BSSn4495: Qualitative research in security studies Questions, answers, theory February 29, 2024 Miriam Matejova, PhD Agenda • What is a good research question? • What is theory? • What is a good theory? The features of science • Transparent procedures • Systematic use of evidence – Guided by clear rules/principles • Testing our hunch against alternatives • Acknowledging uncertainty Descriptive, prescriptive, and causal questions • Prescriptive/normative questions: – How should the world look? • Descriptive questions – How does the world look? • Causal questions – Why does the world look the way it does? What is the cause of this particular outcome? Normative/prescriptive questions in politics • Should the rich be paying more taxes? • Is the intervention of Western countries in the affairs of sovereign nations justified? • Other? Descriptive questions in politics • What proportion of tax collection comes from the rich? • How many times in the last century have Western countries intervened in the affairs of sovereign nations? • Other? Causal questions in politics • Does increasing taxes for rich people help or hurt economic growth? • Why do Western governments choose to intervene in sovereign states? • Other? Types of claims • Normative/prescriptive claim: Iran should not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. • Other? • Descriptive claim: Five countries countries today are known to have nuclear weapons. • Other? • Causal claim: Countries located in volatile regions are more likely to develop nuclear weapons. • Other? Causal questions and claims • Why something happens – or doesn’t happen • The conditions under which something happens • The effect of something on something else • The process through which one thing affects another Types of claims: summing up • Descriptive – No explicit statement about one thing influencing another – Correlation between two things ≠ causal • Causal – Explicit statement about one thing exerting influence on another – “Does the claim directly imply that, if I could manipulate one factor, I should see a change in the other?” • Prescriptive/normative – Requires placing some value on outcomes Theory • What is theory? – An explanation of some aspect of the world based on reasoning, observation, and/or experimentation. • What is a good theory? – Describe, explain, predict, prescribe – Accuracy, generality, parsimony, causality Accuracy • Explain as much as possible and predict as accurately as possible; • The higher the accuracy, the lower the generality and parsimony. Generality • Refers to a range of social phenomena to which the theory is applicable. • The greater the theory’s generality, the greater the range of phenomena the theory can explain. Parsimony • “The smaller the number of factors providing for a complete explanation of a given class of events, the more parsimonious the theory” (Przeworski 1970). • Occam’s razor – The simplest explanation is usually the correct one Theory, hypothesis, law • Law = observed regular relationship between two phenomena • Hypothesis = a speculated relationship between two phenomena – Can be causal or noncausal/correlational • Theory = causal law or causal hypothesis + explanation about how A causes B – Explanation shows how the causation occurs How do we make theories? • Deductively • Inductively • Other ways?