All course instructors are highly experienced researchers in their respective fields and active members of COREX. This course is offered in cooperation with the research project “The Political Executive: Cabinet Government Praxis Between Laws and Norms” (POLITEX) funded by the Norwegian Research Council.
Target group
The advanced course invites working group participants of COREX interested in further developing their conceptual and methodological skills in the executive triangle research to apply. In particular, the advanced course seeks applications from PhD and postdoctoral researchers and participants from ITC countries. Furthermore, PhD students and researchers who are not participating in COREX are invited to apply, though priority will be given to active participants of the network. The course will give participants fundamental insights into the respective methods, introduce them to key readings, and provide hands-on knowledge on how to start using them in executive triangle research.
Content
Sessions will cover the concept of politicization and its operationalization in empirical research, comparative research designs, the systematic analysis of biographies and careers, expert interviews and interpretative methods as well as document analysis. The course also offers a keynote speech on research on politico-administrative relations under authoritarian governments, a dedicated session on publishing in international peer-reviewed journals as well as one on data science-based approaches in the study of the executive triangle. Participants will be provided with a syllabus ahead of the course.
Format
The course will follow this format: Each of the three days will begin with morning lectures. On the first two days, the afternoons will feature workshop-style sessions. These sessions are designed for in-depth discussions and feedback on specific methodological or conceptual challenges that participants have encountered or anticipate in their research. Challenges may range from conceptual, such as how to operationalize politicization with various data types, to methodological, like accessing elite respondents in government or analyzing interview transcripts. Participants will bring specific examples of their data and the challenges they face in interpreting or analyzing their data. The first two days will close with a session on data science methods and publishing respectively.
Input from participants and feedback
Applicants are asked to submit a brief description of their challenge(s) with the application. If accepted, they are asked to elaborate on those challenges in a short note (2-3 pages) to be submitted ahead of the course, and to briefly present their challenge(s) in one of the workshop sessions. Participants can expect to take home actionable peer-feedback on their presented challenge as well as feedback by instructors. The feedback aims to provide guidance and support as to how to address the challenge in the next steps of the participants’ research.
Learning Objectives
After the end of the advanced course, participants:
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Have developed a critical understanding of the principal concepts and research strategies associated with executive triangle research.
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Have gained the ability to apply executive triangle concepts in their research.
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Be able to critically analyze and evaluate selected concepts and methods to address methodological challenges in a specialized area of executive triangle research.
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Be able to independently apply methodological solutions to specific challenges in executive triangle research.
More information available here.
Organizers: Tobias Bach, UiO, Thurid Hustedt, Hertie School