| Bemerkung |
Course description:
Research designs, methodological approaches, and specific methods of inquiry in the social sciences have experienced an explosion in formalization over the past two decades. Especially for comparative and regional studies research, the challenge of language based and foreign research has long tolerated purely descriptive studies, with the outcome that research designs both lag behind the state of the art in the associated disciplines, and thus also fail to contribute to theory-building. This course is aimed at MA and PhD level students engaged in developing research designs, or soon to do so, in comparative and regional studies research. The focus is broadly social scientific, with a tendency toward macro- and meso-level units of analysis in the study of historical institutional change, policy tracing, case study research, actor-centered institution-building and transnationalization processes in European and Asian Pacific comparative and regional research. Students are expected to both engage with the research of other leading social scientists, who we will discuss as models for designing and implementing research designs, with methodological discussion, and with broader philosophical issues in research inquiry. A large part of the module will also be devoted to actually practicing specific research designs and methods, and students are welcomed to undertake a part of their thesis or dissertation research and analysis as part of the exercises (for those at earlier stages, qualitative data will be made available for exercises).
Part I of the module involves reading texts and submitting discussion questions at the beginning of each meeting (taught mainly by Shire), while Part II (taught mainly by Muranaka) involves actually research practice (organized into exercises, such as coding of qualitative interview data) and the development of the final paper. The main requirement is a final 12-15 pages research design, including the explication of methodological approach, selection of cases, specifications of units of analysis, intended methods and a tentative plan for implementing a proposed (or actual) research program. More advanced students may alternatively present a piece of qualitative data analysis, intended as part of an MA or doctoral thesis for the final paper. An exact plan for the semester will be circulated at the first meeting of Part I on Tuesday, October 22. A reading assignment will be expected already for the first meeting of Part II on Wednesday, October 23. |
