News & Events: Blog: Summer Schools: Social Sciences Methods and RC21-IJURR (Sat, Aug 15, 2026)

By Ismene Ehrler, Nouri Abdelgadir on Sat, Aug 15, 2026

As part of their education with the Responsible City at the Social Geography and Urban Studies chair at the University of Zurich, both PhD candidates completed doctoral summer schools. These courses helped them to hone their conceptual and methodological tools, to build connections with other early career researchers in Urban Studies, and to broaden the scope of their work for the Responsible City.

Ismene – “The theory does not sit in the data”

“Why did my supervisor never tell me anything about this?”, was a question that one of my peers raised in the summer school, when discussing the complexities of abductive iterations in the process of theorizing. In my opinion, this question touched upon the purpose of a summer school: having the opportunity to widen and consolidate the knowledge of a PHD student beyond one’s own research. When I registered for the course Advanced analytic techniques for theorising from qualitative research at the Summer School in Social Sciences Methods in Lugano, I felt slightly intimidated but above all inspired by the long course name. As a PHD candidate who does not have a background in social sciences, this one-week workshop offered me a very helpful training in linking my qualitative research with and theorizing processes. The course instructors Prof. Dr. Tine Köhler (University of Melbourne) and Prof. Dr. Michael Gibbert (Universitá della Svizzera Italiana) had developed a rich and well-structured programme full of helpful texts, discussions and insights. I was not the only one to be surprised about the diversity of disciplines in social science that came together in a class of twenty people. While the exemplary texts we discussed came mainly from the field of Organisational Management Studies, they turned out to be useful to students of anthropology, psychology, economy, social geography or transformation studies, when discussing how to develop theory from diverse empirical material. We received a lot of input for the importance of our epistemological and ontological standpoint for a rigorous and well-informed theorization process. Using practical examples, we could discuss how to document and communicate the path from data to theory. “The theory does not sit in the data” stated Tine Köhler, when insisting on the imperative iterations between (re-)analysing the data and developing sound theoretical contributions.

Additionally, to the daily course programme, the summer school offered a round table discussion addressing the challenges of generative AI in the publishing process and a variety of activities, like a visit at the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana.

The summer school offered me the opportunity to connect with other early career researchers from Switzerland and Europe and definitely gave me a lot of food for thought and a long list of literature recommendations that will hopefully shape my further research.

Nouri – Comparative Methodologies in and beyond Urban Sociology

I was honored to be selected to participate in the 8th RC21-IJURR Doctoral School in Comparative Urban Studies, a bi-annual summer school organized in conjunction with the RC21 conference. This year’s conference focused on Inequalities and the City. Old Issues, New Challenges and was hosted by the Chair of Urban Sociology at the University of Vienna, who also co-organized the summer school jointly with the IJURR Foundation and the RC21. In her role as a board member of the RC21, Responsible City’s PI Prof. Dr. Hanna Hilbrandt was one of the three people running this summer school, together with Prof. Dr. Alberta Andreotti and Prof. Dr. Claire Colomb.

The RC21-IJURR doctoral school brought together PhD researchers from around the world for 10 days to meet, exchange ideas, and develop our research projects. The thematic focus was ostensibly on comparative urban research, but the range of topics discussed represented the breadth of contemporary urban studies beyond ‘only’ comparison. The program was organized around methodological guest lectures and group discussions with renowned urban scholars invited to present at our school in the days ahead of the conference. In addition, it included city tours and extensive peer- and expert feedback workshops focused on participants’ writing samples. These smaller group sessions were one of the highlights for me because it gave us time to discuss each other’s work and to triangulate insights across different geographical, disciplinary, and institutional perspectives. With my background in geography and urban studies, I found these conversations with anthropologists, planners, and sociologists particularly valuable. They provided me with invaluable feedback on my ongoing fieldwork for the responsible city, and allowed me to adjust the conceptual scope and nuances of my research plan.

My personal cherry on top was doing this in Vienna, a city I know as well as few others. Having studied in Vienna during my Master’s, and I greatly enjoyed returning to the city and exploring its bars, parks, and swimming spots with a group of international peers. I would like to thank the doctoral school organizers for giving me the opportunity to participate, and the other participants for making this one of the most exciting moments of my academic life.