In your final assignment you will be asked to engage with quantitative and qualitative sources to support your analysis. To help with this, and to help you in the programme more generally, in this session we will consider some important questions about types of sources, where information can be found, and what different sources can and can't tell us. Using the course book and recent case examples from the news we will explore:

What do we mean by quantitative and qualitative sources?
What does quantitative information tell us? What can it not tell us?
What does qualitative information tell us? What can it not tell us?
Where can we find quantitative and qualitative information?

Teachers: Damon Barrett and Maria Stern

Reading:

Pin-Fat, Véronique. 2019. ‘How do we begin to think about the world?’ (Chapter 2), in Global Politics: A New Introduction, edited by Jenny Edkins and Maja Zehfus. New York: Routledge, pp: 20-37. See pp. 22-27, case example on Syrian refugees.

Case example: Climate change, drought and riverside communities in Brazil

Read the following short article

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/31/amazon-isnt-a-cause-its-our-home-rio-negro-brazil-indigenous-climate-crisis

In groups, discuss the following:

What aspects of the reporting are quantitative in nature? What kinds of questions can this answer? What kind of information is it? Where might it have come from? What does this tell us, and not tell us? How could we find out more (i.e. can you think of methods for collecting that kind of information?)

What aspects of the reporting are qualitative in nature? What kinds of questions can this answer? What kind of information is it? Where might it have come from? What does this tell us, and not tell us? How could we find out more (i.e. can you think of methods for collecting that kind of information?)