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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.
Friday 22 February 13:00–15:00 and 15:30–18:00
Saturday 23 February 09:00–12:30 and 14:00–17:30
This course is for PhD students who want to address causal explanations or systematic comparisons in an interpretive or qualitative research project.
It is aimed at students of political science, sociology, international relations and public administration, but students of public policy and anthropology would also benefit. You will learn how to:
After the course, you will understand:
1 credit (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.
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.
In this course, you will learn how to develop vignettes while familiarising yourself with contemporary thinking about deliberative manipulation to integrate experimental logic into an interpretive or qualitative investigation. We will learn:
The course has five objectives:
I will cover basic techniques for collecting, interpreting, and presenting analyses of vignettes. We will operate on two interrelated dimensions, one focused on the theoretical approaches to various types of vignette method, the other on practical techniques to formulate, develop and validate the vignettes used in the interpretive or qualitative research design.
Theoretically, the course considers questions such as:
Practically, the course considers questions such as:
I will take a realist approach to causal explanation, focusing on two techniques in vignette method: profiling versus manipulation. I chose these as examples of methods which use vignette method to put rather different weight on causal explanation. This will strengthen your general knowledge of vignette methods, and give you a solid basis to choose the right strategy of vignette analysis in your own research.
By the end of the course, you will know how to choose between vignette methods, and have insight into hands-on vignette research tools. You will be able to follow advanced courses in interpretive or qualitative methods with a more specialised focus on, for example, ethnographic method, grounded theory, narrative method, discourse analysis or process tracing.
After the course, you should have a basic understanding of:
None; this is an introduction to qualitative courses.
Day | Topic | Details |
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1 | Introducing vignette methods |
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2 | Positions in vignette methods (1) Hands-on strategies for vignette analysis (1) |
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Friday | Introducing vignette methods. |
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Saturday | Positions in vignette methods (1) Hands-on strategies for vignette analysis (1) |
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Day | Readings |
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1 |
Maxwell, Joseph A., 2004: “Using Qualitative Methods for Causal Explanation”, pp. 243-264 in: Field Methods, Vol 16, No. 3. 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. Sayer, A., 1992: Method in Social Science: A realist approach. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. or: Archer, M., R. Bhaskar, A. Collier, T. Lawson, and A. Norrie, 1998: Critical realism: Essential readings. London: Routledge. Barter, Christine & Emma Renold, 1999: “The use of vignettes in qualitative research” in Social Research Update. Vol. 25. Finch, Janet, 1987: “The Vignette Technique in Survey Research” in Sociology. Vol. 21, pp. 105-114. Møller, Marie Østergaard, 2009: “Research design data collection and data processing”, in Solidarity and categorization, Aarhus: Politica. Ejrnæs, Morten, 2012: Vignetmetoden, København: Akademisk forlag |
2 |
Seidman, I. E., 1991, Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. New York: Teachers College Press. Thomas, David R, 2006: “A General Inductive Approach for Analyzing Qualitative Evaluation Data”, American Journal of Evaluation vol. 27 no. 2, 237-246. Miles, Matthew B.,Michael A. Huberman and Johnny Saldana (2014): Qualitative Data Analysis. A Methods Sourcebook, 3. edition. London: SAGE. (Excerpts). Charmaz, Kathy, 2006: Selected pieces from: Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. London: SAGA publications. |
Friday |
Barter, Christine & Emma Renold, 1999: The use of vignettes in qualitative research, in Social Research Update Vol. 25. Barter, C. and E. Renold, 2000. ‘I Wanna Tell You a Story’: Exploring the Application of Vignettes in Qualitative Research with Children and Young People. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 3(4):307–23. Eskelinen, L. and D. Caswell, 2006. Comparison of Social Work Practice in Teams Using a Video Vignette Technique in a Multi-Method Design. Qualitative Social Work 5(4):489–503. Hughes, R. and M. Huby, 2004. The Construction and Interpretation of Vignettes in Social Research. Social Work & Social Sciences Review 11(1):36–51. Jenkins, N., M. J. Bloor, J. Fischer, L. Berney, and J. Neale, 2010. Putting It in Context: The Use of Vignettes in Qualitative Interviewing. Qualitative Research 10(2):175–98. Møller, M Ø, 2009: Research design data collection and data processing, in Solidarity and categorization, Aarhus: Politica. |
Saturday |
Collett, J. L. and E. Childs, 2011. Minding the Gap: Meaning, Affect, and the Potential Shortcomings of Vignettes. Social Science Research 40(2):513–22. Harrits, Gitte Sommer & M. Ø. Møller: Vignette experiments in qualitative and interpretive research, UNDER REVIEW in Qualitative Research. 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. Maxwell, J. A., 1992. Understanding Validity in Qualitative Research. Harvard Educational Review 62(3):279–300. Maxwell, Joseph A., 2004: Using Qualitative Methods for Causal Explanation, pp. 243–264 in: Field Methods, Vol 16, No. 3. |
None
None
Barter, Christine & Emma Renold, 1999: The use of vignettes in qualitative research, in Social Research Update Vol. 25.
Barter, C. and E. Renold, 2000. ‘I Wanna Tell You a Story’: Exploring the Application of Vignettes in Qualitative Research with Children and Young People. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 3(4):307–23.
Collett, J. L. and E. Childs, 2011. Minding the Gap: Meaning, Affect, and the Potential Shortcomings of Vignettes. Social Science Research 40(2):513–22.
Eskelinen, L. and D. Caswell, 2006. Comparison of Social Work Practice in Teams Using a Video Vignette Technique in a Multi-Method Design. Qualitative Social Work 5(4):489–503.
Harrits, Gitte Sommer & M. Ø. Møller: Vignette experiments in qualitative and interpretive research, UNDER REVIEW in Qualitative Research.
Hughes, R. and M. Huby, 2004. The Construction and Interpretation of Vignettes in Social Research. Social Work & Social Sciences Review 11(1):36–51.
Jenkins, N., M. J. Bloor, J. Fischer, L. Berney, and J. Neale, 2010. Putting It in Context: The Use of Vignettes in Qualitative Interviewing. Qualitative Research 10(2):175–98.
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.
Maxwell, J. A., 1992. Understanding Validity in Qualitative Research. Harvard Educational Review 62(3):279–300.
Maxwell, Joseph A., 2004: Using Qualitative Methods for Causal Explanation, pp. 243–264 in: Field Methods, Vol 16, No. 3.
Møller, M Ø, 2009: Research design data collection and data processing, in Solidarity and categorization, Aarhus: Politica.