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Introduction to Social Science

The course provides an overview of epistemological and methodological concepts, issues and techniques concerning the production of scientifically relevant knowledge in the domain of social sciences. It is designed and intended for an audience of post-graduate or doctoral students coming from both quantitative and qualitative backgrounds, therefore including students of natural and applied sciences. It proceeds from the illustration of key basic concepts in defining research activities and production of knowledge, with particular reference to their historical evolution in philosophical debates, to the clarification of methodological choices for a number of social science disciplines, to the exploration of themes which are contingent to methodological questions, such as methodological pluralism and interdisciplinarity, ethics of scientific research and effective communication.
At the end of the course, the student should have familiarised with the key concepts informing epistemological and methodological debates in social science, such as hypothesis, theory, falsification, verification, covering law, causality, with particular consideration for positivistic paradigms and anti- or post-positivistic reactions.
The student should be aware of the specific difficulties of social scientific disciplines in studying human societies arising from the problematic separation between the studied object and the studying subject, and the link between social science and the political dimension.
He should familiarise with problems of social research design, starting from the specificities characterizing the various stages of social science research.
The student should become aware of the functional classification of social science methods in qualitative and quantitative, familiarising with a number of techniques in both domains, while grasping that contemporary social research increasingly requires the application of different methods and interdisciplinary approaches, which also lead to the necessity of teamwork coordination.
The course also aims at providing a large variety of examples where the concepts and principles described above find their application and didactic clarification. Those examples will focus in particular on the study of technology and its social impact.
Finally, the student should become aware of the moral implications, limits and rules informing social science research, as well as of the role and importance of effective communication in the social sciences.
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時間割/共通科目コード
コース名
教員
学期
時限
5112250
GPP-MP5P10L3
Introduction to Social Science
ORSI Roberto
A1 A2
集中
マイリストに追加
マイリストから削除
講義使用言語
英語
単位
2
実務経験のある教員による授業科目
NO
他学部履修
開講所属
公共政策学教育部
授業計画
The course is articulated in 13 teaching units of approximately 100 minutes each. Each teaching unit contains approximately 50 minutes of frontal lecture, 10 minutes of break and 40 minutes of class seminar. Seminars are in-class discussions of topics previously covered in the lectures, and activities are designed in order to enhance both the absorption and the re-elaboration of contents by the students. The schedule of the course is the following: Saturday 5 October from 10.25 to 16.40 (Periods 2, 3, and 4) Saturday 2 November from 10.25 to 18.35 (Periods 2, 3, 4, and 5) Saturday 7 December from 10.25 to 16.40 (Periods 2, 3, and 4) Saturday 11 January from 10.00 to 16.40 (Periods 2, 3, and 4) Classes take place in Room A on the12th floor of the GraSPP Building.
授業の方法
Frontal lecture; in-class debate; written assignments; in-class presentation.
成績評価方法
Students will be assessed according to the quality of their performance with reference to Attendance and Class Contribution Final Written Report
教科書
The numerous topics covered by this course can hardly be summarised by any single work or textbook. However, because of the centrality and recurrence of certain core ideas within social science research, reading the following text: John Gerring, Social Science Methodology. A Unified Framework, Second Edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012 is recommended. Please have a look at the course booklet on UTOL for further indications.
参考書
Further readings will be indicated at a later stage.
履修上の注意
No specific background is required to take this course. This is an in-person class (Room A, 12th floor of the GraSPP Building).