Course Description: This workshop provides an introduction into Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), a method based on set theory and Boolean algebra to uncover relations between explanatory conditions and an outcome in medium- to large-n datasets. We will discuss the set-theoretic and Boolean foundations of the method, its logic of inference and learn how to use the method in practice, working with real-life datasets.

This workshop is aimed at beginners and no previous knowledge of set-theoretic fundamentals or the method is required. A working knowledge of the software R is beneficial but not necessary. Participants should bring a laptop computer with a recent copy of R and RStudio installed.

Date of Event: 19.-20.06.2018

Location: GIGA, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

Lecturer:  Dr David Kuehn is Senior Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of Asian Studies.

Further Information and Registration (Deadline: 6 April 2018)

Course Description: This course aims to enable participants to produce high-quality plots based on raw data and/or model outputs using the R package “ggplot2” (1st day) and to teach principles of interactive data visualization with the R package “shiny” (2nd day). The first day will familiarize participants with the logic of the ggplot package and apply those principles to common use cases. In addition to some generic examples, such as scatterplots with/without regression lines, boxplots, or line charts, these use cases will be largely driven by participants’ needs and requests. Possible topics include grouped plots, faceting (i.e. dividing your data into many categories and plot them individually for comparison), or visualizing regression model output (e.g. through “dot-whisker” plots). Participants will learn through hand-on exercises to build their own plots and learn how to export plots in various formats. The second day will revolve around the main steps involved in creating interactive web applications using R and Shiny Apps. During this day, participants will learn how to prepare data for building interactive graphics, the basic principles for crafting interactive apps and the main alternatives to deploy and share visualizations. After a brief introductory part, this session will be mostly practical. Participants will learn to create generic apps, as well as their own particular visualizations based on participants’ datasets and examples.

We strongly encourage participants to familiarize themselves with the basic principles of R before the course, as we won’t have much time to focus on R basics during the course.

Date of Event: 14.-15.06.2018

Location: GIGA, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

Lecturer:  Felix Haaß is a Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of African Affairs. Pau Palop García is a Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of Latin American Studies.

Further Information and Registration (Deadline: 6 April 2018)

Course Description: This seminar aims at introducing graduate students to grounded theory, a specific research strategy belonging to the large family of qualitative methods. In particular, the seminar 1) situates grounded theory in the history of qualitative methods and presents its two main traditions, objectivist and constructivist grounded theory; 2) discusses the overall structure and the main steps of qualitative research design in grounded theory, from data gathering and sampling; 3) introduces the practice of coding in grounded theory, including initial coding, axial coding and selective coding; 4) reflects on the role of writing in grounded theory, introducing memos as a powerful analytic tool. Drawing on actual research examples and in-class exercises, the instructor will guide students throughout the main steps of grounded theory, hence also critically considering some common challenges in qualitative methods, like data sampling and coding strategies. For this reason, the seminar might also benefit students who are interested in qualitative methods while not planning to use grounded theory in their research.

Date of Event: 06.-07.06.2018

Location: GIGA, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

Lecturer: Alice Mattoni is an assistant professor at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence and a research fellow at the Centre on Social Movement Studies, based in the same institution and directed by Prof. Donatella della Porta. She regularly teaches courses and seminars on qualitative data analysis, computer-assisted qualitative data analysis, grounded theory and visual analysis for social movement studies. She acted as the co-director of the COSMOS/ECPR of Methods for the Study of Political Participation and Mobilization in 2013 and 2015. She is the principal investigator of PiCME – Political Participation in Complex Media Environments (2015-2018), that compares the use of media for institutional and grassroots politics in Greece, Italy and Spain.

Further Information and Registration (Deadline: 6 April 2018)

Course Description: This course offers an introduction to the empirical study of the majority of political systems around the world. According to Freedom House, people live under unfree political conditions within 55 percent of countries worldwide and there has been a rising trend of declining political and civil rights within all regions of the world for more than a decade. More specifically, the course will highlight the following aspects: First, main elements of the definitions and measurement strategies used in current research on authoritarianism will be summarised. Second, a brief overview will introduce recent trends and developments in researching authoritarian regimes. And, third, examples of GIGA research from the work of scholars in the Research Team “Authoritarian Politics” will be introduced in order to illustrate some of the main research strategies used by GIGA scholars in this important field of comparative politics.

Date of Event: 28.05.2018

Location: GIGA, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

Lecturer: Dr Thomas Richter is a Senior Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies.

