MY4IR Half Unit
Research Design for International Relations
This information is for the 2022/23 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Audrey Alejandro
Availability
This course is compulsory on the MSc in International Political Economy (Research) and MSc in International Relations (Research). This course is available on the MSc in International Relations and MSc in International Relations (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ and Sciences Po). This course is not available as an outside option.
Course content
Research design represents a key dimension of knowledge production in the social sciences. This course aims to explore the challenges of research design and introduce the broad range of design options for students in International Relations. Drawing on a variety of examples putting into perspective the literature focusing on world politics into the broader context of social science research methods, this course will explore design considerations and options across quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research. At the end of the course, students will be able to read a wide variety of empirical social science with a critical and balanced perspective, assess trade-offs between the strengths and weaknesses of different feasible options, and be better equipped to implement and make arguments defending the methods they use in their dissertations.
Teaching
15 hours of lectures and 13 hours and 30 minutes of seminars in the MT.
The lectures for this course are shared with the course MY400 Fundamentals of Social Science Research Design.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce 1 exercise in the MT.
A project outline (1-2 pages long including in-text citations and reference list) that sets up a research question that the student will develop in their summative assignment.
Indicative reading
- Babbie, E. (2016) The Practice of Social Research [14th edition]. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Blaikie, N. and Priest, J. (2019) Designing Social Research [3rd edition]. Polity Press.
- Cresswell, J.W. and Cresswell, J.D. (2017) Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches [5th edition]. SAGE.
- Devin, Guillaume (eds.) (2018) Resources and Applied Methods in International Relations, Palgrave.
- Luigi Curini, Robe