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2025/2026  BA-BSOCO1833U  Qualitative Methods

English Title
Qualitative Methods

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for Global Relations
Course coordinator
  • Christina Juhlin - Department of Business Humanities and Law (BHL)
  • Stine Haakonsson - Department of Organization (IOA)
Main academic disciplines
  • Philosophy and ethics
  • Methodology and philosophy of science
  • Sociology
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 20-05-2025

Relevant links

Learning objectives
On successful completion of the course the student should be able to:
  • situate specific qualitative methodologies in relation to the theoretical tradition
  • formulate and operationalise a research problem that is suitable for treatment by means of basic qualitative methods, and account for the relationship between theory and methods in the process
  • use basic qualitative methods such as ethnographic analysis, text analysis and interviews to research problems within organizational sociology and business administration
  • critically assess strengths and weaknesses of the applied methods in relation to concrete research problems
  • use different qualitative methods and analytical strategies within organizational sociology and business administration
  • reflect upon approaches, methods and research design used in the empirical work for the assignments
  • Demonstrate the ability to convey rigorous, analytic arguments in writing, in one's own voice and in accordance with the conventions of academic writing in the social sciences
Examination
Qualitative Methods:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance, see also the rules about examination forms in the programme regulations.
Individual or group exam Individual oral exam based on written group product
Number of people in the group 2-5
Size of written product Max. 5 pages
Assignment type Written assignment
Release of assignment An assigned subject is released in class
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
15 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and external examiner
Exam period Winter
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Description of the exam procedure

The examination in this course is made up of an oral examination based on three worksheets that will be completed week by week as the course unfolds. The examination packet is made up of worksheets 1, 2, and 3, all bundled in one (1) document. In order to complete the worksheets, fieldwork in between classes is necessary. 

 

Worksheets are completed in groups of 2-5 students, and are meant to give students the opportunity to try out and workshop all topics prior to submission of the examination. Students will receive feedback (teacher/peer) in workshops in every class session. Further, students will have the opportunity to attend scheduled office-hour feedback sessions throughout the semester.

 

The oral examination is an individual examination based on a group written project.

Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

Qualitative methods are not only important in order to prepare you to write your bachelor project and eventually your master thesis. Qualitative methods are essential for understanding what knowledge is, how it comes about, and how it is used and misused by powerful institutions. Organizations rely on qualitatively produced knowledge to understand customers' needs, to develop future scenarios, and to understand and shape the environments in which they act. This course will teach you not only how to become a good researcher, but also how to work ethically with human perceptions of the world.

 

Generally speaking, when you want to know something about human beings, the university sorts researchers into two big piles – those who count and do math (quantitative researchers), and those who talk and care about meaning (qualitative researchers). This split, however, is a harmful fiction. There aren’t any “counting” methods that don’t make some sort of assessment of significance; and there are no meaning methods that don’t enumerate as part of their argument for validity. More to the point, there are no good questions you can ask about humans that wouldn’t require both counting and assertions of meaning.

 

So, if the quantitative/qualitative split is more a bureaucratic convenience than any sort of real comment on the operation of the human science, what are we left with? The very short answer is “specific objects of analysis.” That is to say, specific things that researchers assume exist out in the world and then allow them to do research. Sociologists tend to assume that there is some sort of thing like society out there in the world that they can know about. Similarly, anthropologists tend to act like there is something out there in the world like culture that they can know about. Each discipline has a sort of presupposition about the world, and then has developed methods that allow them to know about it.


This course will take culture and society as it’s starting points and introduce you to methods (interviewing methods, observational methods, library research) that allow you to answer questions about human culture and human society. In addition to these methods, this course will teach you about designing research, analyzing data, and reporting on what you have learned.

Each class session will be divided in half and will start with a workshop on the previous week’s topic, and then a lecture on a new topic. Groups will be given a specific site in or around Copenhagen, which will function as their empirical site and, together with the worksheets, the basis for the examination.

Research-based teaching
CBS’ programmes and teaching are research-based. The following types of research-based knowledge and research-like activities are included in this course:
Research-based knowledge
  • Teacher’s own research
  • Methodology
Research-like activities
  • Development of research questions
  • Data collection
  • Analysis
  • Discussion, critical reflection, modelling
  • Peer review including Peer-to-peer
  • Students conduct independent research-like activities under supervision
Description of the teaching methods
The course uses a combination of lectures, workshops, off-campus fieldwork, and discussion. For each topic, students will have the opportunity to read about it and discuss, experiment with it in class, experiment with it in relation to their own research topic, and then receive feedback on a given topic in a workshop in class.
Feedback during the teaching period
Students receive feedback in workshop course sections, in group workshops, on mandatory assignments, and in scheduled consultation hours.
Student workload
Preparation for class 150 hours
Examination 56 hours
Last updated on 20-05-2025