Tackling The Turmoil

If the COVID-19 has reminded us the vulnerabilities of our society through the event of a pandemic, it is undoubtable that its aftermath in various socio-political and cultural economic forms has marked an era of deep crisis in our modern society. Without being assured of when or how we shall survive the crisis, it became more than ever significant and necessary to re-think of how to develop meaningful research projects, hence to reflect on the condition of crisis. Not only for researchers in the social scientific fields, but especially, as many in the junior stages have reported difficulties and sought for help, due to their obstacles on the fields and disturbances in traditional research progress, we are impelled by the duty to organize the workshop in the sprit to “tackle the turmoil”. Without a rhetoric justification, we would like to revisit the methodologicalv traditions in classical social scientific research fields; and to engage the current debate in a broad spectrum of research topics, centred on but not limited to the themes of crisis; hence to search for ideas and collect experiences, which could be eventually helpful and suggestive to shape and promote development in various research projects. By engaging renowned scholars and diverse groups of participants, the discussion is themed by epistemological reflections, methodological demonstrations and conceptual prospects. By the end of the workshop, we expect to go through a comprehensive agenda, in terms of research process:

1. To start with research questions and hypotheses, we would like to review many research topics, proposed by both the participants and the lecturers, in relevance to the crisis themes and the contemporary society
2. Regarding to the relevant theories, we organise themed lectures followed by Q&A sessions, to inform and suggest the participants with theoretical frameworks and references, which could be inspiring for their own research topics
3. Methodologically, we propose parallel training workshops, divided by their foci on quantitative and qualitative approaches, which are open to participants to choose in relevance to their own research interests and projects
4. Eventually, we will bring the debate forward to the conceptual prospects, on how to “tackle the turmoil”

Thanks to the experiences and views shared by our invited speakers, in this workshop, we hope to empower the upcoming generation of researchers with a comprehensive vision, in the collage of rich research instruments and ideas, exhibited through the themed presentations and critical debates.

Speakers from the IRS:

• Prof. Dr. Oliver Ibert
• Dr. Ralph Richter