Course content: Research and development often takes place within highly complex environments involving both hard and soft systems thinking, in which professionals have to be able to plan and act. The com-plexity includes, e.g. the resource efficiency of diverse cropping systems, the influence of decision-making structures in natural resource management on the well-being of farmers, or the access to resources like water, agricultural land, fertilizer, pastures and/or forests. This course goes through the process of designing the research and selecting methods to comple-ment disciplinary skills in order to get the full benefit of subsequent thematic courses, thesis work and post-graduate career. Specifically, the students get the opportunity to acquire knowledge of: (i) how to plan and conduct fieldwork, (ii) when and how to apply selected techniques for data collec-tion and analysis (interview, questionnaire and different rapid appraisals, (iii) how to relate natural resource management to household livelihood strategies.

Teaching and learning methods: Lectures introduce the research process, methodologies, data collection meth-ods and case studies, and encourage critical reflection of both research design and selection and application of methods. Group project is made on designing a research study, designing data col-lection instruments, collecting data and using data analysis tools. Theoretical exercises will support the group project.

Examination: Group project is compulsory and must be passed, weight 33%. An oral exam is conducted on the basis of research cases. Internal examiner.

Competences acquired: (i) Knowledge on available qualitative methods, (ii) understanding pros and cons of each method, (iii) understanding of participatory methods and how to use them, (iv) ability to apply ap-propriate tools within the project planning chain, like the logistical framework approach, (v) aware-ness of personal biases in the research process.

Course homepage: http://www.kursusinfo.life.ku.dk/Kurser/400022.aspx