The Scope of Climate Assemblies: Lessons from the Climate Assembly UK

In recent times we have seen a spate of climate assemblies across Europe as the climate emergency gains increasing prominence in the political agenda and as the citizens’ assembly approach to public engagement gains popularity. However, there has been little empirical research on how the scope of citizens’ assemblies affects the internal logic of the assembly process and its impacts on external policy actors. This is a significant oversight given the power of agenda setting. It is also of particular importance for climate assemblies given the exceptional scale and complexity of climate change, as well as the need for co-ordination across all policy areas and types of governance to address it. In this paper, we start to address this gap through an in-depth case analysis of the Climate Assembly UK. We adopt a mixed methods approach, combining surveys of the assembly members and witnesses, interviews with the assembly members, organisers, MPs, parliamentary staff, and government civil servants, and non-participant observation of the process. We find that attempts to adapt the assembly’s scope to the scale of the climate change issue compromised assembly member learning, the co-ordination of the resulting recommendations, assembly member endorsement of the recommendations, and the extent of their impact on parliament and government. We argue that more democratization in setting the agenda could help combat these issues.

Childcare Matters: Female Business Owners and the Baby-Profit Gap

The previous literature documents that female-owned businesses are less profitable than male-owned businesses, including microenterprises that make up the majority of firms in developing countries. In this paper, we uncover an overlooked gendered constraint for these businesses: childcare. We collect field data through unannounced visits to a sample of microentrepreneurs in select areas of Uganda, combining surveys of business owners and real customers, as well as purchases by confederate buyers (i.e., mystery shoppers). We document that childcare duties in businesses are highly gendered: 37% of female owners bring small children to work, compared with 0% of men. Childcare duties are correlated with a “baby-profit gap,” as businesses where children are present earn 48% lower profits than even other female-owned businesses where a child is not present. Using our rich data, we analyze potential reasons why childcare obligations may affect profits. We find that prices, product quality, and other explanations are not robustly correlated with the presence of a baby. However, we find that women with children in the store are more likely to run out of stock than both men and women who do not have children in the store. Although we caution that our analysis is not causal, we consistently find that childcare duties are associated with profitability and may relate to the wider gender gap in business performance.

Linking surveys and digital trace data: Insights from two studies on determinants of data sharing behavior

Combining surveys and digital trace data can enhance the analytic potential of both data types. We present two studies on factors influencing data sharing behavior for different types of digital trace data: Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, and health app data. Across those data types, we compare the relative impact of five factors on data sharing: data type, data sharing method, respondent characteristics, sample composition, and incentives. The results show large differences between the data types and sharing methods, especially related to task difficulty and respondent burden. Higher incentives generally increase data sharing rates, whereas the influence of respondent characteristics depends on the respective data types.

Combining Surveys with Seating Sweeps and Observational Data Yields Insights into Physical Space Usage in an Academic Library

A Review of: Dominguez, G. (2016). Beyond gate counts: Seating studies and observations to assess library space usage. New Library World, 117(5/6), 321-328. https://doi.org/10.1108/NLW-08-2015-0058 Abstract Objective – To propose a new method to assess library space usage and the physical library user experience utilizing multiple data collection techniques. Design – Seating usage studies, surveys, and observation. Setting – Large university in the southern United States. Subjects – Students who physically use the library spaces. Methods – The researcher performed seating sweeps three times a day for one week at time, using a counter to get an accurate headcount of each area of the library. The number of users was recorded on paper and then transferred to Excel. A survey for library patrons was created using Typeform and distributed through both email and in-person. In addition, the researcher created a photo diary to document how students were using the space, particularly creative and flexible uses of the library space. These photos were collected to be shared with library administration. The researcher conducted the study twice, once at each main campus library. Main Results – The initial seating sweeps at one location showed an average of 57 to 85 users engaging in active study, and 57% of users engaged in individual study vs. group study. The sweeping study at the second campus location found that floors designated as quiet floors were the most overcrowded. The researcher found that overall, the actual library use surpassed expected library use. The survey results indicated patron concerns about the lack of available seating, noise policies, uncomfortable furniture, and technology issues such as power outlets and Wi-Fi connectivity. Conclusion – The researcher found that utilizing surveys in addition to observational data provided a more complete picture of the user experience. Photographs also provided depth and texture to the observational data. Based on the findings the librarians and administration plan to upgrade furniture and technology options, as well as make changes to the noise policy.

