Course Description

This course focuses on research design and application of research methods for Ph.D. and advanced masters students in planning, geography and public policy. Dissertation research in these fields is often challenging due to the multifaceted nature of the issues or the central role of politics or normative choices in the phenomenon being researched. In addition, both fields draw upon a diverse array of research paradigms and methods, and researchers seemingly face a dizzying array of potential options for their research. For these reasons it is particularly important that students carefully consider their research choices and are aware of the limits (and strengths) of the available methodological strategies and of ethical issues arising from their choice of research approach. This course will focus on the logic of research design, rather than on the details of particular techniques. It will help students think through their research ideas and identify research techniques which should be studied in more depth in other methods courses.

The course will begin by discussing issues of research design in the social sciences, beginning with general principles of research design. We will then focus on theorizing, conceptualizing and defining a research problem. We will next enter into discussions of particular approaches to research, covering the experimental and quasi-experimental designs often associated with policy research. We move next to qualitative research, focusing the understanding when qualitative approaches are most fruitfully employed. Following this, we move next to consideration of quantitative approaches to research and when such approaches are most merited. We will discuss issues associated with developing surveys for collection of primary data, and with analyzing existing databases. Finally, we will discuss how qualitative and quantitative approaches can be combined in "mixed methods" research.

Course Requirements

This course will be centered upon active class discussion of topics or assignments. In addition to lectures on elements of research design and particular methods, we will use current research debates as a vehicle for exploring how differing methodological decisions can shape findings and drive substantive debates.

In addition to active participation in discussion in class, there will be three other requirements. The first will require seminar students to find two dissertations/theses on a topic related to their own interests and critically assess and compare the problem definitions and research designs contained in these works. Second, students must complete several exercises aimed at providing practice in the use of concepts discussed in the readings. The third offers students the choice of either:

1. focusing on an area of debate in planning, geography or public policy, where research design, analysis and interpretation are central to the debate and presenting the debate and your critical assessment to the class and in a written paper, or
2. preparing a draft research prospectus for your own research, and presenting it in class for feedback.

Students are free to select either option depending on their stage in their studies. Citations to literature on possible debate topics will be distributed in class.