Using technology for studying populations off the social mainstream

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-72
Author(s):  
Roni Berger
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Hidden Populations ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Sensitive Topics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rich Data

Recognition has been growing of the importance and unique challenges of studying the experience and related personal and relationship outcomes in marginalized populations (e.g. nonwhites, non-heterosexual, indigenous people, those impacted by poverty, physical disability and mental illness, victims of domestic violence). Traditional social research yielded limited knowledge about such population groups due to issues of positionality, limited accessibility and stigmatization. Partcipatory and qualitative methods offered some culturally sensitive effective strategies for generating relevant knowledge about ‘hidden’ populations that were excluded from past research. The constant development of technology expands the possibilities for such research by offering innovative ways to address some of the aforementioned challenges in accessing previously hard to reach population groups and collecting rich data especially relative to sensitive topics. These developments raised debates regarding ethical, logistic and methodological issues including the potential impact of social desirability and differential access to technology. Informed by a review of available knowledge about groups in the half shadows and about using technology for social research, this article discusses and uses two case examples to illustrate employing technology-assisted research of populations under the radar. Future research should continue to focus on identifying additional uses of technology to further develop ways of generating knowledge about those who have been ‘in the half shadow’ to inform the development of appropriate services, intervention strategies and policies that can help enhance social justice.

The Edwards' Report and the International Relations profession

1988 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Science Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
Science Community

The Economic and Social Research Council recently published a Report commissioned from a committee chaired by Professor Edwards, a psychiatrist, so that the Council, and the social science community in general, might know what was good and bad in British social sciences, and where the promising future research opportunities lie over the next decade. Boldly called ‘Horizons and Opportunities in the Social Sciences’, the Report condensed the wisdom of social scientists, both British and foreign, and concludes with a broadly but not uncritically favourable picture of the British scene.

Designing Online Laddering Studies

2012 ◽  
pp. 193-215
Author(s):  
Thorsten Gruber ◽  
Alexander E. Reppel ◽  
Isabelle Szmigin ◽  
Rödiger Voss
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Research Technique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Rich Data

Laddering is a well-established research technique in the social sciences which provides rich data to help understand means-end considerations otherwise hidden from quantitative research. It does this through revealing relationships between the attributes of individuals, objects or services (i.e., means), the consequences these attributes represent for the respondent, and the values or beliefs that are strengthened or satisfied by the consequences (i.e., ends). This chapter describes how qualitative researchers can successfully apply laddering in an online environment. Through an explanation of the different stages of the online laddering process, the authors hope to encourage researchers to use this technique in their urban planning research projects. To illustrate the benefits of the technique, the authors describe a research study that successfully used the laddering technique in an online environment. The chapter concludes with the discussion of the limitations of using laddering online and suggests avenues for future research.

Through the lens of social capital: a research agenda for studying IT outsourcing

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beena George ◽  
Rudy Hirschheim ◽  
Alexander von Stetten
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Past Research ◽  
It Outsourcing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Research ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

Purpose – This paper proposes a new research agenda for information technology (IT) outsourcing,motivated by the belief that the social capital concept enables IT outsourcing researchers to capture more of the nuances of the client–vendor relationship in IT outsourcing arrangements. Design/methodology/approach – The paper builds a comprehensive framework of social capital based on Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) to examine the IT outsourcing life cycle. Past research on IT outsourcing is examined applying the parameters of the framework to identify issues that have been addressed in research on IT outsourcing and to uncover the gaps in past research. Findings – The social capital framework is applied to IT outsourcing which suggests new avenues for future outsourcing research. Research limitations/implications – While past research has identified success factors for IT outsourcing, a significant number of outsourcing arrangement still fail to meet expectations. The research agenda presented in this paper encourages an examination of IT outsourcing from a different perspective to determine how to successfully manage IT outsourcing. Originality/value – The paper provides a new framework that is useful for identifying the relationships among past research in IT outsourcing as well as for identifying potential topics for future research.

scholarly journals Female Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Crime Scene Behaviors

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (24) ◽  
pp. 3839-3860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Almond ◽  
Michelle A. McManus ◽  
Susan Giles ◽  
Elisabeth Houston
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
The Social ◽  
Law Reports

The concept of the female sex offender (FSO) is a relatively new phenomenon within the social research literature. Studies of female rape, male rape, pedophilia, and juvenile sex offenders have suggested that different styles of offending are reflected in the different types of behaviors committed by offenders at the crime scene. These studies suggest that there are three distinct themes of behavior: Hostility, Impersonal, and Involvement. Multidimensional analysis is carried out on 35 crime scene behaviors of 73 FSOs from U.K. and U.S. law reports. The proposed framework was found to be a useful way of classifying FSOs with 84% displaying a dominant theme. These resulted in 52% classified as displaying Involvement, 17% as Control, and 15% as Hostility. Finally, the implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Functionality and Usability Requirements for a Crowdsourcing Task Interface that Supports Rich Data Collection and Volunteer Participation: A Case Study: The New Zealand Reading Experience Database

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Donelle McKinley
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Data Entry ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
Volunteer Participation ◽  
Usability Requirements ◽  
Rich Data ◽  
The Uk

