ENVS 280-Advanced Topics in Environmental
Studies
Qualitative Field Methods
Winter 2007
CLASS WILL BE HELD ON WEDNESDAYS, 5.30-8.00 P.M. IN NATSCI 2, ROOM 411
Class
Meeting Times: TBA-Tentative
time is Mondays, 5.00-7.30 NatSci2, Room 411
Professor: Jeffrey
Bury
Campus
Office: 428
ISB
Campus
Phone: 831-459-3685
Email: jbury@ucsc.edu
Web: http://people.ucsc.edu/~jbury/
Office
Hours: Winter-2007, Mondays 12.00-1.00 PM and by appointment
Course Objectives and Themes
The goal of this course is to provide a strong
foundation for qualitative research approaches in environmental studies. As such, the course is designed to
provide a broad overview of debates, methods and analytical techniques in the
qualitative tradition rather than focus exclusively on a limited set of
tools. It is expected that students
will gain a broad sense of current qualitative approaches that will facilitate
future preparation and development of methods outside and beyond the course for
proposals, field work and writing.
The course will begin with a general discussion of
philosophy of science, epistemological debates and historical traditions and
then examine more carefully theories and debates concerning qualitative
methods. This section of the course
will also treat questions of research ethics, positionality
and human subjects in qualitative research. In subsequent sections the course will
draw upon research traditions and current discussions in geography,
anthropology, political science and other fields in order to develop a broad
perspective on qualitative methods and debates. Themes that will be treated include
research design and sampling, field observation and ethnographies, key
informants, field notes, focus groups, oral histories, narrative research,
archival research, questionnaires, discourse analysis and participatory
research. We will also spend part
of the time discussing “lessons” and practical experience from the
field in order to draw upon course participants wealth
of field experiences. The final
section of the course will focus on a selected set of data analysis
techniques. This section of the
course will be further developed in the first few weeks of the class as
students will be expected to prepare discussions of various techniques during
the final weeks of quarter.
Course Textbooks:
Henry Brady and David Collier. 2004. Rethinking Social Inquiry.
Nicholas Clifford and Gill Valentine.
2003. Key Methods in Geography.
Sage Publications.
H.
Russell Bernard. 2006. Research
Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative
and Quantitative Approaches.
Note: A significant portion of the course
materials will be available electronically and are noted with (WebCT) in the syllabus.
Class Format and Mechanics
This
seminar is structured as a critical reading and research seminar. As such, student participation and
preparation is paramount. The
organization of the seminar will revolve around weekly readings/topics and
extensive discussion and interchange among the class participants. Students are expected to read,
participate and critically evaluate the course readings and the research
proposals that will be completed by the end of the course.
Class Requirements
Class attendance, participation and
development of an analytical technique discussion in weeks 9 and 10. All
course participants will be expected to develop a rigorous research proposal
and extensive methods section for a topic of their choosing based on our course
work and discussions.
Class Schedule
Week 1-January 9-Class Introduction
Our
first class meeting will be spent introducing the class themes, objectives,
materials and our collective goals for the course.
Week 2-January 15 (MLK Holiday-Need to Reschedule)-Philosophies
of Science/Epistemology
Bernard, Chapter 1
Feyerabend. Paul. 1994, “Preface
and introduction” in Against Method.
Kuhn, Thomas. “The Structure of scientific
revolutions”, excerpt in Seale, 2004, pp. 200-202. (WebCT)
Lakatos, Imre. 1965. “Falsification and the
methodology of scientific research programs” in Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge,
Popper, Karl. 1979. “Of clouds and clocks: an approach to the problem of
rationality and the freedom of man”, in Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, pp.
206-255. (WebCT)
Seale, Clive. 2004. “Selected issues in the philosophy
of social science”, in Researching
Society and Culture.
Week 3-January 22-Qualitative Theory and Human
Subjects/Ethics
Denzen and Lincoln, 2000. Introduction: The Discipline and Practice of
Qualitative Research, in Handbook of
Qualitative Research, Sage Publications, Sage. pp. 1-19 (WebCT)
Brady, Henry and David Collier.
