Faculty of Science

Developing Your Methodological Toolbox – Qualitative Research Methods Across Design, Social Sciences and the Humanities
Provider: Faculty of Science

Activity no.: 5432-23-05-01
	Enrollment deadline: 01/08/2023

Place	Auditorium Landskab P301 Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg C
Date and time	22.08.2023, at: 09:00 - 01.09.2023, at: 16:00
Regular seats	25
Course fee	1,200.00 kr.
ECTS credits	4.00

Contact person	Henriette Steiner E-mail address: hst@ign.ku.dk

Enrolment Handling/Course Organiser	Jytte Agergaard E-mail address: ja@ign.ku.dk

Aim and content Few of the big questions and current-day societal challenges – from climate change and loss of biodiversity, to urbanization and landscape transformation, population growth, migration, social inequality or even the current pandemic – can be fully explored by the capabilities of one researcher or even by one subject area. These are questions which operate on different scales (from planetary and global to local and situated environments) that require a range of approaches and methodologies and an engagement with interlinked social, cultural, historical and epistemological horizons. Innovation and application of qualitative research methodologies are crucial elements in research that seeks to contribute viable, durable, meaningful and realistic analyses and solutions to the problems of the day. Thus, PhD-students find that their work is situated at the interface between different research traditions and points to the application of various methodological tools. For the individual PhD-student, choosing the most appropriate research design is an opportunity to think critically and to pursue complex and interconnected research questions - but it also demands a high degree of methodological rigor and reflection. This course will introduce PhD students to a range of qualitative research practices, offering hands-on experience as well as opportunity to reflect on and develop students’ individual methodological tool box, including considerations about which research design is most appropriate but also which social, ethical and impact-related issues particular methodological choices may imply. At the Department for Geosciences and Natural Resource Management (IGN), a cohort of PhD-students’ in particular at the Section for Landscape Architecture and Planning and Section for Geography combine and apply different qualitative methods from across the social, human and design disciplines in their work. For this purpose, students are faced with questions regarding which methods are the most appropriate: interviews, case-based analysis, fieldwork and (auto)ethnographical work, mapping techniques and visual work, design research, textual analysis or archival work? Thus, which qualitative techniques shall be in the toolbox and how write about them? These questions will be tackled in this PhD course where we also address the methodological challenges of working in interdisciplinary research contexts and how to mix research methods. The course is intended as being the first in a series of annual PhD courses on qualitative research methods organized jointly by the Section for Geography and the Section for Landscape Architecture and Planning at IGN. Teaching and learning methods Teaching style: Lectures, workshops, exercises, dialogues, student presentations, feedback and discussions. The course will broaden PhD-students’ knowledge of and experience with a wide selection of qualitative methods as well as equip students to reflect and think critically about with methods to employ when, how and why. By developing a space of collaborative work, discussion, reflection and imagination around particular methodological choices, the course will enable PhD students to make active choices about their own research design and to and to give and receive constructive commentaries from peers and senior academics. Lecturers Guest lecturers: Professor Matthew Gandy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK Associate Professor Joseph Heathcott, The New School, USA Teachers: Associate Professor Trine Agervig Carstensen, IGN, University of Copenhagen Associate Professor Rikke Munck Petersen, University of Copenhagen Assistant Professor Manja Hoppe Andreasen, IGN, University of Copenhagen Assistant Professor Cecilie Friis, IGN, University of Copenhagen Assistant Professor Patience Mguni, IGN, University of Copenhagen Remarks We welcome application from PhD students from geography, landscape architecture, planning, design and related fields who work with qualitative research methodologies. The course’s core part offers a methodological primer which is an opportunity for PhD students to familiarize themselves with selected qualitative methodologies. The course is open to 25 participants. Students from IGN’s Sections for Geography and the Section for Landscape Architecture and Planning with relevant research profiles will be given priority. The course will be structured as a power-point free zone around a core module exploring questions of how to make a workable research design and choosing the appropriate analytical strategies and methodological tools. Through a series of workshop modules with international guest lecturers and UCPH researchers, PhD-students will then gain hand-on experience with selected qualitative methodologies through exercises in collaborative workshop-like settings. The PhD-course will end with a writing workshop module where students can develop and reflect on their individual methodological research design.

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