Advanced Qualitative Methods for Social Research
Prerequisiti
All PhD students (all years from 1 to 4°) and allievi of corso ordinario if interested
Programma
Overview of course:
This course will provide students with the knowledge, insights and techniques relating to the more advanced aspects of qualitative research on collective action, political conflicts, social movements and beyond. This will include providing students with a comprehensive understanding of specific qualitative methodologies and analyses (case studies, process tracing, content analysis, interviewing in practices, grounded theory, PAR-participatory action research), advanced data collection methods and complex issues in qualitative research, as well as simulations of applied methods. Students will be taught the knowledge and skills needed to critically engage with complex concepts relevant to the more advanced aspects of qualitative research.
Moreover, the course will put qualitative methods in the broader context of the overall research process, addressing topics like the consistency between the research puzzle and qualitative methods, and the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods (i.e. triangulation). The course will also discuss the role of the Internet and digital technologies in the process of data gathering and data analysis. The practical details of a given methodological tool will be demonstrated with the help of examples and exercises drawn from empirical research. Exercises will include the practical construction in class of the tools of analysis (i.e. codebooks, questionnaires for the interviews, etc.). Assignments at home will complement the applied part of the course.
Course format:
The course will be divided into seven sessions of 3 hours each. Each session will begin with a presentation by the instructor, followed by a general discussion. The last part of each session will be devoted to ‘Research in practice comments’: Students are expected to prepare comments related to the topic of the session and linked to their own research projects. The aim is to use the readings to let emerge doubts, questions and comments related to the students’ research projects (not just a summary of the readings). Students might also bring very practical research dilemma about data
gathering and data analysis linked to their own projects.
Session 1: March 31th (time: 10-13 AM)
Case Studies: How to design them?
Session 2: April 2th (10-13 AM)
Acting as Sherlock Holmes: Process Tracing
Session 3: April 4th (10-13.00 AM)
Analysing texts and speeches: Techniques of content analysis
Session 4: April 7th (10-13 AM)
How to conduct Focus Groups
Session 5: April the 9th (10-13.00 AM)
Interviews in Practice (sampling, contacting, analysing qualitative data) &… coding them using MaxQDA
Session 6: April 11th (10-13.00 AM)
Applied Grounded Theory
Session 7: April 14th 5 (10- 13.00) Online Ethnography and Participatory action research (PAR)
Obiettivi formativi
Assesment:
The assessment of the course is based on: class participation (50%); 3 assignments (50%).
Assignments:
Assignments will pertain to the readings for that week and, as a general rule, will ask students to provide illustrations of how they might apply the principles of research design and various methods discussed that week to their own research project. Students will be expected to work either individually or in a group in class or at home.
Assignments may consist in short problem sets with practical exercises. E.g. solve a practical methodological exercise related to your own research, for example writing the contact letter for interviews; construct the ‘codebook’ for your documents analysis; select and justify the sample of your interview partners. Students will illustrate the results and discuss ideas with the rest of the class. In total 3 assignments will be given for this course, as the basis for the final assesment. The required length of each assignment is about 2-3 pages (for a total of about 6-8 pages, to be considered as the ‘final paper’ for the course).
*For the students of the Corso ordinario-laurea magistrale, the written assignments can be done in Italian (and can be limited to 3000 words in total).
Examples:
Assignment n.1: Draft 3 sample RQs (research questions). For one of the RQs, outline a major theory or debate in the field that the CRQ speaks to and explain the importance (e.g. scientific, social, normative, policy oriented) of this question. Why should people in the field care about the answer to this question?
Assignment n.2: For one of the RQs from the first assignment, describe a theory or argument that “answers” the question. Explain how you would test the argument by outlining three hypotheses that derive from the theory/argument. Identify one or two concepts in your theory and outline how you would empirical grasp them it.
Assignment n.3: (1) Draw a causal model/theoretical framework for your argument, including all the major concepts/variables and the relationships between them. Explain it in words and describe the causal process(es) that underlie your argument.
(2) Identify your ‘units of analysis’, namely the case(s) that you will analyze in your project and why (the “why” is your justification) or criteria for case selection).
Riferimenti bibliografici
Textbook and other Materials:
Reader prepared by the instructor. Papers to be downloaded from SNS’s Website. In addition they are sent by mail to all the students enrolled to the course (in case of technical problems in downloading or receiving the readings before the start of the course, just write me: Manuela.caiani@sns.it). Students are expected to read the compulsory readings before each session.
Session 1
Readings
Yin, Robert K. (2003) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Third edition, Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp. 3-24 (‘How to Know Whether and When to Use Case Studies as a Research Method’)
George, Alexander L. and Andrew Bennett (2004) Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 89-108 (‘Phase Two: Carrying Out the Case Studies’).
Additional
Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research A Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options
Jason Seawright and John Gerring (2008)
Session 2
Readings
Venesson, Pascal, “Case studies and process tracing: theories and practices” in della Porta, D. and Keating, M., eds. Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences, a pluralist perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, 241-239.
Optional:
Checkel, Jeffrey, 2006: “Tracing Causal Mechanisms”, International Studies Review 8(2): 362-70.
Beach, Derek, and Pedersen, Rasmus Brun, 2013: Process-Tracing Methods: Foundations and Guidelines, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, ch. 2, pp. 9-22.
Session 3
Readings
Caiani, M. and Graziano, P. 2016, “Varieties of Populism: Insights from the Italian Case”, in Italian Political Science Review, 46 (2), 243-267.
Trachtenberg, Marc (2006) The Craft of International History: A Guide to Method. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 140-168 (‘Working with Documents’).
Benoit, K. (2019) Text as Data an Overview, in The Sage Handbook of Research Methods in
Political Science and International Relations
https://kenbenoit.net/pdfs/CURINI_FRANZESE_Ch26.pdf
Additional
Grimmer, J., Roberts, M.E. and Stewart, B.M., 2022. Text as data: A new framework for
machine learning and the social sciences. Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691207551
Grimmer J, Stewart BM. Text as Data: The Promise and Pitfalls of Automatic Content
Analysis Methods for Political Texts Political Analysis. 2013;21(3):267-297.
doi:10.1093/pan/mps028
Session 4
Readings
Della Porta 2008
Caiani and Padoan 2023 Palgrave, ch 2 on method
Acocella 2011
Session 5
Readings
Holstein, James A. and Jaber F. Gubrium, 2002, “Active Interviewing”, in D. Wenberg (ed.), Qualitative Research Methods, Oxford, Blackwell, pp. 112-126.
Bazeley, P. (2013) Qualitative Data Analysis, London: Sage. CHAPTER 7,
Additional
Seale, Clive, “Qualitative Interviewing”, in Clive Seale (eds.), Researching Society and Culture, London, Sage, 1998, 202-216.
Deakin, H. & Wakefield, K., (2014) Skype interviewing: reflections of two PhD researchers. Qualitative Research, 14(5), pp.603–616.