Crafting Research Questions and Qualitative Methodology

Calendar

WEEK #	TOPICS	KEY DATES
1	Introduction, Student Research Interests, and Cross-cutting Methodological Issues	First class participation instruction
2A	Turning Assumptions into Research Questions	Second class participation instruction
2B	Turning Assumptions into Research Questions: Case Examples Guest: Session with Prof. Merilee Grindle, Professor of International Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University	Third class participation instruction Short paper due
3	Folding “Politics” and “Clientelism” into Planning Research - Comparative Cases
4A	Bureaucracies and Other Organizations: Street-level Bureaucrats, Front-line Workers
4B	Bureaucracies and Other Organizations: Mixing the Politics and the Management of Cities Guest: Session with Prof. J. Phillip Thompson, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
4C	Bureaucracies and Other Organizations: Variables Driving Organizational Behavior - From Within and Without Guest: Session with Prof. Michael Piore, Economics / Political Science, MIT
5	Past First-year-paper Examples - Sessions with Authors
6	Country and Subnational Comparisons - Lessons for Research Guests: Sessions with Prof. Richard Locke, Political Science, MIT, and Professor Richard Snyder, Political Science, Brown University
7	Uncertainty, Bounded Rationality, and “Satisficing” Session on MIT authorization for research involving interviewing, with the Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects.	Short paper due
8	Interpreting Duplication, Overlap, and Lack of Inter-agency Coordination	Draft of final paper due
9	Interviewing: First and Follow-up Questions, etc.	Paper review assignment due
10	Discussions of Draft First-year Paper Proposals
11	Last Class	Final paper due