Formation/Cours

The course provides an introduction to the question of what it means to work “scientifically” and why scientific findings can make a superior claim to their validity. At its core, science differs from other forms of knowledge generation. Social science researchers focus on empirical evidence and are willing to change theories on the basis of new evidence. The first part of the course presents the peculiarities and elements of scientific work, distinguishes it from ideology and pseudoscience, discusses scientific misconduct and shows how social science is implemented in practice. We begin by discussing what is science and different epistemology approaches. Then, we discuss the cycle of research design in social sciences which describes the process of conceiving of and answering a research question. After that, we elaborate on the different parts of the cycle, including theorisation, hypotheses formation, causal explanations, models, conceptualization, operationalization and measurement.

The second part provides an introduction to the variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and techniques of data collection used in social scientific research. We discuss some of the strengths, and drawbacks, of qualitative and quantitative research, case-oriented vs. variable-oriented research and comparative analyses. We then move on in subsequent weeks to address methods and techniques in quantitative and qualitative research, such as case study selection and process tracing, survey analyses and experiments, content analysis, interviews, and ethnography. We conclude by reflection on the possibility for causation in social research.

1 – What is (not) science?

2 – Epistemology approaches in social sciences

3 – Research question and research design

4 – Theories and hypothesis formation

5 – Causal explanations and models

6 – Concept formation, operationalization, measurement

7 – Qualitative and quantitative methods

8 – Logic of comparative analysis

9 – Case study research and process tracing

10 – Methods in quantitative research: Data collection, survey analyses and experiments

11 – Methods in qualitative research: Content analysis, interviews, ethnography

12 – Possibility for causation in social research