UCL - POLITICAL SCIENCE: EPISTEMOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY

[POLS1327]

[45h + 15h] 5 credits

Teacher(s): Amine Ait-Chaalal, David Aubin, Jacques Herman, Benoît Rihoux(coord.)

Language: French

Level: First

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

Firstly, to give an integrated view of the scientific methodology adapted to political science's specificities and to provide the student with an evaluative and critical capacity of research in the various fields of the discipline. Secondly, to put this methodology into practice in a critical way, relying on the methodological and technical assets of the previous years. Thirdly, to be able to choose a methodology adapted to a given subject, and also to carry out a well presented research report.

Main themes

The place of political science in the system of the sciences. Conceptualization and theorization. Modelling: description, explanation, prediction. Inventory of available methodologies. Research designs in the various fields of the discipline. Choice and implementation of a specific methodology for the realization of an effective project.
Working on a articulated research reports.

Content and teaching methods

- Module 1 (20h): Political science status. Kinds of discourses in political science. Science, protoscience, pseudoscience. Political science and the system of the sciences. Reductionism: from bio-politics to geopolitics. Interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity.
Conceptualization, theorization, definition. Language and meaning. Semiotics, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, praxiology. Empirical, ontological and epistemical levels. Paradigm and theory. Modelling: description, explanation, prediction. Description: information, data, facts. Evaluation and operationalisation. Qualitative and quantitative measurements. Explanation: induction, inference, law. Determinism and contingency. Causation, implication, association. Structures, systems, models. Prediction: determinism and chaos. Formalization, axiomatization, simulation. Conclusion: inventory of available comparative, quasi-experimental and survey methodologies. Scope and limits of the various strategies of research
Method: lectures, syllabus, written exam.

- Module 2, plenary + interactive sessions (16 H): examples of "designs" of research: theoretical, empirical, methodological, choices. 8 contrasted kinds of strategies through concrete research published in the various fields of political science (international relations, comparative politics, public action).
- Module 3: (2h, 12h monitorat for 3 audiences: international relations, compared policy, public action): preparation of an individual travail/rapport.
Method: presentations by the teachers and the assistants. Evaluation of individual work (formal and substantive criteria); methodological guides, especially on line (on UCL-site); readings.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Pre-requisite: Political science