The term "qualitative social research" indicates a type of scientific research conducted in the domain of social sciences according to a methodological specificity declined in a heterogeneity of research techniques.
As opposed to quantitative research, understood according to an undoubtedly reductive definition as research focused on data read in a statistical key, according to recent definitions, qualitative social research is characterized by the harmonization towards the context of construction of the data, the focus on details, the multivocal nature of the writing.
Qualitative social research is today considered indispensable for the study and understanding of contemporary social phenomena.
The course combines methodological and theoretical reflection with specific indications on how to do qualitative research by means of a precise indication of the general and specific principles that guide the research and the techniques used, the exemplification of research and case studies, the attention aimed at the analysis of the data collected and produced and, finally, a specific focus on the processes of textualization, writing and presentation of the results.

The term "qualitative social research" indicates the type of scientific research conducted in the domain of social sciences according to a methodological specificity declined in a heterogeneity of research techniques.
The result of a series of different and distinct classical theoretical references (symbolic interactionism, phenomenology, critical theory, ethnomethodology) and more recent ones (feminist, racial, queer, postcolonial theories, inspired by M. Foucault, etc.), and epistemologically close to constructivism and to critical relism in their various currents, qualitative social research is distinguished by the multiplicity of approaches, techniques and methods followed and used, also according to a constitutive interdisciplinary openness.
As opposed to quantitative research, understood according to an undoubtedly reductive definition as research focused on data read in a statistical key, according to recent definitions, qualitative social research is characterized by the harmonization towards the context of construction of the data, the focus on details, the multivocal nature of the writing.
Qualitative social research is now considered indispensable for the study and understanding of contemporary social phenomena and finds a wide range of applications and achievements in the social sciences.
The course combines methodological and theoretical reflection with specific indications on how to do qualitative research by means of a precise indication of the general and specific principles that guide the research and the techniques used, the exemplification of research and case studies, the attention aimed at '' analysis of the data collected and produced and, finally, the processes of textualization, writing and presentation of the results.
The following general topics are covered:
- Qualitative research and quantitative research
- Define qualitative research
- The theory of argumentation
- The design of the research
- The construction of the data
- Data analysis
- The textualization
- Communication and presentation of results
The techniques that will be examined are:
- Participant observation and ethnographic research
- The discursive interview
- The focus group
- The use of documents
- Autoethnography
- Shadowing
- The visual methods
- Hybrid methods
- Ethnography on the internet and on social networks
- The creative methods