Course Schedule
Lehrveranstaltungen
Masterforum Public Economics, Law and Politics (Seminar)
Dozent/in: Vera van Hüllen
Termin:
wöchentlich | Montag | 16:15 - 17:45 | 12.10.2015 - 29.01.2016 | C 12.013 Seminarraum
Inhalt: This Masterforum addresses the first and probably most important step of academic inquiry: delimiting a research problem and linking it with the existing body of scholarly knowledge. In the field of public economics, law and politics, we are faced with an almost unlimited number of unanswered questions. But which of these questions are really worth being investigated? Which ones might MA theses deal with in a sensible manner? And how can we detect them? ‘Good’ questions neither fall from heaven, nor is there a rigid method to discover them. However, knowing what has been done is an essential precondition for identifying what still needs to be done. In this course, we will therefore learn how to get an empirically and analytically grounded ‘access’ to a specific research topic. The first part will be devoted to the discussion of fundamental issues: What makes a research question ‘relevant’? How do the logics of comparative analysis differ and which influence does this have on research design, concepts, categories and operationalization? What is the purpose of a literature review and how should it look like? In the second part, we will elaborate on our own research questions and literature reviews which may form the nucleus of MA prospectuses that the ensuing course (Masterforum II) will deal with. Hence, the Masterforum I comprises elements of a seminar and a colloquium.