RC33 Logic and Methodology in Sociology schedule

Program Coordinator:
Biagio ARAGONA, Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy, aragona@unina.it

Sessions:

Monday, 26 June 2023

15:30-17:20 – Recent Developments and Current Approaches to the Analysis of Panel Data

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizer:
Jochen MAYERL, University of Technologie Chemnitz, Germany, jochen.mayerl@soziologie.tu-chemnitz.de

Establishing causal relationships is arguably the most important task of the social sciences. The randomized experiment is the gold standard in causal analysis. However, many interesting questions cannot be examined with experiments. Feasibility and ethics limit the use of randomized experiments in some situations, and retrospective questions require a different approach, as well.

Panel analyses offer a promising way to examine causal questions with non-experimental, i.e., observational data. Panel analyses refer to studies of the same observational unit over time, and are effective at addressing unobserved heterogeneity in the form of time-invariant confounders.

However, panel data are not a silver bullet – many difficult questions and issues plague the investigation of causal effects with panel data. Some of these issues include:

• heterogeneous effects,
• the choice between discrete and continuous time models,
• obtaining the optimal lags between treatment and outcome measurement,
• the choice between looking at contemporaneous and lagged effects, and
• the inclusion of lagged dependent variables, the assessment of bidirectional effects

to name a few.

We encourage paper presentations looking at these and other issues related to the use of panel data for causal analysis. Papers can be methodological in nature, or focus on novel applications. We welcome papers looking at traditional (e.g., survey) and intensive (diary studies) longitudinal studies, as well as those focusing on either case studies (e.g., synthetic control) or natural experiments (differences-in-differences). Papers comparing various approaches and modelling strategies are also encouraged.

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Tuesday, 27 June 2023

10:30-12:20 – Relational Data and Geo-Data: Research Strategies of Analysis and Visualization

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

15:30-17:20 – Integrating Survey Data from Different Sources: Comparability, Quality, and Applications

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizers:
Marta KOLCZYNSKA, Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland, mkolczynska@isppan.waw.pl
Piotr JABKOWSKI, Faculty of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, pjabko@amu.edu.pl
Piotr CICHOCKI, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland, cichocki@me.com

Combining survey data from different sources promises new research opportunities but also entails challenges related to the comparability of the data collected with different survey instruments, sampling designs, fieldwork procedures, quality assurance protocols, and characterized by different survey outcomes (e.g., response rates). Addressing these challenges is necessary to fully exploit the potential of, e.g., (1) survey data collected decades ago when current survey quality standards were not yet in place, (2) traditional probability sample surveys that struggle to achieve satisfactory response rates, and (3) the increasingly popular unrepresentative “big surveys”. In addition to sampling, the second crucial source of limitations to comparability comes from the measurement instruments (i.e., question-wording and response scale formats), which can be addressed by standardizing the coding in the data preparation phase or accounting for the differences in measurement in the modelling phase.
This session is dedicated to solutions to these challenges in data integration, including methodological innovations and applications. Welcome contributions include, but are not limited to, papers that:

propose methods for accounting for differences in various aspects of data quality and comparability when combining data from different sources,
propose methods for accounting for cross-project differences in the measurement instruments,
propose measures of overall survey quality or its various aspects,
use different survey data sources to examine a substantive problem while addressing or problematizing the potential for limited comparability of the data.

This session is intended as a regular session.

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17:30-19:20 – Innovation in Data Collection

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizer:
Vera TOEPOEL, Utrecht University, Netherlands, v.toepoel@cbs.nl

In this session, we focus on innovation in data collection. With the pandemic, some research designs have changed. For example, face-to-face interviews have been replaced by other methods. Furthermore, technological developments have created new possibilities. Web surveys are the dominant mode of data collection in many countries. However, there are many ways to conduct a web survey. Apps, for example, can be used to replace or augment surveys (e.g. scan receipts for budget studies, use GPS for travel surveys, use activity trackers for health surveys). This session welcomes all presentations that focus on methodological issues associated with innovation in data collection.

