• Plan and conduct their own empirical investigation centered on the production and analysis of qualitative data
• Critically reflect on the role and relevance of philosophical perspectives in their own projects
• Discuss the consequences of their methodological and conceptual choices for the conclusions they are able to draw
• Discuss the epistemological and ontological foundations and consequences of qualitative methods more broadly
• Display an understanding of how methodological problems are (also) rooted in the reflective practices of organizations, businesses and corporations  

In a world in constant flux, how are knowledge, insight, values and ideas created and maintained in (organizational) practice? And how, in turn, do we create data fit for assisting our thinking about such questions? 

In this course, we study the relationship and intersections between the empirical and the conceptual by asking questions to the organizations we study, such as How are concepts translated into and negotiated in organizational practice?In doing so, we employ a dual focus: 

1) we will focus on the use of qualitative methods for the construction of knowledge, while 

2) we will investigate the philosophical-conceptual underpinnings of these methods and their connections with the reality analyzed. 

Through this combination, the course will be closely related to practice (through the development of the students’ methodological skills), while securing a level of critical philosophical reflection of the status of knowledge and reality, thus enabling the students to both conduct and evaluate empirical studies of organizational practice.  

Grouped in research teams students will gain experience with conducting an empirical research project through hands-on exercises in the central genres of the ethnographic research repertoire: interviews, observation and document studies, as well as data analysis and the formulation of research problems. 

Workshops following the logic of the research project (‘problem formulation and research question’, ‘data collection strategy’, ‘analysis’) will provide the structure for the students’ project work, while in a final workshop the students will present and critically discuss their analyses with each other.

Apart from the workshops relating directly to the student projects there will be lectures – in which key concepts and considerations are presented and discussed – and practical exercises aimed at developing the students’ methodological skills.

The course will provide the students with inspiration, method reflections and skills relevant for their master theses and other projects they will encounter in their master program as well as in future employment. 

Teaching methods               

The course will combine lectures with workshops in which the students go through the stages of conducting their own research project in groups. Each of these stages is concluded with a mandatory assignment.

Examination

The exam consists of three mandatory group assignments throughout the semester (pass/fail) and a graded 20-page group paper at the end of the course. 

The paper will consist of two parts of roughly equal size:

1) A presentation of the research project with a focus on the analytical findings. Here, empirical data and philosophical perspectives are combined to produce new insights about the object of study

2) The second part of the paper will critically discuss and reflect on the research process, covering:

• The implications, limitations and challenges of the research process
• A discussion of the quality of the study; the type and robustness of the knowledge produced
• The dynamic between theory and data as well as the researcher position taken in the project 

Time schedule for mandatory group assignments: 

• 1^stassignment: Friday week 37
• 2^ndassignment: Friday week 40
• 3^rdassignment: Friday week 44

Re-exam

The examination form is the same. The student must hand in (and pass) the three mandatory assignments (these can be written individually if necessary) at the latest two weeks before handing in the exam paper. 

Course schedule

The course will run over 32 confrontation hours with 2-5 hours once a week for 8 sessions from week 36 to 46. 

Preliminary course literature 

(Under development)

Haraway, Donna (1991) Simians, Cyborgs and Women – the reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge. Ch 9: Situated Knowledges p. 150-183. 

Latour, B. (2004): “How to talk about the body, the normative dimensions of science studies”. Body and Society, 10 (2-3), 20. 

Serres: M. (1979): The Algebra of Literature: The Wolf´s Game. In: Harari, J.V. (ed.): Textual Strategies: Perspectives in post-structuralist criticism. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. 

Justesen, Lise Nederland, and Nanna Mik-Meyer (2012). Qualitative Research Methods in Organisation Studies. Gyldendal. Ch. 1 

Yanow, Dwora (2014) Neither Rigorous nor Objective? Interrogating Criteria for Knowledge Claims in Interpretive Science. In Yanow, Dwora and Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine (eds) Interpretation and Method. Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn. M. E. Sharpe, Second Edition, chap. 6: 97-119.