RESEARCH AND WRITE IN POLITICAL STUDIES

Skills development lectures

LECTURE STRUCTURE

Aims.

Social Sciences Literature.

Strategies for Finding Sources.

Accessing Sources.

Evaluating Sources.

Finding Your Voice.

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AIMS

This lecture provides various techniques of how to navigate the world of academic writing:

What is academic writing, and how does it differ from other forms of information?

What are the different types of academic writing?

How do I access this information?

How do I process or evaluate this information?

How do I find my voice in the academic debate?

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SOCIAL SCIENCES LITERATURE4

SOCIAL SCIENCES LITERATURE

How do the social sciences differ from other disciplines?

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SOCIAL SCIENCES LITERATURE

AIM: systematic, evidence-based research. Same aims as natural sciences.

BUT: We cannot replicate the experimental research design used in the natural sciences. Medical studies use control groups (i.e. given a

placebo) to determine the efficacy of drugs. Studies on the consequences of conflict, however,

cannot start a conflict in a country. We have to rely on other research techniques to

gain insight.

Social sciences literature evolves via debate as new information emerges.

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SOCIAL SCIENCES LITERATURE

How does academic literature differ from other forms of writing?

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SOCIAL SCIENCES LITERATURE: Peer Review

Peer-review: Evaluation mechanism in which qualified individuals within a field (i.e. ‘experts’) determine whether an academic paper is suitable for publication.

Generally used in academic journals to ensure a high quality of work.

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STRATEGIES FOR FINDING SOURCES9

Primary:Reports e.g. newspapers; government reports

Media e.g. audio interviews; radio; video

Court cases

Objective Data

Official legislation e.g. constitution; government acts

Secondary:Books

Political Encyclopaedias/Handbooks Single-author volume Multi-author (i.e. edited) volumes

Journal Articles

SOURCES: Types10

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Reference List Example:Primary Sources

South African Legislation Republic of South Africa, Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, No.108, Pretoria: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, 1996. Government publications Department of Education, Green Paper on Higher Education Transformation, Cape Town: Department of Education, 1996. Cases Constitutional Court, Minister of Finance v. Van Heerden, 2004, http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2004/3.pdf. Interviews Alexander, Neville and Price, Max. Do we need race to determine admission at educational institutions? By Kieno Kammies. Talk 702, 23 November, 2010. Newspaper Articles Price, Max. “Is There a Place for ‘Race’ in a University Selection Policy?” The Star, Pretoria News and The Cape Times, 21 April, 2010, http://www.uct.ac.za/downloads/uct.ac.za/news/media/oped/VC_race_admissions_04_10.pdf.

Secondary Sources BooksMiller, David. Social Justice, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976. Journal Articles Benatar, David. “Just Admissions: South African Universities and the Question of Racial Preference.” South African Journal of Higher Education 24, 2 (2010): 258-267.

SOURCES: Academic JournalsWhat is an academic journal? Why are they useful?

Peer-reviewed – this ensures high quality.Periodical – new or up-to-date information emerges more rapidly.Focuses on a particular discipline or subfield – this helps with the navigation of the literature. Shorter than books!

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SOURCES: Academic Journals

Political Studies encompasses a wide range of sub-disciplines

Sub-fields:American Journal of Political ScienceJournal of Conflict ResolutionPublic Opinion QuarterlyJournal of DemocracyForeign Policy

Other (relevant) fields:Gender Studies

E.g. Women and PoliticsArea studies

E.g. “Middle Eastern Studies” and “Latin American Research Review”

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SOURCES: How to find relevant information?

The sources selected should be determined by the assignment you have. What does your assignment require?

Must you…Analyse an argument?

Evaluate a theory?

Identify and analyse a topic or case?

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SOURCES: Where to begin?

The trick is to start narrow then broaden to other sources.

Often there is a key text that can be used as a springboard. Let’s call this Text A.Look in Text A’s references for sources that the author consulted.Search citations index for sources written by other authors that consulted Text A in their work.Check the author’s list of published works (usually on university site) to find alternative articles with which to search.

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SOURCES: Example

Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

Press, 2001).

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SOURCES: Analysing a Text

Sources that cite Mamdani (2001) include:Stephan Kinzer, A Thousand Hills: Rwanda’s Rebirth and The Man Who Dreamed it (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons, 2008)Max Rettig, “Gacaca: Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Postconflict Rwanda?” African Studies Review, Vol. 51, No. 3 (December, 2008): 25-50

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SOURCES: Analysing a Text

Other works by Mamdani on Rwanda include:-- “A Brief History of Genocide,”Transition, No. 87 (2001): 26-47.

-- “African States, Citizenship and War: A Case-Study”, International Affairs, Vol. 78, No. 3 (Jul, 2002): 493-506

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SOURCES: Analysing a Topic

Start broad and narrow down as much as possible to specific area of interest.

Read ‘review articles,’ published in peer-review articles.

Use each subsequent text’s references to build a network of sources.

