4000 word research project
G003
1.INTRO_IP2021_KP.pptIP2021 Scholarly Writing: Introduction to Research Design and Methods
Dr. Kandida Purnell
City University London
Preliminary bits
Moodle sign in:
https://moodle.city.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=31500
https://www.citystudents.co.uk/getinvolved/yourcityfund/
Deadline: 27th Jan!!
£500 to do something (eg. event, project) here at City!
IP2021 Scholarly Writing: Introduction to Research Design and Methods
Dr. Kandida Purnell
City University London
Today
Basics/Course details
Intro to Research
Key debates:
Qualitative vs Qualitative?
Positivist Vs Post-positivist
Your first task
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Warning
This lecture contains the words epistemology, ontology, and methodology
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However
I’m assuming NO existing knowledge/experience of research design and execution
I will be starting from the absolute basics
There are no ‘stupid’ questions
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BUT
You will NEED to read, this (the core text):
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Course Convenor
Dr. Kandida Purnell
Email: [email protected]
@KandidaPurnell
D512 Rhind Building
Office hours:
Monday 1430-1630 (DROP IN)
OR book by e-mail for appointments outside of office hours
Some Questions
Where does knowledge come from?
Who are the makers of knowledge?
How is knowledge made?
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Some Answers
Where does knowledge come from?
Knowledge is produced through research
Who are the makers of knowledge?
Knowledge is produced through research by researchers
How is knowledge made?
Knowledge is produced by researchers through the use of research methods
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This course is not about:
Essay writing (you’ve already done/mastered that)
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This course is about:
Making knowledge by DOING RESEARCH
Becoming an ‘expert’
Developing skills in research design
Understanding epistemology (theory of knowledge) and ontology (theory of being)
Understanding Methodology: The theory that guides your method (informed by epistemology and ontology)
Understanding, selecting, and using an appropriate research method “technique for collecting and analysing data” (Stares, 2010)
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Welcome to the world of research!!!!!
Essay Writing
Designing and conducting RESEARCH PROJECTS
WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
WRITING YOUR DISSERTATION
Research beyond the degree: PG or employment
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What is Research?
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Going out into the world armed with:
- a research question and/or hypothesis
- Knowledge of what has already been said on the issue/the key debates (you’ve done a literature review)
- a theory/some theories and some key concepts
- a methodology (a theory about method)
- a/some research method/s*
Coming back to the office and:
- Analysing your findings
- Drawing conclusions
- Writing it up!
WARNING: In reality, research does not normally unfold in this linear fashion.
RESEARCH METHODS YOU MIGHT USE:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Ethnography
- Participant Observation
- Textual Analysis
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Statistical Analysis
The Research Process (in theory)
Question
Literature Review
Method
Analysis
The Research Process (in reality)
Initial Question
Literature Review
New Question
Method
Analysis
Where does Research come from?
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Organizations, Institutions, and Companies including:
- Governments
- International Organisations
- Political Consultancies
- Political Parties
- Think tanks
- Charities
- Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
- International Non Governmental Organisations (INGOs)
- Civil Society Organizations (CSOs)
- Universities
Who makes it
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People including:
- Policy Officers
- Research Officers
- Research Assistants
- Parliamentary Assistants
- Political Assistants
- Political Consultants
- Academics
(Graduates, people like you!)
Welcome to our world!
- (Research is what we do when we’re not teaching!)
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My Research Background
Research topics:
Global War on Terrorism
War Performance, Commemoration, and Militarism
Bodies, (In)Security, and War
Aid transparency
Green Economy
Research:
Purnell, K. 2018, ‘Grieving, Valuing and Viewing Differently: The Global War on Terror's American Toll', International Political Sociology, Vol. 12(2): 156-171. Impact Factor: 1.923.
Purnell, K. and Danilova, N. 2018, ‘Dancing at the Frontline: Rosie Kay’s 5SOLDIERS De-Realises and Re-Secures the Global War on Terror’, Critical Studies on Security, Vol. 6(3): 370-375.
Purnell, K. 2015, 'Body Politics and Boundary Work Nobodies on Hunger Strike at Guantánamo (2013–2015)', Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, Vol.39 (4): 271-286.
