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Energy and Resources 273
Social Science Research Methods
3 units; CCN 27495
Tu & Th 12:30 - 2
2320 Tolman
Professor Isha Ray
isharay@berkeley.edu
Office hours: Tues 2:30 – 4:30
328 Barrows Hall
Sign up at ERG front lobby or call 2-1640
Books
Jean Converse and Stanley Presser: Survey Questions. Sage Publications.
C. Ragin and H. Becker: What is a Case? Cambridge University Press
Books for the course are available at ASUC Bookstore. The reader can be bought at the
Bancroft Street Copy Central.
1/20
Introduction to course content. Overview lecture on research design and research methods.
(Start reading ahead. The first week is a heavier-than-usual reading week)
Knowledge in the Social Sciences
1/22 & 1/27
David Miller (editor). Popper Selections. Ch 10 (originally in Conjectures and Refutations)
Yuri Balashov and Alex Rosenberg (eds.). Philosophy of Science: Contemporary Readings. Ch 25
(Dudley Shapere on The Structure of Scientific Revolutions – this is an early review of Kuhn); &
Ch 27 (David Bloor on The Strong Programme in the Sociology of Knowledge)
Andrew Sayer. Realism and Social Science. Ch 1.
Donna Haraway. ‘Situated Knowledges.’ Ch 9 in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women
Explanation in the Social Sciences
1/29 & 2/3
Michael Martin & Lee McIntyre (editors). Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science. Ch 8 (H.
Kincaid, Defending Laws in the Social Sciences); Ch 14 (C. Geertz, Thick Description); & Ch 25 (J.
Elster, Functional Explanation in Social Science)
Daniel Little. Varieties of Social Explanation. Ch 3 (Rational Choice). [Mary Louise; Sam B]
Sampling and Data Collection
2/5 & 2/10
Norman Blaikie. Designing Social Research, pages 183 – 212
Alan Bryman. Social Research Methods Ch 4
[Blaikie & Bryman pieces replicate some info, but it is useful to see different ways of
explaining how to sample]
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Stephen Devereux & John Hoddinott. Fieldwork in Developing Countries. Ch 3 (S. Devereux,
Observers are Worried); and Ch 4 (W. Olsen, Random Sampling and Repeat Surveys) [Lara, Jamil]
Surveys
2/12 & 2/17
Larry Converse & Jean Presser. Survey Questions: Handcrafting the standardized questionnaire
Alan Bryman. Social Research Methods Ch 5, 7
The Lancet November 20 2004. ‘Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq:
cluster sample survey.’ [Merrian, Jeremy, David]
Elementary Statistics, Confidence Intervals, Hypothesis Testing
2/19 & 2/24
[Note: The lecture on 2/19 will be elementary, geared towards those who are unfamiliar
with even basic stats. The aim is to help these students to interpret the reported results of
statistical analyses etc that they will inevitably need to use. If you are comfortable with
statistics / econometrics, then take the day off and skip the lecture. But not the discussion
on 2/24]
Debraj Ray. Development Economics. Appendix 2 (Elementary Statistics – Optional; I will cover
this material in class, but useful to look through if you are unfamiliar with elementary stats)
Pranab Bardhan. ‘Water Community: An Empirical Analysis of Cooperation on Irrigation in
South India.’ Economic Development & Cultural Change. 2000. [Note: Do not focus on the
details of the estimated equations, try and get a sense of the overall method]
Vijayendra Rao. ‘Experiments in Participatory Econometrics.’ Economic and Political Weekly,
May 18 2002.
Deirdre McCloskey. The Rhetoric of Economics. Ch 9. [Josiah, Sarah]
Experimental & Quasi-experimental Research Design
2/26 & 3/3
David Dooley. Social Research Methods. Ch 8 (Quasi-experimentation)
Donald Campbell. ‘Reforms as Experiments.’ The American Psychologist, v 24, 1969.
Kremer, Michael, Jessica Leino, Edward Miguel and Alix P Zwane. ‘Spring Cleaning: A
Randomized Evaluation of Source Water Quality Improvement.’ UCB Economics Working
Paper, October 2007. [Note: This is a long paper. Skip Section 4, it is not central to the
experimental design. Do not worry about each element of the regression equation –
try to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the research design] [Gogi, Liz, Pam]
Qual vs. Quant?
