Fall/Winter Timetable

POL2505H1S L0101

Undergraduate Course Code: POL449H1S L0101

Qualitative Methods in Political Research

Themes

This course is a survey of the range of qualitative methods used in political science research. After briefly reviewing positivist and interpretivist research traditions, the course covers specific qualitative methods such as fieldwork, interviewing, archival research, focus group research, participant observation, ethnography, counterfactuals, discourse analysis, and multiple-methods approaches. It examines both how these methods appear in ideal-typical research design and how real-world challenges force the researcher to make practical trade-offs in pursuit of knowledge.