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2023/2024

Methodology and Design of Social Research

Code: 101138 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500262 Sociology FB 1 2

Contact

Name:
Francesc Josep Miguel Quesada
Email:
miguel.quesada@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.

Teachers

Joel Marti Olive
Sara Moreno Colom

Prerequisites

No pre-requirements.


Objectives and Contextualisation

It is a subject located in the second semester of the first year and focuses on the initiation of students in the terminology and practices of academic and scientific research. Likewise, the course aims to reflect on what it means to research in the social sciences. These routines and approaches that will be essential to be able to take in the second year the subjects of Quantitative Methods of Social Research and Qualitative Methods of Social Research.

The main interests of the subject are oriented towards the clarification of the basic requirements of the scientific methodology, the understanding of the concepts and basic instruments of the applied research to the analysis of the social reality and the routines and basic instrumental abilities that allow To develop the research activity correctly within the academic world. The central objective of the subject will be oriented, then, to make explicit what are the central elements that allow to do research and to transmit to the students the knowledge that they do that is able to formulate a subject to investigate and to prepare the corresponding research design. In this sense, it is essential to know the main sources of information and scientific documentation, acquire the basic habits of research in the social sciences, and learn a rigorous work style, able to combine the use of collaborative work with personal creativity.


Competences

  • Analysing the problems arising from the implementation of public policies and conflict situations by recognising the complexity of the social phenomena and political decisions affecting democracy, human rights, social justice and sustainable development.
  • Demonstrating a comprehension of the analysis of social phenomena presented in English, as well as observing their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Demonstrating a comprehension of the approaches of the sociological theory in its different aspects, interpretations and historical context.
  • Describing social phenomena in a theoretically relevant way, bearing in mind the complexity of the involved factors, its causes and its effects.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Enumerating the methodology and investigation techniques that support the main hypothesis about social relationships, the positions and practices of individuals in a social structure and the social changes.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
  • Students must be capable of assessing the quality of their own work.
  • Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
  • Working in teams and networking in different situations.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Clearly distinguishing between facts and value judgements.
  2. Contextualizing them in their time.
  3. Defining the main sociological concepts.
  4. Demonstrating a comprehension of the analysis of social phenomena presented in English, as well as observing their strengths and weaknesses.
  5. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  6. Developing self-learning strategies.
  7. Differentiating their theoretical and methodological assumptions.
  8. Distinguishing between a sociological hypothesis and a value judgement on democracy, human rights, social justice or sustainable development.
  9. Distinguishing the main qualitative methods and techniques.
  10. Expressing their methodological basis.
  11. Identifying their validity or obsolescence in other times.
  12. Identifying these approaches: functionalism, interactionism, action sociologies, etcetera).
  13. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  14. Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
  15. Students must be capable of assessing the quality of their own work.
  16. Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
  17. Working in teams and networking in different situations.

Content

Block I. Basic Concepts

1. Forms of knowledge: common knowledge and scientific knowledge.
2. Object of study in sociological research: social and sociological problems.
3. Protagonists of the investigation The positioning of the researcher's subject.
4. Theories, methods, and techniques: distinction and adequacy between them.
5. Historical perspective of the approaches and traditions of research in the social sciences.

Block II. The social research process

6. Basic investigation procedure and overview of the various stages.
7. Initial question: Choice and relevance of the topic Rupture and adequacy criteria.
8. Exploration: Search, collection, and systematization of the appropriate information.
9. State of the art and theoretical framework. Quotations and bibliographical references (APA). Definition of the problem and objectives.
10. Analysis Model: Concept structuring and formulation of research hypotheses. Operativization.
11. Analysis Design: Overview of Quantitative and Qualitative Techniques.


Methodology

In order for students to learn and think about what it means to investigate in Sociology, the teaching methodology and the formative activities of the subject are located at the very center of the learning process, based on the combination of: (1) expositive sessions, (2) classroom and out-class practices that allow to apply the acquired concepts, (3) tutorial sessions of follow-up and autonomous work. Following are the different activities, with their specific weight within the distribution of the total time that the student has to dedicate to the subject.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Exam preparation 18 0.72 2, 3, 4, 6, 5, 1, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11
Lecture sessions 30 1.2 15, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11, 13
Practical sessions 22 0.88 15, 4, 6, 5, 9, 8, 10, 16, 13, 17
Type: Supervised      
Scheduled group tutorials 6 0.24 15, 14, 4, 6, 5
Type: Autonomous      
Group project 40 1.6 15, 14, 6, 5, 16, 13, 17
Text readings 30 1.2 15, 2, 3, 6, 5, 1, 9, 7, 10, 12, 11, 13

Assessment

Single assessment system is not provided for this subject.

