Entry requirements

Political science advanced level, Development Studies advanced level or equivalent education.

Learning outcomes

After having completed this course, students will:

• Have a good understanding of philosophy of science debates that motivate one's choice of research design and research methods.
• Be able to critically assess the quality of empirical research that uses qualitative and quantitative methodology.
• Have critically evaluated the relative strengths and weaknesses of different qualitative and quantitative approaches to a given research problem.
• Be able to demonstrate a good command of the fundamentals as well as particularities of different qualitative and quantitative research designs and be able to conduct research with the help of qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Have experience with statistical software to perform descriptive, explanatory and visual analyses of quantitative data

Content

The most exciting part of social science is new research. Fresh ideas can breathe new life into old debates. New findings can confirm, or overturn, existing views of society. Surprising results can generate novel insights into the workings of the world. However, any new empirical research will have to describe and, in many cases, explain certain aspects of the world. With this in mind, this course will introduce the tools of modern social science to help you accomplish this.

The objective is to strengthen the students' ability to apply various methods in practical research but also to improve the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of different methodological techniques. The course gives equal room for quantitative and qualitative techniques. It emphasises overlaps as well as differences between intensive small-n studies and extensive large-n investigations as regards inferential logic and research techniques. The course discusses the different stages of the research process and the critical methodological choices that a researcher is confronted with when designing and conducting social scientific studies.

Instruction

The course consists of a number of weeklong segments involving lectures, mandatory seminars, and weekly homework. Some of the homework will involve using statistical software.

Assessment

Grading is based on participation in seminars, completion of weekly assignments and two final exams.The grades are VG (Pass with distinction), G (Pass) or U (Failed).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.