Summer School 2023

Dates: 26 June 2023 - 28 June 2023

Course Lead: The Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives

This intermediate level course offers a hands-on introduction to creative approaches to doing qualitative research. The course is taught by a team based in The University of Manchester’s Sociology Department, all members of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives.

The various stages of research will be covered, from data collection and analysis through to writing with qualitative data.

We begin by introducing what we mean by doing qualitative research creatively and discussing facet methodology. Course participants will also provide short introductions of their research projects. Participants will be given a practical and hands-on introduction to object interviews, creative ways of researching memory, mobile methods and sensory elicitation. The course will also cover creative ways of analysing qualitative data and practical and intellectual strategies for writing with qualitative data.

The course includes workshop exercises involving creating qualitative data and data analysis. Participants will also have the opportunity to discuss methodological issues related to their ongoing research projects.

For the full details and to book you spot on this course, please visit our Summer School course website.

Dates: 3 July 2023 - 7 July 2023

Course Leads: Elisa Bellotti, Nick Crossley & Martin Everett

This is an online, introductory course, covering the concepts, methods and data analysis techniques of social network analysis.

The course is based on the book Analyzing Social Networks by Borgatti et al. (2018) and all participants are advised to obtain a copy. The cost has been deducted from the normal course fee.

The course begins with a general introduction to the distinct goals and perspectives of social network analysis, followed by a practical discussion of network data, covering issues of collection, validity, visualization, and mathematical/computer representation. We then take up the methods of detection and description of structural properties, such as centrality, cohesion, subgroups and positional analysis techniques.

This is a hands-on course largely based around the use of UCINET software and will give participants experience of analyzing real social network data using the techniques covered in the workshop.

For the full details and to book you spot, please visit our Summer School course website.

Dates: 26 June 2023 - 30 June 2023

Course Lead: Christina Silver

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to harnessing NVivo to accomplish qualitative and mixed methods analysis. It follows the principles of ensuring analytic strategies drive the use of software tools as described in the CAQDAS pedagogy, the Five-Level QDA method, providing participants with both theoretical understandings of the role of software like NVivo in the analysis process, and practical experience with operating the software to accomplish a variety of analytic tasks.

Participants will be guided through all the phases of an analysis and how they can be facilitated through the creative and systematic use of NVivo. This includes planning an analysis and creating a structural framework to reflect initial research designs; familiarising with qualitative materials (at an in-depth interpretive level and at a higher content-based level); coding qualitative data using different analytic approaches (contrasting inductive, grounded approaches and deductive, topic or theoretically informed approaches); using software tools to capture reflections through writing, mapping and linking; organising data to factual characteristics; interrogating patterns and relationships to identify themes, make comparisons and explore anomalies; and using visualisations to communicate findings in engaging and powerful ways.

For the full details and to book you spot on this course, please visit our Summer School course website.

Dates: 29 June 2023 - 30 June 2023

Course Lead: Dr Nicole Brown

This online course seeks to support qualitative researchers in dealing with the key concepts of positionality and reflexivity.

During the course attendees will explore the role of the researcher at the insider/outsider divide as well as experience and practise practical strategies and exercises to learn how to do reflexivity.

Drawing on embodied and creative techniques we practise conscious noticing, we discuss our being, assumptions and beliefs and how they impact research. We will further examine the use of a research journal in relation to doing reflexivity and exploring one's positionality. We will experiment with form and formats of recording journal entries, consider how to make choices of what to record when and trial strategies for recording information we may have missed. Finally, we will deal with the practicalities of moving from the personal, private practice of doing reflexivity to the formal, public statement of positionality that is often asked for in theses and publications.

In line with the pedagogical principles of social constructivism the course is delivered as a mixture of interactive group tasks, discussions and lectures to enable active and experiential learning.

For the full details and to book you spot on this online course, please visit our Summer School course website.