Research Methods
Cod: 43019
Department: DCSG
ECTS: 10
Scientific area: Social Sciences
Total working hours: 260
Total contact time: 40

The seminar provides a large set of conceptual, ethics and operational tools, supporting students in the development of consistent, relevant and innovative research, according to scientific principles and current academic debates on different methods in global studies. Particularly, it guides students in the PhD research planning and design, including its different dimensions and stages.

Science
Methods
Global Studies
Research

The seminar aims to develop the following competencies:
(1) A main knowledge on social sciences, as a lived, creative and diversified field, but anchored in a set of common institutions, as well as methodological and ethical principles;
(2) A reflexive notion on key transdisciplinary and comparative approaches in global studies, including in social sciences, education and environment;
(3) A conscience on the methodological virtues and challenges of social students, raised by the direct contact with recent research on this field;
(4) Ability to develop a consistent PhD research, according to scientific principles.

1. Social Sciences Today
1.1 Methodological and Ethical principles
1.2 Disciplinary, Theoretical and Methodological Diversity
1.3 A critique of modernity: disciplinary and national borders under question

2. Research Approaches in Social Sciences
2.1 Spaces, Identities, Communities: Post-Colonial Approaches
2.2 Interdisciplinary and pathways to a transdisciplinary approach
2.3 Science, Art and Intervention
2.4 Comparative Methods

3. Emergent Research Streams: Virtues and Challenges
3.1 Biographies and Globalization
3.2 Multi-situated Ethnography
3.3 Comparative Statistics
4. Research Design: towards a global study
4.1 The definition of a research theme, object and goals
4.2 State of the Art and a Theoretical Framework
4.3 Research Methods and Techniques
4.4 Ethics and the relation with research subjects
4.5 Outcomes Presentations

BECK, U. (2008). Momento cosmopolita da sociedade de risco, Com Ciência, 104.
BHAMBRA, G. K. (2014). As possibilidades quanto à sociologia global: uma perspetiva pós-colonial, Sociedade e Estado, 29.1, 131-151.
BRYMAN, A. (2012). Social Research Methods, Oxford UP.
DENZIN, N. K., e LINCOLN, Y. S. (eds.) (2018). Handbook of Qualitative Research, SAGE.
GUPTA, A., e FERGUSON, J. (eds.) (1997). Culture, power, place: Explorations in critical anthropology, Duke UP.
LEAVY, P. (2016). Essentials of Transdisciplinary Research: Using problem-centred methodologies, Routledge.
SANTOS, B. de S. (1989). Introdução a uma ciência pós-moderna, Afrontamento.
SASSEN, S. (2004). “The global city: Introducing a concept”, Brown Journal of World Affairs, 11.2, 27-43.
SILVA, A. S. e PINTO, J. M. (orgs.) (1986). Metodologia das Ciências Sociais, Afrontamento.

E-learning

Evaluation will be based on the quality, relevance and consistence of the participation in the learning community, through the platform (50%), as well as on the quality of the research plan, both considering the written document (30%) and the oral presentation, through synchronous communication tools (20%).