90529 - METODOLOGIA DELLE SCIENZE SOCIALI

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide advanced methodological tools for empiric research in social sciences. At the end of the course, students possess advanced methodological competencies in social sciences. 

Course contents

The course analyzes qualitative research in social sciences with a focus on ethnography. It discusses the ethnographic ‘field’ as a site and as a practice. Students learn that fieldwork data is not ‘collected’ but ‘produced’ within different historical, geographical, and political contexts and circumstances; it is the result of the relationship between the researcher and the informants. Students also learn that relationships formed on the research field are shaped by external elements such as the policies of funding institutions, and the researcher’s characteristics such as gender, class, ethnicity, and age. Moreover, the course also discusses data collection through in-depth interviews and focus groups and provides the rudiments of visual sociology.

TOPICS

√ THE ETHNOGRAPHIC APPROACH

√ VISUAL SOCIOLOGY

√ ETHNOGRAPHY IN PRISON

√ RESEARCH FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES

√ MAKE-UP

√ ETHNOGRAPHY IN STIGMATIZED TERRITORIES

√ ETHNOGRAPHY IN INSTITUTIONS

√ SOCIAL RESEARCH IN AN ERA OF PANDEMIC

√ THE FOCUS GROUP

√ INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO SOCIAL RESEARCH

Readings/Bibliography

Articles can be accessed via username and password on IOL- Educational material (https://iol.unibo.it).

Videos will be available on dropbox.

Teaching methods

Besides the instructor, guest lecturers will assist the students in their exploration of qualitative approaches to research in social sciences by presenting their own work, the challenges they met and the epistemological strategies mobilized in order to develop situated knowledge. In particular, two guest lecturers will assist students in learning interview techniques by accepting to being interviewed and offering their comments on the way interviews are conducted.

Assessment methods

Students take a written exam lasting two hours. They are asked to answer to three questions on the course reading and presentations.

Assessment scale

Very good/excellent: very good knowledge of the topic and ability to critically analyze concepts, articulate themes, and connect different presentations, articles, and visual materials; high competency in the use of the appropriate terminology.

Good: a good knowledge of the topic, ability to critically analyze concepts, good competency in the use of the appropriate terminology.

Fair: mnemonic knowledge of the topics or modest knowledge of the topics and modest competency in the use of the appropriate terminology.

Poor: mnemonic repetition of concepts and texts or limited ability to deal with the topics, poor competency in the use of the appropriate terminology.

Teaching tools

Guest lecturers, ppt presentations, video materials.

Office hours

See the website of Antonella Ceccagno