Research Methods

Recommended Prerequisites

NA

Teaching Methods

This course is organized in practical sessions with time for experimenting and testing methodologies under the supervision of the teaching staff, who will make reference to concrete studies, in order to offer evidence of the limits and challenges of each methodology. Reading materials, tailored to the interests of students and their different proposed themes and approaches, are made available online. The sessions will be complemented by individual meetings with the lecturer in charge of the different methodology sessions.

Learning Outcomes

This unit provides a space for students to discuss innovative methodologies within different disciplinary and trans-disciplinary areas of social sciences, as well as their adequacy for their own thesis projects. Examples from other studies as well as experimental laboratories will help students grasp the coherence between methodologies, research questions and hypotheses.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

What is a dissertation: from theoretical to empirical essays
Setting the case study design
The challenge of comparative analysis
Databases and literature review
Competencies for research, storage and processing of information sources
Interviews
Surveys
Participant observation
Attitudes Scales
Focus Groups
Introduction to quantitative data analysis using the SPSS
Content and Critical discourse analysis
Qualitative data analysis - the model of Grounded Theory
Qualitative data analysis - Introduction to MAXQDA
Quantitative data analysis - Cluster Analysis
Working with graphic representations
Ontological politics and ethical considerations
Following a general presentation, these topics will be dealt with in small groups, favouring the exchange among students who choose similar or complementary approaches. In each module teachers will articulate a systematic but synthetic presentation of the methods and techniques with a practical application, by performing small practical exercises

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Periodic or by final exam as given in the course information: 100.0%

Bibliography

Bibliographic references are very variable, depending on the content of each research:

Burawoy. M et al. (2000, orgs.), Global ethnography: forces, connections, and imaginations in a postmodern world. University of California Press

Eco U. (2015), How to Write a Thesis, MIT Press

Faubion, J. D.; Marcus, Geoge E. (2009, eds), Fieldwork Is Not What It Used to Be. Cornell University Press.

Hart, C. (2009), Doing a Literature Review.  Sage.

Hill, M.; Hill, A. (2002), Investigação por questionário. Sílabo.

Krippendorf, K. (2013), Content Analyses. Sage.

Law, J. (2004) After Method. Routledge.

Reason, P.; Bradbury, H., (2001, eds), The SAGE Handbook of Action Research. Participative Inquiry and Practice. Sage

 

Sandoval, C. (2000) Methodology of the Oppressed. University of Minnesota Press.

Santos, B.; Meneses, P.(2009, orgs.), Epistemologias do Sul. CES/Almedina.

Strauss, A. E Corbin, J. (2008), Basics of Qualitative Research. Sage.

Yin, Robert K. (2013) Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Sage.