This book presents a method for creating a working model of society, using data systems and simulation techniques, that can be used for testing propositions of scientific and policy nature. The model is based on the example of New Zealand, but will be applicable to other countries. It is expected that collaborators in other countries can emulate this example with their data systems for teaching and policy purposes, producing a cross-national "collaboratory". This enterprise will evolve with, and to a degree independently of, the book itself, with a supporting website as well as teaching and scientific initiatives. Readers of this text will, for the first time, have a simulation-based working model of society that can be interrogated for policy and substantive purposes. This book will appeal to researchers and professionals from various disciplines working within the social sciences, particularly on matters of demography and public policy.

Across the social welfare and human services fields, interest is growing in how to apply research to influence policy and practice; simultaneously, with globalization's advance, it is clearer than ever that an international perspective is vital in understanding how social, political, and institutional contexts affect research and dissemination practices. This volume, with contributions from an array of eminent researchers and practitioners, provides valuable insight into effective research practice and the factors involved in putting research findings to use. Leading with experience - narratives of six child welfare case studies from the UK, Ireland, Israel, South Africa, and the US - the book frames those cases in the context of relevant literatures to build up a cross-case analysis that distills lessons, throws enduring questions into relief, and lays a foundation for informing future practice. It mines the cross-national experience to develop perspective for a better understanding of the importance of different policy and cultural environments, while nonetheless emphasizing issues that are applicable across borders. The ground prepared by the case studies allows the volume to tease out themes and lessons, placing the empirical findings against relevant theoretical frameworks and developing guidelines for improving research practice in this arena.

Engaging with several emerging and interconnected approaches in the social sciences, including pragmatism, system theory, processual thinking and relational thinking, this book leverages John Dewey and Arthur Bentley's often misunderstood concept of trans-action to revisit and redefine our perceptions of social relations and social life. The contributors gathered here use trans-action in a more specific sense, showing why and how social scientists and philosophers might use the concept to better understand our social life and social problems. As the first collective sociological attempt to apply the concept of trans-action to contemporary social issues, this volume is a key reference for the growing audience of relational and processual thinkers in the social sciences and beyond.

This proceedings volume highlights the latest research and developments in psychometrics and statistics. It represents selected and peer reviewed presentations given at the 84th Annual International Meeting of the Psychometric Society (IMPS), organized by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and held in Santiago, Chile during July 15th to 19th, 2019. The IMPS is one of the largest international meetings on quantitative measurement in education, psychology and the social sciences. It draws approximately 500 participants from around the world, featuring paper and poster presentations, symposiums, workshops, keynotes, and invited presentations. Leading experts and promising young researchers have written the included chapters. The chapters address a large variety of topics including but not limited to item response theory, multistage adaptive testing, and cognitive diagnostic models. This volume is the 8th in a series of recent volumes to cover research presented at the IMPS.

First published Open Access under a Creative Commons license as What is Rhythmanalysis?, this title is now also available as part of the Bloomsbury Research Methods series. In recent years, there has been growing interest in Henri Lefebvre's posthumously published volume, Rhythmanalysis. For Lefebvre and subsequent scholars, rhythmanalysis is a research strategy which offers a means of thinking space and time together in the study of everyday life, and this remains its strength and appeal. This book addresses the task of how to do rhythmanalysis. It discusses the history and development of rhythmanalysis from Lefebvre to the present day in a range of fields including cultural history and studies of place, work and nature. For Lefebvre, it is necessary to be 'grasped by' a rhythm at a bodily level in order to grasp it. And yet we also need critical distance to fully understand it. Rhythmanalysis is therefore both corporeal and conceptual. This book considers how the body is directly deployed as a research tool in rhythmanalytical research as well as how audio-visual methods can get at rhythm beyond the capacity of the senses to perceive it. In particular, the book includes detailed discussion of research on different forms of mobility - from driving to dancing - and on the social life of markets - from finance to fish. Dawn Lyon highlights the gains, limitations and lively potential of rhythmanalysis for spatially, temporally and sensually attuned practices of research. This engaging text will be of interest to students and researchers in sociology, criminology, socio-legal studies, geography, urban studies, architecture, anthropology, economics and cultural studies.

