The course aims to give a basic orientation in the epistemology of social science. The lectures will focus on epistemological issues and problems fundamental to social scientific explanation. We will address traditional questions of the scientific method about the kind of knowledge that social science should, or can, strive for. Then we will focus on the relationship between individual actors and larger social structures and the epistemological foundations of the rational choice approach that shaped social science research in recent decades.
A thorough knowledge of the literature and an in-depth understanding of classic works in the field of political and social science will be acquired. Analytical skills and the capacity to critically evaluate scholarly research will be developed. Originality in the application of knowledge will be encouraged, alongside a practical understanding of how research and enquiry contribute to the creation and interpretation of knowledge.
The course is an introduction to empirical political and social research methods and represents an opportunity for students to develop skills in basic data analysis, and interpretation and presentation of research findings, including standards for written research papers. The course will stress quantitative research designs and “how to do” empirical analysis. For this purpose, the course focuses on issues such as data collection, measurement issues, research design, and univariate and bivariate data analysis.
This course discusses the main features of designing qualitative research in the social and political sciences, presents some of the most common qualitative data gathering methods and introduces some key analytical strategies and approaches to make sense of qualitative data. Students are required to attend all course classes, study compulsory readings in advance and be ready to discuss them in class with the instructor. More specifically, two selected students will be required to deliver a 10-minutes comment on the assigned readings each day of class. Comments are not summaries of the assigned readings but rather a critical evaluation of the assigned readings’ main points. Thus, students might reflect on the assigned reading's weaknesses and strengths or discuss the readings referring to their research project.
These seminars provide an overview of the key approaches and issues in the substantive sub-fields of Comparative Politics. This introduction will outline the key sub-fields of Comparative Politics, cultivate individual academic-mindedness, and highlight promising research topics. We will engage seminal works as well as more recent research in order to familiarize ourselves with the origin and development of streams of research central to the field. This course is designed to be a foundational survey of the field and students will engage key dimensions of major sub-field literatures in discussion, interaction, and research.
Seminars in International Relations and Area Studies
The module explores several interconnected themes, beginning with the legacies of classical International Relations (IR) theory and their enduring relevance in contemporary analyses. By examining foundational theories, the module encourages students to consider how these theoretical frameworks continue to shape contemporary approaches to IR, while also prompting reflection on their evolving interpretations. A significant focus is placed on bridging the gap between IR theories and area studies, particularly in their application to the “non-Western” world. This involves assessing the adaptability of IR theories when applied to diverse global contexts, questioning whether these approaches can, or should, be reconciled with local knowledge and regional dynamics.
The purpose of the seminar is to explore and discuss some of the most influential and productive topics in sociological research. Based on the reading of founding texts of the discipline, participants are invited to debate the assumptions and implications of different directions of research, particularly from the point of view of their relevance to contemporary work. By the end of the course, participants will have acquired an advanced familiarity with the central concepts and perspectives of the discipline, to which they will be able to refer competently in the development of their work.
This seminar course is designed to introduce doctoral students to the literature on public policy and to develop their ability to think critically about policy-making in different political and social contexts. The course focuses largely on theories and conceptualisations related to understanding and explaining policy dynamics. Doctoral students should consider this course as a stepping stone to mastering a broad knowledge of the key concepts of how policy dynamics (and even their policy trade-offs) evolve over time. Actors and agency, change and stability, institutions and ideas are the central concepts of the main theories of policy dynamics, although they are mixed and arranged in different ways according to the research questions the theories seek to answer. Thus, by focusing on the drivers and components of policy dynamics, the course also sheds light on the political and social drivers of the processes through which collectivized decisions are made and implemented, at different institutional and governance levels, and their socio-political effects. The course will serve as a foundation for the students’ research not only in public policy, but also in sister disciplines like sociology and international relations.
This seminar examines a selection of foundational works in the field of international relations, that is, books and articles that have helped set the terms of intellectual inquiry in the field during the past half-century or more. Accordingly, we will examine how scholarship has framed the IR field in terms of a central problem, namely, the problem of war and conflict between nations on the one hand, and peace and cooperation among them on the other. We will examine how scholarship has addressed this problem through the employment of arguments at one or another of three basic levels of analysis in the study of international relations, that is, the identification and assessment by scholars of causal mechanisms producing war/conflict and peace/cooperation that emphasize the impact of individuals, domestic-structures, and the interstate-structure.
COURSES FOR THE 2ND, 3RD AND 4TH YEAR PHD STUDENTS(35°, 36° AND 37° CYCLE)
Getting published is notoriously hard. Although there are no rules of thumbs to construct a good research paper, the course deals with how to write articles for academic journals. The primary focus is on writing papers and responding to reviews. A secondary goal is to familiarize students with the requirements of journals as well as to provide them with first-hand experience with the publication process.