10 years of the ECPR Summer School in Methods and Techniques

CELEBRATING

Summer School in Methods and Techniques

10 YEARS

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Thank you Special thanks must go to the University of Ljubljana who have efficiently hosted the Summer School for the past ten years. The local organising team consisting of Samo Kropivnik, Sabina OtoniÄ?ar and Ana Krasevec have been instrumental in the success of the Summer School and the ECPR is extremely grateful for your support and collaboration.

We would also like to thank all of the students that have passed through the School since 2006; we hope their experience was useful, valuable and has helped support their careers.

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Research methods training at the ECPR: Supporting the next generation Since its establishment in 1974, the ECPR has been the leading European research organisation in political science, explains the ECPR’s Executive Committee members responsible for the Methods School In the more than four decades of its existence, the field of political studies has undergone several developments and diversifications. Young scholars now face an increasingly complex and competitive environment both in their own field and in the academia more generally.

About a decade ago, the ECPR started making conscious investments in events and programmes designed primarily for the rising generation of political scientists. In the governance of the ECPR, they are now given a new portfolio called the ‘New Generation’. Its main components are, first, the Summer School on Methods and Techniques, now accompanied by the Winter School, which, since 2006 and 2012 respectively, have trained a generation of political scientists in the use of up-to-date methods across different paradigms and approaches. Second, the Graduate Student Conference since 2006, and the Graduate Student Network, can be described as largely

student-organised activities that help build capabilities in virtually all aspects of the profession, from research to publishing and job markets, and from teaching to networking and organising events.

The Methods School and the Graduate Student Conference and Network combine the input and wishes of young scholars with the resources available for the ECPR and its Executive Committee. In the case of the Methods School, in particular, much of the credit to its Academic Convenors, Instructors, and Teaching Assistants. In addition to ‘pure research’, ECPR’s New Generation highlights various aspects of the profession, including publishing, teaching, and general professional development. Currently, the ‘social relevance’ of research is discussed all across the social sciences, which raises interesting viewpoints also for junior scholars regarding the quality of public debate and the possibilities of research to influence

Above: Members of the ECPR Executive Committee responsible for the Methods School, Olafur Th. Hardarson and Petri Koikkalainen.

political decision-making. In line with the original mission of the ECPR, theoretically and methodologically solid research must nevertheless remain the core around which the other tasks and missions of political scientists should be grouped.

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The ECPR Methods School, the first ten years: Still growing and innovating At the heart of the Summer School are the Aacademic Convenors. Charged with creating a summer school that could fill a gap in methods training in Europe Bernhard Kittel and Benoît Rihoux worked closely with the ECPR to shape the academic structure of the SSMT. Now joined by Derek Beach, here they talk about how it all began, and where it’s still going Genesis of the project – and concept The ECPR Methods School ‘adventure’ was initiated back in the autumn of 2004, shortly after Bernhard Kittel, Jonathon Moses and Benoît Rihoux had launched the ECPR Standing Group on Political Methodology. The ECPR Chair, Dirk Berg-Schlosser, approached the convenors in the view of launching an ECPR-run methods training event.

The concept was summarised as follows: (1) an annual event organised in the summer; (2) as affordable as possible (best ‘valuefor-money’ for ECPR members); (3) complementary to local and national training venues; (4) targeted towards political science and neighbouring disciplines; (5) targeted towards PhD students and junior researchers; (6) covering the whole range of methods, from qualitative/ interpretive to quantitative/formal; (7) covering both epistemological, research design, data collection and

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data analysis topics; (8) fostering openings, debates and crossfertilisation across methodological traditions (methodological pluralism); (9) meeting high standards of pedagogical excellence; (10) with a diverse pool of expert instructors from all across greater Europe (a European ‘centre of gravity’) and some U.S.-based as well, with diversity in terms of gender and generations; (11) providing ECTS Credits.

This concept was approved by the ECPR Executive Committee (EC) and Bernhard Kittel and Benoît Rihoux became Academic Convenors (ACs) in charge of putting together the academic programme, working in close connection with an EC member, Ursula Hoffmann-Lange.