Public health policy prospectively and retrospectively addresses the consequences of events ranging from the commonplace to the catastrophic. Informing policymakers and stakeholders by enhancing their understanding of complex causation to justify remedial or precautionary actions is a critical science-policy task. In this book, the key aspects of catastrophes (regardless of their nature) and routine events are identified through a common framework for their analyses, and the analyses of the consequences associated with the potential occurrence of these events also are discussed. The book is not about disaster planning; instead, it is focused on analysis and causation in the context of informing - rather than formulating - public health policy. The author aggregates and fuses scientific information and knowledge in public health policy-science using alternative but complementary methods. The book first focuses on the analysis of catastrophes and commonplace events; the focus then shifts to causal models of multifactorial diseases, particularly at low doses or dose-rates, associated with these events. Topics explored among the chapters include: Policy and Legal Aspects of Precautionary Choices Catastrophes, Disasters, and Calamities: Concepts for Their Assessment Uncertainty: Probabilistic and Statistical Aspects Aggregating Judgments to Inform Precautionary Decision-making The aim of the book is to show that the analyses of events are fundamentally similar, regardless of whether the concern is a global catastrophe or commonplace. Analysis of Catastrophes and Their Public Health Consequences is a text that should engage students, instructors, and researchers in public health, science policy, and preparedness research, as well as serve as a useful resource for policy analysts, practitioners, and risk managers.

This book sheds new light on transrational approaches to peace research and highlights elicitive approaches to facilitation. Rather than encouraging researchers, teachers and practitioners to control and suppress their own positionality, the book argues that they can see themselves as a potential (re)source that can be creatively tapped for their work. Using dance as a central metaphor, it seeks to reposition research and facilitation as a truly experiential process where the entirety of human experiences and epistemologies can be brought into interplay, opening up new sources of knowledge. Providing a cutting-edge theoretical framework and based on his practical experience, the author demonstrates that facilitation and research are not just cognitive, but can also be(come) embodied, emotional, intuitive, relational and spiritual. By proposing a systematic, methodological framework for research and facilitation, the book offers practical guidance for peace practitioners, facilitators and researchers interested in working through all dimensions of their being and engaging with conflict transformation in a holistic way.

Prisons research has very specific skills associated with it, and requires a particular approach to interacting with closed institutions and offending populations. There are many issues that require thought when undertaking prisons research, as well as numerous possible ways to do it. This book provides a comprehensive guide to the different aspects and methods possible in prisons research, allowing the novice researcher to gain some ideas on what is often a relatively secretive practice. After introducing the rationale for prisons research, its methodological and critical context and covering basic practicalities, this book offers a range of tips and tricks for the prisons researcher. It covers key topics such as ethics, the process of choosing methods and prisons research around the world. It is essential reading for students engaged with criminological research methods and for early career researchers.

In the social sciences, phenomena tend to be hierarchically structured, so that individuals belong to groups, and groups belong to larger organizations and societies. Multilevel research stresses this hierarchical structure of social life, and necessarily assumes the existence of a particular organization of the procedures of investigation. This organization, which is fundamental to the research, is called a research design. Because the research is hierarchical, it uses a multilevel design.

This book provides a detailed overview of the theoretical and methodological aspects of multilevel research based on the multilevel definition of social structure. Six chapters discuss the foundations of multilevel research and the applications of its research in the social sciences. An annotated bibliography follows, which is divided into eight sections on theoretical and methodological issues and on applications of multilevel research. Included are books and articles published from 1980 through 1993.

Now in its Seventh Edition, Neil J. Salkind's bestselling Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics with new co-author Bruce B. Frey teaches an often intimidating subject with a humorous, personable, and informative approach that reduces statistics anxiety. With instruction in SPSS(R), the authors guide students through basic and advanced statistical procedures, from correlation and graph creation to analysis of variance, regression, non-parametric tests, and more. The Seventh Edition includes new real-world examples, additional coverage on multiple regression and power and effect size, and a robust interactive eBook with video tutorials and animations of key concepts. In the end, students who (think they) hate statistics will understand how to explain the results of many statistical analyses and won't be intimidated by basic statistical tasks.

