2Sem

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This course  provides a “how-to” of ethnographic research. Students will conduct an

ethnographic project of their own, complemented by weekly readings and discussions. It deals in

an applied way with two interrelated topics:

1.     Field methods of research

The course covers methods that allow you to enter natural social settings to capture data about human behavior in the actual contexts in which people pursue their daily lives. These methods include especially observation and interviewing. The emphasis is on studying first-hand and close-up the ongoing worlds of other people.

 2. Exploratory data analysis

The course will help you learn how to make sense of data inductively, i.e., from the  bottom up. This course is not about hypothesis testing. It is about building grounded theory. Our focus will be on the coding and categorization of qualitative data (observational notes and interview transcripts). You will learn to go beyond the journalistic description of data to the analysis that characterizes good inductive social science.