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Social Analysis Tools I: Methodology and Design

Code: 106978 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2503878 Sociocultural Gender Studies FB 1

Contact

Name:
Laia Narciso Pedro
Email:
laia.narciso@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for participating in this course. 


Objectives and Contextualisation

The general objective of the course is to introduce students to the field of social research. The aim is to clarify the concepts, approaches and ethical principles that make it possible to design social scientific research.


Learning Outcomes

  1. CM10 (Competence) Put teamwork skills into practice: a commitment to the team, regular collaboration, encourage problem solving, apply the ethics of care and provision.
  2. CM14 (Competence) Propose basic lines of co-educational research, programmes and projects with a gender perspective, taking the target group and context into account.
  3. CM16 (Competence) Assess and correct your own work based on the evaluation of previous studies and having detected and identified specific needs for social intervention.
  4. KM21 (Knowledge) Analyse the theoretical framework in question and the presence or absence of the gender perspective in existing research, projects or experiences of psychosocial, educational and community intervention.
  5. SM15 (Skill) Design proposals, spaces and resources for feminist socio-educational action that involve citizen participation.
  6. SM16 (Skill) Select the appropriate methodology, tools and data collection techniques in order to diagnose and interpret gender-focused intervention needs in different contexts and situations.

Content

1. Introduction of scientific methodology in social research: evolution, definitions, and dichotomies.

2. Ontologies and epistemologies, inductive, deductive and mixed methods.

3. Research design: the research question, literature review, methodology, and research quality criteria.

4. Research ethics


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Practical sessions 0 0 CM16, SM15, SM16
compulsory readings 0 0 CM14, SM15
Type: Autonomous      
Project design 0 0 CM10, CM14, KM21, SM15

A detailed schedule of sessions will be published on the virtual campus (Moodle) before the start of the course.

Three types of training activities will be conducted: 

Theoretical sessions (directed). In the theory classes, the lecturers will give an introduction, with examples and classroom discussions. In these classes, readings will be recommended according to the topics to be covered. The materials used in the classes will be available on the Virtual Campus.

Practical sessions (supervised). In the classroom, the assignments programmed in the course will be developed individually or in groups.

Assessment sessions (supervised): Individual theoretical and practical tests will be held to solve cases and problems.

All training activities are scheduled in the calendar proposed at the beginning of the course through Moodle and the evaluation exercises have a deadline that must be strictly complied with.

The readings are also part of the course contents to be evaluated through the exam.

The different exercises will be returned corrected with comments and guidance for reformulation, if deemed necessary, and to consider for the next exercise.

Students must bear in mind that Moodle is the space through which fundamental information about the course is communicated. Therefore, it is their responsibility to pay attention to the news and information that is uploaded.

Communication will take place via Moodle. In cases of emergency, students are asked to communicate via email.

Tutorials. Tutorials can be individual or in small groups. They are intended to clarify specific doubts about the course or the assignments.

Note: 15 minutes of a class within the timetable established by the centre or by the degree programme will be reserved for students to fill in the evaluation surveys on the performance of the teaching staff and the evaluation of the course.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exam 30% 20 0.8 CM10, KM21, SM16
Individual assigment to present a research design 30% 50 2 CM10, CM14, CM16, KM21
Reading exercises 20% 40 1.6 CM10, CM14, SM15, SM16
Submit an application to a research ethics committee 20% 40 1.6 SM15, SM16

Continuous assessment

1. Two reading assignments in the classroom (20%).

2. Individual work on a research design (30%).

3. Preparation of the request of approval of an ethics committee for the research design based on the criteria established by the UAB ethics committee (20%).

4. Final exam (30%)

 

Single assessment

The single assessment will consist of an exam with the following parts:

1. short questions on the content of the subject and on the compulsory readings (50%).

2. based on a research question, develop an essay on the design that would be carried out to answer the question (30%)

3. on the basis of the same research question, develop the procedure for requesting ethics committee approval (20%).

 

Evaluation rules

  • In order to pass the course, a minimum mark of 5.0 will be required as the average mark resulting from the marks obtained in each of the activities.
  • Once the course has been passed, it cannot be subject to a new evaluation.
  • Students who do not complete any of the continuous assessment activities will receive a "no assessment" mark.
  • Those who, due to attendance at meetings of the collegiate bodies of university representation or other reasons provided for in their respective regulations, are unable to attend any of the scheduled assessment activities, are entitled to have a different day and time set for them to take place.
  • Those who take part in the different assessment activities and require it will receive a documentary justification of their participation.
  • In the event that the student carries out any type of irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the qualification of a given assessment activity, this activity will be graded with a 0 (zero), regardless of the disciplinary process that may result from this. In the event that several irregularities are observed in the assessment acts of the same subject, the final grade for this course will be 0.
  • The disciplinaryprocess derived from copying or plagiarism, both in the case of assignments and in the case of exams, implies a 0 (zero) for the activity, the loss of the right to re-evaluation and the suspension of the whole course. Remember that "copying" is considered to be a work that reproduces in whole or in part the work of another student. "Plagiarism" is to present all or part of an author's text as one's own, without citing the sources, whether on paper or in digital format. See UAB documentation on "plagiarism" at: http://wuster.uab.es/web_argumenta_obert/unit_20/sot_2_01.html.
  • Any activity not handed in by the established deadline will be considered as not having been handed in.
  • At the time of each evaluation activity, Moodle will inform you of the procedure and grade revision form

About the re-evaluation

In order to take part in the re-evaluation, students must have been assessed in a set of activities, the weight of which is equivalent to 2/3 of the total qualification (CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT) or they must have handed in all the tests foreseen (SINGLE ASSESSMENT).

