Workshops - Qualitative Research Methods Network

Participants will take part in three intensive training workshops of 4&(1/2) days led by prominent scholars and ongoing peer group discussions and mentoring by senior faculty in the three project hubs and also online through a Virtual Research Unit. Rather than focus on classic methodological debates, the workshop sessions will be organised around the process of research design and will focus on key decision points at various moments in this process. The three-part workshop series will use participants' own research interests to structure discussion of the principal components of research design, beginning with (a) Research Questions and Concept Formation; (b) Causal Assessment Strategies, and (c) Network Analysis and Field Methods. Participants will compete for practicum funding for a field-test of the research designs developed over the course of the workshops.

MODULE I

Research Questions & Concept Formation

1. Identifying and refining Research Questions
2. Concept formation (theory - generalization - context)
3. Types and typologies
4. Research proposals

MODULE II

Causal Assessment Strategies

1. Small-N case selection and experimental designs(principles and some tools)
2. Process Tracing
3. Interpretive approaches
4. Research Proposals for 3rd Module

MODULE III

Networks & Experiments

1. Social Network analysis (conceptual map and some tools)
2. Experimental designs (principles and some tools)
3. Presentation and discussion of research designs
4. Practicum logistics