Research design in Environmental Sociology

The course aims to provide PhD students of the first three years working on environmental issues with a shared space for presenting the development of their projects to an audience made of professors, post-doctoral fellows and peers. The focus will be on the main aspects of their work, namely: definition of core questions, theoretical framing, case selection, methodology, challenges of fieldwork, analysis and discussion of results. By involving participants at different stages of academic experience the course also offers an opportunity to develop their skills not only in discussing one’s own work but also in contributing to the others’, both during the sessions and in subsequent informal occasions, face-to-face or at small group level. The format is that of a crash course, organized into full-day meetings. Students will be asked to present their work, which will be discussed firstly by assigned discussants and secondly by the audience. Related materials will be circulated in advance, namely: the research proposal (for I year PhD students); one PhD chapter or PhD-related article and a five page summary of the PhD (for II-III PhD students).