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Methods workshops

Organised by the Faculty of Social Sciences in Autumn 2023

The Faculty of Social Sciences offers six workshops in methods and methodologies from late September through mid-October in 2023. These are for teachers, researchers, and doctoral candidates who desire to continue to broaden and deepen their knowledge of research methods.

How do I sign up for the workshops?

Thank you for your interest in the autumn methods workshops!

We are currently not accepting more applications for the autumn methods workshops in 2023. Revisit this page in 2024 for information on the upcoming methods workshops. 

You can find the Autumn Methods Workshops offerings in 2023 below. 

If you have any questions about the workshop fees, location of the workshops etc., please visit the "Frequently Asked Questions" section below. Please direct any unanswered questions related to the content of the workshops to nils [dot] gustafsson [at] isk [dot] lu [dot] se (nils[dot]gustafsson[at]isk[dot]lu[dot]se). For questions related to practical concerns, email methodsworkshops [at] sam [dot] lu [dot] se (methodsworkshops[at]sam[dot]lu[dot]se).

Workshop offerings

In 2023, we offered six workshops: two in qualitative, two in quantitative and two in mixed methods. Click on the workshop title to expand the detailed description.

You may sign up for more than one workshop: their schedules do not conflict.

Instructor: Nils Holmberg, Lund University, Department of Strategic Communication
Dates: 25–29 September (week 39), 9:15–12:00
Click here for the schedule and location info

Abstract: In this introduction to Python for social scientists you will learn how to use the Python programming language as a powerful multi-purpose platform for managing several different aspects of conducting open science research studies. The first part of the workshop will be dedicated to setting up a Jupyter notebook environment and getting familiar with the basics of Python syntax. After that, the main focus of the workshop is to learn how to use Python for processing, analyzing and visualizing textual and numeric data. On the final part of the workshop, we will try to use Python for collecting online data such as website content and survey responses.

About the instructor

Nils Holmberg earned a doctoral degree in Media and Communication Science from Lund University in December 2016. The focus of his dissertation was to investigate the effects of web advertising on children aged 9-12 when they use the internet to solve different types of tasks, e.g., read and understand texts in an online newspaper. To investigate this, he used experimental methods to systematically vary the content and form of web ads. Physiological measuring equipment was then used to investigate how advertising content features affected children's visual attention and ability to solve tasks online. He has used Python extensively over the years to collect and analyze various types of data.

Instructor: Alicia Fjällhed, Lund University, Department of Strategic Communication
Dates: 25–29 September (week 39), 13:15-16:00
Click here for the schedule and location info

Abstract: Are you working with print-outs, coloured pencils, and notes plotted down in the margins when analysing qualitative data? This workshop introduces a simple tool for doing the same work on your computer. For some, it solves the problem of how to store the data in an organised way. Others take it a step further by integrating NVivo as a tool for the analysis of texts or images, some even using the aggregated quantitative measures to create an analytical edge—i.e. to find new codes, to ensure an even coding across the material, or to identify dominant or dormant themes (and in which part of the material they occur). This week, we will open the software NVivo for the first time and to learn how to add, organise, code, and interpret data in a qualitative or mixed-method approach. During the course, you can also access hands-on video tutorials for each step in the process. The program is compatible with Mac and PC, and is available in self-service as a free tool for LU staff and students.

About the instructor

Alicia Fjällhed is a doctoral student at the Department of Strategic Communication and has been teaching NVivo at Graduate School for the past few years. She has also used NVivo in her own research—for the analysis of empirical material and for systematic literature reviews.

Instructor: Irina Vartanova, Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm
Dates: 2–6 October (week 40), 9:15–12:00
Click here for the schedule and location info

Abstract: The workshop provides an introduction to R programming language for statistical data analysis in social sciences. R is an increasingly popular scientific tool and often becomes the first-choice software for implementing newly developed statistical methods. The main goal of the workshop is that participants learn the basic functionality of R language that covers the full cycle of statistical data analysis including data loading, pre-processing, visualisation, modelling, and communication of the results. The workshop is focused on the “tidyverse” collection of packages which are designed not just for the machine to execute but also for humans to read and thus are intuitive and easier to learn. The practical work is based on real data problems and prepares participants for a whole range of diverse data analysis tasks.

About the instructor

Irina Vartanova is a researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies. Having completed a PhD in psychology, she applies her data analysis expertise to working in an interdisciplinary environment and collaborating with colleagues from different fields. She specializes in advanced statistical and computational methods in social research and has a lot of experience in analyzing large survey data. Her research primarily focuses on social norms and how they change in different cultures. In her free time, she likes to learn new tricks to make her R code clearer and faster.

