Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.
Just tap then “Add to Home Screen”
Install this application on your home screen for quick and easy access when you’re on the go.
Just tap then “Add to Home Screen”
Member rate £492.50
Non-Member rate £985.00
Save £45 Loyalty discount applied automatically*
Save 5% on each additional course booked
*If you attended our Methods School in Summer/Winter 2024.
Monday 25 February – Friday 1 March, 09:00–12:30
15 hours over 5 days
This course is for PhD students who have just started an interpretive or qualitative research project. It is aimed primarily at students of political science, sociology, international relations and public administration, but students of other social science disciplines such as public policy and anthropology will also benefit from it.
The course is organised around the typical steps of a research process – from how to formulate an interpretive research question to how to present and document analyses. It introduces a broad spectrum of interpretive approaches with a focus in particular on narrative methods and discourse analysis. These two approaches provide a good representation of different interpretive strategies, and by understanding their logics and uses, you will be able to select a research strategy that best fits your own research question.
By the end of the course, you should have a working knowledge of interpretive methods, including insights into how they can be used in an interpretive research process.
Tasks for ECTS Credits
2 credits (pass/fail grade) Attend at least 90% of course hours, participate fully in in-class activities, and carry out the necessary reading and/or other work prior to, and after, class, including daily matrix-group work based on readings of the day.
3 credits (to be graded) As above, plus prepare a group presentation, which requires approximately five hours' work outside class, based on matrix work of the day.
4 credits (to be graded) As above, plus complete a four-page assignment to be handed in shortly after the course.
Marie Østergaard Møller is Associate Professor at Aalborg University in Denmark.
Her research interests include social and political categories, categorisation, frontline work, welfare state research, classic social theory of solidarity, and systematic qualitative methods.
Read more about Marie here.
This course offers an introduction to different interpretive methods. You will learn to ‘read’ texts while becoming familiar with contemporary thinking about interpretation, narrative, and discourse. During the course we will focus on narrative method, hermeneutics, phenomenology, discourse analysis, deconstruction method and genealogy. The course is organised with the following six objectives in mind:
The course will cover basic techniques for collecting, interpreting, and presenting analyses. Throughout it, we will operate on two interrelated dimensions, one focused on theoretical approaches to various types of interpretive research, the other on practical techniques for data collection, coding strategies and interpretive strategies of analysis, writing, and presenting findings.
Theoretically, the course considers questions such as:
Practically, the course considers questions such as:
The course introduces a broad spectrum of interpretive approaches; however, its theoretical focus will be on narrative method and discourse analysis, to expose you to methods which put rather different weight on inductive and deductive strategies of interpretation. This will strengthen your general knowledge of interpretive methods, and give you a solid basis for choosing the ‘right’ strategy of interpretation after the course.
This course will give you a basic understanding of how to choose between interpretive methods, including insight into hands-on tools that can be used during an interpretive research process. It will prepare you to take advanced courses in interpretive methods with a more specialised focus on (for example) ethnographic method, grounded theory, narrative method or discourse analysis.
By the end of this course, you should have a basic understanding of how to:
None
Day | Topic | Details |
---|---|---|
1 | Introducing interpretive methods |
|
2 | Interpretive strategies, positions and methods (1) Hands-on strategies for interpretation and analysis (1) |
|
3 | Interpretive strategies, positions and methods (2) Hands-on strategies for interpretation and analysis (2) |
|
4 | Interpretive strategies, positions and methods (3) Hands-on strategies for interpretation and analysis (3). |
|
5 | Condensing and presenting interpretations. Drawing conclusions from interpretive analyses |
|
Day | Readings |
---|---|
1 |
Soss, Joe, 2006: “Talking Our Way to Meaningful Explanations - A Practice Centered View of Interviewing for Interpretive Research”, pp. 127-149 in: (ed. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Method and the Interpretive Turn, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Wagener, Hendrik: Chapter 1 and 2, pp. 3-23 in: Meaning in Action – Interpretation and Dialogue in Policy Analysis. New York: M.E. Sharp. Weiss, Robert S., 1994, “Respondents: Choosing Them and Recruiting Them” in: Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies. New York: Free Press. PP. 15-37. Yanow, Dvora, 2006 “Thinking interpretively: philosophical presuppositions and the human sciences”, 5-26 in: (ed. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Method and the Interpretive Turn, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Yanow, Dvora, 2012: “Ways of Knowing”, pp. 24-44 in: Interpretive Research Design. London: Routledge. |
