UCL - Seminar: Espitemology and Methods of Comparative Politics, Public Administrativ and International Relations

[SPRI2100]

[15h + 15h] 5 credits

This course is taught in the 1st semester.

Teacher(s): Amine Ait-Chaalal, Benoît Rihoux

Language: French

Level: Second

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

Aims

At the end of this in-depth seminar, the student will be able to select the most appropriate methodology for its personal research project (if need be, in preparation of a Ph.D. proposal). He will also be able to give a critical analysis of the applicability of some key empirical approaches (qualitative, quantitative and comparative) to his study object.

Main themes

Through concrete examples of recent research, the seminar aims essentially at presenting a range of empirical methodologies (like their epistemological postulates and positioning), specifically in three fields (and discipli-nary domains within political science):
- international relations;
- public administration (public management and public policies)
- compared policy.

In each field, a limited number of methodologies, which appear particularly relevant, are presented. Their strength and limits are discussed during the seminar.

Content and teaching methods

The first sessions are animated by a teaching staff (3 teachers, 1 per above-mentioned field). They are followed by specific sessions, animated by assistants or researchers (in a Ph.D. process) in political science, who present their specific methodology, by applying it to concrete cases, and by presenting their advantages and their limits in the case study.
This allow each student to work out an individual report, nurtured in a transverse way through whole the ses-sions.

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

Evaluation: individual report, presenting research thematics as well as first hypothesis, followed by a critical view of the principal methodologies presented during the plenary sessions as a whole. To conclude, the student determines the methodological prospect which he thinks the most appropriate to keep on developing his personal project.

Support: printed material (selected readings); slides handed during the sessions.

Supervisory staff: teaching assistants for 15 hours of the seminar