The Summer School, 2006-2011, growing and diversifying The first ECPR ‘Summer School

in Methods and Techniques’ (SSMT), was launched with a course programme containing 10 topics in a two-week (30h) format. Through the intermediation of Bojana Lobe, then a PhD student at the University of Ljubljana, negotiations were launched with the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana, Anuska Ferligoj. Ljubljana was eager to host this new event, the location was appealing in many ways and meeting good standards in terms of infrastructure and local staff. So Ljubljana it would be!

The first SSMT (2006) was an immediate success, with 155 participants attending the nine confirmed courses. It was a steep learning curve to run this first event.

The administrator on the ECPR side was Emer Padden, under the supervision of Clare Dekker.

Between 2007 and 2011, the SSMT grew and further diversified in different ways. Courses in new formats were added: three-day

intensive refreshers (18h) and oneweek (15h). Also introduced was the ‘Monday mix’ lectures as part of the plenary programme – 90’ full lectures for each course on the first day, accessible to all other SSMT participants. By 2010 the Summer School had reached almost 350 participants, with a broad majority coming from ECPR member institutions across greater Europe (and some from other continents as well), attending a total of 30 courses (six refreshers, seven one-week, 17 two-week). In only a few years’ time, the SSMT was already beginning to gain recognition as a top methods training venue. The growth was not always easy to manage, and it was all very work-intensive, but we gradually developed an excellent teamwork and task-sharing between the ACs, the EC portfolio holder, the ECPR staff member and the Ljubljana local team.

2012- : Developing the full ‘Methods School’, Summer and Winter By 2010, it had become clear that the demand was growing, and the capacity of Ljubljana would not enable the SSMT to grow much beyond 400 participants. Besides, the

evaluation surveys suggested that at least some participants – especially PhD students in their first year – were keen on following a sequence of courses, ideally during their first year as junior researchers. From there on, the ACs proposed to launch a second, fully connected and complementary event, the ECPR Winter School in Methods and Techniques (WSMT).

Those plans were accepted by the EC. By then, there had also been some rotation in terms of EC portfolio holders (Vello Pettai, then André Kaiser), Central Services staff (Sarah Goodman, then Denise Chapman), local academic organiser (Samo Kropivnik and Bojana Lobe, then Samo Kropivnik alone) and local administrator (Neli Dimc, then Sabina Otonicar).

We thus sent an open call for a WSMT host. The University of Vienna was eventually chosen, with Sylvia Kritzinger as local academic organiser. The first WSMT was held in February 2012 and got off to a fast start, with more than 270 participants attending 17 one-week courses and four shorter (7.5h) software courses.

In the process, the ACs also started to develop ‘training tracks’ across the two events, from epistemology/ research design to software to

introductory to more advanced courses.

In the process, the Methods School became a larger, more demanding project to steer. Therefore the team was expanded with a third AC, Derek Beach, and an ‘Academic advisory board’ (AAB) was installed, comprising five methods experts (and fellow instructors) acting as a sounding board and coming up with new ideas. The Central Services team was expanded, with two administrators, Anna Foley and Becky Plant. In February 2015, the WSMT moved to the University of Bamberg and drew a record number of 400 participants. EC portfolio holders continued to rotate around the project: first Simona Piattoni, then Birgit Sauer, and now, recently, Olafur Hardarson and Petri Koikkalainen.

Standing strong – and looking ahead: sharp, innovative, pluralist It is not immodest to state that the ECPR Methods School has been quite an achievement so far.

It has developed, fine-tuned and expanded, over the years, a sharp, international, pluralist academic

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concept. The Methods School has grown and consolidated in many ways. At the 2014 SSMT and 2015 WSMT, altogether 650 participants followed no less than 66 courses, all formats considered. Over its first decade, the Methods School has provided a learning/networking experience to about 3,000 advanced students as well as researchers (also more senior ones), and this has contributed to the career-building of many of them. Event after event, courses on emerging, original or

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‘niche’ topics have been offered – thus: the Methods School also contributes to agenda-setting in the discipline. The plenary programme has also been further developed, with shorter ‘course tasters’ sessions, lunchtime ‘brown bag’ debates and a participants’ poster competition. At the 10th Summer School this year a ‘methods slam’ formula will be explored.

