Social Research Methodology

In this course, students are introduced to the multiple ways in which social scientists conduct research and to the basic concepts and techniques that are used in social science research. In particular, the learning objectives are:
a) Providing some essential theoretical elements that characterize the debate on the specificity of social sciences, on their reliability, on the control of affirmations relating to social phenomena such as social inequalities, electoral behavior, change of opinion, geopolitical transformations, etc.
b) Presenting, from a theoretical perspective, the main characteristics of an empirical research (research design) based on the initial hypotheses and the alternative techniques (qualitative or quantitative).

By the end of the course students should have the basic tools and analytical skills to: a) understand the logic of the social research process, b) know the most common techniques of data analysis, c) evaluate critically both qualitative and quantitative research methods.