Project Seminar
This seminar aims to guide students in the design, preparation and discussion of their original research project. It is intended to deepen the methodological knowledge already acquired, applying them to the concrete research project. The ultimate goal of this seminar is for students to come up with their dissertation plan. At the end, students will discuss the thesis plan with a panel of Ph.D. specialists, who will grade it, and where it is expected that the doctoral student will be able to collect useful inputs for their research.
Research design
Research plan
• formulate a research problem, research questions or hypotheses as well as their objectives;
• justify the pertinence of the problem formulated taking into account the field of PhD in Social Sustainability and Development
• research and elaborate a first review of the literature regarding the theoretical framework that underpins the chosen approach and the state of art in the research area;
• select and justify appropriate data analysis methods, techniques and tools to respond to the stated problem;
• clarify the ethical issues to be respected in the course of the investigation;
• describe the treatment and analysis of predicted data;
• develop a schedule of the work to be done.
• Ability to present the research plan in public.
General framing of a project
Theoretical framework
Methodological Rationale
Strategy of data presentation
Elaboration of thesis plans
Bergmann, M. Schäpke, N., Marg, O. · Stelzer, F. · Lang, D. · Bossert, M.· Ganter, M. · Häußler, E. · Marquardt, E. · et. al. (2021). Transdisciplinary sustainability research in real‐world labs: success factors and methods for change. Sustainability Science 16:541–564.
Bryman, A. (2016). Social Research Methods (5th ed.). Oxford University Press, New York.
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (Eds.). (2017). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (5 th.). SAGE Publications, Thousand.
Newman, W. L. (2014) Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Pearson New International Edition. 7th Edition
Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thornhhill, A. (2020). Research methods for business students. 8th Edition. Pearson Education Limited. UK.
Ensino a distância, na modalidade online, utilizando a plataforma de elearning em uso na Universidade Aberta.
Continuous assessment (presentation of the various items of a thesis plan) has a weighting of 60% and the final evaluation (research project / thesis plan) has a weighting of 40%, 20% corresponding to the presentation and oral discussion of the Plan and the remaining 20% for the written document.
Some readings are in English.