Multi-Method Research: Techniques and Applications

About

This course is designed to assist researchers in combining two or more different methodological approaches in empirical projects—so-called multi-method research (MMR)—in order to strengthen the validity of their conclusions and demonstrate generalizability of their findings.

Course leader

Erin K. Jenne Professor of International Relations Central European University

Target group

- Master
- PhD
- Post-doc
- Professional

This PhD level course is open to all researchers aiming at bringing their research to the next level. The course will be especially useful for PhD students who are working on their theses, postdoctoral fellows who are transforming their theses into a monograph or series of articles and assistant professors who wish to use more than one method in their published work, but are uncertain about how to proceed. Particular attention will be paid to the extent to which methods from diverging epistemologies can be combined, and if so how.

Course aim

After this course you are able to:

- Use the principles of MMR to select the appropriate mix of methodological approaches to address your central research question from more than one theoretical or empirical angle.
- Develop a written rationale for selecting and mixing these methods in your research based on the aims of your research, scope of the theory, the number of cases, the characteristics of the data and domain(s) of observation.
- Make a detailed plan for executing your own MMR research project, including the logic for blending your chosen methodological (and epistemological) approaches in a single project. The plan will lay out the techniques you will use to integrate different research strands without violating the assumptions undergirding any of the methods.

Fee info