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Regular version of the site
Bachelor 2020/2021

Research Seminar “Civil and Political Processes”

Type: Elective course (Sociology and Social Informatics)
Area of studies: Sociology
When: 2 year, 1-4 module
Mode of studies: offline
Open to: students of all HSE University campuses
Instructors: Мацкевич Мария Георгиевна, Kirill Bryanov, Anna Shirokanova, Tatiana Tkacheva, Margarita Zavadskaya
Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Contact hours: 42

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This seminar offers a cross-disciplinary perspective on political power, institutions, civic movements, and their socio-cultural context. It draws mainly from sociology, political science, and media studies and will be most useful to the students interested in how modern societies are organized and negotiated through politics, and how this can be studied. Key to this seminar is reading and discussing original research papers. As a result, the students will expand their knowledge of the subject and their skills of critical reading, participating in discussions, and writing abstracts of academic papers. The seminar starts with a discussion of academic culture, followed by political media experiments, the meaning of political debates, applied political analysis, and to information literacy. This year, the focus will be on applied formats of analysis and communication.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • The objectives of this seminar are to get the students acquainted with current research perspectives and techniques in political and civic processes and to train students' skills or academic speaking, reading, and writing.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • to know the basics of academic reading and writing, academic culture, and the variety of non-academic research output formats
  • to discuss current research perspectives and techniques in political and civic processes, including web and survey experiments
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Applied Political Analysis
    The media eco-system of a research group. Policy papers and memos. Varieties of applied research: UX, design, field studies, data journalism. Writing a policy paper.
  • Experiments in Political Media
    Survey experiments, web experiments and their use. Experimental evidence of television news watching. The effects of partisan personalisation in a news portal experiment. Political blame attribution in a survey experiment.
  • Critical reading. Writing an abstract to a paper
    Reading strategies. Critical reading techniques. Types of articles. Types of articles and their structure. Extracting information from the article. Reading and writing an abstract to an empirical research paper.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Home work in module 1 (abstract)
  • non-blocking Participation in module 2
    Part of the mark is a home task to write a position paper (a take-home task) of 500-700 words.
  • non-blocking Exam
    2 questions on seminar reading with your analysis or writing an abstract to an unknown research paper
  • non-blocking Policy Paper module 3
  • non-blocking Game design module 4
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (4 module)
    0.2 * Exam + 0.2 * Game design module 4 + 0.2 * Home work in module 1 (abstract) + 0.2 * Participation in module 2 + 0.2 * Policy Paper module 3
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Iyengar, S., Peters, M. D., & Kinder, D. R. (1982). Experimental Demonstrations of the “Not-So-Minimal” Consequences of Television News Programs. American Political Science Review, 04, 848.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Abelson, D. E. (2018). Do Think Tanks Matter? Third Edition : Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes (Vol. Third edition, revvised and expanded). Montreal: MQUP. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1944843
  • Manarin, K., Carey, M., Rathburn, M., Ryland, G., Hutchings, P. Critical Reading in Higher Education : Academic Goals and Social Engagement. - Indiana University Press, 2015. - ISBN 9780253018830, 9780253018984 - Electronic text // ProQuest Ebook Central. - URL: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4088470&query=Critical+Reading+in+Higher+Education+%3A+Academic+Goals+and+Social+Engagement (accessed 6.11.19)