2004. Rethinking Social Inquiry.
Human
Subjects:
Clifford
and Valentine, Chapter 3-Hay-Ethical Practice in Geographic Research
Complete
Human Subjects Certification Course before class-Bring certificate:
http://cme.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/learning/humanparticipant-protections.asp
See
also UCSC human subjects page for campus requirements:
http://research.ucsc.edu/compliance/human.html
Week 4-January 29-Research Design and
Sampling
Bennett,
Andrew and Colin Elman. 2006. Qualitative research: recent developments in case study
materials. Annual Review of Political Science 9(2006): pp. 455-76. (WebCT)
Bernard, Chapters 2-8 (pp.
186-196 in Chapter 8)
Week 5-February 5-Observation, Informants
and Field Notes
Bernard,
pp. 196-210 and Chapters 6,7,8,13,14,15
Clifford
and Valentine, Chapters 9-10
Movie:
Cannibal
Week 6-February 12- Focus Groups, Oral
Histories and Narratives
Elliot,
Jane. 2006. Using
Narrative in Social Research:
Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Sage Publications. Chapter 1-2. (WebCT).
Hay,
Ian. 2005. Qualitative
Research Methods in Human Geography.
Oral History and Focus Groups, Chapters 7,8 (WebCT)
Week 7-February 19 Archives, Historical Research, Questionnaires
Bernard, Chapters 9-12
Clifford and Valentine, Chapters 5,6,7,8
Week 8-February 26-Discourse Analysis, Participatory
Research, Lessons from the Field
Clifford and Valentine,
Chapters 4,12
Hay, Ian. 2005. Qualitative
Research Methods in Human Geography.
Discourse Analysis. Chapter
11 (
Field Lessons and Discussion
Veek, Gregory. 2001. Talk
is Cheap: Cultural and Linguistic Fluency During Field
Research. The
Geographical Review (Jan-April 2001): pp. 34-40.
Stevens,
Stan. 2001. Fieldwork
as Commitment. The Geographical Review (Jan-April
2001): pp. 66-73.
Herrold, Melinda. 2001. Which Truth? Cultural Politics
and Vodka in Rural
Doolittle,
William. 2001. Learning to See the Impacts of Individuals. The Geographical Review (Jan-April
2001): 423-429.
Dobson, Jerome. 2001. Fieldwork in
a Digital World. The Geographical Review (Jan-April
2001): pp. 430-440.
Katz, 1994. Playing the Field, Professional
Geographer 46:1, 67-72.
Kobayashi, 1994. Coloring the Field: Gender, “Race” and the
Politics of Fieldwork, Professional
Geographer 46:1, 73-80.
Schevyns and
Storey. 2003. Development Fieldwork: A
Practical Guide. Sage Publications.
Week 9 and 10-March 5, 12-Data Analysis Techniques
(Student Work)
Bernard-Chapters 16-21
Introduction
to Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis (Chapter 16)
Qualitative
Data Analysis I: Text Analysis
(Chapter 17)
Qualitative
Data Analysis II: Models and
Matrices (Chapter 18)
Univariate
Analysis (Chapter 19)
Bivariate
Analysis: Testing Relations
(Chapter 20)
Multivariate
Analysis (Chapter 21)
Clifford and Valentine,
Chapters 21-28
Using
Statistics to Describe and Explore Data (Chapter 21)
An
Introduction to Geostatistics (Chapter 22)
Using
Geographical Information Systems (Chapter 23)
Statistical
Analysis Using SPSS (Chapter 24)
Coding
Transcripts and Diaries (Chapter 25)
Using
CAQDAS in Qualitative Research (Chapter 26)-NUD*IST to be discussed in class
Analysing Historical and Archive Sources (Chapter 27)
Analysing Cultural Texts (Chapter 28)
Narrative Analysis
Elliot, Jane.
2006. Using Narrative in Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Sage Publications. Chapter 3-6. (WebCT).
Final
Draft of Research Design Due