060 Vienna, Austria
2 - 6 Juni 2014
Information
Aims, contents and method of the course
Assessment and permitted materials
Minimum requirements and assessment criteria
Examination topics
Reading list
1. What is a research proposal, and why does it matter?
Read: Hancké, Bob. 2009. Intelligent Research Design (Oxford UP), Introduction and appendix A, B and C
Introduction to the course; Schedule presentation sessions 7-10 (two papers per session + one discussant for each);
Organize session 4 on Qualitative Comparative Analysis.
2. Falsifiability and research questions
Read: Hancké 2009, ch.1
Task: Write down the current version of your research question the general version as well as the embryonic empirical version. Assess it against the basic criteria in Hancké, pp. 27-33. Prepare 1-2 minutes to explain it in the seminar.
3. Framing your research: the relevant universe
Read: Hancké 2009, ch. 2
Geddes, Barbara. 1990. ‘How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in Comparative Politics,’ Political Analysis, Vol. 2, pp. 131-150.
Task: write up, in bullet point form, how your research is framed. Think about the following questions. What are time and place and why? How does your empirical material relate to a wider question? How are data or empirical field structured: are data/is your material normally distributed, does the case belong to the most likely/least likely/ typical category?
4. Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Read: Hancké 2009, chapter 3
Patrick Emmenegger. 2011. ‘Job security regulations in Western democracies: A fuzzy set analysis’, European Journal of Political Research. Vol. 50: 336-364.
[Background reading on QCA and its extensions: Wagemann, Claudius & Carsten Schneider. 2010. ‘ Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and fuzzy-sets: Agenda for research approach and a data analysis technique. Comparative Sociology Vol. 9 (3) 376-396]
Task: Read the Emmenegger piece carefully. We will analytically dissect the article in class. Prepare by thinking through the questions ‘what does it do that other approaches cannot or do not do?’, ‘how are data structured?’, ‘what is the substantive contribution to the debate?’. Write up a few points on each of these questions.
5. Data and data critique
Read: Hancké 2009, ch. 4
Task: Describe your data and their critique in a half-page memo. Think through the following question in particular in a memo to yourself: What are your main data problems access, reliability, validity, replicability? How do you intend to handle these? We will discuss some of these problems in class.
6. From research design to paper and thesis
Read: Hancké 2009, ch. 5
Task: Prepare an outline for your thesis or for a paper based on your thesis research. We will discuss several in class.
7-10. Student proposal presentations
Prepare a proposal of maximum 1000 words along the lines presented in session 1, which will be distributed beforehand, and presented (10 min) and discussed in one session of 45 mins.
Read: Hancké, Bob. 2009. Intelligent Research Design (Oxford UP), Introduction and appendix A, B and C
Introduction to the course; Schedule presentation sessions 7-10 (two papers per session + one discussant for each);
Organize session 4 on Qualitative Comparative Analysis.
2. Falsifiability and research questions
Read: Hancké 2009, ch.1
Task: Write down the current version of your research question the general version as well as the embryonic empirical version. Assess it against the basic criteria in Hancké, pp. 27-33. Prepare 1-2 minutes to explain it in the seminar.
3. Framing your research: the relevant universe
Read: Hancké 2009, ch. 2
Geddes, Barbara. 1990. ‘How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in Comparative Politics,’ Political Analysis, Vol. 2, pp. 131-150.
Task: write up, in bullet point form, how your research is framed. Think about the following questions. What are time and place and why? How does your empirical material relate to a wider question? How are data or empirical field structured: are data/is your material normally distributed, does the case belong to the most likely/least likely/ typical category?
4. Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Read: Hancké 2009, chapter 3
Patrick Emmenegger. 2011. ‘Job security regulations in Western democracies: A fuzzy set analysis’, European Journal of Political Research. Vol. 50: 336-364.
[Background reading on QCA and its extensions: Wagemann, Claudius & Carsten Schneider. 2010. ‘ Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and fuzzy-sets: Agenda for research approach and a data analysis technique. Comparative Sociology Vol. 9 (3) 376-396]
Task: Read the Emmenegger piece carefully. We will analytically dissect the article in class. Prepare by thinking through the questions ‘what does it do that other approaches cannot or do not do?’, ‘how are data structured?’, ‘what is the substantive contribution to the debate?’. Write up a few points on each of these questions.
5. Data and data critique
Read: Hancké 2009, ch. 4
Task: Describe your data and their critique in a half-page memo. Think through the following question in particular in a memo to yourself: What are your main data problems access, reliability, validity, replicability? How do you intend to handle these? We will discuss some of these problems in class.
6. From research design to paper and thesis
Read: Hancké 2009, ch. 5
Task: Prepare an outline for your thesis or for a paper based on your thesis research. We will discuss several in class.
7-10. Student proposal presentations
Prepare a proposal of maximum 1000 words along the lines presented in session 1, which will be distributed beforehand, and presented (10 min) and discussed in one session of 45 mins.
Association in the course directory
Last modified: Fr 31.08.2018 08:58
The seminars are organized as two 90-minute sessions every day, one mid-morning and one in the afternoon. Participants will actively prepare the seminars with a short piece of homework that applies the points made in the readings to their research.
The themes in a short textbook written by the teacher (Bob Hancké, 2009. Intelligent Research Design: A guide for beginning researchers in the social sciences. Oxford University Press) will provide the template for the course. These short, pointed texts are complemented, where necessary, by a relevant chapter or article that explores a particular dimension of the issue at hand. Readings are found below.
The last four sessions of the scheduled sessions will entirely be devoted to a discussion of the research projects of the seminar participants. A maximum (!) ten-minute presentation will be followed by a five-minute discussion by one of the seminar participants, and an open floor.