Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Jonas Buche (Leibniz University Hannover)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: Since publishing the seminal work “The Comparative Method” by Charles Ragin in 1987, set-theoretic methods and especially Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) have become a common research strategy in the social sciences. Set-theoretic methods analyse cases concerning identifying sufficient and necessary conditions and assume set relations to be equifinal, conjunctural and asymmetric. Not least, since so-called fuzzy sets have been introduced to the method, there has been a rising interest in QCA as a welcome alternative to both small-n case studies and large-n statistical analyses. In short, QCA is recommended if ‘if…then’ hypotheses are analysed, if the goal is to derive sufficient and necessary conditions, if a comparison is planned, and if there is a mid-sized number of cases (between 10 and 60+).

The course offers a comprehensive introduction to QCA and is both conceptually and technically oriented. It starts off with an overview of the basics of set theory and demarcates QCA as a case-oriented method from both the quantitative and the interpretive-qualitative research paradigm. The single elements are built into the Truth Table Algorithm through the notion of necessary and sufficient conditions and truth tables. However, this algorithm is not free of problems. Therefore, some pitfalls and strategies on how to overcome them are presented. The software tool fsQCA will be introduced and applied to published studies on the third day.

A requirement of students: No prior knowledge is required. We will use the software fsQCA2.5, which can be downloaded at www.fsqca.com.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Buche, Jonas. 2017. “Assessing the Quality of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) – Evaluation, Improvement, Application”. Hannover: Leibniz Universität (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323749578_Assessing_the_Quality_of_Qualitative_Comparative_Analysis_QCA_Evaluation_Improvement_Application)
• Cebotari, Victor, and Maarten P. Vink (2013). “A Configurational Analysis of Ethnic Protest in Europe.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Vol. 54(4), 298-324.
• Schneider, Carsten Q./Wagemann, Claudius, 2012. Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences. A Guide to Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

You have to register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Stefanie Heyne (MZES, University of Mannheim)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: Stata is a statistical program package widely used (not only) in the social and economic sciences; it is used for data management, statistical graphics, and analysis of quantitative data. Statistical concepts will not be part of the course, so participants should have some very basic knowledge of statistics. The course should enable participants to prepare their data for analysis, perform adequate analysis using a statistical computer program, and document these tasks to keep them reproducible.

For Beginners with no or very little Stata knowledge!

Course topics cover:

• “What You Type Is What You Get”: Basic Stata Command syntax
• Getting (and Understanding) Help within Stata: Stata Built-in Help System
• Basic Data Management: Load and Save Stata Datasets, Generate and Manipulate Variables, Describe and Label Data and Variables, Perform Basic uni- and bivariate Analyses, and Change the Structure of your Data.
• Basic Stata Graphics: Scatterplot, Histogram, Bar Chart
• Working with “Do-” and “Log-” Files

A requirement for students: Statistical concepts will not be part of the course, so participants should have some basic knowledge of statistics.

Recommended literature and pre-readings: None.

You must register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Marco Lehmann (UKE Hamburg)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: The course introduces the programming language R used for statistical analyses. The beginning of each lecture comes with a demonstration of programming and statistical functions that will be elaborated on in the course of the study. The students will then practice with many statistical examples. In addition to statistical functions, the course will introduce the definition of R as a programming language and its syntax rules. Students will further learn to use R’s scripting capabilities. Successful participation requires basic knowledge of descriptive and inferential statistics. The students are encouraged to bring their own laptops with the free software R (www.r-project.org/) and RStudio (www.rstudio.com/) installed.

A requirement for students: Basic knowledge of descriptive and inferential statistics is recommended.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Matloff, N. (2011). The Art of R Programming: A Tour of Statistical Software Design. No Starch Press.
• Wollschläger, Daniel (2012). Grundlagen der Datenauswertung mit R (2. Aufl.). Berlin: Springer.

You have to register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Sylvia Rohlfer (CUNEF University)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: Regardless of discipline and the original research project, the literature review is a key part of a thesis or article. However, writing a literature review is the most daunting part of writing. Doctoral students often comment that the literature seems (and often is) massive. Hence, it might be helpful to be as systematic as possible when completing this task.

In this course, you will get practical insights and advice on how to write a literature review effectively. This will include tips, tricks and tools to improve your reading and sorting of the references, synthesizing the literature, summarizing existing debates and providing advice on presenting reviews effectively. We will also consider your writing habits. The sessions will be practical and require active involvement by students who will work in groups and get focused feedback on individual projects.

