GPEP-Qualitative Methods

The transformational nature of today’s politics demand multiple methods, including qualitative methods, to better understand the complex interactions of social, political, and economic forces. Our goals for GPEP-Q are twofold: first, to give graduate students access to senior scholars with experience and expertise using the tools of qualitative inquiry, and second, to establish a network of scholars advancing qualitative research in the field of political economy. We aim to help students approach and present qualitative research in a rigorous, generalizable, and parsimonious manner for triangulating evidence, studying both ongoing and rare events, illustrating complex causal processes, and identifying new research questions.

In April and May 2021, the Global Political Economy Project (GPEP) hosted a graduate student workshop on qualitative research in political economy. Over three weeks, our invited doctoral students participated in master classes, break-out sessions, and individual one-on-one meetings with leading scholars of comparative and international political economy, including Layna Mosley (Princeton University), James Ashley Morrison (LSE), and Jacqueline Best (University of Ottawa). Our last meeting was open to the broader GPEP community, focusing on how to publish qualitative work successfully, whether based on interviews, focus groups, ethnography, archival and historical approaches, or process tracing. This experience should help upgrade the next generation’s scholarship to better understand the workings of the global political economy.

Watch the recording of the GPEP Qualitative Methods Publishing Roundtable here.