Interpretive Political Science

Many students in the social sciences, especially in political science, public policy and public administration who decide to undertake qualitative or interpretive research feel they are unqualified to do so. They express deep-seated confusion about the reliability and generalizability of data, results, and conclusions. They feel that interpretive approaches lack the type of specialised training that has become commonplace in quantitative political science. The aim of this course is to redress this gap. We will equip students with a toolkit that will enable them to both conceptualise and execute an interpretive project. 

The course covers:

• Situating the interpretive approach in relation to other ways of doing political science research by reference to the philosophical, epistemological, and methodological assumptions on which these approaches are based;
• The theoretical and analytical tools students need to design and conduct their research project;
• The toolkit of methods used by interpretive scholars to collect data, including ethnographic and interview-based methods;
• The standards that will both ensure results are reliable and maximise the impact of findings; and
• Guidance on the norms and principles used to analyse data in an interpretive project.
• An introduction to comparative interpretive research

By the end of the course participants will:

• Be able to describe the strengths and features of the interpretive approach   
• Be able to develop and justify a sophisticated design for interpretive research
• Have experience interpreting rich qualitative data

Course Description

Target Audience

The course is primarily aimed at PhD students and early career scholars of political science, public policy and public administration, but scholars of other social science disciplines, such as criminology, sociology, planning or legal studies, will also benefit from it. We welcome PhDs etc. from member institutions of the ECPR and researchers from NGOs and charitable organisations. 

Participants will need to bring a summary of a draft chapter from PhD or draft publications for group discussion.

Preparatory Reading

Rhodes, R. A. W. (2017) Interpretive Political Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Boswell, John, Jack Corbett and Rhodes, R. A. W. (2019) The Art and Craft of Comparison Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.