3/5 & 3/10
Robert Adcock & David Collier. 2001. ‘Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for
Qualitative and Quantitative Research.’ American Political Science Review, 95: 529 – 546.
Robert Chambers. ‘Qualitative approaches: self criticism and what can be gained from
quantitative approaches.’ In Q2 Working Paper 1, October 2005.
Martin Ravallion. ‘Can qualitative methods help quantitative poverty measurement?’ In Q2
Working Paper 1, October 2005. [http://www.q-squared.ca]
Bardhan, PK and Isha Ray (2006). ‘Methodological approaches to the question of the
commons.’ Economic Development and Cultural Change, 54: 655 – 676.
Isha Ray. ‘Outcomes and processes in economics and anthropology.’ Economic Development
and Cultural Change, April 2006. (optional) [Sibyl, Bessma, Jon]
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Interviewing
3/12 & 3/17
Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai (editors). Women’s Words. Ch 1 (K. Anderson & D.
Jack, Learning to Listen); & Ch 4 (K. Borland, That’s Not What I Said)
Elliot Mishler. Ch 2 (Research Interviews as Speech Events); Ch 3 (Joint Construction of
Meaning) in Research Interviewing
Amanda Coffey & Paul Atkinson. Making Sense of Qualitative Data. Ch 2 (Concepts and
Coding).
[3/17: Analysis and coding of sample interviews] [Isha]
Analysis / discussion of sample surveys
3/19
e.g. UNICEF MICS mid-decade assessment surveys p23 - 28
[Merrill]http://www.childinfo.org/mics/micsmane.html
3/23 – 3/27 Spring Break
Think of a research question for which you would need to conduct interviews (not surveys).
Prepare an interview guide and conduct this interview with one or two persons. Write a
short report outlining: the research question, why you had to interview and whom you chose
to interview, what kinds of questions did you ask, what were the responses, what did the
responses imply, did the responses make you re-think your research question or the limits of
the interview method or your interviewing techniques? How many would you have sampled
had the interview been part of a real project? Send in your 2-page papers by 3/29
Discussion of interview reports T 3/31 [Sarah R, Ian, Emma]
Content Analysis and Secondary Analysis
4/2 & 4/7
Amartya Sen. Poverty and Famines. Ch 6 (Great Bengal Famine) & Ch 7 (Ethiopian Famine)
[Erin, Yelena, Caroline]
Case Study Research Design
4/9 & 4/14
Charles Ragin & Howard Becker. What is a Case? Ch 2, 5, 6, 9 & 10 [Zoe, Andrea]
The Comparative Method
4/16 & 4/21 [lecture on 4/21; no class 4/16]
Charles Ragin. The Comparative Method, Ch 1, 2 & 5
Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen. China and India, Ch 11 in Hunger & Public Action.
(optional) Patrick Heller. 2001. ‘Moving the State: The Politics of Democratic
Decentralization in Kerala, South Africa, and Porto Alegre.’ World Politics 29: 131 – 163.
Grounded Theory Method
4/23 & 4/28
Haig, Brian. 1995. Grounded Theory as Scientific Method.’ Philosophy of Education Society
Yearbook; http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/PES-Yearbook/95_docs/haig.html
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Charmaz, Kathy. 2006. ‘Reconstructing Theory in Grounded Theory Studies’, (CH 6) and
‘Reflecting on the Research Process (CH 8) in Constructing Grounded Theory. Sage Publications.
Glaser, Barney. 2002. ‘Constructivist Grounded Theory?’ in Qualitative Social Research 3(3),
Sept 2002. (This is the “founder” of GT) [Imran, Logan]
Participant Observation & ECM
4/30 & 5/5
John Lofland & Lyn Lofland. Analyzing Social Settings (pages 89 – 98; and Ch 9)
Michael Burawoy. ‘The Extended Case Method.’ Sociological Theory 16, 1998. [Derrick, Alice]
Ethics of Fieldwork
5/7
No reading responses due this week!
The UC Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects follow the Belmont Report:
http://ohrp.osophs.dhhs.gov/humansubjects/guidance/belmont.htm
Stephen Devereux and John Hoddinott (eds): Fieldwork in Developing Countries. Ch 12 (K.
Wilson, Thinking about the ethics of fieldwork)