INEQUALITY, GENDER, AND WELFARE POLITICS

Elective Seminar, Fall Semester 2024

Instructor: Manuel Alvariño Vázquez

1-READING TIPS

• Title and authors’ information

​

​

• Abstract: complete summary of the article

​

​

​

• Introduction:
• Sets the stage, provides context?
• Presents the research problem and RQ
• Outlines argument, methods and paper outline
• Perhaps also results

• Literature Review.

• Literature Review.
• Classifies different answers and research
• Argues why they are incomplete:�The gap

• Example:�‘Lit. about female voters’

• We would expect no childcare in Korea….

​

​

• But there is!

• Theoretical framework analysis

​

• Dependent variable or outcome
• Explanatory variables
• Mechanisms

• Theoretical framework hypotheses
• How does inequality in public childcare expansion affect gender equality attitudes?

• Research design

​

Data source and sample

​

​

Variables and mechanisms

​

​

​

​

​

Model

Results

• Conclusion

​

Findings

​

​

Limitations

​

​

​

​

​

Future research

���2- TOPIC 🡪 PUZZLE 🡪 RQ��

ESSAY STRUCTURE

• Introduction: Briefly introduces the research ‘puzzle’ the paper is concerned with, and it formulates it through a researchable research question.
• Literature review: Provides a short overview of the existing literature on the topic (what is already known?) and identifies the research gap you plan to fill (what will you do to move beyond the current state-of-the-art?).

​

• Theory: it shows a clear theoretical argument, by reasoning what factor or factors (X) explain the problem or puzzle (Y), and how the process or the mechanism works.
• Empirical strategy: offers a feasible research design, in which qualitative or quantitative research methods of data gathering and data analysis will evaluate the theoretical argument.
• Conclusion.

FIVE QUESTIONS

1. What is the nature of the phenomena or social reality that I wish to investigate?
2. What can constitute observable evidence of this phenomenon?
3. What is your broad topic of interest?
4. What is the intellectual puzzle?
5. What is your research question(s)?

TOPIC��PUZZLE��RQ

2. �

​

ONTOLOGY��EPISTEMOLOGY

ONTOLOGY

ONTOLOGICAL ELEMENTS

ONTOLOGY

EPISTEMOLOGY

ONTOLOGY & EPISTEMOLOGY

How the world works 🡪

​

• People have measurable attitudes
• Non measurable?
• Attitudes vary with legal context
• Politicians respond to voters�
• Politicians respond to lobbies

How can I observe that

​

• Let’s make surveys
• Then interviews
• Let’s study laws and institutions
• Public opinion surveys and voter behaviour
• I must unveil lobbying practices

TOPIC����PUZZLE����RQ

TOPIC

TOPIC

• A topic is broad area of interest.
• Topic examples: racism in the classroom, disability experiences, the cultural representation of women.
• Topic of my PhD dissertation: the political process of family policy change.
• Where to find a topic?
• Your inner interest or experience.
• The news: challenge assumptions, go deeper into common assumptions, compare conflicting perspectives.
• Readings and discussions in this seminar.

​

FROM TOPIC TO PUZZLE

• A topic is broad area of interest.
• Topic examples: racism in the classroom, disability experiences, the cultural representation of women.
• Topic of my PhD dissertation: the political process of family policy change.
• An intellectual puzzle problematizes the topic in a researchable way. It’s narrower. It involves assumptions about how the world works. It involves more awareness of what we already know.
• My puzzle: When do conservative welfare states turn more progressive? Why do conservative parties change their family policy agenda?

​

TYPES OF PUZZLES

• Developmental: How did x or y develop?
• Mechanical: How does x or y work? Why does it work in this way?
• Comparative: What can we learn from comparing x and y?
• Causal/predictive: What influence x has on y, or what causes x or y? What is the likely outcome of x or y?

TOPIC 🡪 PUZZLE

Topic 🡪

​

• Leitner 2003: variety of family policy types. �
• Orloff 2009: gender and the welfare state.

​

Puzzle

​

• Leitner 2003: how can we specify various analytical dimensions to construct typologies?
• Orloff 2009: how has the concept of gender being (and not being) applied to the welfare state?

FROM PUZZLE TO RQ

• A Research Question is an explicit and narrow manifestation of the puzzle in a researchable way.
• A RQ must be clear and specific.
• A RQ must be researchable. Ergo you must be able to provide an answer.
• RQs can be divided into more specific sub-research questions.

ANALYTICAL VERSUS PREDICTIVE

DO’S AND DON’TS IN RQS

• Avoid simple short answers. E.g. ‘Do women vote more green?’ 🡪 Yes. Rather:
• To what extent do they?
• Under which conditions…?
• But don’t be too general. E.g. how does sexism work in education? Rather:
• What sexist practices exist in Zürich high schools today?
• Don’t remain in description. E.g. how many countries recognized the Palestinian state? Rather:
• What have they in common? What predicts this vote?
• Avoid hypothetical or normative questions. E.g. is x correct? What would happen if y?