This advanced textbook explores small area estimation techniques, covers the underlying mathematical and statistical theory and offers hands-on support with their implementation. It presents the theory in a rigorous way and compares and contrasts various statistical methodologies, helping readers understand how to develop new methodologies for small area estimation. It also includes numerous sample applications of small area estimation techniques. The underlying R code is provided in the text and applied to four datasets that mimic data from labor markets and living conditions surveys, where the socioeconomic indicators include the small area estimation of total unemployment, unemployment rates, average annual household incomes and poverty indicators. Given its scope, the book will be useful for master and PhD students, and for official and other applied statisticians.

This book sheds light on the management challenges of crisis and emergency response in an arctic environment. It explores how the complexity of the operational environment impacts on the risk of operations and addresses a need for tailor-made emergency response mechanisms. Through case studies of the arctic environment, the book illustrates how factors such as nature, geography, demographics and infrastructure increase the complexity of crises in the Arctic and present a significant danger to life and health, the environment and values in challenging Arctic waters. The case studies lay a special focus on contextual factors including conflicting interests and different stakeholder groups, as well as the institutional platforms influencing crisis response and emergency management. They also explore the implications for the managerial roles, the mode of operations, and the structuring of the organizations responsible for the emergency response. The necessity to facilitate cooperation across organizations and borders and a need for organizational flexibility in large scale operations are also emphasized. Written in an accessible style, this book will make for a useful resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students of disaster and emergency management, as well as for professionals involved in emergency services.

Based on ethnographic research with asylum seekers living in a 'direct provision' centre in Ireland, and comprising participatory visual methods, this work offers a unique examination of the 'direct provision' system that analyses the tensions between exclusion and marginalization, and involvement and engagement with local communities. It gives voice to the perspectives of residents themselves through an analysis of photographic images and texts created by the participants of the project, providing fresh insight into the everyday experiences of living in these liminal zones between borders, and the various forms of attachment, engagement and belonging that they create. While the book's empirical focus is on the Irish context, the analysis sheds light on broader policies and experiences of exclusion and the increasing number of liminal spaces between and within borders in which people seeking protection wait. Situated at the intersection of social anthropology, human geography and participatory arts and visual culture, it will appeal to scholars and students focusing on migration and asylum, ethnicity and integration, as well as those with an interest in participatory and visual research methods.

This co-authored text critically explores the key findings of the Living Life to the Fullest project - a project that has explored the lives, thoughts, hopes and aspirations of disabled young people living with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. Written by disabled young people and academic researchers, the book articulates ethical co-production in social research. The prolific contemporary political and theoretical debates about life, death and the human in an age of global precarity and austerity are explored in this book. Chapters draw upon key themes and co-researchers' priorities for writing about their lives: for example, the politics and potentials of co-production as a research method/ology; animal and human relationships; aging, time; sexuality and body image; politics, activism and disability arts and culture; and fragility, and death and dying.

Multilevel and Longitudinal Modeling with IBM SPSS, Third Edition, demonstrates how to use the multilevel and longitudinal modeling techniques available in IBM SPSS Versions 25-27. Annotated screenshots with all relevant output provide readers with a step-by-step understanding of each technique as they are shown how to navigate the program. Throughout, diagnostic tools, data management issues, and related graphics are introduced. SPSS commands show the flow of the menu structure and how to facilitate model building, while annotated syntax is also available for those who prefer this approach. Extended examples illustrating the logic of model development and evaluation are included throughout the book, demonstrating the context and rationale of the research questions and the steps around which the analyses are structured. The book opens with the conceptual and methodological issues associated with multilevel and longitudinal modeling, followed by a discussion of SPSS data management techniques that facilitate working with multilevel, longitudinal, or cross-classified data sets. The next few chapters introduce the basics of multilevel modeling, developing a multilevel model, extensions of the basic two-level model (e.g., three-level models, models for binary and ordinal outcomes), and troubleshooting techniques for everyday-use programming and modeling problems along with potential solutions. Models for investigating individual and organizational change are next developed, followed by models with multivariate outcomes and, finally, models with cross-classified and multiple membership data structures. The book concludes with thoughts about ways to expand on the various multilevel and longitudinal modeling techniques introduced and issues (e.g., missing data, sample weights) to keep in mind in conducting multilevel analyses. Key features of the third edition: Thoroughly updated throughout to reflect IBM SPSS Versions 26-27. Introduction to fixed-effects regression for examining change over time where random-effects modeling may not be an optimal choice. Additional treatment of key topics specifically aligned with multilevel modeling (e.g., models with binary and ordinal outcomes). Expanded coverage of models with cross-classified and multiple membership data structures. Added discussion on model checking for improvement (e.g., examining residuals, locating outliers). Further discussion of alternatives for dealing with missing data and the use of sample weights within multilevel data structures. Supported by online data sets, the book's practical approach makes it an essential text for graduate-level courses on multilevel, longitudinal, latent variable modeling, multivariate statistics, or advanced quantitative techniques taught in departments of business, education, health, psychology, and sociology. The book will also prove appealing to researchers in these fields. The book is designed to provide an excellent supplement to Heck and Thomas's An Introduction to Multilevel Modeling Techniques, Fourth Edition; however, it can also be used with any multilevel or longitudinal modeling book or as a stand-alone text.

