Designing political enquiry
Description
As taught Spring Semester 2011.
The module is designed to allow students to develop a critical understanding of the methodological issues involved in designing and undertaking research in the discipline of politics and international relations and to strengthen their ability to read and evaluate political science literature more generally. The first part of the module focuses on issues of research design. It exposes students to a broad range of methodological issues involved in designing, conducting and writing up research based on a relative small number of cases in areas of comparative politics, international relations, political theory and public policy. Topics that are addressed in the module include issues involved in developing a research question, problems of conceptualisation, measurement, and strategies and approaches to causal theorising in small N research. The second part of the module addresses various methods of generating and processing data for research in politics. Methods that are covered include the use of documentary sources, textual analysis observation and ethnographic research, and various forms of interviewing. Throughout the module you will be developing a feasible research proposal. This requires reading and summarising a minimum of two articles/book chapters per week on a topic of your choice. This will be used to inform your dissertation proposal.
Module Codes: M14320 (20 credits), M14321 (15 credits)
Suitable for study at: Postgraduate Level
Dr Gulshan Khan, School of Politics and International Relations
Gulshan Ara Khan teaches political theory at the School of Politics and International Relations. She is also a fellow of the Centre for the Study for Social and Global Justice. She completed her PhD. entitled 'Habermas and Post-structuralism: the Subject and Politics' in 2005. Her areas of expertise include the work of Habermas, Post-structuralist political theory, the work of Michael Oakeshott and the philosophy of the social sciences. She is also interested in the idea of 'non-domination' (political, structural and economic) associated with the republican notion of liberty, both in terms of the principles it specifies and the institutions required to realise it.