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33427-01 - Seminar: Theory Construction in African Studies (3 KP)
| Semester | Frühjahrsemester 2013 |
| Angebotsmuster | unregelmässig |
| Dozierende | Elisio Macamo (elisio.macamo@unibas.ch, BeurteilerIn) |
| Inhalt | Since the debate over the scientific status of the social sciences and humanities back in the nineteenth century flared up, the notion of theory has been held hostage to a positivist theory of knowledge. Indeed, it has been understood as both the starting and end point of causal accounts of phenomena. Some scholars have even nurtured hopes of accumulating enough knowledge to enable them to reduce all phenomena in the world to a single theory. While this debate has lost some of its fervour over the years, as philosophers and historians of science have come to cast doubt on the covering law models of explanation that went along with positivism, social scientists and scholars in the humanities have been rather weary of claiming the notion of theory to their own accounts of phenomena. This has had the effect of making the social sciences and humanities diffident about the knowledge which they produce while at the same time forcing an epistemological position on them which makes their knowledge only locally relevant. This has been a problem for, if the knowledge produced by the social sciences is local and unfit for generalisation, it seems unlikely that social scientists can make any strong case for producing knowledge that is more dependable than mere common sense. It is against this background that the course on “theory construction” revisits these issues by drawing participants’ attention to the relevance of debates on social science methodology for their own individual research projects. The course makes the basic assumption that any attempt at accounting for social phenomena is deeply theoretical in the sense that it offers a perspective on the world which renders it intelligible while at the same time inviting critical inquiry into its own assumptions. The course will engage participants in a discussion of the nature of accounts of the social world and will encourage them to be explicit about the structure and texture of their accounts, be these explanatory or interpretive. The course can, therefore, be understood as an exercise in the interpretation of data, i.e. in how data is turned into evidence. It will consist on the one hand in reading and discussing key texts in theory construction and, on the other, in reflecting critically on the work of individual participants to encourage them to appreciate the structure and nature of their own claims in their individual projects. |
| Literatur | Law, John 2004: After Method – Mess in social science research. Routledge. Abingdon. Mouton, Johann and Marais, HC 1996: Basic Concepts in the Methodology of the Social Sciences. HSRC Publishers. Pretoria. Apel, Karl-Otto 1984: Understanding and Explanation – A transcendental-pragmatic perspective. The MIT Press. Cambridge. Jaccard, James and Jacoby, Jacob 2010: Theory Construction and Model-Building Skills – A practical guide for social scientists. The Guildford Press. New York. Becker, Howard S. 1988: Tricks of the Trade – How to think about your research while you’re doing it. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago. Glynos, Jason and Howarth, David 2007: Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. Routledge. London. Hacking, Ian 2002: Historical Ontology. Harvard University Press. Cambridge. |
| Unterrichtssprache | Englisch |
| Einsatz digitaler Medien | kein spezifischer Einsatz |
| Intervall | Wochentag | Zeit | Raum |
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Keine Einzeltermine verfügbar, bitte informieren Sie sich direkt bei den Dozierenden.
| Module |
Modul Ausserwestliches Christentum und Austauschprozesse (ÖM 1) (Bachelor Studienfach: Theologie) Modul Ausserwestliches Christentum und Austauschprozesse (ÖM 1) (Bachelor Theologie) Modul Reflexion interkultureller Gegenwartsfragen in der Theologie (ÖM 2) (Master Studienfach: Theologie) Modul Reflexion interkultureller Gegenwartsfragen in der Theologie (ÖM 2) (Master Theologie) Modul Social Anthropology (Master Studiengang: African Studies) Modul Theorie der Ethnologie (Master Studienfach: Ethnologie) |
| Prüfung | Lehrveranst.-begleitend |
| An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Wiederholungsprüfung | keine Wiederholungsprüfung |
| Skala | Pass / Fail |
| Belegen bei Nichtbestehen | beliebig wiederholbar |
| Zuständige Fakultät | Philosophisch-Historische Fakultät, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Anbietende Organisationseinheit | Kompetenzzentrum Afrika |