��3- LITERATURE REVIEW

LITERATURE REVIEW

• An analysis of existing research on a specific question.
• Purpose:
• To organize existing knowledge and identify perspectives.
• Not to number papers individually, but research strands.
• To identify the research gap.
• Scope: academic, not general, literature.
• Critical perspective: confront theoretically and empirically.

Daly and Leon 2022

• Literature Review.
• Classifies different answers and research
• Argues why they are incomplete:�The gap

• Example:�‘Lit. about female voters’

• We would expect no childcare in Korea….

​

​

• But there is!

LR IN PRACTICE

1. Find what you want to read.
2. Read it:
1. Abstract: Is it really what I am looking for?
2. Main idea / methods 🡪 Classify.
3. References 🡪 More articles.
3. Repeat
4. Classify
5. Find the gap

INTERNET SEARCH

ARTICLES THAT CITE

CITED ARTICLES

LR GAP EXAMPLES

Much research has addressed this question.

• One approach says X.
• Another says Y.

I think both are wrong because:

- empirically it is not true, it is rather Z.

- They rely on a false assumption

THEREFORE...

I think it is rather Y,�and I am going to use this new method / consider this new variable

But both are incomplete because they don’t consider Z (additional factor).

TOPIC���PUZZLE���RQ

1. What is the nature of the phenomena or social reality that I wish to investigate?
2. What can be an observable evidence of this entity?
3. What is your broad topic of interest?
4. What is the intellectual puzzle?
5. What is your research question(s)?

ONTOLOGY��EPISTEMOLOGY

FIVE QUESTIONS

FROM PUZZLE TO RQ

• A Research Question is an explicit and narrow manifestation of the puzzle in a researchable way.
• A RQ must be clear and specific.
• A RQ must be researchable. Ergo you must be able to provide an answer.
• RQs can be divided into more specific sub-research questions.

ANALYTICAL VERSUS PREDICTIVE

DO’S AND DON’TS IN RQS

• Avoid simple short answers. E.g. ‘Do women vote more green?’ 🡪 Yes. Rather:
• To what extent do they?
• Under which conditions…?
• But don’t be too general. E.g. how does sexism work in education? Rather:
• What sexist practices exist in Zürich high schools today?
• Don’t remain in description. E.g. how many countries recognized the Palestinian state? Rather:
• What have they in common? What predicts this vote?
• Avoid hypothetical or normative questions. E.g. is x correct? What would happen if y?

���3- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK – RESEARCH DESIGN�

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

• An argument, an explanation, a theory.
• Clear concepts and variables:
• Independent, dependent, antecedent, intervening.
• Clear relationships between them.
• Detailed mechanisms!
• Casual or interactive relationships?
• Try an arrow diagram.

ARROW DIAGRAM

X

Y

ARROW DIAGRAM

X

Y

Z

ARROW DIAGRAM

X

Y

Z

A

ARROW DIAGRAM

X

Y

Z

A

V

R

π

5

• Theoretical framework analysis

​

• Dependent variable or outcome
• Explanatory variables
• Mechanisms

CAUSAL CLAIM

• X and Y are correlated
• X precedes Y
• X causes Y, the relationship is direct, not spurious or confounded.

FROM THEORY TO DESIGN

• Operationalization:
• Turning theoretical concepts and variables into something measurable.
• Tension between unit of analysis and unit of observation (same reality level).
• Validity: a measure that actually measure what it is supposed to measure.
• Hypotheses:
• Testable: empirical (not normative), specific (direction).
• General (characteristics, not observations).

• Hypotheses
• How does inequality in public childcare expansion affect gender equality attitudes?

DESIGN - METHODOLOGY

• Qualitative or Qualitative? Mixed?
• Large-N or small-N?
• If small, case selection: least-likely, most-likely, most-similar, most-different.
• Typical research projects:
• Quantitative large-N study trying to identify causal claims controlling for many variables: seemingly X causes Y because it has a significant correlation often (external validity).
• Qualitative case study: observes the process whereby X caused Y in a least-likely case (internal validity).

DESIGN - METHODS

• Measurement:
• Validity: it measures what it is supposed to be measuring (unit of analysis).
• Reliability: it would not be measured differently.
• Data sources.
• Sample versus population (similar to case selection).

• Research design

​

Data source and sample

​

​

Variables and mechanisms

​

​

​

​

​

Model

���4-OUTRO�

WHAT IS A GOOD CONCLUSION?

• Recap puzzle / argument / findings (brief).
• Limitations of the study.
• Contribution: why we needed this?
• Avenues for future research.

DO’S AND DON’TS IN CHATGPT

• ChatGPT does not ‘think’, it is a model that repeats human-like language.
• Better not to use it, develop your own capabilities, do not become a vegetable dependent on robots! However, if you use it…
• OK to talk about initial ideas, but this will undermine creativity.
• OK to evaluate your own essay, to think about your work.
• NOT OK to write for you. It will make general and superficial texts.
• NOT OK to deliver academic references, it will hallucinate.
• OK to improve your writing, but it may undermine your own learning.
• Be transparent about it.
• I don’t like the style, I might give lower grades if you talk like a robot.