Aaron Reeves

This course is available on the MPhil/PhD in Sociology, MSc in Economy and Society, MSc in Inequalities and Social Science, MSc in Political Sociology and MSc in Sociology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

This course has a limited number of places. For information on how to apply for a place on this course, please see Courses offered and related information.

The main aim, and in line with a later part of the outline of this course, is to become comfortable with quantitative research design whilst identifying the main quantitative methods used in sociological research. It is an introductory course to quantitative methods. The course will allow you to acquire skills in quantitative research design and data analysis, which is a requirement for sociologists and the field's labour market.
The course also explores important debates and approaches in quantitative sociology using a case study approach. For every method we cover, we will read a selection of articles taken from major journals in the discipline. By analysing and criticising the operationalisation of quantitative methods in these articles, we will cover issues of research design and get a sense of what each method does (and does not do), and of the type of research questions to which it can be applied.
Aims of the course include: 

• Introducing quantitative data collection techniques
• Expose key conceptualisations in quantitative research and correctly employing statistical concepts.
• Present the overviews of common quantitative methods and techniques in contemporary sociological research (ranging from quantitative data collection, linear regression, logistic regression).
• Evaluating challenges and benefits of employing quantitative research methods.
• Have a basic knowledge of STATA to be able to carry out basic statistical analyses.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Recognise quantitative sociological data collection techniques and employ quantitative sociological concepts correctly.
• Critically evaluate quantitative methodologies and differentiate between them whilst considering the ethical implications of quantitative research.
• Design sociological quantitative research while formulating quantitative research questions, generating quantitative measurable concepts and identifying between a descriptive argument and a casual inference.
• Develop a degree of familiarisation with the STATA interface.

NOTE: Detailed quantitative methods are provided in courses: such as MY451 (Introduction to Quantitative Analysis), MY465 (Intermediate Quantitative Analysis) and MY452 (Applied Regression Analysis), and other specialist courses of the LSE Department of Methodology. Also, MY451 and MY452 are recommended to MSc Sociology students interested in using quantitative analysis to develop the dissertation.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

This course is usually delivered through seminars. There will be two hours or more of teaching each week in AT.

Seminars will allow students to reflect on quantitative methodologies, critically evaluate them, and design quantitative sociological research (formulating research questions and generating quantitative, measurable concepts).

The seminars are organised around small group discussions to facilitate active peer learning in which students are intended to communicate, collaborate and discuss quantitative research with each other.

This course uses Stata in seminars. Students will be provided with access to a Stata licence and supported with installation in the first weeks of teaching. A compatible laptop will be required for seminars. Tablets and Chromebooks are not compatible with Stata.

Memo.

Students will write one formative memo based on course readings and class activities in the AT.

• Rowntree, D. (2018). Statistics without tears : an introduction for non-mathematicians (Updated edition.). Penguin Books.
• Mesquita, Ethan Bueno de, and Anthony Fowler. Thinking Clearly with Data: A Guide to Quantitative Reasoning and Analysis. Princeton University Press, 2021.
• Pager, D., and L. Quillian. (2005) ‘Walking the Talk? What Employers Say versus What They Do’. American Sociological Review 70, no. 3: 355–80. ISI:000230529700001.
• Gidron, N., & Hall, P. A. (2017). The politics of social status: Economic and cultural roots of the populist right. British Journal of Sociology, 28.
• Jackson, M., & Cox, D. R. (2013). The Principles of Experimental Design and Their Application in Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 39(1), 27–49. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071811-145443
• Monk, Ellis. (2015) ‘The Cost of Color: Skin Color, Discrimination, and Health among African-Americans’. American Journal of Sociology 121, no. 2. 

Memo (25%, 1500 words) in December.

Proposal (75%, 3500 words) in January.

The first assessment is a 1500-word memo (25%). The second assessment is a 3500-word research proposal (75%). The proposal should outline your own research question utilising one data collection technique and one of the quantitative methods seen in class.

Attendance at all classes and submission of all set coursework is required.