Instructor: Peter Parnes, Luleå Technical University
Dates: 4-5 October (week 40), 13:15-16:00
Click here for the schedule and location info

Abstract: This two-day workshop aims to explore the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in research. The event will provide an exploration into the application of AI for research-related tasks including data analysis, finding literature and summarizing research, editing texts, collection and coding of research data, helping with presenting research, and the critical topic of ethical considerations. The goal is to enhance your understanding of AI's transformative potential in research methodologies and to prepare you for managing the unique challenges and opportunities this technology brings. We cordially invite you to partake in this workshop to discover and shape the future of research jointly.

About the instructor

Peter Parnes has been a professor in Pervasive and Mobile Computing at Luleå University of Technology since 2010, specializing in technology and especially artificial intelligence (AI) in education. With a focus on exploring innovative applications of AI in learning, Peter conducts research on integrating IT in schools and developing new forms of computer interaction to enhance educational experiences. Peter is keenly interested in emerging technologies and their potential to facilitate and improve daily life. He actively engages in the commercialization of research results, successfully running several of his own businesses. Passionate about fostering young people's interest in technology and IT, Peter serves as an inspiring lecturer and workshop leader, contributing to the education and development of future innovators. In 1998, Peter founded Marratech, a pioneering company responsible for creating one of the world's first secure IP-based video conferencing systems, compatible with multiple platforms, including mobile devices. Marratech's groundbreaking technology was acquired by Google in 2007, and Peter subsequently worked as the development manager for Google Sweden until 2009.

More information on Peter's work on AI and learning
More about Peter Parnes - ltu.se

Instructor: Giampietro Gobo, University of Milan
Dates: 9-13 October (week 41), 9:15-12:00
Click here for the schedule and location info

Abstract: From the 1990s, Mixed Methods Research (the integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches or methods in a single study or a program of inquiry) is a well-known and established approach in contemporary social science. However, it has not always fulfilled its promise of being a third way between qualitative and quantitative, or amid positivism and constructivism. Specifically, its epistemological foundations are not always clear, and it is not as pragmatic as it would seem.

The workshop proposes to integrate the important accomplishments of Mixed Methods Research with the proposal of Merged Methods approach, re-joining of qualitative and quantitative in a new methodological ground can be achieved only by merging some languages, concepts, procedures, codes and mindsets of these two paradigms, not simply mixing or juxtaposing methods. With the aim to create a dialogue between different ways of seeing, interpreting, and knowing, not simply in combining different methods and types of data.

Workshop participants will acquire skills and competencies in order to design a fully mixed methods study and develop an appropriate strategy to answer specific research questions. In this regard, some little-known techniques (inter-vey, calendar interviewing, Delphi method, mystery shopper), classified as merged methods, will be showed. They are particularly useful because could represent an overpassing of the qualitative and quantitative divide, by the fact they embody in one single method (instead of one single research) the advantages of either approaches or methods.

Finally, it will be argued how mixed and merged methods are useful for decolonizing contemporary methodology and why they are particularly suitable for studying multicultural societies.

Reference: 
Gobo, Giampietro; Fielding, Nigel G.; La Rocca, Gevisa & van der Vaart, Wander (2022). Merged methods: A rationale for full integration. London: Sage. (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/merged-methods/book271252)

About the instructor

Giampietro Gobo is professor of Methodology of Social Research, and Sociology of Science at the University of Milan (Italy). His interests concern with the sociology of senses, scientific controversies on health issues, and workplace studies. He is currently undertaking ethnographic experiments on the role of senses in teamwork cooperation, and projects on the immunization and covid-19 policies. His books include Doing Ethnography (Sage, 2008), Qualitative Research Practice (co-edited with C. Seale, J. F. Gubrium and D. Silverman, Sage, 2004), Constructing Survey Data: An Interactional Approach (with S. Mauceri, Sage, 2014), Merged Methods: A Rationale for Full Integration (with Nigel Fielding, Gevisa La Rocca and Wander van der Vaar, Sage, 2021) and Science, Technology and Society: An Introduction (with Valentina Marcheselli, Palgrave Macmillan 2023).

Instructor: Kristin Anabel Eggeling, University of Copenhagen
Dates: 9-10 October (week 41), 13:15-16:00
Click here for the schedule and location info

Abstract: Ethnography is a broad, interdisciplinary research strategy that seeks to generate contextual knowledge about social worlds based on the immersion of the researcher into those worlds. In its classical (perhaps, analogue) version, researchers working in an ethnographic key commit themselves to ‘being there’ and ‘getting close’ to the everyday lives of the people, practices or places they study. Focusing on ambiguity, mess and mundanity, ethnographic research is celebrated for putting the ‘life’ back into everyday life and the ‘social’ back into social science.