The global halal industry is likely to grow to between three and four trillion US dollars in the next five years, from the current estimated two trillion, backed by a continued demand from both Muslims and non-Muslims for halal products. Realising the importance of the halal industry to the global community, the Academy of Contemporary Islamic Studies (ACIS), the Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia (UiTM) and Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University (UNISSA) Brunei have organised the 4th International Halal Conference (INHAC) 2019 under the theme "Enhancing Halal Sustainability'. This book contains selected papers presented at INHAC 2019. It addresses halal-related issues that are applicable to various industries and explores a variety of contemporary and emerging issues. It covers aspects of halal food safety, related services such as tourism and hospitality, the halal industry - including aspects of business ethics, policies and practices, quality assurance, compliance and Shariah governance Issues, as well as halal research and educational development. Highlighting findings from both scientific and social research studies, it enhances the discussion on the halal industry (both in Malaysia and internationally), and serves as an invitation to engage in more advanced research on the global halal industry.

Emphasizing the comparative aspects of research, this introduction to educational research traces the process through five stages--choosing what to study, including specifying the research problem; collecting information; organizing and summarizing information; interpreting results; and reporting the outcomes. Each of the stages offers diverse options available to researchers for solving the problems of that stage, and a research project checklist at the end of each chapter guides readers in applying the chapter's contents to their own research studies. In much educational discourse, comparative education has referred solely to the study of educational similarities and differences between regions of the world or between two or more nations. This book uses the broader definition of the term to encompass a large body of research including studies focusing on comparisons between local educational systems, schools, classrooms, language groups, religious denominations, genders, social classes, and individual students. Students who are planning research projects as well as staff members of such organizations as ministries of education, school systems, bureaus of educational research, and educational aid agencies will find this volume indispensable.

Many theories in the social sciences predict spatial dependence or the similarity of behaviors at neighboring locations. Spatial Analysis for the Social Sciences demonstrates how researchers can diagnose and model this spatial dependence and draw more valid inferences as a result. The book is structured around the well-known Galton's problem and presents a step-by-step guide to the application of spatial analysis. The book examines a variety of spatial diagnostics and models through a series of applied examples drawn from the social sciences. These include spatial lag models that capture behavioral diffusion between actors, spatial error models that account for spatial dependence in errors, and models that incorporate spatial heterogeneity in the effects of covariates. Spatial Analysis for the Social Sciences also examines advanced spatial models for time-series cross-sectional data, categorical and limited dependent variables, count data, and survival data.

New Public Management has held a central position within public administration over the past few decades, complemented by various models promoting post-bureaucratic organization. But 'traditional' bureaucracy has not disappeared, and bureaucracy is in transition in the West and the rest of the world. Bureaucracies still fill crucial positions in modern societies, despite growing criticism of assumed inefficiencies and unlimited growth. This volume examines a range of issues related to bureaucracies in transition across Europe, with a particular focus on the Nordic region. Chapters examine a range of topics including a reinterpretation of Weber's conception of bureaucracy; the historical development of institutions and organizational structures in Sweden and Greece; the myth of bureaucratic neutrality and the concept of 'competent neutrality'; performance management systems; the anti-bureaucratic identities of senior civil servants; the role of experts and expertise in bureaucratic organizations; the impact of reform on public sector executives; the curbing of corruption in Scandinavian states; an interrogation of the Nordic administrative model; Supreme Audit Institutions; 'street-level' bureaucracy; and the establishment of an 'ethics of office' amongst Danish civil servants.