Building the working groups:
Only working groups of 4 or 5 people will be accepted.
Only working groups with people in the same "enrollment group" (matricula) are accepted. A change of enrollment group can be made, if A) is requested during the first 2 weeks of the course to the Academic Management Service, B) it is approved by the Faculty, and C) it is comunicated by the student to the teaching responsable of the "new" enrollement group.

To pass the course (regular course passed in June, after 3 partial exams + 1 group assesment + participation):
In order to compute the weighted mean and pass the whole subject,
(A) both the group research project (full set of 3 assignements) and each of the 3 individual written partial exams must have a minimum grade of 4, and
(B) participation -or justified absence- is also required for a minimum of 80% of the scheduled practical sessions.

To participate in the compensatory activities (regular course NOT passed in June):
Only those who during the course had properly attended the subject -at least in all the scheduled practice sessions- can participate in the compensatory evaluation.
Only the 3 individual written exams and the group research project can be "compensated" in a a second-chance evaluation. The "Participation in practices and attendance" activities are not considered recoverable, by their very nature.
In any case, this second-chance will have a maximum score of 8.

To appear as "not submitted" in the official records:
Only those who have not submitted to 50% of the evaluation activities will have the "non-presented" qualification.

About plagiarism in academic work or written tests:
We kindly remind you that, at the time of signing up your enrollment, you committed yourself inthe following sense: "I DECLARE that the Autonomous University of Barcelona has informed me that (...) Plagiarism is the act of publicizing, publishing or reproducing awork or part of it in the name of an author other than the authentic one, which implies an appropriation of the ideas created by another person without explicit recognition of their origin. This appropriation involves an injury to the intellectual property right of this person that I am not authorized to do in any case whatsoever the circumstance: exams, work, practices ... Therefore, I COMMITTEE to respect the provisions related to rights of intellectual property in relation to the teaching and / or research activity carried out by the UAB in the studies I am studying."
In the event that any kind of plagiarism will be detected, the evaluation of the test, exam, individual or group assignement will be "zero" or NOT PASS, for anyone involved in the incident(even the "source" of plagiarism).


Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Monitoring (Assistance and Participation in scheduled practice sessions at classroom) 10% 0 0 15, 3, 4, 5, 1, 9, 8, 10, 13, 17
Research project (including 3, both group and individual deliveries) 10% + 10% + 34% 2 0.08 15, 14, 4, 6, 5, 1, 9, 8, 10, 16, 13, 17
Written tests that will evaluate the acquisition of concepts and basic instruments related to the applied aspect of analysing social reality 12% + 12% + 12% 2 0.08 2, 3, 5, 1, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11

Bibliography

A list of compulsory readings corresponding to theoretical contents, practical sessionsand group projecto will be published at Campus Virtual webspace.

 

Basic Manual

Quivy, R., & Campenhoudt, L. V. (2017). Manual de investigación en ciencias sociales. Ciudad de México: Limusa : Grupo Noriega Editores.

Quivy, R., & Campenhoudt, L. V. (2007). Manual de recerca en ciències socials. Barcelona: Herder.

 

Blanco, C. (2010). La vigilancia epistemológica en Ciencias Sociales: un compromiso ineludible. Reflexiones desde la sociología del conocimiento de Pierre Bourdieu. Primer simposio internacional interdisciplinario Aduanas del Conocimiento. La traducción y la constitución de las disciplinas entre el Centenario y el Bicentenario. Córdoba, 8 al 12 de diciembre 2010.

Corbetta, P. (2010). Metodología y técnicas de investigación social (rev.). Madrid: McGraw Hill.

Sautu, R., Boniolo, P., Dalle, P., & Elbert, R. (2010). Manual de metodología: Construcción del marco teórico, formulación de los objetivos y elección de la metodología. Recuperado de http://bibliotecavirtual.clacso.org.ar/ar/libros/campus/metodo/metodo.html

Mardones, J. M. (1991). Filosofía de las Ciencias Humanas y Sociales. Materiales para una fundamentación científica. Barcelona: Anthropos.

Verd, J. M., & Lozares, C. (2016). Introducción a la investigación cualitativa: fases, métodos y técnicas. Madrid: Síntesis.


Software

Document processor: LibreOffice Writer, or MicroSoft-Word.

Visual support for presentations: LibreOffice Impress, or MicroSoft-PowerPoint.

Reference manager: ZOTERO, o Mendeley (UAB).

[ get the software open and free from <https://ca.libreoffice.org/> and <https://www.zotero.org/download/>]