‘Conditions of Knowing’: An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Theory and Methodology

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

Venue: FSI Hall

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

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.