IS830_Week SIX_2024

IS830Dr Nazanin Shahrokni

Research Design & Concept Formation

Week SIX, February 2024

At A glance

Politics & Ethics of Producing Research

Research Alignment & Formulating Research Questions

Methods of Data Collection

Writing Up & Presenting Your Research

Research Design: A Process

Class Activity: Mapping Your Research

On Concepts & Conceptualization

Class Activity: Working with Concepts

Next Steps

Literature Review

Theme and Topic

Research Design

Data Analysis

Research Question(s)

Data Collection

Writing Up

Research alignment is the logical progression of ideas between the structural elements of your research project.

Finding a Good Research Question

What’s the puzzle? Are there contradictory findings? Is an outcome unexplained? Is an outcome unexpected?

Filling a gap? What do we don't know? How main contributions about this differ? What are the strong/wrong assumptions in previous works? What scale of analysis is missing from these works?

Real world problem? How relevant is this? Would an non-academic care? Could it be translated into polices?

Features of a Good Research Question

01

02

03

FOCUS(Does it aim at what you want to know?)

COMPLEXITY(Is the answer obvious? Are there multiple dimensions to the question?

CLARITY(Is the question ambiguous?)

04

05

06

CREATIVITY (Is this question of interest to you or is it imposed? What twists can you add to it? How can you make it your own?

USEFULNESS (Why do we need to know the answer? So what?)

FEASIBILITY (Can you answer this question?)

Class Activity

You can write an amazing title

Theme

Research Question(s)

Write down - Your statement of purpose (what is the problem/issue you are trying to address?) - Your research questions (Within the problem area you have defined what question(s) do you want to address?) - Data collection methods (what kinds of data do you need to address your questions?)

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Research Design (research subquestions, methods of data collection & analysis, writing plan)

Mapping/Visualizing Your Research

Let's visualize (create a plan for) our research...

Prepare your elevator pitch in 5 steps: 1) State the problem area 2) State your questions 3) Describe your case 4) Introduce your method of analysis 5) Answer the "so what?" question

1980s

2000s

You can write an amazing title

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Inclusivesegregation regime

Exclusive segregation regime

Features of a Good Concept

01

03

02

PARSIMONY

FAMILIARITY

05

04

RESONANCE

06

COHERENCE

DIFFERENTIATION

DEPTH

07

08

THEORETICAL UTILITY

FIELD UTILITY

Concept formation and operationalization are ongoing multi-stage, multi-layered processes processes.

Concept Formation: An ExampleAndrews and Shahrokni (2014)

The Puzzle: This paper begins from a paradox. In the 1980s and 1990s, women became increasingly mobile, especially in the developing world. Scholars generally attribute this shift to global economic pressure or to the spread of (Western) gender egalitarianism. Yet, in some places, women gained mobility just as local institutions extended policies excluding them or segregating them from men.

Patriarchal Accommodation

Patriarchal Bargain

Accommodating Protest

New Concept: Patriarchal AccommodationWe find that in both Iran and Mexico, women gained mobility through the very policies that appeared to confine or exclude them. We call these policies “patriarchal accommodations.” They were patriarchal, because they enshrined formal gender difference associated with male dominance. They were accommodations, because they adapted existing standards of “appropriate” masculinity and femininity to global economic pressure, enabling women to work, study, and consume.

Class Activity

You can write an amazing title

HOMONATIONALISM(Matthew & Pooja)

RACIAL CAPITALISM (Tanjila & Daphne)

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- Offer a clear definition - Identify key dimensions - Identify concept family - Identify rival/alternative concepts - Evaluate the concept

SECURITY COMMUNITY (Elif & Laila)

GLOBAL CARE CHAIN (Tanaya & Amanda)

Let's discuss concept formation...

Remember

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research.

Discomfort could be productive. Be comfortable with it!

Don't get into a conversation without knowing what you want out of it.

Don't compare your insides with other people's outsides!

Don't compare your work-in-progress with other people's published work.

Remember that research is a process. It is not a linear process and you need to be prepared to continuously realign your research components.

GOOD LUCK!

and yes of course.... Happy Valentine's Day!