The workshop explores the particular methodological issues that face social scientists conducting research in conflict affected zones. In the mid-1990s a seminal volume edited by Carolyn Nordstrom and Antonius Robben drew attention to the particular ethical and personal dilemmas anthropologists (and social scientists in general) face when conducting research in conflict affected areas. Drawing on this volume; a recent volume edited by Chandra Lekha Sriram et al.’ ‘best practice’ developed by NGOs working in such contexts and individual case studies, the workshop will consider the generic problems that research in conflict affected areas poses for researchers and will explore the strategies and responses researchers have adopted.  At the end of the workshop participants will have a clear understanding of the following key issues: ethical dilemmas; security of researchers and respondents; coping with stress; and dilemmas of maintaining objectivity.

This workshop examines the rise of multi-sited and mobile ethnography, focusing on tensions between what might be conceived as 'the local' and 'the global', where 'place' and 'field' are not only geographic locations, but representations of broader, sometimes invisible relational and symbolic connections.

From Marcus' original 1995 proposition to 'reform' anthropology, the potential of multi-sited ethnography has been critiqued and, to a lesser extent, practised.

This workshop will consider theoretical issues but will also be related to practice as you conduct a small multi-sited ethnographic project as the basis for your assessment.

Increasingly evaluation research has become central to assuring and underpinning quality, effectiveness and accountability in many public services sectors, including social work, education and health care. 

This short course is for you, if you have some familiarity with fundamental principles of evaluation research, and with some of the key approaches (including impact evaluation, process evaluation and realist evaluation) that may be deployed to evaluate interventions.

The focus is on sharing experiences of developing and carrying out current and recent evaluative research, with some review of historical “classics” of evaluative research.

Various methods will be presented and the course will explore pragmatic, theoretical and methodological issues in developing effective evaluative designs.

‘Hard to reach’, ‘rare’ and/or ‘hidden’ populations are often of particular interest to social science researchers, yet present obvious challenges to identify and engage them in the research process. Such populations typically include individuals facing stigmatisation who are likely to be unwilling to identify themselves in public contexts. 

This workshop reviews the reasons why we may want to engage such populations in research and assesses the range of methods which have been employed to access them. This includes various chain referral methods, respondent driven sampling, privileged access interviews, engaged or activist research and applications of Internet research. Although some of these applications, such as snowball sampling, are now well established, others are only widely used in health research and are still at the experimental stage in the social sciences more broadly.

In addition, research with hard to reach and hidden populations often generates particular ethical concerns which will also be considered in detail.

The workshop will involve small group work to assess and apply these methods to a series of research contexts and to identify the advantages and potential drawbacks of each.

This one day workshop will examine methods and analysis of in depth qualitative survey, using data collected by Mass Observation as a practical case study. Attendees will use examples from the Mass Observation Archive to reflect on how in depth qualitative data might be used in their research, thinking through the following areas: what is in depth qualitative survey and what methods can be used to collect data? What kinds of data can it produce and how can these be analysed?

 Mass Observation was founded in 1937 to undertake a survey of everyday life in Britain. Using both ethnographic and life writing methods, Mass Observation collected diaries, observational reports, questionnaire responses and ephemera to record daily life until the mid-1950s. In 1981, the project was started again, using a volunteer panel of writers to respond to in depth questionnaires reflecting everyday life in late 20^th, early 21^st Century UK. The project works with academics from various disciplines to gather data which forms part of the Mass Observation Archive housed at the University of Sussex at The Keep.

In this module, you learn how to manage your research data at every stage of the data lifecycle, from pre-project planning, data creation, data management, publication, long-term preservation and issues of sharing and re-use.

You focus on the specific nature of research data in the social sciences, both qualitative and quantitative, and the challenges that this presents.