Lecture 1 - Introduction Flashcards
What form of Research?
The study of what is, the real world.
Empirical Research
What form of Research?
The study of what ought to be, of ideas and values
Normative Research
What type of research is this?
How was the elctoral turnout developed over time? What causes wa?
Empirical
What type of research is this?
How does a socially just society look like? Can war be Just?
Normative
What is the nature of the social world and what are its consitutent parts?
Ontology (What is)
What sort of knowledge about (social) phenomena is possible and how can we know about it?
Epistemology (What is knowable)
What strategies can we use to gain knowledge?
Methodlogy (How to we obtain knowledge)
Positivism
Is the social world the same as the natural world, and can therefore the same methods be used to study the social and the natural world? Yes
Epistemological assumptions - Positivism
Scientific knowledge is limited to what we can observe through the senses (empiricism)
Interpretivism
Is the social world the same as the natural world, and can therefore the same methods be used to study the social and the natural world? No
Ontological assumptions - Interpretivism
Unlike in the natural world, there is no objective reality which exists independently of our minds in the social world
Social phenomena are what we experience them to be as a result of social or discursive creation
Epistemological assumptions - interpretivism
Scientific knowledge about the social world can only be gained through interpreting meanings
Interpretivism critique of positivism
An additional key ontological assumption is that individuals are considered to be unique; they all have their own, unique ideas and motivations – albeit those are likely socially constructed.
Law-like generalizations are not possible because there is no objective reality and, therefore, also no universally applicable laws.
Criticism of classical positivism
Proposed the principle of verifibility, researches should attempt to falisfy theories, the more falisifcation it passes the more credible it is.
Popper Theory building through falsification only deduction is possible.
Popper used the black swan example. The only way to verify the statement “All swans are white” would be by observing all swans in the world, which is not possible.
On the other hand, the statement can be falsified by observing a single black swan in New Zealand, where they do exist.
Popper Theory building through falsification only deduction is possible.
Broadly similar to positivism in that it accepts naturalist ontology; the social and natural worlds are not different. However, it breaks with positivism’s empiricist position; scientific realism assumes that there are not only observable, but also unobservable facts, objects, or properties which are real and can affect social outcomes. Consequently, the goal of scientific realists is to describe and explain both observable and unobservable aspects of the world. Unobservable concepts can be ascertained by observing their consequences. For example, we cannot observe gravity, but can observe its consequences. Analogously, we cannot observe class bias, but we can observe its consequences (e.g., on admission to universities, jobs, etc.).
Scientific Realism
The assumption of independence between the researcher and the research object is unlikely to hold; recognize that theories, hypotheses, background knowledge, and values of the researcher can influence what is observed.
They pursue objectivity while recognizing the possible effects of biases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postpositivism
Postpositivism
Less standardized but richer data
Quant or Qual?
Qual
Analysis of single or small number of cases.
Quant or Qual?
Qual
Analysis of large number of cases
Quant or Qual?
Quant
Positivist or interpretivist
Quant or Qual?
Qual
Typically positivist
Quant
Is this normative or empirical research?
“Positivist” or interpretivist?
Qualitative or quantitative?
This crossnational study seeks to explain variations in governmental repression of human rights to personal integrity (state terrorism) in a 153-country sample during the eighties. We outline theoretical perspectives on this topic and subject them to empirical tests using a technique appropriate for our pooled cross-sectional time-series design, namely, ordinary least squares with robust standard errors and a lagged dependent variable. We find democracy and participation in civil or international war to have substantively important and statistically significant effects on repression. The effects of economic development and population size are more modest. The hypothesis linking leftist regime types to abuse of personal integrity rights receives some support. We find no reliable evidence that population growth, British cultural influence, military control, or economic growth affect levels of repression.
Empirical, Positivist and Quant
Is this normative or empirical research?
“Positivist” or interpretivist?
Qualitative or quantitative?
Elites often use merit to explain, justify, and make sense of their advantaged positions. But what exactly do they mean by this? In this paper, we draw on 71 interviews with elites in Denmark and the UK to compare self-justifications of meritocratic legitimacy. Our results indicate that while elites in both countries are united by a common concern to frame their merits as spontaneously recognized by others (rather than strategically promoted by themselves), the package of attributes they foreground vary significantly. In the UK, elites tend to be “talent meritocrats” who foreground their unique capacity for ideational creativity or risk taking, innately good judgment, and “natural” aptitude, intelligence, or academic ability. In contrast, in Denmark, elites are more likely to be “hard work meritocrats” who emphasize their unusual work ethic, extensive experience (as a signal of accumulated hard work), and contributions outside of work, particularly in civil society.
Empirical, Interpretivist, Qual
Is this normative or empirical research?
“Positivist” or interpretivist?
Qualitative or quantitative?
The requirement of legitimate authority, though central to medieval and modern interpretations of the just war tradition, has received less attention in the contemporary literature than the other requirements of jus ad bellum. […] The principle of legitimate authority has been criticized in some recent writings on war for not taking account of the implications of (independently defended) cosmopolitan descriptions of state legitimacy. If states are subject to stringent legitimacy conditions such as those outlined above, the criticism goes, they do not possess the right to wage war simply by virtue of their being a state. Rather, the authority to resort to war should be vested in supra-national institutions as well as, or indeed, rather than, states. In this sense war becomes a mechanism for enforcing cosmopolitan moral norms, as opposed to a mechanism for resolving interstate disputes. This cosmopolitan account of legitimate authority needs to be developed to include supra-national institutions. While the author does not deny that such institutions have the moral and legal right to wage war, the aim of this article is to cast doubt on the cogency of the requirement of legitimate authority itself—on cosmopolitan grounds. From a cosmopolitan point of view, the article argues there are very good reasons for dropping the requirement altogether. After sketching out a plausible cosmopolitan account of justice in section two, section three shows that a war need not be waged by a legitimate authority in order to qualify as a just war.
Normative, both others do not apply.
Is this normative or empirical research?
“Positivist” or interpretivist?
Qualitative or quantitative?
As we enter the informational economy, freedom of human mobility has nearly disappeared. Instead, powerful words are travelling the globe unhindered: risk and security. They are being strung together with the present “migration phenomena”, leaving migrants bound by the chain of the new security discourse: the securitization of migration. This discourse is racism’s most modern form. Discursive practices, as seen through the press’s portrayal of 599 migrants reaching Canada’s western coast, have transformed migrants into agents which threaten “human security”. How discourse informs government policy is illustrated through an examination of Canada’s new immigration legislation.
Empirical, Interpretive, Qual, not fully explicit but some reference to discourse.
Is this normative or empirical research?
“Positivist” or interpretivist?
Qualitative or quantitative?
We report the results of the first large-scale experiment involving paid political advertising. During the opening months of a 2006 gubernatorial campaign, approximately $2 million of television and radio advertising on behalf of the incumbent candidate was deployed experimentally. In each experimental media market, the launch date and volume of television advertising were randomly assigned. In order to gauge movement in public opinion, a tracking poll conducted brief telephone interviews with approximately 1,000 registered voters each day and a brief follow-up one month after the conclusion of the television campaign. Results indicate that televised ads have strong but short-lived effects on voting preferences. The ephemeral nature of these effects is more consistent with psychological models of priming than with models of on-line processing.
Empirical, Positivist, Quant