The course can be reevaluated when the mark obtained in the evaluation activities is lower than 5 and equal or higher than 3.5.

The re-evaluation will consist of a single test and will take place on the day, time and place established by the Faculty.

The mark obtained in the re-evaluation will constitute the final mark for the course.

This test will be the same for students taking the continuous assessment and students taking the single assessment.


Bibliography

Required readings

Güler, Ezgi (2020). A Divided Sisterhood: Support Networks of Trans Sex Workers in Urban Turkey. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science689(1), 149–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716220919745

Haraway, Donna (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies14(3), 575–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066

Hilda, Ana; Gaggiotti, Hugo (2019). Mujeres en línea. Liderazgo femenino en una planta de ensamblaje de Ciudad Juárez. Theomai, 40: 96-112. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=7396609&orden=0&info=link

Huang, Junming; Gates, Alexander, J.; Sinatra, Roberta; Barabási, Albert-László (2020). Historical comparison of gender inequality in scientific careers across countries and disciplines. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America117(9), 4609–4616. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1914221117

Sweet, Paige L. (2019). The Sociology of Gaslighting. American Sociological Review84(5), 851–875. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122419874843

Tracy, Sarah J. (2010). Qualitative quality: Eight a"big-tent" criteria for excellent qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry16(10), 837–851. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800410383121

 

General readings

Alvesson, Mats; Sandberg, Jörgen (2011). Generating research questions through problematization. Academy of Management Review36(2), 247–271. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2009.0188

Bernard, Russell H. (2011). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Plymouth, UK: Altamira Press.

Blanch, Silvia; Pérez, Eulàlia; Silvente, Jennifer (2016). Com citar i referenciar en els textos acadèmics. Compilació basada en la normativa APA. Bellaterra: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Disponible a https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/recdoc/2016/145881/citrefapa_a2016.pdf 

Düvell, Franck; Triandafyllidou, Anna; Vollmer, Bastian (2010). Ethical Issues in Irregular Migration Research in Europe. Population, Space and Place, 16(3), 227–239. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.590

Estruch, Joan (1992). El conflicte quantitatiu/qualitatiu: un fals problema. A: Societat Catalana de Sociologia (Ed., 1992) Tècniques qualitatives en ciències socials. Barcelona: Societat Catalana de Sociologia, pp. 7-16.

González Echevarría, Aurora (1995). Etnografía y método científico. En: Aguirre Baztán, Angel (Ed., 1995). Etnografía. Metodología cualitativa en la investigación sociocultural. Barcelona: Boixareu Marcombo, pp. 49-63.

Gordon, Elisa J. (2000). When Oral Consent Will Do. Field Methods, 12(3), 235–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X0001200304

Jociles, Maria Isabel (1999). Las técnicas de investigación en antropología: Mirada antropológica y proceso etnográfico. Gazeta de Antropología, 15, no. 01. http://dx.doi.org/10.30827/Digibug.7524

Magliozzi, Devon; Saperstein, Aliya; Westbrook, Laurel (2016). Scaling Up: Representing Gender Diversity in Survey Research. Socius2https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023116664352

Maxwell, Joseph A. (2004). Using Qualitative Methods for Causal Explanation. Field Methods16(3), 243–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X04266831

Monk, Ellis P. (2022). Inequality without Groups : Contemporary Theories of Categories, Intersectional Typicality, and the Disaggregation of Difference. Sociological Theory40(1), 3–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/07352751221076863

Quivy, Raymond; Van Campenhoudt, Luc (1997). Manual de recerca en ciències socials. Barcelona: Herder.

Small, Mario L. (2011). How to Conduct a Mixed Methods Study: Recent Trends in a Rapidly Growing Literature. Annual Review of Sociology37(1), 57–86. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102657

White, Patrick (2008). Developing Research Questions. Palgrave MacMillan.


Software

Students of the UAB can download Microsoft Office 365 for free on their computers and laptops, if they wish so: https://si-respostes.uab.cat/inici/correu/msop-microsoft-office/msop-com-em-puc-instal-lar-l-office

Furthermore, they can install the ARE button to have access to the electronic resources https://www.uab.cat/web/que-ofrecemos/acceso-a-los-recursos-electronicos-desde-fuera-de-la-uab-1345747332035.html. This short video explains how to do that: https://vimeo.com/516408829/9f4a1ed83d)


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan/Spanish first semester morning-mixed