78074 - Social and Political Research Methodology (dispa)

Academic Year 2018/2019

Learning outcomes

The course deals with basic topics concerning the methodology of socio-political empirical research.

Students will acquire knowledge and skills useful for the comprehension of the main data collection designs, the critical evaluation of data displayed in socio-political empirical research, as well as the skills needed for producing basic (univariate) statistical analyses.

Course contents

The course is dedicated to students who have never studied topics concerning key concepts underlying social research method and techniques, neither theoretically nor empirically. Students who have successfully passed a course in Methodology of Social Research or Social Statistics may already possess the knowledge and skills provided by this course and may choose to attend the course of Method and Techniques for Data Analysis offered by the School of Political Science (of Bologna campus).

The course aims to retrace the debate around social science method and offers knowledge about the most common data collection and analysis strategies in the field of socio-political empirical research. Lessons will address the following topics: logic of social research; the concept of method in social research, standard and non-standard approaches to social research, operationalization and operational definitions, concepts and indicators, questionnaires, sampling strategies, types of property and types of variable, displaying social research results; basic (descriptive) statistical analysis.

Readings/Bibliography

Corbetta P., Metodologia e tecniche della ricerca sociale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014 (the entire text, except par. 5 of chapter VII, par. 9 of chapter XIII and chapter XIV).

Teaching methods

Face-to-face lessons.

Assessment methods

The exam is administered in exclusively written form. The only valid mark is the one achieved in the most recent attempt to pass the exam. A candidate who doesn't participate in an exam for which he/she has registered cannot participate in the following exam session.

Office hours

See the website of Debora Mantovani