1. Prof. Jennifer Schirmer (Harvard, SUM, UiO), 25. and 30.8.
Description:
The first lecture will examine the different approaches to research, the links between particular theoretical positions and general assertions and the methodological approaches and techniques that need to be deployed to illustrate, document and/or demonstrate these positions and assertions. The second lecture will set out how one prepares for fieldwork, how one chooses and bounds a fieldwork site given the overall goals and postulations underlying the research, and how one chooses and works with the subjects of research. We will look at the potential benefits, problems and uses associated with different types of research approaches which include: techniques for making and recording observations; e.g., mapping, recordkeeping, etc.; techniques for interviewing; Open-ended vs. close-ended interviews and questionnaires; organizing data in the field; e.g., keeping of diaries, notetaking, recording interviews, etc.
Readings:
Lincoln Y. & E.G: "Paradigmatic Contreversies, Contradictions, and Emerging C "Paradigmatic Contreversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences" in Handbook of Qualitative Research Second Edition, Lincoln (eds.) Thousand Oaks. Page 163 - 188.
B. Flyvbjerg: Making Social Science Matter, 2001. Cambridge University Press. (selections).
J. W. Cresswell : Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Traditions Thousand Oaks, 1998. Sage Publications. (selections).
J. Schirmer, The Guatemalan Military Project, University of Pennsylvania Press Human Rights Series, 1998 (selected chapter)
2. Prof. Desmond McNeill (SUM) 1. and 8. September
Description:
This part of the course will be a critical introduction to interdisciplinary research. The lectures will be a guide for students in how to think, and write, with an informed knowledge of disciplinary boundaries.
Readings:
Charles Taylor. "Interpretation and the Sciences of Man" , in Philosophy and the Human Sciences, Philosophical Papers 2. Cambridge University Press. 1985. pages 15 - 57
Desmond McNeill. ?Water as an Economic Good? Natural Resources Forum. Vol 22, no 4,November 1998. Pages 253 - 262.
Chapter 7, "Economic Institutions and the Natural Environment" in Partha Dasgupta, Human Well-being and the Natural Environment, Oxford University Press, 2001. Pages 107 - 121.
"Epilogue: a Civilisation if you can keep it" in Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: the American West and its Disappearing Water, Penguin Books 1993, pages 477 - 495
3. Hal Wilhite (SUM), 15. and 22. September
Description:
The two lectures will focus on the analysis of texts which: 1) provide evidence of different writing styles within the same discipline (anthropology); 2) represent different levels of theorizing, and 3) demonstrate different approaches to understanding and using the concept of 'culture'.
Readings:
Wilhite, H., H. Nakagami, T. Masuda, Y. Yamaga and H. Haneda. 2001. "A cross-cultural analysis of household energy-use behavior in Japan and Norway." Reprinted in D. Miller (ed), Consumption: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences, Vol 4, pages 159-177, London and New York: Routledge.
Ortner, S. 1999. ’Thick Resistance: Death and the Cultural Construction of Agency in Himalaya mountaineering’, in S. B. Ortner (ed) The Fate of ’Culture’: Geertz and Beyond. Berkeley: University of California Press.