This seminar enables students to design and conduct their own empirical research projects. It provides the necessary foundations and facilitating conditions for writing a method paper (Methodenseminararbeit), an empirical paper (Masterseminararbeit) or the master thesis (Masterarbeit). It introduces the basic elements of a research design, discusses core methods of qualitative studies (different kinds of case studies and different kinds of text analysis), and guides students step by step through the development of an empirical research paper. To that end, the lecturers will provide helpful advice for each step of a research process, including: - formulating a precise and focused research question - scrutinizing the state of the art in order to deduce hypotheses or other expectations - describing the applied method as tool for a systematic approach towards the empirical material - justifying the selection and definition of cases or empirical material - collecting/generating and analyzing/interpreting data, and - answering the research question and reflecting on the wider implications of the findings.
The course will be based on text books and encourages the discussion of published articles that apply these research designs and methods. The participants will have to solve short assignments for both families of qualitative research designs. In addition, they will formulate an abstract in which they scrutinize the research design of their own individual project.
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