This module is not currently running in 2022 to 2023.
Students of politics 'have not been, in general, sufficiently reflective about the nature and scope of their discipline. They just do it rather than talk about it''(G.Stoker). Given that political scientists study people – individuals, groups, states, nations, cultures – rather than ‘things’, PO825 moves from the assumption that politics students ought to be reflective about their research. The module aims to provide an opportunity for reflection by presenting some of the key theoretical and methodological debates in politics and international relations. These debates deal with issues such as: the concept of ‘the political’ and the concept of power; the relationship between structure and agency; the causal and constitutive role of ideas and discourse; positivism and post-positivism; critical theory, emancipation, and the importance of normative questions; an introduction to quantitative and qualitative research, and to research design and research ethics. The module is designed as early preparation for the MA dissertation module and will encourage students to think about the philosophical underpinnings of particular research methods, the relationship between methodology and conceptual analysis, and the appropriate ways to incorporate these into research design.
Total contact hours: 22
Private study hours: 178
Total study hours: 200
All MA offerings by the School of Politics and International Relations
100% Coursework
Essay 1 (collective), 2500 words (50%)
Essay 2 (individual), 2500 words (50%)
Reassessment methods: 100% coursework
Colin Hay, Political Analysis: A Critical Introduction (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002).
Dimitri Toshkov, Research Design in Political Science (Palgrave MacMillan 2016);
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
Upon completion of the module students will be able to:
• identify, summarise and critically assess the main positions in key debates within the philosophy of the social and political sciences.
• identify and deal with the ethical and normative questions involved in social and political inquiry
• reflect on the ontological and epistemological aspects of social and political inquiry
• appreciate the contested nature of knowledge in social and political science
• reflect on the relationship between 'theory' and 'practice' in social and political inquiry
• identify, summarise and critically assess some of the most important approaches and methods employed in the study of politics and international relations
• discuss the philosophical and methodological issues at stake in relation to both their own research and that of others.
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