NIFK19002U Cancelled Qualitative Methods

This course provides you with general skills in qualitative methods and thereby puts you in a good position for getting the full benefit of thematic courses, report writing, thesis work, and a post-graduate career. It is a good choice if you are interested in methodology, if you are interested in collecting your own data, and/or if you are just interested in working with people, projects, and environment/development. 

In the course, we will, first, discuss what "knowledge" is, what "data" is, and what qualitative versus quantitative and mixed methods are.  Hopefully, you will become convinced that 1) qualitative and quantitative methods are not necessarily opposites, 2) that the choice of method should depend on the type of knowledge you want to pursue given available resources and context, and that 3) qualitative methods are indispensable if you want to understand anything about people-nature relationships.

Second, and this is the main part of the course, we will look into theoretical and practical aspects of different specific methods and research designs. This includes when and how to apply the different methods, the pros and cons of each method and of combining them, and how to ensure the quality of data. We will look at how to construct and carry out a questionnaire survey, how to carry out semi structured interviews, focus group interviews, participatory rural appraisal, participatory observation, and case study designs. Finally, the course will provide you with some knowledge about and tools for analysing qualitative data and data resulting from small scale questionnaire surveys. 

There will be plenty of exercises during classes. The lectures and exercises draw mainly, but not only, on examples from natural resource management in tropical countries. 

More or less in parallel to the classes, you will work with other students on a  group project. This includes practical data collection in the neigbourhood, and reporting on process and results. Critical reflections on your own choice of methods, and implications to the quality of your data form part of the report. The topic for data collection and reports will be relevant in a Danish context, and varies from year to year.