2 |
Schaffer, Frederic Charles, 2006: “Ordinary Language Interviewing”, pp. 150- 160 in: (ed. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Method and the Interpretive Turn, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Mark Bevir, 2006: “How Narratives explain” in: (ed. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Method and the Interpretive Turn, New York: M.E. Sharpe. PP. 281-290. Riessman, Catherine Kohler, 1993, “Narrative Analysis” in: Qualitative Research MethodsSeries 30. London: SAGA Publications. PP. 1-70 |
3 |
Fairclough, Norman, 2003: “Social analysis, discourse analysis, text analysis” pp. 21-61 & “Discourses and representations” pp. 123-155 in: Analyzing Discourse. Textual analysis of social research. London: Routledge. Phillips, Nelson & Cynthia Hardy, 2002, “Discourse Analysis – Investigating Processes of Social Construction” in: Qualitative Research Methods Series 50. London: SAGA Publications. PP. 1-87. |
4 |
Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe, 2014: “Beyond the Positivity of the Social: Antagonisms and Hegemony”, Chapter 3, pp. 79-131 in: Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso. Stavrakakis, Y., Horwarth, D., & Norval, A., 2000. “Introducing discourse theory and political analysis”, chapter 1 in: Discourse theory and political analysis. Identities. Pp. 1-23. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Dreyfus, Hubert. L. and Paul Rabinow, 1983: "Interpretive Analytics," In: Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, pp. 104-124 Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983, second edition. |
5 |
Miles, Matthew B.,Michael A. Huberman and Johnny Saldana (2014): “Displaying the Data” Chapters 5,11,12, pp. 105- 120, 273-338 in: Qualitative Data Analysis. A Methods Sourcebook, 3. edition. London: SAGE. |
Case Material |
Lindekilde, Lasse, “Discourse and Frame Analysis: In-depth Analysis of Qualitative Data in Social Movement Research” in: D. della Porta (ed.) Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. PP. 1-38. Government of Denmark, 2009: A Common and safe future, www.nyidanmark.dk, pp. 4-30. |
None
None
Government of Denmark, 2009: A Common and safe future, www.nyidanmark.dk
Dvora Yanow, 2006 “Thinking interpretively: philosophical presuppositions and the human sciences,” in: (ed. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Method and the Interpretive Turn, New York: M.E. Sharpe. PP. 5-27.
Dvora Yanow & Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, 2012: “Ways of Knowing” in: Interpretive Research Design. London: Routledge. PP. 24-44.
Hubert L. Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, 1983: "Interpretive Analytics," In: Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983, second edition. PP. 104-125.
Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe, 2014: “Beyond the Positivity of the Social: Antagonisms and Hegemony”, Chapter 3, pp. 79-131 in: Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso.
Lindekilde, Lasse, “Discourse and Frame Analysis: In-depth Analysis of Qualitative Data in Social Movement Research” in: D. della Porta (ed.) Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. PP. 1-38.
Mark Bevir, 2006: “How Narratives explain” in: (ed. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Method and the Interpretive Turn, New York: M.E. Sharpe. PP. 281-290.
Miles, Matthew B.,Michael A. Huberman and Johnny Saldana (2014): “Displaying the Data” Chapters 5,11,12, pp. 105- 120, 273-338 in: Qualitative Data Analysis. A Methods Sourcebook, 3. edition. London: SAGE.
Fairclough, Norman, 2003, “Social analysis, discourse analysis, text analysis” pp. 19-61 & “Discourses and representations” pp. 121-156 in: Analyzing Discourse. Textual analysis of social research. London: Routledge.
Phillips, Nelson & Cynthia Hardy, 2002, “Discourse Analysis – Investigating Processes of Social Construction” in: Qualitative Research Methods Series 50. London: SAGA Publications. PP. 1-87.
Riessman, Catherine Kohler, 1993, “Narrative Analysis” in: Qualitative Research MethodsSeries 30. London: SAGA Publications. PP. 1-70.
Schaffer, Frederic Charles, 2006, “Ordinary Language Interviewing”, Capter 7 in: (ed. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Method and the Interpretive Turn, New York: M.E. Sharpe. PP. 150-160.
Soss, Joe, 2006, “Talking Our Way to Meaningful Explanations - A Practice Centered View of Interviewing for Interpretive Research” in: (ed. Dvora Yanow and Peregrine Schwartz-Shea) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Method and the Interpretive Turn, New York: M.E. Sharpe. PP. 127-149.
Stavrakakis, Y., Horwarth, D., & Norval, A., 2000. “Introducing discourse theory and political analysis”, chapter 1 in: Discourse theory and political analysis. Identities. Pp. 1-23. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Weiss, Robert S., 1994, “Respondents: Choosing Them and Recruiting Them” in: Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies. New York: Free Press. PP. 15-37.
Summer School
Analysing Discourse
Expert Interviews for Qualitative Data Generation
Focus Groups for Qualitative Data Generation
Ethnography
Strategies of Interpretive/Qualitative Political Research
Qualitative Data Analysis : Methods and Procedures
Winter School
Analysing Political Language
Advanced Qualitative Data Analysis
Knowing and the Known: The Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences