ASOK15643U Cancelled Spatial sociology

Volume 2020/2021
Education

MA Research Methodology and Practice (MSC 2015)

Course package (MSc 2015):

Welfare, inequality and mobility
Knowledge, organisation and politics
Culture, lifestyle and everyday life
 

Credit students must be at master level

BA-Undergraduates from foreign countries (exchange students) can sign up for this course

Content

A cardinal and age-old question of social science is how human behaviour and attitudes are shaped by the social environment and, vice versa, how the social environment emerges from human action. While the classical question of the interplay between individual and environment has been investigated since the origin of the social sciences, it has seen a remarkable resurgence in the last decades. Theoretical and methodological advances have allowed social scientists to revisit a number of longstanding questions. For example, how neighbourhoods or workplaces impact individuals’ social mobility, as well as their political attitudes and social behaviour. Other important contextual sources of human behaviour include spatial diffusion of cultural norms (e.g. fertility) or criminal behaviour (e.g. attacks against refugees), or media imagery (e.g. fake news) shaping people’s perceptions on contested issues.

 

This course introduces students to the study of context effects in a broad sense by reviewing and discussing contemporary theories and methods to study these phenomena. The course deals with a range of topics including both political attitudes on, e.g., immigration, welfare redistribution, and homosexuality, but also concrete behaviour such as fertility, collective violence, voting, or educational choices.

Learning Outcome

knowledge:

  • Overview of theoretical literature in the area of contextual research broadly understood.
  • Overview of methods used to study context effects, such as multilevel models or spatial regression.
  • Overview of knowledge and recent contributions on social phenomena with a spatial component such as attitudes, fertility, voting, or collective violence etc.
     

Skills:

  • Students will be able to read and comprehend advanced analyses of context effects.
  • Students will be able to assess research designs and evaluate their pitfalls and strengths.
     

Competences:

  • Students should be able to formulate their hypotheses about how contexts affect individuals.
  • Students should be able to propose research designs to test their hypotheses about context effects.
  • Students should be able to conduct and write up an empirical study.
     

Students should be able to give brief and concise presentations of advanced research results.

Readings are comprised primarily of peer-reviewed journal articles. The syllabus will consist of roughly 600-700 pages of reading.

Strong English skills and a good comprehension of quantitative research methods, especially multiple regression. All lacks of skills can be compensated by hard work and interest. This course will not introduce students to quantitative methods in a formal sense, but discuss their applications in detail.
Lectures, class discussions, student presentations, a final paper that entails an empirical analysis. Students are expected to contribute actively to discussion of core theoretical-analytical tools as well as the more specific analytical examples and studies.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 28
  • Preparation
  • 148
  • Exam
  • 30
  • Total
  • 206
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

I give structured feedback to student presentations, drafts of the final paper and to the final paper. Students get informal feedback to their ideas and arguments during class discussions. Moreover, we will systematically use student peer-feedback.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Portfolio
Individual or group.
A portfolio assignment is defined as a series of short assignments during the course that address one or more set questions and feedback is offered during the course. All of the assignments are submitted together for assessment at the end of the course. The portfolio assignments must be no longer than 10 pages. For group assignments, an extra 5 pages is added per additional student. Further details for this exam form can be found in the Curriculum and in the General Guide to Examinations at KUnet.
Exam registration requirements

Students must be enrolled under MSc Curriculum 2015 to take this exam.

Credit students must be at master level.

Exchange students can be at both bachelor and master level.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Exam period

Submission dates and time will be available at KUnet, www.kunet.dk.
Exchange students and Danish full degree guest students please see the homepage of Sociology;
www.soc.ku.dk under Education --> Exams

 

Re-exam

Written take-home essay with NEW formulated questions

Individual/group.

A written take-home essay is defined as an assignment that addresses one or more NEW questions. The exam is based on the course syllabus, i.e. the literature set by the teacher. The written take-home essay must be no longer than 10 pages. For group assignments, an extra 5 pages is added per additional student. Further details for this exam form can be found in the Curriculum and in the General Guide to Examinations at KUnet.

Criteria for exam assesment

Please see the learning outcome