Further Information and Registration (Deadline: 6 April 2018)

Course Description: This course aims to introduce doctoral students to the most widely used qualitative research technique – the interview. The course begins by outlining the sorts of research question that are best addressed through qualitative interviews, touching on debates about the nature of qualitative data. We then consider the practical considerations when undertaking a qualitative interview project – from selecting participants through to choosing a location in which to conduct the interview and the sorts of things you ought to take with you into the field. There will be a practical exercise on designing a qualitative interview guide, with a session devoted to how to avoid and recognise poorly worded interview questions. Attention will be focused on the key skills that qualitative interviewers need to collect good quality data (including body language, asking open questions, probing, prompting and active listening) and we will discuss the importance of critical reflexivity throughout the research process. Participants will also be introduced to thematic analysis and shown how to undertake a basic analysis using the CAQDAS package, MAXQDA.

The course is primarily aimed at two groups of doctoral students; those who are at the beginning of their qualitative research projects and want to deepen their knowledge of the qualitative interview; and those who have never used qualitative methods and want an introduction to one of main data collection tools used within this approach.

Date of Event: 17.-18.05.2018

Location: GIGA, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

Lecturer: Dr Katy Wheeler is a Lecturer in Sociology at The University of Essex. She has extensive experience of conducting qualitative interviews with a range of different participants from industry experts through to household interviews. Her research interests are in the fields of sustainability and ethical consumption. She is also an instructor at the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis, where she co-runs a course on qualitative interviewing.

Further Information and Registration (Deadline: 6 April 2018)

Course Description: There is by now a broad consensus among scholars of Latin American regionalism (and other regionalisms) not to take the EU as the gold standard for regional integration and cooperation. The focus on Europe and Europe-focused integration theories led to into a blind alley. In the course, we will discuss why this has been the case. But while the Euro crisis and the Brexit had negative repercussions for the EU, they might improve the options for comparative regionalism by adding the study of regional disintegration to the study of regional integration. So once again one might ask and discuss which tools and analytical approaches developed in EU studies might be applied to the study of Latin American regionalism.

Date of Event: 14.05.2018

Location: GIGA, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

Lecturer: Prof Dr Detlef Nolte is Director of the GIGA Institute of Latin American Studies.

Further Information and Registration (Deadline: 6 April 2018)

Course Description: Process Tracing (PT) is a within-case method that focuses on tracing causal mechanisms – the actual ‘link’ between a trigger (X) and an outcome (Y). This workshop will introduce you to the essentials of this method, its main underlying assumptions and its applicability. We will discuss what causal mechanisms are, how we can ‘trace’ them and what kind of causal inferences we can draw on the bases of a process-tracing study. Moreover, to position PT in the broader methodological field we will look at how PT relates to, but differs from, other (larger- and small-N) case study methods and discuss what understanding of causality underlies process-tracing. This introduction to PT will take a hands-on approach applying the new insights to concrete examples and to the participants’ research projects. The first day we will cover most methodological ground and theoretical debates, the second day is largely reserved for debating practical questions and applicability by means of discussing some of the participants’ own research and applications of PT.

Date of Event: 08.-09.05.2018

Location: GIGA, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

Lecturer: Dr Hilde van Meegdenburg is a postdoctoral research fellow at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich & Technical University Munich.

Further Information and Registration (Deadline: 6 April 2018)

Course Description: This course presents a research strategy for the selection of comparative cases from different regions in the field of postwar security sector reform (SSR). Key elements are the demilitarization, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of ex-combatants, reforms in the structure, mandate, accountability, and oversight of the armed forces and the police, as well as in some cases reforms in the justice sector (transitional justice, judiciary). SSR forms part of the standard procedures of international peacebuilding strategies as formulated in the OECD Handbook on Security Sector Reform. However, on the ground, these reforms are not only shaped and influenced by external support but also by the interaction with local conditions such as existing power relations and prior institutional designs. This course introduces to the research strategy we developed starting with three inductive case studies from three regions of the world (El Salvador, Uganda, Nepal) and a quantitative data collection on judiciary reforms for a broader set of postwar countries. The course will introduce into and discuss the challenges of case study selection and data collection.

Date of Event: 03.05.2018

Location: GIGA, Neuer Jungfernstieg 21, 20354 Hamburg, Germany

Lecturer: Dr Sabine Kurtenbach is a Senior Research Fellow at the GIGA Institute of Latin American Studies.

Further Information and Registration (Deadline: 6 April 2018)