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

Course Info

As Taught In
Fall 2005
Level