Workshop
As an initiative of the Faculty of Social Sciences, an
interdisciplinary workshop on the matter of ‘theory and methodology in the social
sciences’ has been planned for the 24 , 28 and 31 October 2013 from 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm at the Mezzanine Floor and FSI Hall of South Asian University. While research students undergo courses in theory and methodology,
how do they relate these two programmes together? What are the challenges in
bridging the seeming gap between theory and methodology? How do students and
the faculty who conduct classes on these two topics really understand theory
and methodology? Can a conversation on these two crucial themes be initiated
between proponents of different social science disciplines?
The workshop is aimed at
PhD students and academic colleagues in the Faculty of Social Sciences. We hope
that this workshop will initiate conversations between departments in the
Faculty of Social Sciences and foster a climate of interdisciplinary engagement
among colleagues and students. Followup events planned fr 2014 and beyond will be open to wider academic participation.
Preamble
The pursuit of scholarship
involves a number of interests ranging from the pragmatic, to the normative or
positivist state of things to the political. The existence of numerous
disciplines which fall under the broad rubric of the social sciences
contributes to this complexity. Often, the structure of social science
disciplines as they are taught is extremely dependant on the composition and
approach of a concerned department. For example, the University of Chicago
houses Departments of Sociology, Anthropology and Economics which stand out for
promoting particular agendas, hence giving rise to schools of thought in those
fields. Perhaps one of the greatest sources of complexity and strength in
social science scholarship is the diversity of approaches, areas of interest
and styles of teaching and pedagogy across departments.
At the core of every social
science discipline, especially as they are broken down into teachable
components for students, there appear to be two universals: theory and methodology.
The question of theory is often regarded to be central to any discipline.
Methodology is considered critical to the pursuit and the craft of knowledge. Yet,
these two components of scholarship are subject to continuous debate. Students
and faculty members in the social sciences are often faced with a situation whereby
theory and/or methodology are fetishized, leading to an unproductive divide
between what is imagined to be theoretical and the empirical.
The social sciences are marked by
the diversity of ways of doing research. Sociological research alone often includes
scholarship facilitated by quantitative research methods, ethnography, case
studies and archival research among others. Scholarship in International
Relations demonstrates diversity of both methods and of theoretical approaches
from related disciplines of Political Science, History and Political Economy. However, methodology may often be
misunderstood for a fetishization of methods.
On the whole, regardless of the
disciplinary perspective and approaches we may employ, a conversation across
disciplines on matters of theory and methodology is crucial as it shapes the conditions
of knowing.
Format
The format of the workshop will
consist of three panels to be conducted over three days after teaching hours:
The first two panels will deal with concerns of methodology and theory for the
two constituent departments of the Faculty of Social Sciences: Sociology and
International Relations. Each of these
sessions will feature short presentations of notes shared by faculty members on
theory and methodology. The faculty members will then be followed by
presentations made by the PhD students of each department. Each presentation
will last 10-15 minutes. The end of each panel will be followed by a session
for questions from the audience addressed to panellists.
The third panel will consist of a roundtable
session bringing together all faculty members from the two departments of the
Faculty of Social Sciences.
Panel I-Sociology
Date: 24.10.13 Time: 4.30pm-6pm
Chair: Dr. Dev Pathak
Name
|
Topic
|
Time
|
Ankur Datta
|
Notes on Theory
|
10 min
|
Chudamani Basnet
|
Notes on Methodology
|
10 min
|
Krishna Pandey
|
Student Intervention
|
15 min
|
Kumud Bhansal
|
Student Intervention
|
15 min
|
Question and Answer Session
|
20 Minutes
|
Panel II- International Relations
Date: 28.10.2013 Time: 4.30pm-6pm
Venue: FSI Hall
Chair: Prof. Rajen Harshe
Name
|
Topic
|
Time
|
Siddharth Mallavarapu
|
Notes on Theory
|
10 min
|
Jayashree Vivekanandan
|
Notes on Methodology
|
10 min
|
Vaishali Raghuvanshi
|
Student Intervention
|
15 min
|
Omar Sadr
|
Student Intervention
|
15 min
|
Anu Krishna SS
|
Student Intervention
|
15 Min
|
Question and Answer Session
|
20 Minutes
|
Panel-III- Round Table-Involving faculty members from the
departments of International Relations and Sociology
Date: 31.10.2013
Time: 4.30pm-6pm
Venue: Mezzanine Floor
Chair: Prof. S. Perera, Dean FSS
Agenda for the Round Table
What can students and practitioners in the disciplines of Sociology and International Relations learn from each other?
Is there a gap between theory
and methodology in the Social Sciences? If so, can this gap be bridged?
What can students and practitioners in the disciplines of Sociology and International Relations learn from each other?
What do we understand by the ‘conditions
of knowing’?
Workshop and Series Coordinators
Ankur
Datta, Department of Sociology.
Siddharth Mallavarapu, Department
of International Relations.
