Methodological practices in social movement research

position paper

Teaching methods and assignments:

A final ‘position paper’ (of approx. 1-2 pp, in italian or in english at your choice) is expected by students at the end of the course containing a brief reflection on “How one of the methods explored during the course can be used for your own research project” .

All phd students (from 1 to 4th year) and master students

This course is based on a methodological pluralist approach to social sciences. Many important questions in political science and sociology cannot be addressed with quantitative methods. Often times, scholars cannot rely on suitable statistical data to answer their research questions, and many research questions in social science simply cannot be answered using quantitative data (requiring a more case- oriented approach rather than a variable- oriented one). Moreover, the limited resources of individual researchers frequently preclude the collection of a sufficient number of empirical observations required for statistical analysis. Therefore, qualitative methods of data collection and analysis are an important part of everyday research in our field.

In this course, with a particular attention on social movements field of enquire, each of the main methods of data collection and data analysis are presented with a practical approach, from research design to data collection, the use of information through to ethical issues. The sessions will include: protest Event analysis (PEA), frame and Discourse analysis, Focus groups, Case studies, process tracing, Grounded theory. Researcher positionality and ethics will be also addressed.    

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) necessary in order to applied the above mentioned research techniques. Position papers and assignments at home will complement the applied part of the course. The course will offer a systematic introduction to empirical research in social movement studies.

Reader Book, Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research, Edited by Donatella della Porta , Oxford, 2014