Research Methods for Politics, Ecology and Society

FaculteitFaculty of Geosciences

NiveauMaster

Studiejaar2026-2027

Beschrijving

Course goals

Please note: the information in the course manual is binding.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

Distinguish different theoretical and methodological positions related to some of the most representative qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Identify ethical and political commitments in conducting research in practice.
Construct a researcher positionality and identify its influence on the research process.
Critically apply a series of research methods for data collection and analysis to examine socioecological problems and research interventions to address the problems.
Evaluate the application of research methods.

Content

This course introduces the students to fieldwork design, and to a range of social science, natural science and interdisciplinary methods that can be fruitfully employed to critically examine global socioecological interconnections and justices issues, as well as interventions seeking to transform them. It provides students with knowledge related to scientific methodology, ethics and positionality and research methods to be used in academic research work for the study of Politics, Ecology and Society. Knowledge of the theory, application, and interpretation of methods that inform scientific inquiry will be provided. Additionally, we will review the necessary skills for fieldwork, specifically how to design protocols for obtaining information, data collection and analysis.

The course is organized in modules, each of which covering a specific research method. First, all the students take a module on epistemology, ethics and fieldwork design (2 weeks). Then the students are introduced to four important methods, namely (i) interviews and ethnography, (ii) critical discourse analysis, (iii) GIS, and (iv) statistical analysis (1 week). Students take two modules of their choice among the following ones: Interviews and ethnography or Discourse analysis (4 weeks), and GIS or statistical analysis (4 weeks). This course emphasizes active engagement and is based on hands-on assignments and practical exercises.

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