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Research Design, 12-13 September 2011, Yerevan

On 12-13 September 2011, the first joint Georgian-Armenian capacity building training was organized by ASCN in Yerevan. The main goal of the training was to introduce the basics of empirically oriented research design.

Description


One of the main goals of social sciences research is to generate a better understanding of how societies work. To reach this goal, social scientists aim at theoretically identifying the causes and consequences of social, political, and economic processes and phenomena and examining whether these theoretical predictions can be confirmed with empirical evidence. The key to convincingly testing theoretical propositions empirically lies with the research design, that is a plan for collecting and analyzing empirical data in such a way that it allows the researcher to assess whether the empirical argument corresponds to actual real world processes. Constructing a good, convincing, and feasible research design is therefore one of the most important tasks scholars will confront when planning their research.

On the first day, the participants were acquainted with various options of research designs. The trainers offered a comparative perspective of the possible designs, and elaborated on the process of selecting research topics. The main focus was on the advantages and disadvantages of experimental and non-experimental research. On the second day, the trainers divided the audience into two working groups; the participants discussed their own projects and applied the techniques which were introduced during the first day of the workshop.


Participants


The workshop was primarily conceived for researchers involved in ASCN-funded projects from Armenia and Georgia; a few PhD students from local universities were also invited. Altogether, 26 scholars took part in the workshop

Venue


The training took place on 12–13 September 2011 in Yerevan. It was planned for a maximum of 30 people selected from among the social science research projects supported by ASCN.


Trainers


The training was conducted by Prof. Daniel Bochsler from the University of Zürich and Prof. Achim Kemmerling from the Central European University in Budapest. Both have broad experience in teaching research methodology.

Programme



fileicon rd11yerevan_program ASCN.pdf (pdf, 46.2 KB)