ASOK05445U Mixed method studies in criminology and everyday life sociology - closed for further registration

Quantitative and qualitative methods stand central in the tool box of the skilled sociologist. In the production of data we have the survey, the focus group study, the narrative interview, the web based data crawls etc. In the analysis of the produced data we find ourselves skilled in symbolic interactional analysis, regression analysis, multivariate analysis, etc. Often we find ourselves better skilled in one - or some – of these tools than others. In this course we will read, discuss and work with mixed methods in order to advance from mono-method approaches. We will take an onset in a quantitative dataset (and analysis) of young adults criminal behaviors, use of drugs (legal and illegal) and combine these data with a self-produced qualitative data-component. This data will be produced by the students themselves either in groups or alone. As we invite Erasmus students to follow this course we do not expect you to be able to make e.g. qualitative interviews in Danish. As such available material in English can be used. This can be media-contents, law texts, existing qualitative material ect.

During the course students will be asked to deliver two shorter papers. One aimed at describing a mixed method design and one paper aimed at presenting analysis of the material. Within the course it is still acceptable to focus one method more than another (eg. to focus on quantitative analysis of the criminological dataset or focus more on the production and analysis of the qualitative dataset). However the aim of the course is to be able to combine different forms of methods within the same analysis. As such a mono-method papers are not acceptable.