PhD Courses

EUROSPHERE’s training activities target primarily young European researchers as well as the young researchers working in EUROSPHERE. The planned training activities’ objectives are both to disseminate the outcomes from the project in order to contribute to strengthening the European Research Area and to raise the research competency of the researchers working in different parts of EUROSPHERE. The training activities include two types of training efforts:

• Training activities targeted at increasing the quality of EUROSPHERE’s research activities. More..
• Training activities targeted at European research area integration and dissemination of the knowledge produced in EUROSPHERE. More..

With the first category of training, EUROSPHERE aims to raise the competence of the junior researchers to be employed in EUROSPHERE’s data collection and analysis activities. The researchers’ understanding of the integrated project’s objectives will be increased. The researchers will learn about EUROSPHERE’s specific approach to data collection and analysis as well as its specific data needs. These internal training courses aim to give training to the young researchers working in EUROSPHERE on the diversity-methods of data collection and data analysis. The course will also comparatively entail other contesting theoretical and methodological approaches to public sphere. Concerning the second category (courses targeting ERA-integration and outwards-dissemination of knowledge), these are targeted at European doctoral students. These courses will also accept master students who are in the conclusive phase of their thesis writing.

Courses For Increasing the Quality of EUROSPHERE’s Research

Under this category, we have planned two separate courses:

1. Course on theory, methods and data collection for internal researchers. More..
2. Course on comparative diversity and public sphere analysis for internal researchers. More..

1. Course on theory, methods and data collection for internal researchers

The objective of this course is to ensure that there is a common understanding of the standard procedures for selection of fieldwork-sites and of the intensions behind the standard interview questions. Further, we will also achieve a common understanding of comparative data collection in the 16 countries that EUROSPHERE focuses on. Through this course, the researchers will familiarize themselves with the standard data collection methods/procedures of EUROSPHERE. The course will also comprise teaching about the contesting “difference-approaches” in order to theory and methods in order to provide a comparative knowledge of the diversity perspective. The course plan is as follows:

Day 1: Introduction to Eurosphere’s Research Themes
Day 2: Central concepts in Eurosphere
Day 3: Qualitative interview methods
Day 4: Data collection on political parties, SMOs, and think tanks
Day 5: Media content analysis and data registration

2. Course on comparative diversity and public sphere analysis for internal researchers

The objective is to ensure that there is a common understanding between the researchers about the methods of diversity analysis. This will be conducted in the form of intensive seminars with presentations and discussions between the senior researchers and the postdoc researchers who will conduct data analyses in EUROSPHERE. Also this course will have one working week’s duration with 6 hours of intensive teaching/discussions each day. The researchers will familiarize themselves with EUROSPHERE’s collected data, methods of diversity measurement and comparison. The course entails also a significant element about the analysis methods of the competing “difference” approaches. This course will to some little extent replicate the first day of the previous course because the course participants here are different (postdoc researchers). The course plan is as follows:

Day 1: Approaches to the European Public Sphere
Day 2: Tools of Measurement, Scaling, and Comparison
Day 3: The Diversity Perspective’s Methodology and Individual Data Analysis Designs
Day 4: The Diversity Perspective’s Methodology and Institutional Data Analysis Designs
Day 5: Data Analysis Applications

COURSES FOR YOUNG EUROPEAN RESEARCHERS AND STUDENTS

These are targeted at European doctoral students. These courses will also accept persons opting for starting on a Ph.D-programme and master students who are in the conclusive phase of their thesis writing. We have planned two short-term European summer courses for young researchers. These two courses will be based on existing knowledge as well as our own research findings in EUROSPHERE. The course plan is as follows:

1. PhD Course on theory and methods in analyses of public sphere. More..
2. PhD Course on applied public sphere research. More..

1. PhD Course on theory and methods in analyses of public sphere

This course aims to familiarize young European researchers with the existing scientific approaches as well as EUROSPHERE’s diversity theory and methods.

Day 1: Religion, Ethnicity, and the Public Sphere
Day 2: Migration, Mobility, and the Public Sphere
Day 3: Class, Trade Unions, and the Public Sphere
Day 4: Gender, Intersectionality, and the Public Sphere
Day 5: Diversity, Citizenship, and the Public Sphere

2. PhD Course on applied public sphere research

This course aims to disseminate the findings of EUROSPHERE on the European public sphere to the young researchers of Europe and to demonstrate the usefulness of the diversity perspective on the European public sphere. EUROSPHERE’s findings will be positioned in relation to the findings in earlier research about the European Public Sphere

Day 1: Approaches to Public Sphere in Previous Research
Day 2: Think Tanks and the European Public Sphere
Day 3: Political Parties and the European Public Sphere
Day 4: Social Movements and the European Public Sphere
Day 5: Media and the European Public Sphere