So: what next? The school will continue to aim for world-class

excellence in methods training. The participants’ fees will continue to be set as low as possible (‘no profit’ logic – just strive to break even financially).

The Methods School will further develop its emerging reputation as a hub for methodological pluralism, contributing to the development of the discipline as a whole.

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5th Winter School in Methods & Techniques University of Bamberg, Germany 26 February – 4 March 2016

WSMT advert

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Class of 2006 We contacted some of the first Summer School participants to get their memories of the event and find out whether it has gone on to shape their careers...

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Cai Wilkinson Deakin University Course attended: Interpretive Methods I learnt about the Methods School while completing the second phase of my doctoral fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan on securitization and societal security.

From the start, fieldwork had not gone as anticipated due to the sociopolitical circumstances and, to use a phrase that I’ve subsequently used in several publications on methods, reality well and truly interfered with my theory. The short-term response to this state of affairs was to focus on immersing myself as fully as possible in learning about what was happening in Kyrgyzstan after the optimistically named ‘Tulip Revolution’, and worry about how to write it up later, although I was far from clear about how exactly this was going to happen. Browsing the course list for the Methods School, the Interpretive Methods course caught my eye as a potential starting place for making sense of my fieldwork data and working out how to turn it into a doctoral thesis, so I applied, which was not only one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, but also one of the most influential.

It’s no understatement to say that without that two week Interpretive

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Methods course, I would not be where I am now and would not be doing the sort of work that I do.

Not only did the course provide me with the grounding that I needed to write my thesis, it also provided a forum to discuss constructively many of the issues relating to disciplinary norms, conventions and standards that, coming from an Area Studies background, I found strange, frustrating and constricting.

Even more importantly, thanks to Dvora Yanow’s excellent teaching and willingness to engage in discussion, it gave me the confidence that it was possible to do rigorous and insightful research the way I wanted to, even if it did not correspond to the mainstream’s view of what Political Science/International Relations research should be. It was, in short, one of the most positive experiences of my career, and has fundamentally shaped both my thesis and my approach to research in general.

And now...?

I defended my thesis in July 2009 and was fortunate enough to find permanent academic posts, initially at the University of Birmingham as a Lecturer in Russian, and since February 2012 at Deakin University in Australia as a Lecturer in International Relations (2012-2015) and then Senior Lecturer in International

Relations (2015-). Dvora has been and continues to be - an extremely generous and gracious mentor to me since the Methods Cafe, for which I am deeply grateful. With her encouragement and support I’ve continued to write about fieldwork and interpretive methods. I am now supervising a PhD student whose work takes an interpretive approach and from my perspective it was a no-brainer for her to attend Dvora’s course on Political Ethnography at last year’s Methods School as part of her research training as there is simply no equivalent course available. She thoroughly enjoyed the course and Ljubljana, and her work has benefitted significantly from the Methods School.

With hindsight, my only regret is that the Methods School did not lead to my involvement in the ECPR. Being based outside Europe makes involvement somewhat more challenging, especially because of our academic year being so out of sync, but it has been great to know more about about what’s happening and I hope I’ll be able to be more actively involved in the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to reflect on how the Methods School has facilitated my progress over the last ten years - it’s great to have a moment to take stock and acknowledge the role that it’s played.

Johan Hellström Umeå University Course/s attended: Systematic comparative methods The course Systematic comparative methods was basically an introductory course in the methods that was introduced to political scientists by Charles Ragin, namely QCA (Qualitative Comparative Methods) and Fuzzy sets analysis.

When I went to the summer school I already had an extensive training in quantitative methods, but I was interested in learning more about comparative case studies and QCA/ fuzzy set specifically.

The course was taught by Benoît Rihoux and Dirk Berg-Schlosser, two well-known comparative scholars.

I also remember that the two TA’s (Airo Hino and Andrea Herrmann) provided very valuable assistance. At first, I was a bit disappointed at the course, not at least as it presented that examining complex causal relationships with statistics was not possible (by the way, it usually is). On the other hand, this merely reflected Charles Ragin’s original position and shallow understanding of statistical methods in his textbooks, so it should

not cast shadows over an otherwise well executed course. And in the end of the day, I learned a lot and will probably use the methods that I was taught in Ljubljana in my future research.