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Wednesday, 28 June 2023

08:30-10:20 –  New Trends in Digital Social Research

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizers:
Felice ADDEO faddeo@unisa.it
Francesco MAZZEO RINALDI fmazzeo@unict.it
Gabriella PUNZIANO GABRIELLA.PUNZIANO@UNINA.IT

As it is continually under progressive and whirling change, digital society is a research object that currently lacks a clear and shared definition in the Social Science scientific community. In terms of methodology, the digital society offers a fertile environment to create and experiment new research solutions. However, as online social behaviours continue to grow and new ways to structure individual online activities into data emerge, knowledge derived from the web is constantly ambiguous, revisable, and at high risk of obsolescence. Social Science attempted to address these issues in two different ways: by adapting existing research methods to new digital contexts or by developing new research methods. Both have proven to be fruitful for the study of the Digital Society.
Presentations can cover a broad range of topics related to recent methodological trends in studying the Digital environment. The focus will be specifically on three main topics:
1) epistemological and methodological reflections on the benefits and the limitations of introducing AI and ML into the social research toolbox and practice;

2) digital scenario as a field to explore and to implement innovative and unconventional social research practices on borderline and boundary phenomena;

3) the digital society as a field to unleash the potential of unconventional methodological solutions, from the new development of digital mixed methods applications to the creative power of the art-based research methods.

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15:30-17:20 – Methods of Social Network Analysis

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizer:
Peter CARRINGTON pjc@uwaterloo.ca

Regular session. Social network analysis is the application to social research of the concept of the network — a set of entities, or nodes, connected by relationships, or ties. Conceptualisation of social structures as social networks has been fruitful in many areas of the social sciences, and has, indeed, facilitated recognition of substantive patterns and analytic problems common to the social and other sciences. One of the most lively areas of social network analysis has been the development of suitable methods for applying the network concept in social research. These methods address the four main issues: sampling, measurement, data collection, and data analysis. In each of these areas, the problems faced by network researchers are considerably, though not entirely, different from those encountered by conventional attribute-based research. This session will provide a forum for presentation of new developments in research methods for social network analysis. These papers may be theoretical, concerning epistemological problems in the use of the concept of the social network; methodological, concerning technical developments in sampling, measurement, data collection, or data analysis; or empirical, demonstrating novel applications of social network analytic methods in actual research.

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17:30-19:20 – Doing Qualitative Research in Turbulent Times

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizers:
Inga GAIZAUSKAITE, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, inga.gaizauskaite@gmail.com
Claire WAGNER, University of Pretoria, South Africa, claire.wagner@up.ac.za

Planning and fieldwork in qualitative research is commonly a dynamic endeavor that entails an element of the unexpected. However, dealing with the unexpected has acquired a new significance since the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 as it has affected the fieldwork realities of most social research. Researchers have had to reconsider and/or adapt their research plans in the face of sudden and vast changes following the pandemic management measures especially related to decisions in qualitative fieldwork. Seeking for authentic, in-depth and detailed data, researchers often take a pro-active role in data collection and therefore direct, face-to-face contact with research participants or research environments is a preferred mode of conducting qualitative research. Restricted or prohibited social interaction, restricted or prohibited movement, unpredictable starts and duration of quarantines and many other pandemic-related requirements intertwined or clashed with the aspirations and needs of qualitative researchers. Even though remote modes of communication and/or data collection (e.g., remote interviews) have long gained their recognition in qualitative research, there remained many areas, topics and phenomena where remote modes would not have been considered ideal or even possible for a pre-pandemic qualitative research.
The regular session invites researchers to present the challenges they have encountered when doing qualitative research during the pandemic, reflect upon the solutions they have taken and the failures they might have experienced. The session expects to provide an open space for a discussion on the ways of doing qualitative research when both sudden and large scale events (crises) occur.

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Thursday, 29 June 2023

10:30-12:20 – Participatory Visual Research. Disentangling Power Dynamics Using Collaborative Techniques

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizer:
Alessandra DECATALDO, University of Milan Bicocca, Italy, alessandra.decataldo@unimib.it

The goal of this panel is to champion a way of doing social research aimed at encouraging the (now recognized) multiple subjective perspectives on reality, questioning the power dynamics enforced by traditional research paradigms. Instead, we encourage the submitting of interdisciplinary research processes designed and developed with the participation and collaboration of the social actors and communities involved in the analyzed phenomenon. A perspective that recognizes subjectivity, authority and responsibility to actors, traditionally considered as “objects” of investigation, and in this way translated as “subjects” within the entire research process from its conceptualization, to its design, the processing of data, the interpretation of the results and finally their dissemination (Decataldo and Russo 2022). This perspective does not deny the competence of the researcher, but rather puts it at the service of other actors.
Furthermore, we encourage studies that apply visual research techniques, which have become a convergence plan between different disciplines with common interests in the methodological field: reflexivity, collaboration, relationship between discourse, social context and production of good practices (Grimshaw 2001; Rose 2016; Pink 2011; Carroll and Mesman 2018). If considering audio-video production as an issue of investigation means analyzing the role of the imagination and self-representation of social actors (Faccioli and Losacco 2010). Designing, within a participatory approach, a research method that uses as main tool the camera enable the researcher and their collaborators to capture aspects of social interactions that often escape the mesh of an exclusively dialogic or narrative approach (Pink 2006).

