Taking the Study of Political Behavior Online

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Ansolabehere ◽  
Brian F. Schaffner
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
State Level ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Online Surveys ◽  
Survey Mode ◽  
Internet Surveys ◽  
Using Data

This chapter describes the rise of online surveys as a research tool for social scientists. First it provides an analytical framework for understanding how survey mode matters to social science research. It examines the consequences of the trade-off between quality and cost for an entire research program or literature. For survey methodologists, quality boils down to the ability to test a hypothesis using the survey. Second, the chapter examines the controversy over the use of opt-in Internet polls rather than traditional polls. Recent studies have found that high-quality online surveys produce estimates that can be as reliable as those from traditional polls. Using data from over 300 state-level opt-in Internet subsamples from the CCES, the chapter measures the amount of error in a commonly used approach for conducting opt-in Internet surveys and compares it to traditional probability samples. It concludes by considering how to make wiser choices about survey mode.

European Data Protection Regulation and Academic Publishers

2019 ◽  
pp. 224-251
Author(s):  
David Erdos
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
State Level ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
European Data ◽  
Data Protection Directive ◽  
Default Data

This chapter explores the interface between European data protection and academic social science and humanities publishers until the end of the Data Protection Directive (DPD) era. It begins by summarizing the ‘knowledge facilitation’ provisions which target activities such as scientific research and have been set out in formal data protection instruments at both pan-European and State level over many decades. It is found that, in contrast to most freedom of expression derogations, these restrictive provisions only established very limited exemptions from default data protection norms. The chapter then looks at Data Protection Authorities (DPA) guidance and finds that, subject to a few exceptions, this has indicated that academic expression should comply with the ‘knowledge facilitation’ restrictions. However, much of this guidance has remained very generic or has focused on discrete issues such as the use of confidential datasets provided on safeguarded terms. The chapter reports results from a DPA questionnaire on the regulation of publicly interested covert social science research, finding that many regulators construed the law here very differently to undercover journalism; half even saw this activity as being ipso facto illegal. Turning to enforcement, the chapter details the fairly extensive efforts of many regulators in this area prior to the Data Protection Directive (DPD). Under the DPD, the DPA questionnaire responses suggested that approximately 40 per cent of regulators had taken action against social scientists. However, published examples of action remained limited and, furthermore, these efforts were largely and increasingly focused on specific issues related especially to confidential datasets.

Second Annual Conference of the “ASEAN Muslim Social Scientists’ Forum”

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-306
Author(s):  
Hussain Mutalib
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Asian Region ◽  
Select Group ◽  
Islamic Resurgence ◽  
Closed Door

The Muslim Social Science Scholars’ Forum of ASEAN (Associationof Southeast Asian Nations) held its Second Meeting in Bangkok, Thailandfrom Mubrram 20-23, 1409lSeptember 1-4, 1988, under the auspices of theFoundation for Democracy and Development Studies. The theme for themeeting was “Muslim Scholars and Social Science Research,” aimed atdocumenting, discussing and analyzing the types of scholarship or researchthat have been done about Muslims in the Southeast Asian region, particularlywithin the ASEAN countries.A select group of Muslim social science scholars (together with someMuslim politicians) from the countries within ASEAN, except Brunei, wereinvited to the “Forum.” They included: Drs. Dawan Raharjo and NurcholisMajid, and Professor Moeslim (Indonesia), Drs. Surin Pitsuwan, SeneeMadmarn and Chaiwat (Thailand), Drs. Yusof Talib and Hussain Mutalib(Singapore), Professors Taib Osman and Wan Hashim and Umar Farouq(Malaysia), and Drs. Carmen Abubakar, Madale and Mastura (Philippines).All participants were either presenters of papers or discussants.Throughout the four-day deliberations, participants discussed the typesof studies and research that have been the focus of scholars studying Muslimcommunities in the ASEAN region. Some titles of papers included: “MuslimStudies in the Phillipines;” “Social Science Research in Thailand;” and “SocialScience Research in Malaysia: the Case of Islamic Resurgence.”Given the “closed-door” ‘nature of the meeting (participation was byinvitation only), there was adequate time for a more intensive, frank andthorough discussions of the papers. Problems and issues were aired and posed,and alternative options offered by participants. For every paper, there wasa discussant; hence, the issues that came out of the papers managed to beseen, discussed and appreciated from a more complete and balancedperspective.By and large, the Bangkok meeting was a successful one. Theapproximately twenty participants were generally pleased with the high qualityof papers presented and the sense of brotherhood that prevailed. The warmhospitality of the hosts from Thailand was also appreciated ...

Using Motion Detection to Measure Social Polarization in the U.S. House of Representatives

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Bryce J. Dietrich
Keyword(s):  
Motion Detection ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Image Data ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Party Voting ◽  
The Many

Abstract Although previous scholars have used image data to answer important political science questions, less attention has been paid to video-based measures. In this study, I use motion detection to understand the extent to which members of Congress (MCs) literally cross the aisle, but motion detection can be used to study a wide range of political phenomena, like protests, political speeches, campaign events, or oral arguments. I find not only are Democrats and Republicans less willing to literally cross the aisle, but this behavior is also predictive of future party voting, even when previous party voting is included as a control. However, this is one of the many ways motion detection can be used by social scientists. In this way, the present study is not the end, but the beginning of an important new line of research in which video data is more actively used in social science research.