With regards to the location of summer school I remember Ljubljana as a fairly small, but nevertheless charming city. At the time it has a fairly good selection of cafés and restaurants. The main highlight was not however the city itself, but the very nice excursion that we made to a medieval castle and most enjoyable of all – the Postojna Cave.

I wrote one paper for my dissertation that examined patterns of partybased Euroscepticism using the methods (QCA/Fuzzy sets) that I learned in the course.

in Bordeaux, as well as the 42nd ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, 2014, in Salamanca.

And now...?

I am a Senior Lecturer, trying to combine teaching, research and family life (and to spend as much time as possible with my two adorable kids).

The ECPR has supported my career a lot. I would say, as both the summer schools and conferences provided me with good feedback, but also got the opportunity to meet other scholars with similar research interests.

The summer before I had attended the ECPR 14th PhD Summer School on European Parties and Party Systems in Rijs, Netherlands I also attended the 2008 summer School of the ECPR Standing Group on Analytical Politics and Public Choice in London.

Since the Summer School I have also attended the 6th ECPR General Conference, 2011, in Reykjavik, the 7th ECPR General Conference, 2013,

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Konstantin Melidis ÖAR-Regional Consultants Course attended: Social Network Analysis The course was exactly what I needed at that time to consolidate and broaden my methodological background for my core business in policy and strategic consulting. It was the initiation for a sustainable diversification of methodological know-how in social science methods.

It is a meaningful testimonial if you consider your instructors as friends.

And that’s what it is. I remember Natasha, Andre and Vladimir not just as excellent instructors and experts, but also as exceptionally friendly, straightforward and empathetic people who really live their subjects, which made their course an even more pleasurable and valuable experience.

In fact for me personally the social and networking aspect of such events are as vital as the academic aspect. I met some wonderful people from around Europe and thus got to know a great variety of views and opinions concerning academic but also everyday’s life issues, which I perceive as particularly valuable.

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Some contacts outlasted the duration of the summer school. Some I would even consider as friends.

Ljubljana was a big pleasant surprise.

Even though I lived just a view hour’s drive away, I never made it to Ljubljana until then. But thanks to the magnitude of positive impressions during the summer school, Ljubljana became the destination for several visits – for leisure and for business.

I particularly appreciate the relaxed atmosphere of the bars and cafes along the Ljubljanica-River and the alternative and creative scene in other parts of the city, mainly Metelkova.

I was not a PhD-Student at that time but working as consultant for policy design and evaluation. Thanks to the course at the summer school, which provided the methodological fundamentals, I was able to further my knowledge on social science methods and finally apply these new, innovative methods in various assignments such as evaluation studies of European structural and cohesion policy programmes. In fact the methodological know-how acquired at the summer university turned out to constitute a competitive advantage.

And now...?

Still consulting in policy design and evaluation, mainly dealing

with European structural policy programmes and cohesion policy.

Social Network Analysis is still a widely used tool in my evaluation studies, e.g. for evaluating social impacts of policies or for stakeholder analysis.

I would not go so far to say that the ECPR supported my career. But without doubt the methodological knowledge gained through the summer school made some contribution to the increased competitiveness of my/our business.

For example, social network analysis was used to evaluate the research cooperation in the European transnational region CENTROPE or to evaluate potentials for economic and social development in the transnational European region Danube-Vltava. I could also spread the acquired knowledge through some workshops, e.g. “Social Network Analysis as instrument for national knowledge management in transnational cooperation programmes” , assigned by the Austrian Federal Chancellery and held in Vienna or “Social Network Analysis in development aid”, assigned by AGEG-International Consultants and held in Berlin. To give a résumé: It definitely was a good investment.

Irene Bono University of Torino.

Course attended: Network Analysis The course perfectly met my expectations: I was looking for a way to improve myself in network analysis, and the course I attended in Ljubljana made me proficient in a few weeks. I was positively impressed by the choice of adopting the Pajek software: I didn’t know it before and, thanks to the course, I discovered this powerful, versatile and free for non-commercial use software, which since then is my preferred choice for conducting social network analysis.

