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Summary UVA Introduction to political science research (IY)
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Contains all lecture slides + class notes + seminar slides & notes + some of the readings that are needed for IPRES
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Introduction to political science research (73210025IY) 2021-2022Inhoudsopgave
Lecture 1 ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
Lecture 2 ........................................................................................................................................................ 4
Lecture 3 ........................................................................................................................................................ 8
Lecture 4 ...................................................................................................................................................... 12
Seminar tutorial week 2 ............................................................................................................................... 17
Reading week 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 19
Bryman 2012 – Social research methods ......................................................................................................... 19
Guba & Licoln – fourth generation evaluation ................................................................................................ 21
Grounded theory and sensitizing concepts: Glenn A. Bowen ........................................................................... 24
Lecture 5 ...................................................................................................................................................... 25
Lecture 6 ...................................................................................................................................................... 28
Seminar tutorial 3 ........................................................................................................................................ 35
Reading week 3 ............................................................................................................................................ 37
The coding manual for qualitative researchers. J. Saldaña .............................................................................. 37
Lecture 7: Round table ................................................................................................................................. 39
Lecture 8 ...................................................................................................................................................... 42
Seminar tutorial 4 ........................................................................................................................................ 48
Lecture 9: Fieldwork in politics, a guest lecture by David Laws ..................................................................... 50
Seminar tutorial 5 ........................................................................................................................................ 52
Lecture 10: Guest lecture by Armen Hakhverdian ......................................................................................... 53
Lecture 11: Guest lecture on research ethics by Tom van der Meer .............................................................. 55
Reading week 6 ............................................................................................................................................ 56
Political paradox; the art of political decision making. Deborah Stone. Needed for assignment 1 ................. 56
Editorial: worrying about trust. Piotr Sztompka. Needed for assignment 1..................................................... 56
,Lecture 1
1. research methods
• The rules of the game in a scientific form
o Codified set of rules and insights
o On how to make credible knowledge claims (that are convincing)
o In a scientific debate (or forum)
• Construction of credibility
o Credibility is produced differently in different forums
o It is on the basis of a specific set of standards
o It is important to realize that there are different types of forums.
o (Example trump)
In the domain of sciences there are rules that do not apply in the domain of politics.
Knowledge production on one hand and politics on the other. The relation between science,
politics, and society.
This course focusses on the realm of scientific debate. The course is about getting the tools
and concepts you need.
• Researchers: bound by the rules of science
o Complying with these rules of the game is needed.
o For establishing oneself as a critical and credible discussion partner à
trustworthy researcher.
o The rules of the game hold true both for natural and for social scientists.
o Natural scientists
§ Study on natural phenomena
§ Focus on the identification of general laws ('nomological research')
§ On the basis of empirical evidence from observation and
experimentation
o Social scientists
§ Study societies and the relations among individuals + relations between
individuals and societies
§ Focus on the testing and construction of theories to explain /
understand societal dynamics in relation to agency
§ (Often) problem-driven / action-oriented: results are (intended to be)
used to ‘better’ some situation – H&H p.2: “significant questions” about
“real-world problems”
§ Are “methodological pluralists” using an “array of methods” – H&H p.7
§ Are critical of the phenomena studied and of own position & research
– H&H p.3
2. Will there be war?
• Depends on your concepts on war
• Are scientific methods helpful in answering the question?
, o Who has written what?
o Using which theory / theories?
o Defining concepts how (what is ‘war’?)
o Employing which methods?
o Analyzing which data – how?
o Drawing which conclusions?
3. IPRes: Key objectives
Methodological literacy: the ability to read, understand and assess § Political science output
• In different methodological traditions
• Applying associated quality criteria
• Understanding basic concepts in research methodology
• Knowing of various methods for data gathering and analysis
Acquire basic practical skills to carry out research
• ability to perform a qualitative, inductive content analysis = Assignment 1
• ability to perform simple statistical analyses skills in working with Excel, analyzing
quantitative data, and in presenting the data and results = Assignment 2
, Lecture 2
Three perspectives of IPRES
• Positivism: research on social capital
• Interpretivism: research on the banking crisis
• Realism: research on globalization
Why are these distinctions useful for reasoning about research methods and research
designs?
• Knowledge always implies some kind of prior knowledge
• Can we find some kind of knowledge that doesn’t require having other knowledge?
Are there foundations we can base ourselves on, in knowledge production?
• Yes – foundationalist perspective:
o There is something to stand on, a fixed point in place and time, that exists
independent of the knower
o Including beliefs that are certain and justified without reference to other beliefs
• No – anti-foundationalist perspective:
o There is no firm ground outside of those which humans agree to agree upon
Ontology
• What is there to be known?
• There is a world out there that exists independent of our knowledge of it
o A foundationalist perspective (positivists and realists)
• There may be a material real out there but to human beings it has no existence outside
of language, or our knowledge and the social construct of it
o An anti-foundationalist perspective (interpretivists)
• The theory of being
• There is a reality, however, is there an objective reality?
• Different people see different realities
• Interpretivists believe there are multiple realities
Epistemology
• What is the relation between the knower and the known?
• 1. Can an observer identify real (or objective) relations between phenomena? Or will
it always be subjective?
o Answer depends on one’s ontological position
§ Foundationalists: say yes, they have a positivistic perspective. You can
only observe what you can see (positivists)
§ Anti-foundationalists: say no, only through the eye of the beholder,
they have an interpretivist perspective (interpretivists)
• 2. Is observation the only way to know? Or are there real phenomena (foundationalist
position) that still evade direct observation?
o Positivist: Only observable entities.
o Realists: Also, non-observable entities.
• Theory of knowing, acquiring knowledge
• Both positivists and realists believe in an objective world.
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