Bachelor’s degree in social science, and the equivalent of English 6 from Swedish upper secondary school

The course is part of the main field of Political Science on advanced level and can be included in a Master's degree.

The course engages with important aspects of theory of science, methodology and research methods relevant to Global Politics. Covering all aspects of the research process, the objective is to enhance the students capacity to plan, carry out and report research as well as critically review and compare the research of others. The course combines general overview and comparison of philosophical standpoints and research designs, with concrete specialization in methods of data collection and interpretation.

After finishing the course, the student shall:

1. Demonstrate good knowledge of important standpoints and divides in the theory of the social sciences, and how they pply to the field of Global Politics.
2. Demonstrate good knowledge of the research process, research ethics and different research designs in the social sciences, and how the apply to the field of Global Politics.
3. Demonstrate the ability to independently and critically review Global Politics research on the basis of relevant scientific and ethical criteria.
4. Demonstrate the ability to independently formulate a Global Politics relevant research problem and to develop a relevant research design on the basis thereof.
5. Demonstrate good understanding and application of one method of data collection and interpretation.
6. Demonstrate good ability to report research in correct academic language, orally and in writing.

The course is based on active and informed participation by the students. The teaching forms include lectures, seminars, and workshops/labs. Seminars are compulsory. Students will spend most of the time working on their own and is expected to come well prepared to each class.

Learning goals 1-3 are assessed through individual oral seminar assignments and one individual written exam (7,5 credits). They are graded A-U.

Learning goals 4-6 are assessed through individual project work that is presented in writing and orally or only in writing (7,5 credits). They are graded A-U.

General literature (whole course):

• 6, P. & Bellamy, C. (2012) Principles of Methodology: Research Design in Social Science. London: Sage. [336 pp.]
• Oliver, P. (2010) The student’s guide to research ethics. 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill/Open University Press (Open UP study skills). [170 pp.]
• Rosenberg, A. (2015) Philosophy of Social Science (5th ed.). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. [360 pp.]

Quantitative methods

• Chambliss, D. and Schutt, R. (2018) Making Sense of the Social World: Methods of Investigation. London: Sage. [400 pp.]

Interview and observation methods

• Brinkmann, S., and Kvale, S. (2018) Doing interviews, Qualitative research Kit (2nd ed.). London: Sage. [120 pp.]
• Hammersley Martin (2007) Ethnography. Principles in Practice. London and NY: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group (E-book). [280 pp.]
• Karlsson, J. C. and Bergman, A. (2016) Methods for Social Theory. Analytical Tools for Theorizing and Writing. Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge. [168 pp.]
• Mayan, M. J. (2009) Essentials of Qualitative Inquiry. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group. [172 pp.]

Methods for text analysis

• Boréus, K. and Bergström, G. (2017) Analyzing Text and Discourse: Eight Approaches for the Social Science. London: Sage. [304 pp.]

Policy Analysis

• Halperin, S & Heath, O. (2020) Political Research. Methods and Practical Skills. Oxford: Oxford University Press [528 pp].

Additional literature (500 pages) may be added.

Malmö University provides students who participate in, or who have completed a course, with the opportunity to express their opinions and describe their experiences of the course by completing a course evaluation administered by the University. The University will compile and summarise the results of course evaluations. The University will also inform participants of the results and any decisions relating to measures taken in response to the course evaluations. The results will be made available to the students (HF 1:14).

If a course is no longer offered, or has undergone significant changes, the students must be offered two opportunities for re-examination based on the syllabus that applied at the time of registration, for a period of one year after the changes have been implemented.

The syllabus is a translation of a Swedish source text.

If a student has a Learning support decision, the examiner has the right to provide the student with an adapted test, or to allow the student to take the exam in a different format.