Objectives and tasks

Creation of an interactive relationship between different methodological approaches and methodical processes is a main objective of the Center for Social Science Methodology (MSW). One of the Center’s task is to develop a methodological base of sociological and political science questions which respect the particular varieties between the characteristics of fields of the socio-scientific discipline and thus creates a source for interdisciplinary research projects. The MSW particularly offers support in the field of methods for members of the Oldenburg University.

By making use of different methods when answering research questions, the MSW attempts to build bridges between

• "positivist" and "interpretative" methodologies;
  
• experimental and non-experimental designs;
• quantitative and qualitative processes;
  
• methods for small and large numbers of cases;
• techniques for cross-section and time-series designs as well as
  
• questions at the microscopic and the macroscopic level of social systems.