Report on the Third International Research Workshop "Methods for PhD", October 4–9, 2009, near Flensburg

For the third time, from October 4–9, 2009, the International Research Workshop (IRWS) took place at the Akademie Sankelmark near Flensburg and at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) in Sonderburg/Denmark. Again it was a great success, with well over 70 participants from 25 different universities and research institutions in Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Italy. The individual workshops were aimed at doctoral level students and young scholars from the social and economic sciences, and were offered in parallel morning and afternoon sessions. The workshop was organized with the aim of promoting young researchers by the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the Helmut Schmidt University of Hamburg (Wenzel Matiaske and Simon Fietze) and received financial support from SOEP/DIW Berlin, the University of Flensburg, the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), the University of Hamburg, the Leuphana University Lüneburg and the Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (HSU).
The kick-off for the workshop was the traditional Sunday Evening Event. This year the workshop started with the movie “Kitchen Stories” (Comedy, Drama by Bent Hamer, Norway 2003). It was a good introduction to a research and methods workshop for PhD students: the movie is about eighteen observers sent out to a rural district of Norway to map out the kitchen routines of single men. The researchers sat in special strategically placed chairs in each kitchen. It shows in an amusing way how research through observation works and what obstacles can arise.
The general focus of this year’s workshop was network analysis. One day of the workshop included courses on the following topics: Network Analysis (Mark Trappmann, Institute for Labour Research & Anja Iseke, University of Paderborn), Introductory and Advanced Use of the Statistics Software STATA (Tobias Gramlich, University of Duisburg-Essen & Andrea Schäfer, University of Bremen) and the freeware program R (Detlef Steuer, HSU). Further courses included an Introduction to the SOEP (Elke Holst, DIW Berlin/SOEP & Andrea Schäfer, University of Bremen), Analysing Panel Data (Nisar Ahmad, University of Aarhus), Case Studies (Alex Pedrosa, SDU), Introduction to Qualitative Interview Methods (Ralph Kattenbach, University of Hamburg), Qualitative Inquiry and Content Analysis with MAXQDA (Heiko Grunenberg, Leuphana University Lüneburg). Towards the middle of the workshop, it became even more international: about 40 kilometers away at the University of Southern Denmark in Sonderburg/Denmark, courses were offered in Handling Missing Data (Martin Spieß, University of Hamburg), Writing a Research Proposal (Ulrike Pospiech, University of Duisburg-Essen & Marion Hartung, HSU) and Structural Equation Modelling with Amos (Volker Müller-Benedict & Katja Spanier, University of Flensburg).
Next workshop October 3-8, 2010
The next International Research Workshop will take place from October 3–8, 2010.

For the third time, from October 4–9, 2009, the International Research Workshop (IRWS) took place at the Akademie Sankelmark near Flensburg and at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) in Sonderburg/Denmark. Again it was a great success, with well over 70 participants from 25 different universities and research institutions in Germany, Denmark, Austria, and Italy. The individual workshops were aimed at doctoral level students and young scholars from the social and economic sciences, and were offered in parallel morning and afternoon sessions. The workshop was organized with the aim of promoting young researchers by the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the Helmut Schmidt University of Hamburg (Wenzel Matiaske and Simon Fietze) and received financial support from SOEP/DIW Berlin, the University of Flensburg, the University of Southern Denmark (SDU), the University of Hamburg, the Leuphana University Lüneburg and the Helmut Schmidt University/University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (HSU).

The kick-off for the workshop was the traditional Sunday Evening Event. This year the workshop started with the movie “Kitchen Stories” (Comedy, Drama by Bent Hamer, Norway 2003). It was a good introduction to a research and methods workshop for PhD students: the movie is about eighteen observers sent out to a rural district of Norway to map out the kitchen routines of single men. The researchers sat in special strategically placed chairs in each kitchen. It shows in an amusing way how research through observation works and what obstacles can arise.

The general focus of this year’s workshop was network analysis. One day of the workshop included courses on the following topics: Network Analysis (Mark Trappmann, Institute for Labour Research & Anja Iseke, University of Paderborn), Introductory and Advanced Use of the Statistics Software STATA (Tobias Gramlich, University of Duisburg-Essen & Andrea Schäfer, University of Bremen) and the freeware program R (Detlef Steuer, HSU). Further courses included an Introduction to the SOEP (Elke Holst, DIW Berlin/SOEP & Andrea Schäfer, University of Bremen), Analysing Panel Data (Nisar Ahmad, University of Aarhus), Case Studies (Alex Pedrosa, SDU), Introduction to Qualitative Interview Methods (Ralph Kattenbach, University of Hamburg), Qualitative Inquiry and Content Analysis with MAXQDA (Heiko Grunenberg, Leuphana University Lüneburg). Towards the middle of the workshop, it became even more international: about 40 kilometers away at the University of Southern Denmark in Sonderburg/Denmark, courses were offered in Handling Missing Data (Martin Spieß, University of Hamburg), Writing a Research Proposal (Ulrike Pospiech, University of Duisburg-Essen & Marion Hartung, HSU) and Structural Equation Modelling with Amos (Volker Müller-Benedict & Katja Spanier, University of Flensburg).

Next workshop October 3-8, 2010

The next International Research Workshop will take place from October 3–8, 2010.