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15:30-17:20 – Big Data Analysis for Social Sciences I

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizer:
Belen CASAS MAS bcasas@ucm.es

The use of big data is becoming more and more common in the social sciences. This session is intended to receive proposals in which this type of big data analysis is applied to different social and sociopolitical processes. Specifically, we will be focused on how platforms, social networks and technologies deal with big data. We aim to promote interdisciplinary collaboration in data science research in order to improve our understanding of phenomena such as debates during electoral campaigns around the world, public discussion processes on controversial issues, emerging social processes, social coordination, etc.
The session welcomes applied empirical works which employ big data techniques to enhance our analytical and explanatory capacity.

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17:30-19:20 – Data Quality of Cross-National Surveys

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizer:
Pei-shan LIAO, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, psliao@gate.sinica.edu.tw

Cross-national surveys provide the opportunity for research using secondary data. One issue encountered by researchers is the identification of data quality of survey research in order to obtain reliable findings. The issue is even more critical when using data from cross-national or cross-cultural surveys, as each of the cross-national survey projects has specific research purposes and approaches. When examining data quality from the perspective of total survey errors, survey aspects, such as sampling design, questionnaire design, mode of data collection and survey agency, may have impact on data quality. It is common that probability sampling is required for most of cross-national surveys. A standard source questionnaire is often used, although some cross-national surveys allow different rating scales or response labels in corresponding to the preference of local researchers. Mode of data collection, other other hand, may be more flexible depending on the social, political, and economic context of the participating countries. It can also be found that some countries adopted a mixed-mode design in cross-national surveys, either for experiment or simply for reducing the cost. This session aims to provide and foster the exchange among provider and researchers using cross-national surveys. The focus of this session is the methodological challenges in relation to data quality of cross-national surveys. The use of total survey error approach is especially welcome.

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Friday, 30 June 2023

08:30-10:20 – From Interviewing to Diaries: Data Quality in Quantitative and Qualitative Social Research

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizers:
Dimitri PRANDNER dimitri.prandner@jku.at
Martin WEICHBOLD, University of Salzburg, Austria, martin.weichbold@sbg.ac.at

Methods of data collection, both in qualitative and quantitative research, may limit or enhance the quality of the data. In addition, digitally mediated data collection processes pose new opportunities and challenges to data quality. This session seeks to provide a space to discuss research data quality from a range of perspectives.

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17:30-19:20 – Big Data Analysis for Social Sciences II

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizer:
Juan Antonio GUEVARA, University Complutense Madrid, Spain, juanguev@ucm.es

The use of big data is becoming more and more common in the social sciences. This session is intended to receive proposals in which this type of big data analysis is applied to different social and sociopolitical processes. Specifically, we will be focused on how platforms, social networks and technologies deal with big data. We aim to promote interdisciplinary collaboration in data science research in order to improve our understanding of phenomena such as debates during electoral campaigns around the world, public discussion processes on controversial issues, emerging social processes, social coordination, etc.
The session welcomes applied empirical works which employ big data techniques to enhance our analytical and explanatory capacity.

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Saturday, 1 July 2023

12:30-14:20 – Using Social Media for Social Research: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges

Location: 111 (Melbourne Convention Centre)

Session Organizer:
Felice ADDEO faddeo@unisa.it

The proliferation of digital technologies in society poses several challenges for digital social research. Among other challenges, social media play a key role in shaping how people relate, communicate, access, and use information. Along with this, social media are also used as ideological platforms to spread narratives and public agendas, creating a public space.
Starting from the crucial role of social media, the session aims to produce a debate on social media, understood both as an object of study and as a method for doing digital research.

This session encourages the submission of original contributions that focus on addressing theoretical, methodological, and analytic challenges in doing research with social media