Methods and research issues with applications - SIENA, Spring 2014
Venue:
Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences - DISPOC
Via Mattioli, 10 / Via Roma, 56 - 53100 Siena - Italy
Political science is undergoing a silent methodological revolution. In the last decade, a flurry of methodological activism has enriched and diversified the toolkit available for analysis to political science. Two areas sparking such an activism are related to the use of experiments - broadly conceived - and to the problem of causal inference in case study and comparative research. While in his seminal article on the comparative method in political science, Lijphart (1971) contrasted the experimental with the comparative and statistical designs, over the years, this clear-cut distinction between these three designs has been challenged. Rules of scientific inference for experimental and statistical or observational designs are now often discussed together.
We offer two crash courses that introduce graduate students and professionals to these methodological debates showing, at the same time, what makes them relevant in concrete scientific applications in political science.
For further informations and registration:
CIRCaP, University of Siena
Attn. Manuela Maltese
Tel 0577-235299
email maltese4@unisi.it
Instructors
- Andrew Bennett (Georgetown University, bennetta@georgetown.edu)
- Pierangelo Isernia (Università di Siena, isernia@unisi.it)
- Francesca Longo (Università di Catania, lonfran@unict.it)
Course Overview
The course aims to provide graduate students with a basic introduction to the use of case study and comparative methods in political and social sciences. The course will deal with methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of case and comparative research.
The course is divided in three parts:
(1) Introducing the case study and comparative research methods in political and social sciences.
(2) Understanding the basic methodological issues in comparative and case study research (such as structured and focused comparisons of cases, process tracing, congruence testing, and the use of counterfactual analysis).
(3) Critically analyzing a selection of studies related to political sciences.
Course objectives
The participants will develop an understanding of the main logical foundations of comparative and case study research in political and social sciences. They will also gain insight into the most recent empirical literature of comparative political science. Finally, they will be able to critically read case study and comparative designs and conclusions. Students will also be given the opportunity to apply some of the concepts and approaches to the study of Italian foreign policy.
Instructors
- Bernhard Kittel (University of Vienna, bernhard.kittel@univie.ac.at)
- Alessandro Innocenti (Università di Siena, alessandro.innocenti@unisi.it)
- Pierangelo Isernia (Università di Siena, isernia@unisi.it)
Course Overview
The course aims to provide graduate students with a basic introduction to the use of experimental methods in political and social sciences. The course will deal with methodological, theoretical and practical aspects of experimentation. It will assume no prior knowledge of experimental methods.
The course is divided in three parts:
(1) Introducing experiments as a research method in political and social sciences.
(2) Understanding the basic methodology behind experimental design.
(3) Critically analyzing a selection of experimental studies and designs related to political sciences and economics.
Course Objectives
The participants will develop an understanding of the main foundations and assumptions of experimental methods in political and social sciences. They will also gain insight into the empirical literature of experiments from political science, economics and neuroscience. Finally, they will be able to critically read experimental designs and conclusions. Students will also be given the opportunity to act as subjects in a laboratory experiment, which will be performed at the start of the course and discussed during the course.
Course Schedule
The workshop is intended to introduce PhD students in political science, sociology, and related disciplines to the experimental approach in the social sciences. Inspired by experimental psychology on the one hand, and experimental economics, on the other hand, experimental research has gained in popularity in the social sciences more generally during the last decennium. In the first day we will first discuss the contribution of experimental research to the toolbox of the social sciences and highlight its potential to test claims about causal effects. In the second day we will do an online classroom experiment and use the results to clarify the possibilities of experimental research. In the afternoon session we will start by discussing several possibilities to set up an experimental design. Based on this foundation we will then do an exercise highlighting different aspects of validity concerns. We will finish by a presentation on the use of incentives, the extent of control attainable in experiments, and sources of noise and biases that can appear in experimental research. We will finish by wrapping up the diverse issues encountered during the day.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Instructor: Bernhard Kittel
9AM-10AM: Introduction: Experiments in the Social Sciences
10AM-11AM: Causality and the measurement of causal effects
11AM-11.15AM: Coffee break
11.15AM-12.30PM: Example experiment (Own laptops with internet access)
12.30PM-1.30PM: Lunch break
1.30PM-2.30PM: Experimental designs
2.30PM-3.30PM: Validity concerns in experimental research (Own laptops with internet access)
3.30PM-3.45PM: Coffee break
3.45PM-4.45PM: Incentives, control and noise in experiments
4.45PM-5PM: Final discussion
Friday, May 16, 2014
Instructors: Alessandro Innocenti and Pierangelo Isernia
9.30-10.30: experimental economics vs political science
10.30-11: an experimental test
11-11.15: coffee-break
11.15-12.15: population-based experiments
12.15-13: applications with discussion
13-14: lunch
14-14.30: quasi-experiments and field experiments
14.30-15.30: experimental findings
15-30-15.45: coffee-break
15.45-17: cognitive economics and political science
Readings
See the attached document for Preliminary Readings, Recommended Readings, Background Readings.
