NCRM Training: Interpretive Political Science

The course covers:

• Situating the interpretive approach in relation to other ways of doing political science research by reference to the philosophical, epistemological, and methodological assumptions on which these approaches are based;
• The theoretical and analytical tools students need to design and conduct their research project;
• The toolkit of methods used by interpretive scholars to collect data, including ethnographic and interview-based methods;
• The standards that will both ensure results are reliable and maximise the impact of findings; and
• Guidance on the norms and principles used to analyse data in an interpretive project.

By the end of the course participants will:

• Be able to describe the particular strengths and features of the interpretive approach
• Be able to develop and justify a sophisticated design for interpretive research
• Have experience interpreting rich qualitative data

The course is primarily aimed at PhD students and early career scholars of political science, public policy and public administration, but scholars of other social science disciplines, such as criminology, sociology, planning or legal studies, will also benefit from it. There are no pre-requisites but you will be asked to bring a written summary of your research with you.