The syllabus of the course SOC756 Research Methods in Sociology lecturer: Igor Nosál, Ph.D. (nosal@fss.muni.cz) assistant: Beatrice Manea, M.A. (manea@fss.muni.cz ) period: spring semester (podzimní semestr) 2005 , 20.2.- 26.5. / 14 workshops time: lectures/worksops take place in Wednesdays, 12:00 -- 13:30 place: room U34 (Faculty of Social Study MU, Joštova 10) office hours: Igor Nosál, Ph.D. -- Tuesday 12:00 -- 13:30 (office 3.63) Beatrice Manea, M.A. -- Tuesday 14.00-15.00 (office 3.60) ANOTATTION The course is an introduction to the scientific social research. It will acquaint the students with basic research strategies of the social sciences and their methodological problems. It will introduce the rules of empirical research as well as to the problems of measuring in the social research. The students should learn the basic methods of qualitative and quantitative research. In order to accomplish the course successfully the students should fulfil the requirements to work with the obligatory literature (see the schedule of readings throughout the semester) and should prepare two workshop papers (an overview of obligatory reading) and a final paper (a critical review of a chosen book). ACTIVITIES o Workshop paper (an overview of the week obligatory reading) Each student have to prepare twice a semester 4- 5 pages (around 1500 words) overview from obligatory reading for a particular week and have to present this overview at the seminar (workshop). (A workshop paper have to by displayed before the workshop at IS (http://is.muni.cz/ ): Click: "osobní administrativa"/"student"/"study materials"/"work with study materials"/"workshops"/particular week) Dead line: Individual terms (list of contributors for each week) will be given at the workshop in the first week (introductory week). Value of this activity: 20 points (10 points for each workshop paper) o Final paper (a critical review of chosen book) Each student have to prepare a 7-8 pages (around 2500 words) long critical review of a chosen book (see the list of books above). All books are (you will find) in the Faculty library or as e-books on the Information System website (http://is.muni.cz/). Dead line: 7 June 2006 (A final paper have to by displayed at IS(http://is.muni.cz/) Click: "osobní administrativa"/"student"/"study materials"/"work with study materials"/"workshops"/particular week) Value of this activity: up to 30 points o Final test (based on obligatory reading) Dead line: Exams terms will by displayed in the end of the semester at IS ("student"/"examination") Value of this activity: up to 50 points For completing the course minimally 60 points is needed. ________________________________________________________________________ The schedule o 1. workshop (Wednesday 22.2.2006) An Invitation Presentation of the course programme, and distribution of workshop papers (overview of obligatory reading for each workshop) and final papers (a critical review of a chosen book) o 2. workshop (Wednesday 1.3.2006) Human Inquiry and Science Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company; Chapter 1: "Human Inquiry and Science", s.16-40. Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 3. workshop (Wednesday 8.3.2006) Paradigms and Theory in Social Research Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company; Chapter 2:"Paradigms, Theory, and Social Research", s.41-67. Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 4. workshop (Wednesday 15.3.2006) Causation in Social Research Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company; Chapter 3:"The Idea of Causation in Social Research", s.68-87. Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 5. workshop (Wednesday 22.3.2006) Research Design 1 -- Theme and research question Obligatory reading: Silverman, David 2005. Doing Qualitative Research. A Practical Handbook; Chapter 5 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 6. workshop (Wednesday 29.3.2006) Research Design 2 -- Purposes of Research and units of analysis Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company; Chapter 4:"Research Design", s.91-101 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... Ragin, C.Charles. 1994. Constructing Social Research. London: Pine Forge Press; Chapter 2: "The Goals of Social Research", s.31-47 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 7. workshop (Wednesday 5.4.2006) "Reading week" (Workshop is not take place, students have to study literature and prepare final papers) o 8. workshop (Wednesday 12.4.2006) Research Design 3 -- Research strategies and time dimension: Cross-Sectional Studies, Longitudinal Studies, Approximating Longitudinal Studies, Examples of research strategies Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company; Chapter 4:"Research Design", s.101-107 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... Ragin, C.Charles. 1994. Constructing Social Research. London: Pine Forge Press; Chapter 2: "The Goals of Social Research"/ "The Link between Goals and Strategies" s.47-53 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 9. workshop (Wednesday 19.4.2006) Research Design 4 -- How to Design a Research Project; Elements of a Research Proposal Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company; Chapter 4:"Research Design", s.107-114. Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... Silverman, David 2005. Doing Qualitative Research. A Practical Handbook; Chapter 9 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 10. workshop (Wednesday 26.4.2006) Conceptualization, methodological problems in empirical research: terminology, concepts, methodological principles, hypotheses, logical structure, validity Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company; Chapter 5:"Conceptualization, operationalization, and Measurement", s.118-140 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... Vaus, de D. A. 1991. Survey in Social Research. London: Unwin Hyman; Chapter 4: "Developing indicators for concepts", s.47-53 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 11. workshop (Wednesday 3.5.2006) Measuring and its errors in social sciences: what is measuring, levels of measuring, validity, errors in measuring Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company; Chapter 5:"Conceptualization, operationalization, and Measurement", s.140-147 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 12. workshop (Wednesday 10.5.2006) Research design and the presentation of the results: preparing the research (theoretical, methodological and organizational problems), questionnaires (classification, logical sequence, phrasing of questions), data verification, validation, analysis and presentation Obligatory reading: Ragin, C.Charles. 1994. Constructing Social Research. London: Pine Forge Press; Chapter 6: s.131-153 Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 13. workshop (Wednesday 17.5.2006) Using qualitative methods Obligatory reading: Ragin, C.Charles. 1994. Constructing Social Research. London: Pine Forge Press; Chapter 4, s.81-103. Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... o 14. workshop (Wednesday 24.5.2006) Using comparative methods Obligatory reading: Ragin, C.Charles. 1994. Constructing Social Research. London: Pine Forge Press; Chapter 5, s.105-130. Workshop paper (name of student): .......................................... LITERATURE Obligatory reading: Babbie, Earl. 2001. The Practice of Social Research. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Copany. Ragin, C.Charles. 1994. Constructing Social Research. London: Pine Forge Press. Durkheim, Émile 1982 The rules of sociological method Optional readings (Books for critical reviews): Fairclough, Norman 2003. Analysing Discourse. Textual analysis for Social Research. London and New York: Routledge. Name of student: Flick, Uwe 2005. An Introduction to Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications Name of student: Holliday, Adrian 2002. Doing and Writing Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications Name of student: Law, John 2004. After Method. Mess in social science research. London and New York Name of student: Silverman, David (1993) 2000. Interpreting Qualitative Data. Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction. London: Sage Publications Name of student: Silverman, David 2000. Doing Qualitative Research. A Practical Handbook London: Sage Publications. Name of student: Vaus, de D. A. 1990. Survey in Social Research. London: Unwin Hyman. Name of student: John Creswell: Research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches, 2003 Name of student: Alan Bryman: Social research methods, 2001 Name of student: Pierre Bourdieu: Distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste, 1996 (Focus on methods used by Bourdieu) Name of student: James Frey: How to conduct interviews by telephone and in person Name of student: