Qualitative Research. Applications and Case Studies

During the meetings of the mandatory postgraduate seminar Qualitative Research: Applications and Case Studies, detailed examples of applications will be presented regarding issues that were discussed extensively in the winter semester seminar. The limits and contributions of theoretical concepts, methodological paradigms and research techniques of qualitative research will also be presented. The aim is to connect the theoretical tools of social science with qualitative research. At the same time, on a second level, the aim is to combine the concepts of sociological theory with the various methodological tools that researchers use to capture the multiple and varied aspects of social life. In particular, the emphasis will be given to the research techniques of qualitative reasoning (see below), in various areas and topics of everyday social life, as potential examples of case studies and further research. Through the creation of working groups, the seminar will focus on specific empirical examples and published research papers, both in Greek and foreign languages, that examine case studies in various areas of social life (for example, education, health, culture, public administration, local society, development and cohesion, tourism, etc.). The research seminar will also be linked to the content of the other seminars of the Master of Science in Public Administration. At a second level, after the completion of the first introductory lectures by the coordinating lecturer, the analysis will turn to the systematic presentation of various specific methodological techniques of qualitative research (e.g. participant observation, semi-structured/biographical narrative interview, focus groups, action research, critical discourse analysis, etc.). There will also be an extensive discussion of several working texts, in the form of applications and specific research and case studies, that connect sociological concepts and theoretical propositions with qualitative research. The ethical, moral and political issues that arise during research design, especially during qualitative research, will also be presented. Finally, the importance of using computers in the production and analysis of empirical material will be analyzed, especially with the application of programs such as NVIVO, ATLAS, etc. The course aims to introduce postgraduate students to the basic issues of qualitative research methodology, to the multiple techniques of collecting and analyzing qualitative social data and to the use of specific research techniques. The seminar is organized in the form of weekly lectures around the individual thematic units, based on the teaching material distributed to the students. In the context of the meetings, the legacy of interpretive sociology is presented and – through the use of multiple forms of evidence and evidentiary material – the contribution of each individual school in relation to qualitative research is analyzed. Subsequently, the techniques that are basically used in qualitative research are presented in detail through specific research examples and empirical studies, referring to the Greek and international reality (e.g. participatory observation, interviews in its various forms, focus groups, action research, etc.). In addition to the above, the ethical, deontological, epistemological, political and moral issues that arise in qualitative field research are presented in detail. In the lectures, extensive use is made of printed, visual and audio material from the fields of current events, but also from the past, depending on the topic under investigation (e.g. self-presentation, chronically ill people, unemployment, social stigmatization, social development, cohesion, migration, tourism, etc.). Through the creation of working groups, which study selected working texts published in Greek and foreign journals and books, the seminar will focus on specific empirical examples and case studies that examine issues and practices of social planning in various areas of social life (e.g., education, health, culture, public administration, local society, etc.). Furthermore, the research seminar will be linked to the content of the remaining seminars of the Master's Program and students will present extensively issues arising from their own field research.