Qualitative Research Methods For Public Affairs

Qualitative research is an essential tool for deeper probing of diverse social phenomena and for designing effective public management strategies and policies. In the public administration and policy areas, narratives, case studies, observations, and more recently, focus groups have contributed insight and depth to our understanding of the structural, managerial, and environmental factors embedded in the public sector. Given this, you, as an independent researcher, need to understand the philosophy of qualitative, non-statistical social science research, focusing on how to design methods of qualitative research and how to conduct the analysis. The main objective of this course is not only to empower you to critically consume research through various forms of qualitative methods, but also to provide the fundamental skills for their own future rigorous research work (e.g., final year project). More specifically, while studying different qualitative inquiry approaches, you will be able to create a rationale for a qualitative inquiry that will be applicable to their research (or a hypothetical one) and to conduct qualitative research with data production (e.g., interviews, case studies, and observations). Lastly, you will be able to analyze and interpret their data using content or another discourse analytic technique.