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SOURCES: Review Article Example

Howard Adelman, “Bystanders to Genocide in Rwanda (Review),” The International History Review, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Jun, 2003): 357-374.Peacemaking in Rwanda: The Dynamics of Failure by Bruce D. Jones; The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda by Alan J. Kuperman; When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda by Mahmood Mamdani; A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide by Linda R. Melvern; 'A Problem from Hell': America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power; Never Again? The United States and the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide since the Holocaust by Peter Ronayne; Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda by Michael Barnett; Re-imagining Rwanda: Conflict, Survival, and Disinformation in the Late Twentieth Century by Johan Pottier

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SOURCES: Non-Political Studies Resources

As political issues span across a wide variety of dimensions, you may find information in journals from other disciplines:Other social sciences (e.g. sociology)

Economics

Law

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ACCESSING SOURCES22

ACCESSING SOURCES: Print Information

ALEPH: http://aleph20.calico.ac.za/F/?func=file&file_name=find-b&local_base=uct01

Main Library

African Studies Library

Journals

Interlibrary Loans

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ACCESSING SOURCES: Electronic

Electronic Databases PAIS International and PAIS Archive

(specialist databases for Political Studies) J-STOR (archival information)

Electronic Journals

Off Campus Login: https://login.ezproxy.uct.ac.za/login

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ACCESSING SOURCES: A final note.

It is tempting to type a search term into:Google Scholar → info overload so be mindful.Wikipedia → NOT a reliable source.

Remember, reputation matters!

Key words matter:Consider: US spelling; alternative phrases e.g. “affirmative action”; “preferential treatment policy”; “B-BBEE”.

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EVALUATING SOURCES27

EVALUATING SOURCES

What is a reputable source in the social sciences?The author is an expert in the field.

Peer-reviewed

If quantitative, methodology must be transparent and replicable.

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EVALUATING SOURCES: Citations

You can use the following to assess the reliability of a source:

Google Scholar for any type of source.

ISI Citation Database for journal articles.

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EVALUATING SOURCES: Google Scholar

1. http://scholar.google.co.za/2. Enter the source’s title and/or author.3. The number of citations will be listed below

the source. Mamdani’s book, for example, has been cited

over 1,000 times!

4. Click on the link. These sources will be listed in order of their

respective citations.

5. It also may be helpful to look at the “Related Articles” link.

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1. Go to http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/show-database2. Click on “ISI Web of Science”3. Click on “Cited Reference Search”4. Type in the title and/or author and/or

timeframe in which you would like to restrict your search.

5. Tick the box next to the work you want to search for and click “Finish Search”.

6. A list of the works that cite the text will appear and you can then refine your search depending on what exactly you’re looking for.

EVALUATING SOURCES: ISI Citations Index

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EVALUATING SOURCES: Review Articles

The following articles review Mamdani (2001):

Jeffrey Herbst “The Unanswered Question: Attempting to Explain the Rwandan Genocide (Review)”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 80, No. 3 (May-June, 2001): 123-126.

René Lemarchand “A History of Genocide in Rwanda (Review)” The Journal of African History, Vol. 43, No. 2 (2002): 307-311.

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EVALUATING SOURCES: Journal Rankings

Try to use the most reputable journals in your field.

Journals vary in reputation depending on their ability to publish influential work.

There are different was to rank journals. E.g. Survey experts; based on citation and

content analysis (bibliometrics); etc.

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EVALUATING SOURCES: Suggested Reading

For more information on journal rankings in political studies, please consult: McLean et al. (2008), available at: http://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/Politics/papers/2008/McLean%20Blais%20Giles%20and%20Garand%20(April%202008).pdf

Journal Citations Report – Social Sciences Edition (under UCT Library’s databases)

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FINDING YOUR VOICE35

FINDING YOUR VOICE: Strategies

Master all the concepts and/or theories involved in your assignment.

Find relevant sources.

Analyse the debate.

Form your own argument

Justify your position.

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Who is saying what?

Which authors agree/disagree with each other?

Which authors are the most prominent?

FINDING YOUR VOICE: Debate Analysis37

FINDING YOUR VOICE: Your Argument

See previous lecture for more information on forming arguments.

Remember to express the argument in your own words.

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FINDING YOUR VOICE: Justify Your Position

Why did you choose your argument?

Which arguments did you find convincing?

Why?

Which were unconvincing?

Why?

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FINDING YOUR VOICE: Student Example 1

“Mahmood Mandani’s argument for mass participation is a sound one. The political wing combined with the economic factors and the Burundi Hutu’s made a deadly combination. One that resulted in the death of thousands of people and one that resulted in the events that shocked the world.”

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Problems with this example:The student has not shown why Mamdani’s argument is sound.To do this, the student needed to show how Mamdani’s argument, against others, was more convincing.Instead, the student reasserted Mamdani’s points.Essentially, they argued that Mamdani is right because Mamdani said X, Y and Z.

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FINDING YOUR VOICE: Student Example 1

FINDING YOUR VOICE: Student Example 2

“Mamdani’s stance, while convincing and appealing it is to one’s sensitivity, neglects to take into account that within the “moment of decision” there are subconscious influencers that sway the individual to act in an unusual way. These many not be reducible to “choice” and may be embedded in cultural and personal history. Hintjens’ (1999; 243) acknowledges the pivotal role of the Rwandan state, but emphasises that the influence of one factor does not exclude the influence of others. In other words, Mamdani’s focus on fear risks neglecting the equally important influence of other factors, such as economic deprivation.”

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Student 2 has a far better argument because:It is clear that s/he has critically engaged with Mamdani’s text.S/he has consulted other sources – i.e. Hintjens.Her/his own voice is clear – they have shown why the analysis provided by Hintjens is useful when analysing Mamdani by showing how Hintjens’ logic highlights a problematic argument style used by Mamdani.

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FINDING YOUR VOICE: Student Example 2

FURTHER INFORMATION

Subject Librarian: Alex D’Angelo Alexander.DAngelo@uct.ac.za 021 650 4475

Subject Guide http://libguides.lib.uct.ac.za/Political_Studies

YouTube Tutorials http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/research-help/library-guides-

and-tutorials/

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