The instructors were the best I could ever expect: as the developers of the Pajek software, they had the uncommon ability to make their software perfectly understandable for beginners. Their support was capital for making me understand how to conduct network analysis in my own research.

I have excellent souvenirs of the social side of the Summer school.

For me, at the end my first year as a PhD candidate, was an extraordinary occasion to get in touch with some of my future colleagues all over Europe.

Ljubljana is a fascinating city. In the (few) spare time left by the Summer School I loved biking following the rivers in the old town.

When I planned to attend the Summer school I prepared just a slight and aestival luggage: the Summer school was in the middle of August... Just a few hours after my arrival I realised that summer time in Ljubljana was not going to be so warm that year... and that I was not the only one without warm clothes.

Going shopping to the city centre was an excellent icebreaker with my future colleagues!

Attending the Summer school was very important for me. The knowledge acquired allowed me to start conducting network analysis not only for my own research, but also for some more-experimented scholars and research teams. Even though, in my own research, I turned towards a more qualitative perspective since then, that intensive full immersion reinforced my research design skills and my independent thinking.

After the Summer school I attended the Graduate conference twice, the General Conference twice, and the SGIR-ECPR Conference once.

And now...?

I am Assistant Professor in Political Science at the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society of the University of Torino, and Research Associate at the Faculty of Governance, Economics and Social Sciences of the Mohamed VI Polytechnic University in Rabat.

The ECPR has been the first research network I approached. It provided an important support during my PhD, and it continues to be among my scientific communities.

Do you have any thoughts on the ECPR’s services for young scholars?

Every occasion to allow mobility of young scholars among the ECPR member institutions is to be supported. In the current Italian context, which is characterized by a drastic reduction of funds for higher education and research training, the services offered by the ECPR provide a needful support.

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Patrik Johansson Umeå University Course attended: Systematic Comparative Methods The course was about different versions of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) – crisp set (csQCA), multi-value (mvQCA), and fuzzy set (fsQCA). I enjoyed the first week better than the second, but overall I’m glad that I participated.

The first week was led by Professor Benoît Rihoux, who also coconvened the Summer School. He focused on csQCA, and he did a great job.

The second week was led by Professor Dirk Berg-Schlosser, who took us through mvQCA and fsQCA. His expertise was on mvQCA, which he did well, but he was not very familiar with fsQCA, so at least those of us who had basic prior knowledge about fuzzy sets did not really learn more about that during the course.

Both of them were very enthusiastic about their respective methods, which I think spilled over on the students as well.

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I think the two teaching assistants, Dr. Andrea Herrmann and Dr. Airo Hino, were also more comfortable with csQCA and mvQCA than with fsQCA. What I liked the most [about the social side] was the trip to Piran, with couple of stops on the way for Predjama Castle and Olms. I think rather few of us participated, because many wanted to use the weekend to do other things. I’m not in touch with anyone from the Summer School (except two colleagues from my home department). I think Facebook has made staying in touch easier.

I really liked Ljubljana. The historic centre around the three bridges was beautiful, there were lots of cafés and restaurants along the Ljubljanica, and you had great views from the Ljubljana Castle. The area around the university was more average, but it was easy to take the bus downtown.

I used fsQCA in my dissertation, and as I mentioned that part of the course was not very good. But more generally I think I might have been encouraged to use systematic comparative methods.

And now...?

I’m currently spending two years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago.

Do you have any thoughts on the ECPR’s services for young scholars?

I think it’s important to be responsive to the needs of young scholars.

For example, I appreciated that our partly critical evaluations of the 2006 Summer School were taken seriously, and that changes were made for the 2007 Summer School.

6th Graduate Student Conference University of Tartu, Estonia, 10 – 13 July 2016

Tailored to graduate students looking for their first conference experience, networking and academic development, this conference offers lectures, roundtables, themed Sections and Panels in political science, theory, international relations and European studies.

