Unit POLITICAL AND SOCIAL RESEARCHMETHODOLOGY
- Course
- Political sciences and international relations
- Study-unit Code
- 10A00015
- Curriculum
- Scienze politiche
- Teacher
- Giovanni Barbieri
- Teachers
-
- Giovanni Barbieri
- Hours
- 63 ore - Giovanni Barbieri
- CFU
- 6
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2020
- Offered
- 2022/23
- Learning activities
- Affine/integrativa
- Area
- Attività formative affini o integrative
- Academic discipline
- SPS/11
- Type of study-unit
- Opzionale (Optional)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
International and Erasmus students are invited to attend the course. Readings and other course material are also available in English; oral exam, as detailed in the course program, may be taken in English. Please contact the teacher for further details and to schedule an appointment during the first week of the Fall Semester. - Contents
- The program is devoted to analyse the fundamentals of social and political research. Referring to some on the most relevant social and political research, it will focus, in particular, on the following topics: method and research strategies; techniques of research (interviews, focus groups, delphi techniques, observation, etc.); research tools (questionnaire, temario, track interviewing, etc.); concepts, indicators and indices; processing and analysis of data.
In the final part of the course will address the new technique of data analysis: web surveys, analysis of big data, etc. - Reference texts
- - P. Corbetta, La ricerca sociale. metodologia e tecniche. Vol II: Le tecniche quantitative, Il Mulino.
- P. Corbetta, La ricerca sociale. metodologia e tecniche. Vol III: Le tecniche qualitative, Il Mulino.
Handouts regarding the new techniques of research will be distributed during the lessons. - Educational objectives
- The learning outcomes relate to the scope of both the knowledge acquired about the methodology and research techniques and their actual application to the analysis of the social and political reality.
The main knowledge acquired will cover:
- the main research techniques;
- the construction and use of research tools (questionnaire, “temario”, observation form, etc.);
- the choice of indicators and the construction of the indices;
- the use of graphical and tabular representation.
The necessary skills to collaborate to specific research will be given to the student . Moreover, these skills can be used by the student in preparing his graduation thesis. - Prerequisites
- Special prerequisites and skills are not required to properly understanding the content of the teaching. A preliminary knowledge of the major social and political phenomena that characterize the contemporary reality, as well as the ability to read graphs and tables that summarize some aspects of these phenomena are however considered useful. For these reasons it is recommended to take the exam after those of Sociology and Political Science.
- Teaching methods
- The course is organized as follows:
1. Lectures on the topics of the course;
2. Practice exercises, which will be carried out by dividing the class into small groups.
The exercises will be dedicated to:
- identify indicators of general concepts (such as, eg., globalization, poverty, quality of life, etc.);
- identify the most common mistakes made in the construction of research tools (eg. questionnaires realized in concrete research containing some questions not properly constructed);
- learn the basics of the most common programs for data analysis (SPSS and Excel). - Learning verification modality
- The exam consists of an oral examination lasting about twenty minutes. The exam is essentially aimed at determining: 1) the level of knowledge and understanding of the content of the teaching program (methods, techniques and tools of social and political research); 2) the ability to apply this knowledge to the analysis of some of the major social and political phenomena; 3) language and communication skills; 4) the ability to explain what has been learned in a critical and independent way.
For informations about support services for students wih disabilties and/or DSA see http://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa - Extended program
- The student will be introduced to the fundamentals of social and political research . First of all, the program deals with the topics of scientific method and research strategies (experimental and non-experimental). Afterwards we will focus on the main techniques that are available to the researcher: the interview in its various forms (structured, semi-structured and in-depth interviews), the focus groups, the delphi techniques, the observation, etc. Specific attention will also be devoted to the "good" construction of research tools (questionnaire, temario, track interviewing, etc.) and their proper use. We then proceed to analyse the breakdown of general concepts in indicators and the construction of indices; finally, the input, processing and data analysis will be tackled.
Furthermore, some of the most important researches realized in the social and political fields will be taken into consideration.
A specific attention will be devoted to the new technique of data analysis: web surveys, analysis of big data, etc.