METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

The course aims at making students familiar with the key problems, tools, and techniques of social sciences methodologies, in order to enable them to structure and conduct basic research projects. As a further objective, the course will enable students to understand and critically assess the results of empirical research in the social sciences.

There are no formal prerequisites for this course. Basic notions of sociology are helpful but not formally required.

Knowledge and understanding: Knowledge of: 1) the fundamental problems of social research; 2) the structuring of the different phases of the research cycle and of the problems, objectives, and specific tools of each phase (from the identification of the research question to the presentation of the results), with particular reference to research based on survey data. Applying knowledge and understanding: Ability to competently use the appropriate tools for each phase of the research, identifying problems and possible solutions through the appropriate tools. Resulting ability to structure an effective research project. Making judgements: Familiarity with the alternative choices present in each phase of the research project, and with the need to compromise between different objectives. Understanding of the arbitrary choices necessary in each phase of the research, of the potential subjectivity of the results of the single research, and therefore of the objectivity of science only as intersubjectivity across different researches that publicly disclose the methods and choices used. Communications Skills: Ability to interact with clients and to present the research results in different forms (oral presentation with slides, small research report, scientific article). Learning skills: Critical and conscious perspective towards the results of social research. Concrete understanding of the cumulative learning method of the social sciences, based on the concrete falsifiability of the research hypotheses, and on the crucial importance of the empirical data for the understanding of social reality and the construction of cumulative knowledge.

The course examines the different stages of the lifecycle of social research, with a specific emphasis on the quantitative analysis of individual-level data. After the initial discussion of what is social research, along with different research approaches, the course examines the fundamental topic of research design, along with the formulation, based on theory, of empirically testable hypotheses. The problem of the operationalization of theoretical concepts is then discussed, allowing the presentation of different types of variables, as well as the role of indicators for measuring concepts. A focus is then dedicated to the study of individuals: sampling issues; the use of the structured questionnaire; different types of questions and scales. An introduction to quantitative data analysis is presented, covering univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis. Finally, other types of data are then discussed, with a specific focus on qualitative research methods and techniques.

Corbetta, P., Social Research: Theory, Methods and Techniques, London, Sage, 2003. Additional materials distributed by the instructor during the course.

Class teaching; questionnaire development exercises; data analysis exercises.

Project works + final written exam.

Criteria for accepting requests are: 1) Exam grade 2) Quality of the proposed project Thesis requests should be presented in the form of a one-page project, with a short reference lists and a suggested index. The project should briefly detail the research question and the specific case studies considered. Potentially acceptable requests will be discussed together by the instructors and the student.