Purnell, K. Forthcoming 2019. ‘Re-thinking the Body in Global Politics: Bodies, Body Politics, Bodies Politics:’, Routledge (Interventions series).
Danilova, N. and Purnell, K. Forthcoming 2020, ‘The ‘Museumification’ of the Scottish Soldier and (Re)production of British Martial Race’, Critical Military Studies.
Bird, J, Lawton, K and Purnell, K. 2010, ‘Green and Decent Jobs: The case for local action’, Institute for Public Policy Research.
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Bringing Bodies Back: The British and American politics of repatriation and war performance during the Global War on Terror
How do past and present military/militarised bodies come into view and make themselves known within the British and American contexts of the GWoT?
‘Bringing Bodies Back’ contributes to knowledge by comparatively analyzing/garnering holistic insight into overarching dynamics, logics, and the implications of bringing two kinds of bodies back, taking a dual approach by:
Scrutinising the repatriations of British and American soldiers injured and KIA in conflicts ongoing under the banner of the GWoT;
2) Exploring British and American public performances and reenactments of past wars re-embodying experiences of WWI and the Vietnam War via national Centenary and 50th Anniversary commemorative effforts and involving Army/Artist engagement.
- Comparative case study analysis (US and UK)
- Fieldwork/Participant Ethnographies: US and UK Repatriation and Performance Sites
- Semi-Structured Interviews w/Key Stakeholders (Gov, Army, War Photographers, Military Families, Performers, Audiences, Artists)
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Army@Fringe and the Performance of War in Public
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How does Army@Fringe work towards engaging performing artists in the co-production, sanitisation and/or reframing of narratives relating to war/soldiering, particularly in regards to embodied gendered, sexualised, racialised experiences?
How does the making visible of particular embodied experiences of soldiers feed into understandings of the contemporary British Army and larger geopolitical dynamics at play, particularly in relations to the visual politics of the GWoT?
Fieldwork (Fringe Festival)
Participant Auto-Ethnography (Performances)
Semi-Structured Interviews (Choreographers, Army, Audience, Fringe Organisers)
My Pre-Academic Research Life
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http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/the-index/2018
- 35 indicators to monitor aid transparency
- Statistical analysis
http://www.publishwhatyoufund.org/the-index/methodology/
My Pre-Academic Research Life
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https://www.ippr.org/publications/green-and-decent-jobs-the-case-for-local-action
- Ethnography
- Focus groups
- Interviews
Koen’s Research
The promotion of and resistance to LGBT equality in international politics.
EU accession of Serbia and how this process affects LGBT politics and activism.
Power relations within transnational politics and the de-construction of core-periphery hierarchical relations, with a specific interest in topics dealing with masculinities and LGBT issues.
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"Not 'coming out'? The attitudinal panopticon & the shallow Europeanisation of LGBT rights in Serbia"
- Fieldwork (Serbia/Brussels)
- Interviews (activists, policy makers)
- Ethnography (Pride events)
Leonie’s Research
The role of social movements, civil resistance campaigns and human rights activism in conflict and peace building.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She aims to understand how activism itself transforms and how it influences the trajectory of a conflict or peace process.
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Negotiating Privilege: The Role of Internal Third-Party Interveners in Civil Resistance Campaigns: The Case of Israeli Anti-Occupation Activists.
- Fieldwork in Israel and O/T
- Participant Ethnographies
- Informal Interviews
- To grow from reader/student to researcher/expert able to:
- Design research projects of your own
- Conduct research and write up:
- 4,000 word research paper (this course’s requirement)
- 10,000 word dissertation (next year)
Why study research design and methods?
How will I learn?
10 Weekly Lectures
Introduction to the Module
Research Question
Reviewing the Literature
Theory
Concepts
Research Design
Case Selection
Text Analysis
Asking Questions and Research Ethics
How to Write a Research Paper
The core text (Halperin & Heath) + readings on Moodle
Regular meetings with your Advisor:
Allocated on the basis of the topic submitting Jan 25th
Will discuss/advise on your progress throughout the course
How will I be Assessed?
Research Paper
Length: 4,000 words
Deadline: 2 May 2019
100% of the final mark
Research Paper Outline (Basic skeleton, more to follow)
Introduction
Introduce research question/s
Set the scene (context: empirical and academic)
Provide summary of what’s to come
Literature Review/Theoretical Framework
What has everyone else in academia already said?