There are no pre-readings for the course, but participants will be required to complete smaller tasks outside the allotted workshop hours. Prior to the seminar, participants should send an extended abstract of their research project (two pages max. and in English/German/Spanish) to srohlfer@cunef.edu.

You have to register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Jonathan Mole (Europa-Universität Flensburg)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: Writing an academic text is a complex task. It requires knowledge of a range of accepted writing conventions and the ability to construct sentences that are not only idiomatically and grammatically correct but also suitably connected to one another. An awareness of the requirements and a degree of practice are necessary.

This workshop is primarily for people who are in the process of writing an academic text in English – a proposal, abstract, article, thesis etc. It provides the opportunity to obtain individual feedback on a text which you submit before the workshop. In the workshop, assistance will be given to enable you to self-correct any issues which have been highlighted (structure, understanding, logic, language etc.). In addition, an overview of the important characteristics of academic English writing will be discussed. If required, exercises will be available to highlight topics such as academic style (formality, impersonal and objective language, passive voice, caution, nominalisation); structure of a sentence, paragraph and document level; reporting verbs and their forms; coherence and cohesion; and citation and reference styles.

A requirement of students: Please supply a maximum of 2 pages of text at least two weeks before the workshop begins. English language skills at CEFR level B2/C1 are required.

Recommended literature and pre-reading: None.

You have to register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Fabian Hattke (University of Bergen, Norway)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: The purpose of this course is to familiarize participants with the basic characteristics of qualitative research. The course introduces methodological and practical aspects of different forms of qualitative research like case studies, discourse analyses, interviews, observations, and qualitative meta-syntheses. The course covers various issues, including the philosophy of science, research designs, theory building, and sampling strategies. It also discusses practical challenges like developing research questions, the use of different coding approaches, technical tools, and ethical questions.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Adler, P. S., Forbes, L. C., & Willmott, H. (2007). Critical management studies. Academy of Management Annals, 1(1), 119-179.
• Alvesson, M., & Karreman, D. (2000). Varieties of discourse: On the study of organizations through discourse analysis. Human Relations, 53(9), 1125-1149.
• Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2014). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Sage publications.
• Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532-550.
• Flick, U., von Kardoff, E., & Steinke, I. (Eds.). (2004). A companion to qualitative research. Sage.
• Hoon, C. (2013). Meta-synthesis of qualitative case studies: An approach to theory building. Organizational Research Methods, 16(4), 522-556.
• Mayring, P. (2004). Qualitative content analysis. A companion to qualitative research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1, 159-176.
• Sandelowski, M., & Barroso, J. (2006). Handbook for synthesizing qualitative research. Springer Publishing.
• Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2015). Methods of critical discourse studies. Sage.
• Yin, R. K. (2017). Case study research and applications: Design and methods. Sage publications.

You have to register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Daniel Lüdecke (UKE Hamburg)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents:  The course teaches how to fit multilevel regression models with the statistical programming language R. First, simple (generalized) linear regression models are introduced to show important basic principles of modeling, like simple regression, interaction terms, non-linear relationships between predictors and outcome (polynomial and spline terms). Later, the application of these principles in a multilevel framework is demonstrated. Furthermore, graphical representation of complex mixed models is covered, which helps communicate complicated models even for a broad audience that is less familiar with such modeling techniques.

Successful participation requires basic knowledge of regression modeling techniques. Students are encouraged to bring their own laptops with the free software R (www.r-project.org/) and RStudio (www.rstudio.com/) installed. All source code to run the examples is provided in preparation for the course.

Requirements: Knowledge of classic regression modeling (familiarity with terms like dependent and independent variables, linear and logistic regression, estimate, …)

Recommended readings:

• Harrison, X. A., Donaldson, L., Correa-Cano, M. E., Evans, J., Fisher, D. N., Goodwin, C. E. D., … Inger, R. (2018). A brief introduction to mixed-effects modelling and multi-model inference in ecology. PeerJ, 6, e4794. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4794
• Bolker, B. M., Brooks, M. E., Clark, C. J., Geange, S. W., Poulsen, J. R., Stevens, M. H. H., & White, J.-S. S. (2009). Generalized linear mixed models: a practical guide for ecology and evolution. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 24(3), 127–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2008.10.008

Required R packages:

• Modelling: lme4, glmmTMB, GLMMadaptive
• Visualization: ggeffects, sjPlot, see
• Summaries and Statistics: parameters, effectsize
• Model Quality: performance
• Data preparation: sjmisc, dplyr, tidyr

The easiest way to install the relevant core packages is by running the following code:

install.packages("easystats", repos = "https://easystats.r-universe.dev")
easystats::install_latest()
easystats::install_suggested()

To install further required packages, run:

install.packages(c("lme4", "glmmTMB", "effects", "emmeans", "modelsummary",
"sjmisc", "sjlabelled", "ggeffects", "sjPlot", "dplyr", "tidyr"),
dependencies = TRUE)

You must register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: PD Dr. Kamil Marcinkiewicz (University of Hamburg)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: Case study research is frequently applied in the social sciences. It is particularly popular among political scientists, especially those specialising in area studies. The ubiquity of the case study research contrasts with the scarcity of theoretical reflection on its core methodological aspects. Also, the benefits of comparative analyses are often underestimated. In this course, participants will have an opportunity to learn more about what case study research is, what are its weaknesses and strengths and how should we go about the core question in designing a case study: a selection of cases. The course combines lectures with practical exercises and discussions of students’ projects.

A requirement for students: Please bring your laptop computer.

Recommended literature and pre-readings:

• Gerring, J. (2007). Case Study Research: Principles and Practices (pp. 17-63). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• George, A. L., & Bennett, A. (2005). Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences (pp. 1-34). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Rueschemeyer, D. (2003). Can One or a Few Cases Yield Theoretical Gains? In J. Mahoney and D. Rueschemeyer (Eds.), Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (pp. 305-337) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Hall, P.A. (2008). Systematic Process Analysis: When and How to Use it. European Political Science, 7(3), 304-317.

You have to register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Gilberto Rescher (University of Hamburg)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: This workshop aims to offer a comprehensive introduction to Grounded Theory, considering its use in manifold fields and contexts of study and the feasibility of combining it with diverse research techniques (mainly qualitative and ethnographic ones). The workshop is as much oriented to “beginners” interested in learning about the basic epistemological perspective of Grounded Theory and its practice as to participants that already possess deeper knowledge about Grounded Theory or even have employed this methodology in research and wish to discuss specific aspects or questions that arose in research practice. Correspondingly, the workshop will be adjusted to participants’ needs.

Hence, we will discuss basic concepts and procedures like research design, data collection, coding, categorizing, writing memos, theoretical sampling and theoretical saturation. Then exercises based on examples; ideally, those attributed by participants will be employed to clarify these concepts by putting them into practice. Therefore, participants with concrete research projects (be it planned or already put in practice) are invited to share their ideas, design, and material to (further) develop research practices among the group. If you are interested in presenting examples, please contact Gilberto Rescher in English or German (gilberto.rescher@uni-hamburg.de). The lecturer will also stress his own research experiences to show how he uses Grounded Theory as an important guideline in a broader methodological setting.

In addition to your registration, please answer the following questions (English or German):

• What is your current status (e.g. PhD student?)
• What is the focus of your interest in Grounded Theory?
• What sort of content and what feedback do you expect?

You have to register for the International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Timo Friedel Mitze (University of Southern Denmark)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: The one-day workshop is organized as a (basic!) introduction to the use of panel data in the different fields of business and social sciences. It is not meant as an expert course in advanced panel data modelling. Participants should take this into account before enrolling for the course.

Panel data (sometimes also referred to as longitudinal data) can be best described as the combination of cross-sectional and time-series information for individuals, firms, regions, countries etc. The main goal of the workshop is thus to provide participants with insights into why and when applied researchers can benefit from working with panel data. The course gives an overview of the different types of micro and macro models that are available for panel data estimation and shows how to properly estimate these models with the help of the statistical software package STATA. Examples of models covered are pooled OLS (POLS), random and fixed effects type models, REM and FEM, respectively, Difference-in-Difference estimation and panel event studies. On the fly, the workshop will show participants how STATA organizes panel data to use the above-described models effectively. Building on these basics, a brief outlook on more advanced panel data estimation techniques will be given.

Course Tools: Please bring your laptop computer. STATA can be installed at the beginning of the IRWS. Licences will be provided. Datasets and STATA ado-files will be provided ahead of the course and should be installed on the participants’ computers. A list of introductory readings will be provided to registered participants ahead of the course.

Exemplary Readings: Baltagi, B. Econometric Analysis of Panel Data. 3^rd or higher edition, Wiley.