Combining surveys and on-line searching volumes to analyze public awareness about invasive alien species: a case study with the invasive Asian yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) in Italy

The Asian yellow-legged hornet (Vespa velutina) has been invading Italy since 2013, and it was subjected to management projects aimed at counteracting its spread and raising awareness about its impacts.In autumn 2019, we administered an on-line questionnaire to a convenience sample of 358 beekeepers in Italy. The questionnaire asked them about their sources of information about V. velutina, their perception of its potential impacts, and its severity compared to that of other threats to beekeeping. We also explored Internet searching volumes on Google and Wikipedia about V. velutina, to identify seasonal and long-term trends in public awareness.Workshops, journals or bulletins, the Internet and word-of-mouth with colleagues were the main sources of information about V. velutina. Beekeepers believed V. velutina to affect beekeeping by predating upon honey bees (Apis mellifera), paralyzing foraging, reducing honey availability and depleting the winter cluster. Moreover, V. velutina was ranked, especially among beekeepers from the invaded range of the species, as one of the most serious threats to honey bees conservation, similarly to other threats like pesticides and the varroa mite (Varroa destructor). Internet searches peaked during the activity period of the species and increased over time, with thousands of visits to Wikipedia each month.This study constitutes a first quantification of the perceived awareness of beekeepers and the general public, about the problem represented by V. velutina in Italy, and it also indicates which media should be targeted by information campaigns. Our findings indicate that beekeepers seem to be aware about the potential impacts of V. velutina in Italy, both within and outside of its invaded area, considering it a major threat to beekeeping. Moreover, information campaigns on the Internet and specialized magazines might be useful to communicate about the impacts of the species, and the need to develop diffused surveillance networks.

How Extraordinary Was the Arab Spring? Examining “Protest Potential” in the Muslim World

Before the Arab Spring, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was cited for its low levels of political mobilization, but recent events call for a more systematic study of “protest potential” in MENA and the broader Muslim world. Combining surveys from 141 countries, this chapter identifies a significant participation gap in Muslim-plurality countries: individuals living there are less likely to have participated in politics and are also less likely to self-report being willing to do so, a difference that holds across all demographic categories. After confirming the validity of retrospective and prospective self-reports using a survey of participants in Istanbul’s Gezi Park protests, the chapter explores the role of religion in the Muslim world’s participation gap: while Islam, as a doctrine, does not inhibit activism, certain forms of religiosity do undermine participation. In particular, private beliefs and practices limit protest potential in the Muslim world, while collective religious engagement bolsters it. The latter, the chapter argues, supports activism by helping address the collective action problem underlying mass politics.

Combining Surveys and Sensors to Explore Student Behaviour

Student belongingness is important for successful study paths, and group work forms an important part of modern university physics education. To study the group dynamics of introductory physics students at the University of Helsinki, we collected network data from seven laboratory course sections of approximately 20 students each for seven consecutive weeks. The data was collected via the SocioPatterns platform, and supplemented with students’ major subject, year of study and gender. We also collected the Mechanics Baseline Test to measure physics knowledge and the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey to measure attitudes. We developed metrics for studying the small networks of the laboratory sessions by using connections of the teaching assistant as a constant. In the network, we found both demographically homogeneous and heterogeneous groups that are stable. While some students are consistently loosely connected to their networks, we were not able to identify risk factors. Based on our results, the physics laboratory course is equally successful in building strongly connected groups regardless of student demographics in the sections or the formed small groups. SocioPatterns supplemented with surveys thus provides an opportunity to look into the dynamics of students’ social networks.