Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

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 the publication of 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 with regard to the identification of 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. Through the notion of necessary and sufficient conditions and of truth tables, the single elements are built into the Truth Table Algorithm. However, this algorithm is not free of problems. Therefore, some pitfalls and strategies on how to overcome them are presented. On the third day, the software tool fsQCA will be introduced and applied to published studies.

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:

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

Introduction to Data Mining and Quantitative Text Analysis with R

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Pascal Jürgens (Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 15

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: This course offers a simple and pragmatic introduction into the quantitative analysis of textual data in R and simple data mining tasks. There are four main themes: 1) Data logistics: Data preparation is a crucial task that often takes a lot of work and significantly influences results. We will, therefore, spend some time to understand how to load, prune, re-arrange and represent textual datasets. 2) Text analysis tools: This section will introduce methods for answering research questions through quantitative approaches, such as word frequency analysis, topic modelling and select semantic methods (if there is a specific application, participants are particularly interested in, they are encouraged to reach out in advance to make sure it will be covered). 3) Data mining: Part three covers simple but powerful types of machine learning including clustering and linear models. More advanced methods (such as neural networks) will not be covered in DIY-exercises, although we may cover the basic mechanisms if time permits. 4) Rigour: The quantitative methods at hand are particularly sensitive to conceptual and empirical variation. We will, therefore, take apart some of our example models in order to understand how and when they fail.

A basic familiarity with the R environment and R Studio is required; introductory material will be provided in advance so that participants can read up and gain the necessary skill level before taking part. Participants should bring a laptop with R Studio pre-installed (www.rstudio.com).

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

Case Study Research

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Kamil Marcinkiewicz (Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenbourg)

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 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 the case study research is, what are its weakness 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 discussion of students’ projects.

A requirement of 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.

Data Analysis with R

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 in the course of 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 of students: Basic knowledge in 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.

Writing Your Literature Review

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Paul Vickers (University of Regensburg)

Date: see Workshop Programme

Max. number of participants: 20

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English

Contents: All research, whatever the discipline and however original, draws on existing studies. Any research project necessarily positions itself in relation to existing empirical, theoretical and methodological debates. This course provides practical insight and advice on how to write a literature review (Forschungsstand) providing an overview of the “state of the art”. The course will begin with insights on tips, tricks and tactics for tackling the literature review, including collecting and synthesizing literature, summarizing existing debates, and providing advice on academic writing in English. The sessions will also involve group work and focused feedback on individual projects.

There are no pre-readings for the course. Some general handbooks that are useful are listed below. However, I would require that each participant sends us at least one week in advance of the course an extended abstract (Exposé in English or German) of their research project.

  • Patrick Dunleavy. How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation. Palgrave: 2003.
  • Jose L. Galvan. Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. University of Michigan: 2004.
  • Ansgar Nünning/Roy Sommer, Hrsg. Handbuch Promotion. Forschung – Förderung – Finanzierung. Metzler: 2007.

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

Grounded Theory

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: The purpose of this workshop is to offer a comprehensive introduction to Grounded Theory considering its use in manifold kinds of 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 the 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 buy 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, with the aim 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). Apart of this the lecturer will stress upon his own research experiences to show how he actually uses Grounded Theory as an important kind of 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.

Qualitative Research Methods

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Dr. Fabian Hattke (Universität 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 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 a variety of issues, including the philosophy of science, research designs, theory building, and sampling strategies. It also discusses practical challenges like the development of 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.

Data Analysis with Stata

Institution: see Organisers & Supporters

Programme of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Tobias Gramlich, Hesse State Statistical Office

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, Change the Structure of your Data
  • Basic Stata Graphics: Scatterplot, Histogram, Bar Chart
  • Working with “Do-” and “Log-” Files

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

Recommended literature and pre-readings: None.

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

Call for Papers: German Journal – Sprache – Literatur – Kultur

We are accepting submissions for academic research on anything “German” – be it a cultural issue, a literary analysis, or linguistic research on how to learn German, and more. We are an interdisciplinary journal and are looking to combine various topics in our publications. We publish in English and German and are looking for a word count of no more than 10.000 words. Submit your paper here https://dc.cod.edu/gj/, or click here https://germanjournal.org/ for more information.

— ACHTUNG: kurze Anmeldefrist — VHB Pro-Dok-Kurs: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS in Hamburg

Vom 22. bis 25. September 2020 findet der jedes Jahr sehr erfolgreiche VHB-ProDok Kurs „Qualitative Research Methods: Processes and Methods of Qualitative and Mixed Method Research” in Hamburg statt. Durchgeführt wird der Kurs von Professor Thomas Wrona (Technische Universität Hamburg) und Professor Philipp Mayring (Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt).

Grundlegendes Ziel dieses Kurses ist es, den Teilnehmenden Kenntnisse über den Prozess und die Methoden qualitativer Forschungsdesigns zu vermitteln und die Eignung solcher Designs für konkrete Problemstellungen der Teilnehmer zu diskutieren (Werkstatt-Prinzip).

  • Grundlagen und spezifische Merkmale qualitativer Forschung
  • die Indikation qualitativer Forschung und die Rolle der Wissenschaftstheorie
  • der qualitative Forschungsprozess und der Einfluss von Theorien
  • die Erhebung qualitativer Daten
  • die Auswertung qualitativer Daten: Grounded Theory, Ethnografie, Qualitatives Experiment, Qualitative Heuristik, Diskursanalyse, Sequenzanalyse, Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse
  • Gütekriterien und Geltungsbegründung qualitativer Befunde
  • Methodenintegrative Designs (Mixed Methods)

Interessierte können sich noch bis 29. Juni 2020 per Email an prodok@vhbonline.org anmelden.

Im Moment ist angedacht, den Kurs wie geplant durchzuführen.

Aufgrund der aktuellen Situation informieren wir Sie, dass Sie im Falle einer Terminverschiebung die Möglichkeit haben, Ihre Anmeldung kostenfrei und ohne Erhebung einer Bearbeitungsgebühr schriftlich zu stornieren. Die Kursgebühr wird jeweils erst dann fällig, wenn über Kursformat und Durchführung gesicherte Informationen vorliegen.

Informationen zur Anmeldung finden Sie hier.

Weitere Informationen zum VHB ProDok-Angebot finden Sie unter http://prodok.org.

Für Rückfragen steht Ihnen die Projektkoordinatorin Kathrin Schöps kathrin.schoeps@vhbonline.org) von der Geschäftsstelle des VHB gerne zur Verfügung.