<p>Research problem: The New Zealand Reading Experience Database (NZ-RED) is a crowdsourced history of reading project based on the UK-RED launched in 1996. The purpose of this study is to produce high-level functionality and usability requirements for a NZ-RED task interface that supports volunteer participation and rich data collection, and to determine the extent to which the UK-RED task interface meets these requirements.  Methodology: The case study takes a mixed-methods approach informed by grounded theory. Data was collected from RED project documentation and research, a usability inspection of the UK-RED task interface using evidence-based heuristics developed by Petrie & Power (2012), an online questionnaire of 112 current and potential RED contributors, an examination of recent crowdsourcing projects, and literature on crowdsourcing and human-computer interaction.   Results: This study established seven functionality and usability requirements for a NZ-RED task interface that supports volunteer participation and rich data collection: minimize user effort; support integration of the task with research processes; enable new visitors and contributors to understand what the task involves quickly and easily; support accurate and controlled data entry; be easy to use for people reasonably confident with the Web; support flexible, structured data entry; and support bilingual data entry. The UK-RED task interface partially meets four of the seven requirements.  Implications: Evidence-based requirements that inform project development and evaluation contribute to the social sustainability of crowdsourcing projects driven by academic and cultural heritage institutions. Future research could review the requirements produced by this study and consider their impact on the social sustainability of the NZ-RED and, potentially, World-RED partners. An increase in published requirements documentation could help to inform the requirements activity of other crowdsourcing projects, thereby reducing the time and expertise required. Future research could also investigate the value of studies like this one for other crowdsourcing projects.</p>

Invest In The Social Aspects of Biosolids Management

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Goldstein ◽  
N. Beecher
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
The Social

Social factors, such as public outrage, commonly interfere with effective biosolids management. This is especially true with programs that involve recycling biosolids to soils. Obstacles to public support of biosolids recycling are understood by application of social science research regarding risk perception, outrage factors, and risk communication. This paper covers background, summarizes past research, and presents short case studies regarding utilizing understanding of such social factors in particular biosolids management programs. Evaluations of these efforts are presented, providing improved understanding of how biosolids managers can implement cost-effective strategies to more effectively address the social aspects of biosolids management.

scholarly journals The Cost of Not Maintaining Trees: Findings and Recommendations from an International Symposium and Summit

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Koeser ◽  
Jess Vogt ◽  
Richard Hauer ◽  
Robert Northrop ◽  
Ward Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Urban Trees ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Future Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Care Costs

Urban trees are both an asset and a cost to municipalities. Past research has focused largely on the asset—quantifying and valuing the social, economic, and environmental benefits provided by trees in urban areas. Relatively fewer studies have focused on defining the appropriate level of tree care (costs or inputs) for efficiently maintaining tree health and structural integrity, and potential resulting liabilities. On 18–20 March 2015, the International Society of Arboriculture assembled a panel of research and industry experts for a research symposium and summit titled, The Costs of Not Maintaining Trees. In the weeks leading up to the summit, the Delphi technique was initiated to help build consensus on key research questions related to the economics of trees and their care. After three iterations of questions and discussion, the panel identified 14 research topics that were deemed “very important” or “important” by at least 12 of the 14 expert panelists (80% being a commonly used threshold for consensus). Results of this work are intended to help focus future research and funding efforts in arboriculture and urban forestry.

scholarly journals Functionality and Usability Requirements for a Crowdsourcing Task Interface that Supports Rich Data Collection and Volunteer Participation: A Case Study: The New Zealand Reading Experience Database

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Donelle McKinley
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Data Entry ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
Volunteer Participation ◽  
Usability Requirements ◽  
Rich Data ◽  
The Uk

<p>Research problem: The New Zealand Reading Experience Database (NZ-RED) is a crowdsourced history of reading project based on the UK-RED launched in 1996. The purpose of this study is to produce high-level functionality and usability requirements for a NZ-RED task interface that supports volunteer participation and rich data collection, and to determine the extent to which the UK-RED task interface meets these requirements.  Methodology: The case study takes a mixed-methods approach informed by grounded theory. Data was collected from RED project documentation and research, a usability inspection of the UK-RED task interface using evidence-based heuristics developed by Petrie & Power (2012), an online questionnaire of 112 current and potential RED contributors, an examination of recent crowdsourcing projects, and literature on crowdsourcing and human-computer interaction.   Results: This study established seven functionality and usability requirements for a NZ-RED task interface that supports volunteer participation and rich data collection: minimize user effort; support integration of the task with research processes; enable new visitors and contributors to understand what the task involves quickly and easily; support accurate and controlled data entry; be easy to use for people reasonably confident with the Web; support flexible, structured data entry; and support bilingual data entry. The UK-RED task interface partially meets four of the seven requirements.  Implications: Evidence-based requirements that inform project development and evaluation contribute to the social sustainability of crowdsourcing projects driven by academic and cultural heritage institutions. Future research could review the requirements produced by this study and consider their impact on the social sustainability of the NZ-RED and, potentially, World-RED partners. An increase in published requirements documentation could help to inform the requirements activity of other crowdsourcing projects, thereby reducing the time and expertise required. Future research could also investigate the value of studies like this one for other crowdsourcing projects.</p>

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