This book, comprised of entirely original research, collects data on the socioeconomic situation of China's 56 ethnic groups. Although the majority of China's population is of the Han nationality (which accounts for more than 90% of China's population), the non-Han ethnic groups have a population of more than 100 million. China has officially identified, except for other unknown ethnic groups and foreigners with Chinese citizenship, 55 ethnic minorities. In addition, ethnic minorities vary greatly in size. With a population of more than 15 million, the Zhuang are the largest ethnic minority, and the Lhoba, with a population of only about three thousand, the smallest. China's ethnic diversity has resulted in a special socioeconomic landscape for China itself. However, till presently, a complete socioeconomic picture of China's ethnic groups - especially of its smallest ethnic minorities - still remained unclear. How different have China's ethnic groups been in every sphere of daily life and economic development during China's fast transition period? In order to answer these questions, we have created a detailed and comparable set of data for each of China's ethnic groups. This book presents, in an easy-to-use format, a broad collection of social and economic indicators on China's 56 ethnic groups. This useful resource profiles the general social and economic situations for each of these ethnic groups. These indicators are compiled and estimated based on the regional and local data gathered from a variety of sources up to 2012.

This book makes valuable theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions to the study of overseas doctoral students' cross-cultural adaptation. Focusing on Australia, one of the top three destinations for Chinese students, this book seeks to understand how Chinese doctoral students perceive their lived experience of adapting to the academic and research environment at Australian universities. The book presents an innovative data collection chiefly based on interviews. It probes into Chinese doctoral students' emic perception of their cross-cultural adaptation from a human development perspective and in three main phrases: how motivated and prepared they are for their overseas stay (planning), how they experience their adaptation as active agents (implementing), and how they evaluate their overseas doctoral journey after the fact (reflecting). Empirically speaking, its findings can help bolster the effectiveness of cross-cultural adaptation and that of the internationalisation of doctoral education. Methodologically speaking, it combines popular techniques and underused instruments such as graphics and maps to offer an in-depth portrait of the issue. Given its content, the book is primarily intended for researchers in cultural studies and practitioners in international education, or in a broader sense for anyone who has a keen interest in how individuals navigate the learning trajectory and construe meanings in unfamiliar academic and socio-cultural settings. Though the book focuses on Australia as a case study, its findings are equally applicable to other contexts.

This book explores social constructionism and the language of mental distress. Mental health research has traditionally been dominated by genetic and biomedical explanations that provide only partial explanations. However, process research that utilises qualitative methods has grown in popularity. Situated within this new strand of research, the authors examine and critically assess some of the different contributions that social constructionism has made to the study of mental distress and to how those diagnosed are conceptualized and labeled. This will be an invaluable introduction and source of practical strategies for academics, researchers and students as well as clinical practitioners, mental health professionals, and others working with mental health such as educationalists and social workers.

This book presents different research designs, their respective purposes and merits as well as their underlying assumptions. Research designs are characterised by a certain combination of knowledge aims and strategies for data production. An adequate design is the key to carrying out a successful research project. Nevertheless, the literature on design is scarce, compared to the literature on methods. This book clarifies the basic distinction between variable-oriented designs and case designs, and proceeds to integrated, comparative and intervention-oriented designs. A step-by-step guide to the design process and the choices to make is also included. The book's clear style makes it an excellent guide for master students and PhD students doing their first research exercises, while it is also useful for more experienced researchers who want to broaden their design repertoire and keep up to recent innovations in the field of research design.

The question of how cooperation and social order can evolve from a Hobbesian state of nature of a "war of all against all" has always been at the core of social scientific inquiry. Social dilemmas are the main analytical paradigm used by social scientists to explain competition, cooperation, and conflict in human groups. The formal analysis of social dilemmas allows for identifying the conditions under which cooperation evolves or unravels. This knowledge informs the design of institutions that promote cooperative behavior. Yet to gain practical relevance in policymaking and institutional design, predictions derived from the analysis of social dilemmas must be put to an empirical test. The collection of articles in this book gives an overview of state-of-the-art research on social dilemmas, institutions, and the evolution of cooperation. It covers theoretical contributions and offers a broad range of examples on how theoretical insights can be empirically verified and applied to cooperation problems in everyday life. By bringing together a group of distinguished scholars, the book fills an important gap in sociological scholarship and addresses some of the most interesting questions of human sociality.