What are the key academic debates in this area?
What are the key theories informing your project
What are the key concepts you will be working with?
Methodology
Research Method/s
Discussion/Analysis
Conclusions
Bibliography
Appendixes
This is also the general form your dissertations will take next time
RESEARCH METHODS YOU MIGHT USE:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Ethnography
- Participant Observation
- Textual Analysis
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Statistical Analysis
A note on ‘Quantitative vs. Qualitative’ Research
Quantitative research refers to research using numbers, and qualitative research refers to that which does not use numbers.
Quantitative and qualitative research are not in opposition to one another. Rather, they can complement each other.
The rift is largely artificial and receding (eg. 5 interviews)
On Research/ing
- How to make knowledge about politics and international relations?
- Key debate: Positivism vs Post-Positivism
Where you sit on this will determine the type of questions you ask and your entire approach as a researcher…
Positivism
Knowledge about the social/political world can be obtained objectively
The things comprising the social/political world can be observed, measured and studied ‘scientifically’
Comte (1848): Social matters can be studied in the same way that scientists studied physics and chemistry where there had been such success with scientific method (‘Enlightenment’)
WHY?? Positivist Epistemology and Ontology
Epistemology: Theory of knowledge.
Positivist Epistemology: There is knowledge out there a priori to the researcher. We just have to uncover/get to know it, through our research.
Ontology: Theory of things that have being/exist.
There are lots of things that have being in the social/political world eg. Terrorism, Democracy. These exist a priori to the researcher who needs only to find, measure, count, and accurately describe these things through their research.
HOW?? Positivism
Key principles:
Generalization/Grand Theories: Aim at explain and predict social phenomena by discovering empirical regularities, formulating law-like generalizations and establishing causal relationships.
Eg. Realism and ‘Balance of Power’ theory
Eg. Liberalism and ‘Democratic Peace’ theory
Empirical Verification: statements can be believed & accepted to the extent that they are derived from empirical evidence
Values: aspiration/claim to value-free form of enquiry.
RESEARCH METHODS A POSITIVIST MIGHT USE:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Ethnography
- Participant Observation
- Textual Analysis
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Statistical Analysis
Post-Positivism (‘interpretivism’)
Critique of Positivism:
Nowhere in social sciences do we find empirical generalizations with the level of precision and confirmation enjoyed by ‘natural’ sciences.
The social/political world is not straightforwardly perceivable because we are a part of it. It’s not simply ‘out there’; it is different for each of us, with things, words, and events carrying different meanings in every case (we are in it).
Arguments:
Human action (social and political phenomenon included) can only be interpreted from the point of view of the actors.
It cannot therefore be adequately studied using the methods of ‘hard’ sciences, with talk of variables and quantification.
WHY?? Post-Positivist Epistemology and Ontology
Epistemology: Theory of knowledge.
Knowledge is imbued with power (Power/Knowledge) and inherently political.
There is no clear, disinterested knowledge – people have experiences, feelings, and understandings that effect the ways that they perceive and interpret the world. Not only is it impossible to eliminate these but they are the stuff out of which the world is made.
Ontology: Theory of things that have being/exist.
Things come into being and are known as such as a result of operations of power.
HOW?? Post-Positivism (‘interpretivism’)
Key principles:
interested in people and the way that they interrelate – what they think and how they form ideas about the world; how their worlds are constructed.
not be trying to be objective or ‘neutral’; rather, you will be accepting the centrality of subjectivity.
RESEARCH METHODS A POST-POSITIVIST MIGHT USE:
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Focus Groups
- Ethnography
- Participant Observation
- Textual Analysis
- Critical Discourse Analysis
- Statistical Analysis
Your First Task
Decide on a broad research topic
Write a few sentences on what interests you about it
Upload this to Moodle by Friday (25th Jan) at 4pm
Some Research Topics
Voting behavior
Social movements
Climate Change
Governance
War (past or present)
Terrorism
Counterterrorism
Democracy
International Institutions
Security
International Trade
International Finance
Financial Crisis
Militarism
Human Rights
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Task for next week (Formulating a Research Question w/Stefano P)
Start brainstorming research questions
Open a word document and jot them down every time you think of one
Any Questions?
