Qualitative Approaches to Data Collection and Analysis

This short intensive course provides an introduction to qualitative research. The first part offers a discussion of the particularities, strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research, a brief overview of its methodological traditions; and the different analytical aims that qualitative research can take, such as for example causal analysis, critical analysis, or documenting constitutive practices . The second and main part introduces common research designs and methods of data collection and analysis used in qualitative research. We will cover basic elements of process tracing, comparative case studies, interviewing, archival research, ethnography, content and discourse analysis. In terms of its format, the course applies lectures, interactive sessions and practical exercises. It also seeks to build on participants’ own research projects. The seminar should be of interest both for participants who consider doing qualitative research and those who work in the quantitative tradition. The former will get some orientation about the diversity of qualitative research, its specific strength and problems, whereas the latter will acquire a basic familiarity with a different research tradition. 

About the lecturer 

Dorothee Bohle holds a chair of Social and Political Change at the European University Institute in Florence. Before joining the EUI, she taught at the Central European University in Budapest. Her research is at the intersection of comparative and international political economy with a special focus on East Central Europe. She works in the historical institutionalist tradition, and teaches (among others) qualitative methods at the EUI.