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Adding the Winter School to stay on the right track The Winter School, held every February, combines with the Summer School to create a unique and comprehensive methods training programme. Students can follow ‘training tracks’ across several events to create their own, bespoke, programme. Here Olena Podolian, who has done just that, talks of her experiences This summer, I am attending my third Summer School and with it, I would have attended six ECPR Methods Schools altogether: February 2013, Vienna - Comparative Research Designs July 2013, Ljubljana - Process-Tracing Methodology I February 2014 - Short Introduction to SPSS and Advanced Multi-Method Research July-August 2014 - Case Study Research: Method and Practice February 2015 - Introduction to NVivo for Qualitative Data Analysis and Advanced Qualitative Data Analysis July-August 2015 - Expert Interviews for Qualitative Data Generation and Qualitative Data Analysis : Concepts and Approaches Having attended this many events I can say that the ECPR methods schools will have accompanied me throughout my PhD programme. I am happy that in my second year, I was recommended to attend it by Dr Nicholas Aylott, who is the ECPR contact at our university. Since then it turned to be addictive!

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Initially, I didn’t plan to take more than one course. I chose the course that addressed my methodological concerns at the time; even though our university offers two courses (one in qualitative and one – in qualitative research methods) as part

of PhD training, its name sounded promising so I decided to deepen my knowledge of comparative research design. The course by Benoit Rihoux went far beyond my expectations, created interest and made me realise my need for further courses. Their

subsequent choice was dictated by progress in my work and facilitated by the instructors who understood my research interests. In particular, my understanding of research design and qualitative methods benefited a lot from the courses by Ingo Rohlfing and Marie-Helene Pare., all instructors being well-respected specialists in their fields.

All these courses became logical building blocks of my methodology training as I have been developing my research design and discovered lacunae’s in my theoretical knowledge and/or practical skills.

I would say that particular strengths of ECPR courses are depth and intensity of a week or two dedicated to one method or technique – a

luxury few university courses can afford. Also, the selection of lecturers has been brilliant in my experience: always people who write extensively on the method and apply it in their own research, they are very helpful to students and introduce them to the state of art on a given topic. I know there is no way I could possibly learn as much and in as structured way should I decided to ‘save’ time and money and read up the literature by myself; even its choice is a question addressed in the school.

is on track and leave the school being ready to use the method, which is invaluable for any PhD student.

And I haven’t even mentioned the wonderful organization and splendid social side, carefully thought through and taken care of by the school’s highly professional administration, in Europe’s nicest cities. On top of that, Ljubljana offers a majestic opportunity of combining work and play, starting your long awaited summer vacation by the sea right after the course!

Finally, another aspect why a methods school is preferable to an independent studying of method is a practical, ‘hands-on’ side of it – an opportunity to do exercises and check them with a professor and/or TA to make sure one’s understanding

I can only highly recommend the courses at ECPR methods schools as I think they deliver unrivalled results for investment of time and efforts.

Olena Podolian, Södertörn University

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The European Consortium for P

Building careers in political science since

ECPR brings people together across the spectrum of political science and its related disciplines. We offer unrivalled opportunities to collaborate with scholars who share your research interests, and to explore this constantly changing academic field.

Our conferences and events are a forum for lively and fruitful discussion and idea exchange, while our biannual Methods School invites you to hone your research skills under the tutelage of internationally renowned experts.

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Your institution’s ECPR mem to great benefits that will ad and help further your caree account, and make the mo n Reduced fees for all our

n Funding to attend ECPR ev

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mbership entitles you dvance your Set upstudies an account at www.ecpr.eu/myecpr and find out er. Set up a MyECPR how we can support your career from PhD to Professor ost of them!

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An ECPR year on a page (or two)...

Winter School, Joint Sessions, Research Sessions, Summer School, Graduate Student Conference, General Conference, EJPR, EPSR, EPS, ECPR Press, Comparative Politics series, funding, prizes, Standing Groups..., the ECPR can cram a lot into a year, all of which can enhance and support your career.

ECPR membership is institutional and is open to any university concerned with the teaching and research of political science. The individuals within that institution, from Masters students through to Emeritus Professors, can then access the full range of membership benefits.

The membership year runs from 1 October to 30 September; invoices for the 2015/16 membership year will be sent to all current members on 1 June.

If you are not a member and would like to join we would love to hear from you.

Please contact membership@ecpr.eu.

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