This course provides a space to learn about and experiment with what it means to study politics and power ethnographically, with a particular emphasis on how ethnographic research can be conducted, needs to be adapted, and may be altogether changing in the digital age. On the one hand, the course is ‘close to the ground’ and ‘hands on’. By listening to the voices of influential ethnographers, we will see how ethnographic analysis can address substantive political questions concerning, for example, the state, diplomacy, or war and mass violence. Keeping those voices in the backs of our minds, we will also venture out ‘into the field’ for methodological try-outs of doing research from under the ethnographer hat. On the other hand, the course will also tackle and unpack a number of more ‘abstract’ conundrums of social science research from an ethnographic perspective, including questions of theorization, methods of data collection, research ethics and authority in academic writing. For this, participants will be invited to share some of their own (ethnographic) work for group discussions. The course may be especially interesting for participants who are planning to conduct fieldwork that requires some degree of ethnographic sensibility or a working on an otherwise immersive qualitative research project. But eventually, anyone interested in the epistemological, political and ethical implications of studying politics and power through immersion in both online and offline worlds will be most welcome.

References:

  • Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. E. (1986) Writing Culture. Edited by J. Clifford and G. E. Marcus. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. doi: 10.1525/rep.2014.126.1.1.1.
  • Longo, M. and Zacka, B. (2019) ‘Political Theory in an Ethnographic Key’, American Political Science Review, 113(4), pp. 1066–1070. doi: 10.1017/S0003055419000431.
  • van Maanen, J. (2011) Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Wacquant, Loïc. 2015. “For a Sociology of Flesh and Blood.” Qualitative Sociology 38 (1): 1–11.
  • Wolcott, Harry F. 2008. “Ethnography as a Way of Seeing.” In Ethnography: A Way of Seeing, Chapter 4: 62–87. AltaMira Press.

About the instructor

Kristin Anabel Eggeling is assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. Her research interests are in diplomacy, everyday international relations, global tech policy and political ethnography. She is the author of ‘Nation branding in practice: The politics of promoting sports, cities and universities in Kazakhstan and Qatar’ (Routledge, 2020), and has published articles in Review of International Studies, European Journal of International Relations, Global Studies Quarterly, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Big Data & Society, International Journal of Cultural Policy, and more. Her article 'The Synthetic Situation in Diplomacy: Scopic Media and the Digital Mediation of Estrangement' (co-authored with Rebecca Adler-Nissen) received the 'Best Article Award' of the Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association in 2022. In 2023, Kristin was awarded the Anthony Deos Award as an emerging scholar in diplomatic studies by the International Studies Association. Kristin is a member of the International Advisory Board of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, the programme co-chair of the ISA Diplomatic Studies section, and the Co-PI on a research project funded by the Danish VELUX Foundation on the European Union’s agenda to attain ‘digital sovereignty’.

Frequently asked questions

Our workshops are primarily for teaching/research staff and doctoral students.

Students who sign up will only get a spot in the workshops that they want to attend in case there are openings. This only applies to students admitted to a master program at Lund University. If you are enrolled in Bachelor level studies or study at another institution, we will disregard your application.

All workshops are free-of-charge for all doctoral students at Lund University, as well as for all LU Faculty of Social Sciences staff.

For other cases, please sign up with your interest, and we will provide you with fee information for the workshops you are interested in attending. Alternatively, please send us an email at methodsworkshops [at] sam [dot] lu [dot] se (methodsworkshops[at]sam[dot]lu[dot]se).

All the workshops will take place on campus in Lund, and it will not be possible to participate remotely. Detailed schedule and room information can be found under each relevant workshop listed above. If you are not familiar with the Paradise Campus where the majority of departments at the Faculty of Social Sciences are located, see this map.

Note that if you sign up for a workshop, but cannot attend, you must inform us two weeks before the workshop starts. Otherwise, your institution will be charged a no-show fee of 800 SEK for the missed workshop.

Our workshops are not designed as credit-bearing courses with officially established syllabi. However, you can ask your department/institution if you can earn credits if you submit a certificate of attendance with the description of the workshop (see next question about certificates of attendance).

Certificates for attending a workshop can be provided upon request from methodsworkshops [at] sam [dot] lu [dot] se (methodsworkshops[at]sam[dot]lu[dot]se).

While some of our workshops are offered every year, we cannot guarantee that we will offer a certain workshop again in the future. Please check this page next spring for more information.

Thank you for your interest!

Thank you for your interest in the autumn methods workshops!

We are currently not accepting more applications for the autumn methods workshops in 2023. Revisit this page in 2024 for information on the upcoming methods workshops.