"What Else Are You Worried About?" – Integrating Textual Responses into Quantitative Social Science Research

Open-ended questions have routinely been included in large-scale survey and panel studies, yet there is some perplexity about how to actually incorporate the answers to such questions into quantitative social science research. Tools developed recently in the domain of natural language processing offer a wide range of options for the automated analysis of such textual data, but their implementation has lagged behind. In this study, we demonstrate straightforward procedures that can be applied to process and analyze textual data for the purposes of quantitative social science research. Using more than 35,000 textual answers to the question “What else are you worried about?” from participants of the German Socio-economic Panel Study (SOEP), we (1) analyzed characteristics of respondents that determined whether they answered the open-ended question, (2) used the textual data to detect relevant topics that were reported by the respondents, and (3) linked the features of the respondents to the worries they reported in their textual data. The potential uses as well as the limitations of the automated analysis of textual data are discussed.

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Spatially Integrated Social Sciences with Qualitative GIS to Support Impact Assessment in Mining Communities

Resources ◽

10.3390/resources8010047 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 47 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Alex Lechner ◽

John Owen ◽

Michelle Ang ◽

Deanna Kemp

Keyword(s):

Social Science ◽

Large Scale ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Dynamic Interactions ◽

Mining Communities ◽

Qualitative Gis ◽

Future Assessment ◽

Broad Term ◽

Qualitative Knowledge

Spatially integrated social science is a broad term used to describe the integration of space and place in social science research using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It includes qualitative GIS approaches, such as geo-ethnology and geo-narratives, which combine qualitative social data with GIS and represent an emerging approach with significant potential for facilitating new insights into the dynamic interactions between mining companies and host communities. Mine operations are unique in their complexity, both in terms of the dynamic and diverse nature of issues and the requirement to integrate knowledge, theories, and approaches from a range of disciplines. In this paper we describe the potential for spatially integrated social science using qualitative GIS to understand the social impacts of mining. We review current literature and propose a framework that incorporates quantitative and qualitative knowledge across social and biophysical domains within a multi-user approach. We provide examples to illustrate how our approach could support past, present, and future assessment of socio-environmental systems in large-scale mining. We conclude by discussing the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to support decision makers and local stakeholders in considering complex social and environmental scenarios.

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Mapping Progress : Human Rights and International Students in Australia

Cosmopolitan Civil Societies An Interdisciplinary Journal ◽

10.5130/ccs.v7i3.4473 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 7 (3) ◽

pp. 61-80

Author(s):

Andrew Jakubowicz ◽

Devaki Monani

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

International Students ◽

Social Science ◽

Rapid Growth ◽

International Student ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Wide Range

The rapid growth in international student numbers in Australia in the first decade of the 2000s was accompanied by a series of public crises. The most important of these was the outbreak in Melbourne Victoria and elsewhere of physical attacks on the students. Investigations at the time also pointed to cases of gross exploitation, an array of threats that severely compromised their human rights. This paper reviews and pursues the outcomes of a report prepared by the authors in 2010 for Universities Australia and the Human Rights Commission. The report reviewed social science research and proposed a series of priorities for human rights interventions that were part of the Human Rights Commission’s considerations. New activity, following the innovation of having international students specifically considered by the Human Rights Commission, points to initiatives that have not fully addressed the wide range of questions at state.

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Text Analytic Research Portals: Supporting Large-Scale Social Science Research

10.1109/bigdata52589.2021.9671696 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Lisa Singh ◽

Colton Padden ◽

Pamela Davis-Kean ◽

Rabin David ◽

Virinche Marwadi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Science ◽

Large Scale ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research

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Using Twitter for Demographic and Social Science Research: Tools for Data Collection and Processing

Sociological Methods & Research ◽

10.1177/0049124115605339 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 46 (3) ◽

pp. 390-421 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Tyler H. McCormick ◽

Hedwig Lee ◽

Nina Cesare ◽

Ali Shojaie ◽

Emma S. Spiro

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Social Science ◽

Large Scale ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Demographic Information ◽

Twitter Data ◽

Data Collection Strategy ◽

Twitter Users ◽

Media Data

Despite recent and growing interest in using Twitter to examine human behavior and attitudes, there is still significant room for growth regarding the ability to leverage Twitter data for social science research. In particular, gleaning demographic information about Twitter users—a key component of much social science research—remains a challenge. This article develops an accurate and reliable data processing approach for social science researchers interested in using Twitter data to examine behaviors and attitudes, as well as the demographic characteristics of the populations expressing or engaging in them. Using information gathered from Twitter users who state an intention to not vote in the 2012 presidential election, we describe and evaluate a method for processing data to retrieve demographic information reported by users that is not encoded as text (e.g., details of images) and evaluate the reliability of these techniques. We end by assessing the challenges of this data collection strategy and discussing how large-scale social media data may benefit demographic researchers.

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Beyond Social Acceptability: Applying Lessons from CCS Social Science to Support Deployment of BECCS

Current Sustainable/Renewable Energy Reports ◽

10.1007/s40518-019-00137-0 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (4) ◽

pp. 116-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Clair Gough ◽

Sarah Mander

Keyword(s):

Social Science ◽

Large Scale ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Critical Factor ◽

Science Research ◽

Public Acceptance ◽

Social Acceptability ◽

Net Zero ◽

Central Argument

Abstract Purpose of Review This paper assesses social science research relating to BECCS and considers the applicability of research on CCS to BECCS. Recent Findings In recent years, social science research on CCS and BECCS has gone beyond an evaluation of public acceptance to provide a more nuanced analysis of the wider social political, ethical, and governance contexts in which large-scale deployment might be achieved. This raises issues at global, local, and regional scales, requiring a wide array of methods and approaches. Summary Awareness of the scale and urgency needed to act on climate change is growing and the role of BECCS in delivering carbon dioxide removal forms a central argument for the use of this family of technologies. Here, framing becomes a critical factor in how society responds to BECCS technologies and we argue that making the case for BECCS as a means of extending mitigation to make a ‘net zero’ goal achievable could be the key to its acceptable and sustainable deployment.

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A Century of Change

Teen Spirit ◽

10.7591/cornell/9781501749827.003.0004 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 52-72

Author(s):

Paul Howe

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Social Science ◽

Large Scale ◽

Life Stage ◽

Social Science Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Early Years ◽

Anecdotal Evidence ◽

Sources Of Information ◽

Adult World

This chapter evaluates how it was in the early years of the twentieth century, as adolescence emerged as a defined life stage marked by intensive peer interaction, that adolescent qualities started to overflow the boundaries of adolescence proper, seeping upward into the adult world. Demonstrating the rise of the adolescent character over this long stretch of time involves various methods and sources of information. For the earlier years, systematic studies of personality and character traits were uncommon; evidence of the growing salience of adolescent attributes must rest primarily on a blend of historical and anecdotal evidence along with hints of emergent trends from scattered polling results. After the war, social science research flourished, and systematic, large-scale studies became more common, providing the foundation for more rigorous trend analysis. This mixed bag of evidence points to a steady rise of adolescent qualities over the decades, incubating first in the intimate circles of the adolescent realm and gradually moving outward and upward to find a home in society at large.

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