Summary of the book readings for Research Methods in Political Science for the studies Politicologie and International Relations and Organisations (IRO). Contains the readings so far and an overview of the material as a quick revision guide.
DOCUMENT WILL BE UPDATED REGULARLY FOR NEW MATERIAL
Chapter 1: Political research (lec 1)
approach to political research exists of three basic positions
● pluralism in methodological approaches is encouraged
○ politics is a multi-method field of study
● research should be problem driven
○ value of any method can be determined in relation to a research question,
choice of which method should be driven by the research question
● research should have relevance to important political questions and
policy issues
Issues in political research
significant question: o ne that is directly relevant to solving real-world problems and to
furthering the goals of a specific scientific literature. Answers should help to generate valid
and reliable knowledge about the questions that they address. There exist a number of
divisions in the field.
Politics and International Relations
● division between internal to the state, and external to the state
○ politics operates on multiple levels, internal and external are connected
Empirical vs normative research
● empirical addresses phenomena we can observe in the real world,
normative research addresses questions on what is ought to be
○ both are different, but not independent of each other
Positivism vs interpretivism
● positivism: scientific knowledge of the social world is limited to what can be
observed. It can be explained and predicted by empirical regularities, establishing
causal relationships.
● interpretivism: knowledge of the social world can be gained through interpreting
the meanings which people give for reasons of acting. human behaviour can be
understood, not explained or predicted.
● Both often follow the same methodological conventions
○ concerned to show relationship between premises and conclusions and to
indicate the relationship between them.
● method used depends on the following questions
○ what research question are you trying to answer?
○ what evidence or data do you need to answer the question?
○ how are you going to analyse the data, and what steps are needed to obtain
and record them?
,Philosophy of social science
● methodology refers to the conduct of inquiry
○ reflections upon the system of values, principles, and rules that guide analysis
● ontology and epistemology
○ questions about the complexities of knowing and gaining knowledge in the
social world.
How to do research: an overview
● step one
○ finding and formulating a researchable question and locating applicable
theory and literature
○ a research question is: significant for a topic or issue relating to our field, is
researchable, has not yet been answered definitively
● step two
○ what requirements the answer must meet and how to formulate it
○ answering the research question involves three requirements
■ answer must be appropriate to the type of question that is being asked
■ it makes a contribution to the knowledge; the answer must matter
■ an answer must be clearly and fully specified with regard to the factors
that you think must be taken into account, and how they are related.
● formulate a useful hypothesis
○ must be falsifiable with evidence
● step three
○ how to demonstrate validity of your answer; data
How to do research in practice
● research methods involve two important components
○ data collection, and data analysis
, Chapter 2: Forms of Knowledge; laws,
explanations, and interpretation in the
study of the social world ( Lec2)
introduction
● ontology
○ what is?
○ assumptions about the nature of the social world and what makes up this
world
● epistemology
○ what is knowable?
○ what can we know about social phenomena and what kind of knowledge can
we treat as legitimate?
● methodology
○ how we obtain knowledge
positivism
● behaviouralism
○ application of positivism and empiricism to political research
○ what do political actors do and why
● Comte; three stages
○ theological, metaphysical, and positive stage
classical positivism
● naturalism
○ no fundamental differences between natural and social sciences
● empiricism
○ what we know is limited to what we can observe
● goal of social science is to explain and predict via laws
● induction
○ moving from observations to a general rule
● distinction between facts and values
○ science can be value free
empiricism and logic as the basis of truth claims
● logical positivism
○ add logic and math into empiricism
○ both deduction and induction
○ verification of hypothesis
● deduction
○ from general theory to specific observations
○ established verification as goal of science research
● falsification instead of verification hypothesis (Popper)
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