This course focuses on the methods for designing political (and social) science research, with a special emphasis on innovative (big) data sources and Data Science methods. We will discuss how to design a political science research project, from asking good research questions to selecting data sources, formulating and testing hypotheses, and evaluating findings. Throughout, we will highlight the key differences between designing research for exploring problems, for developing theories, and for making forecasts – and we will attempt to build bridges between them.
While you will be expected to pick up your topic and develop your own research project throughout the course, this is not a primarily technical course. Rather than on analytical techniques or statistical modelling, the emphasis will be on developing the ability to design, carry out and evaluate research that exploits the potential of big data and data science to understand political and social problems.
Objectives. By the end of the course, students:
- will be able to identify theories, hypotheses, and methods used in empirical political science research. They will understand how data science can contribute to the understanding of political and social problems and dynamics;
- will apply various methods to address political science research questions. They will be able to design and carry out a solid research project that uses innovative data for understanding, describing, real-time monitoring and/or forecasting political and social behaviour.
