Social research as a craft 2010

Short description:

All researchers, young or old, who are in the process of making a large scholarly analysis, are faced with a set of common challenges that relates to the art and craft of making a good study. Social science in general and political science in particular, is not an easily defined type of work or process. Even a superficial inspection of the articles appearing in scholarly journals will reveal an almost infinite number of themes covered, an abundant use of research methods signifying a plurality of ideals of best practice, and a true myriad of seemingly relevantsources and data. Notwithstanding the absence of agreed upon shared standards of good science, most scholars agree that doing good social science is also a craft – a craft that can be learned.

Lecturers: Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard, Institut for Statskundskab, Syddansk Universitet, Odense Svend-Erik Skaaning, Institut for Statskundskab, Aarhus Universitet

Social research as a craft

Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard, Institut for Statskundskab, Syddansk Universitet, Odense Svend-Erik Skaaning, Institut for Statskundskab, Aarhus Universitet

Time: 10.00-15.00 on the following days: 5. February • 12 February • 19 February • 26 February • 5 March • 12 March • 19 March 2010

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

All researchers, young or old, who are in the process of making a large scholarly analysis, are faced with a set of common challenges that relates to the art and craft of making a good study. Social science in general and political science in particular, is not an easily defined type of work or process. Even a superficial inspection of the articles appearing in scholarly journals will reveal an almost infinite number of themes covered, an abundant use of research methods signifying a plurality of ideals of best practice, and a true myriad of seemingly relevantsources and data. Notwithstanding the absence of agreed upon shared standards of good science, most scholars agree that doing good social science is also a craft – a craft that can be learned. This course is an invitation to PhD scholars who want to learn more about how to systematically tackle some of the issues pertaining to the craft of making good social science. We willonly pay scant attention to the different techniques of data collection and analysis (interviewing techniques, statistical methods, etc.), and there will be no thematic umbrella for the course, although themes related to political science will be in focus.

The teachers, Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard and Svend-Erik Skaaning, are political scientists with a broad interest in comparative politics, historical sociology, public administration, public policy, and methodology. Our methodological point of departure is the scholarly conventions that guide mainstream empirical social science. This implies that we as scholars develop theoretically informed hypotheses about the social world and hold open the possibility that these hypotheses can be proven wrong depending upon the results of empirical analysis. Unless we can be proven wrong we can never be proven right either.

The focus of the seminar will be on the interplay between the ‘Why, What, and How’ of the research design and process. The correspondence between the motivation and normative concern of a research project (the why) and a particular research question is never one to one. There are always more ways to pose a research question. A concern for the practice of local government maylead to an interest in the cause and effect of governance networks. But it could also focus on the role of professionals, central government regulation and incentives, the role of unions, etc. A concern for governance networks is compatible with numerous research questions and numerous perspectives, e.g. in relation to policy processes and impacts, democratic participation, accountability, party politics, etc.

However, particularly the relation between ‘what’ and ‘how’ is open-ended and debatable from a craft perspective. Continuing the example of governance networks, should the study be a few cases in-depth analysis of the policy-making process in one or two localities, and if so, should it mainly be based on interviews, observation, or written records; should it be a broad comparative study based on surveys and other large data bases; etc.

The trust of the course is that any research project can be improved by paying more attention to the additional ways and means to probe ones themes of interest. Even if you yourself are neither posing these additional questions nor making these additional analyses, awareness of the fact that they are relevant will make your own study better and more focused.

THEMES:

In particular, we will focus on the following themes:

Social science as a craft vis-à-vis history and the humanities:

• Thinking in units and variables
• Thinking in sources and data
• Description, interpretation and explanation
• Causality and causal modeling
• Improving research questions: the double relevance demand
• Drawing inference: analytical and statistical inference/generalization
• Correlational evidence versus sequence and process
Case-studies, comparative enquiry, statistics, (quasi-)experiments

LITERATURE:

The main text books are Gary King et al. (1994), Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, Princeton UP (required to buy) and John Gerring (2010), Social Science Methodology, Cambridge UP (download from Gerring’s homepage).

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

All participants produce a 3 to 5 pages description
of their project. All project descriptions
will be distributed to the participants.
Each project description includes:
• A brief declaration of intent
• The research question/problem to be
studied, and preferably propositions/
hypotheses
• A comment on relevance of the project
and the literature which the project is
debating
• A brief account of the research design
• A brief discussion of the data and
sources of the project
• And if relevant, preliminary findings
A revised 2 pages project description is produced
during the course.

COURSE PLAN:

The course is organized as six meetings,
each time five hours. Half of the time, we will
have lectures and discussions of one or more
themes. In the other half, we will discuss the
participants’ project descriptions.
Lesson 1: 5 February 2010:
On Science and Social Science
• The triangle subject-theory-method
• What is science?
• What is social science?
• Tension between cultural embeddedness,
individual choice, and patterns of
behavior
• The role of rationality
Lesson 2: 12 February 2010:
On Modelling and Proposing to the
World
Theory, conceptualization and variable specification
• From research problem to propositions
• From general relationships to specified
hypotheses
• Causation and causal hypotheses
• Complex causation and the theory of
controls
• Cross-sectional vs. cross-time modeling:
problems of time
Lesson 3: 19 February 2010:
On Data and Its Dangers
• The selection of observations (max
plausible variation on independent variables)
• Operationalization (indicators, scales,
counting - or not)
• Data sources (problems of obtrusiveness,
bias and incomplete perspectives)
Lesson 4: 26 February 2010:
On Testing and Drawing Inference
• Description and pattern-finding (central
tendencies and variance)
• Inference and generalization (‘significance’,
the null hypothesis)
• Statistical v. analytical generalization
• Different tests: experiments, quasiexperiments,
matched comparison, case
studies
• Matched comparison: maximize leverage
over data, rigor of inference
Lesson 5: 5 March 2010:
Work Shop
• Revised project descriptions: Subject,
Theory, Method
• Choices and justification
• Theory, propositions, data and operationalization,
testing and logic of inference
• Presentation, comments and discussion

Registration

Tilmelding til alle kurser senest 6. januar 2010
Tilmeldingsskema på
 http://www.samfundsvidenskab.au.dk/da/forskning/phd-skolen/fagligeprogrammer/statskundskab/kurser/kurser-foraar-2010/

Yderligere oplysninger kan fås hos:
Anne-Grethe Gammelgaard • Institut for Statskundskab • Aarhus Universitet •
Bartholins Allé • Bygning 1331 • 8000 Århus C