GV513 Half Unit
Qualitative Methods in the Study of Politics
This information is for the 2020/21 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Steffen Hertog
Availability
This course is available on the MRes/PhD in Political Science. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Other PhD students must request permission from the class teacher, which is routinely granted subject to capacity.
Course content
This course introduces and critically evaluates a range of qualitative techniques and methods in political science. It builds students' capability to select, reject, and deploy them in research design and practice.
The course begins with debates over the place of qualitative methods in political science, and the question of how to match ideas to methods. The rest of the course is devoted to exploring a range of qualitative techniques, including case selection, case studies and process tracing, comparisons, interviews and field research, qualitative comparative analysis, and "mixed methods". The content of each week will be integrated as closely as possible with participants' own research projects (even if qualitative work constitutes only a small part thereof). The course is relevant for political scientists, but also students of development and international relations.
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the Lent Term, likely combining online and on-campus teaching, complemented by small-group work outside of the seminars. This course includes a reading week in Week 6.
Indicative reading
G. King, R. Keohane, and S. Verba, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific inference in qualitative research (Princeton, 1994). Antoinette Burton ed., Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History (Duke University Press, 2006); David Collier and Henry Brady, Rethinking Social Inquiry (Rowman and Littlefield 2010); John Gerring, Case Study Research: Principles and Practices (Cambridge University Press 2007).
Assessment
Essay (30%, 2500 words) in the LT.
Project (70%, 3000 words) in the ST.
Students are assessed by two pieces of work:
(1) An essay answering one question from a list to be provided in Lent Term (up to 2500 words)
The deadline for this work will fall into Week 9 of Lent Term. It will be worth 30% of the final mark.
(2) A thorough critique of an article applying one or more of the methods discussed in this course, focused
on its research design and execution (3000 words).
The deadline for this work will fall into the first week of Summer Term. It will be worth 70% of the
final mark.
Important information in response to COVID-19
Please note that during 2020/21 academic year some variation to teaching and learning activities may be required to respond to changes in public health advice and/or to account for the situation of students in attendance on campus and those studying online during the early part of the academic year. For assessment, this may involve changes to mode of delivery and/or the format or weighting of assessments. Changes will only be made if required and students will be notified about any changes to teaching or assessment plans at the earliest opportunity.
Key facts
Department: Government
Total students 2019/20: 4
Average class size 2019/20: 4
Value: Half Unit
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Specialist skills