Politics and Research: Epistemological Moments

1990 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 149-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adelaide H. Villmoare
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Law And Society ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Relationship

In reading the essays by David M. Trubek and John Esser and Boaventura de Sousa Santos, I thought about what I call epistemological moments that have provided contexts within which to understand the relationship between social science research and politics. I will sketch four moments and suggest that I find one of them more compelling than the others because it speaks particularly to social scientists with critical, democratic ambitions and to Trubek and Esser's concerns about politics and the intellectual vitality of the law and society movement.

scholarly journals The Inference Engine: A Grand Challenge to Address the Context Sensitivity Problem in Social Science Research

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel L. Goroff ◽  
Neil Anthony Lewis ◽  
Anne M. Scheel ◽  
Laura Danielle Scherer ◽  
Joshua A Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Inference Engine ◽  
Context Sensitivity ◽  
Grand Challenge ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The People ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Sensitivity Problem

Social science has a ‘context sensitivity’ problem: the people that we study, and the situations they engage in, are so complex and variable that predicting how they will think, feel, and behave in a given situation is very challenging. Even when we are able to make such predictions, it is often unclear how accurate they will be if some feature of the studied subjects and/or situation changes. This limits the utility of our research for application and policy, as the ‘contextual factors’ that might change our conclusions are often unknown. It is time to address this context sensitivity problem in social science research. While do not yet know how to solve it, we believe social scientists can make great progress by working together to build an inference engine.

Legacies of the 1960s: The American “Rights Revolution” in an Era of Divided Governance

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Davis Graham
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
The 1960S

Scholarship on the political development of the United States since the 1960s is dominated, not surprisingly, by social scientists. Such recent events fall within the penumbra of “contemporary history,” the standard research domain of social scientists but treacherous terrain for historians. Social scientists studying American government and society generally enjoy prompt access to evidence of the policy-making process–documents from the elected and judicial branches of government, interviews with policy elites, voting returns, survey research. Historians of the recent past, on the other hand, generally lack two crucial ingredients–temporal perspective and archival evidence–that distinguish historical analysis from social science research. For these reasons, social scientists (and journalists) customarily define the initial terms of policy debate and shape the conventional wisdom. Historians weigh in later, when memories fade, archives open, and the clock adds a relentless and inherently revisionist accumulation of hindsight.

“The Camera Rolls”

2012 ◽  
Vol 642 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikki Jones ◽  
Geoffrey Raymond
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Video Camera ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Key Points ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Citizen Interactions

This article draws on one citizen’s efforts to document daily life in his neighborhood. The authors describe the potential benefits of third-party video—videos that people who are not social scientists have recorded and preserved—to social science research. Excerpts from a collection of police-citizen interactions illustrate key points likely to confront researchers who use third-party video. The authors address two important questions: How might the presence of a video camera affect the unfolding of interactions that are recorded in third-party videos? and How might the perspective of the videographer influence the production and preservation of these records and, in turn, what influence might this standpoint have on our analysis of the data? The authors argue that, given the ubiquity of handheld video recording devices, social scientists should develop systematic approaches to using video created by others as both a cultural record and as data.

Conference on Social Science Research in Liberia

1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-138
Author(s):  
L. P. Hartzler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
West African ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The West

This two-day conference, sponsored by Stanford's Committee on African Studies, was possibly the first gathering of its kind outside Liberia since the American Colonisation Society ceased sending emigrants to the West African Republic at the turn of the century. It was organised by Dr Martin Lowenkopf, and was attended by over 40 social scientists, including six Liberians at present studying in the United States.

Three Questions for Historians of Science in the Modern Middle East and North Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 588-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyrus Schayegh
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Social Science ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Rockefeller Foundation ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Subsequent Work ◽  
Societal Relevance

What was science, who was involved in it, and where did it unfold in the modern Middle East and North Africa? These are the three questions raised in this piece. The following notes echo my past research on the growth and societal relevance of biomedical sciences in Iran, and are also informed by a new interest in social sciences and, more particularly, in the establishment in 1927 of the Social Science Research Section at the American University of Beirut (AUB; called Syrian Protestant College until 1920) and its subsequent work. A handful of social scientists led by the American Stuart Dodd and financed by the US Rockefeller Foundation, which was active worldwide, helped turn AUB into a hub not only of education, but more than before, of research too. Covering wide swathes of the “Near East,” these social scientists framed that region as an extraordinary “laboratory” for social science research.

scholarly journals NOTE ON MULTIPLE REVIEWS

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-25
Author(s):  
Tyrone A. Forman
Keyword(s):  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Great Pleasure ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
Review Editor ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
New Feature

As readers of the Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race are well aware, this journal aims to be the principal journal for social scientists exploring the intersection of race, ethnicity and culture. As book review editor it gives me great pleasure to introduce a new feature of the journal to our readers. From time to time in the State of the Discourse section of the Du Bois Review we will spotlight multiple reviews of a single book. In focusing intently on a single contribution our purpose is to highlight significant pieces of scholarship that provide novel conceptual and/or empirical analysis of ethnoracial dynamics in society. We are especially interested in bringing to the attention of our readers books that provide alternative frameworks and/or set new and daring intellectual agendas for the study of race and ethnicity.

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