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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social research & statistics > General
This book focuses on the effects of information policy. While information policy studies often consider the ideology underlying policy, the policy process, the stakeholders and players in that process, and the nature of the outcomes of policy development, there have been few studies that focus on the ultimate effects of information policy. This book looks at effects from two perspectives. First, it examines the impact of government-wide information policies on a specific government agency in terms of its dissemination policies for the information it provides. Secondly, the effects of the ensuing agency information policies on social science research are examined. The government-wide policies of interest here are cost-recovery and restraint initiatives imposed by the Canadian federal government in the mid-1980s. The policy statements specifically identified government information as an area in which increased revenues could be generated. Such de facto information policies can have a wide effect on government information production and dissemination. In this book, the history and background of the policies is considered and the effects were empirically examined using multiple methods of analysis. The period covered is mid-1980s through mid-1990s. An epilogue chapter provides information on recent policy developments in Canada and the continuing effects of the policies of the 1980s.
This volume showcases selected conference papers addressing the sustainable future of ASEAN from the perspectives of business and social science disciplines. In addressing the 17 Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) envisioned by the United Nations in the domains of environment, health and well-being, posing potential means of reducing inequalities globally, the authors target specific issues and challenges confronting the fast-growing region of ASEAN and present suggestions for co-operation and commitment from governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and society at large, in line with the ASEAN Vision 2020. Papers are selected from the 3rd International Conference on the Future of ASEAN (ICoFA) 2019, organised by Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia, whose conference theme "Charting the Sustainable Future of ASEAN" enables intellectual discourse on sustainability issues from business and the social sciences, as well as science and technology. The selection of papers is published in two volumes, comprising scholarly and practical insights into sustainability in ASEAN. This first volume of papers from business and social science scholars will be of interest to researchers and policymakers interested in sustainability developments in the ASEAN region.
The "Statistical Handbook on Technology" is the first easy-to-use resource to provide the general reader with comprehensive statistical information on how technology affects all areas of our lives. More than 250 charts, tables, and graphs are featured, making it easy for users to quickly find answers to such questions as: How has the number of ATM transactions per month grown since 1988? What percentage of U.S. public libraries offers access to the Internet? How many CD players have been sold in the U.S. since 1983? What is the most prescribed drug? What is the average age of the U.S. aviation fleet? Each of the book's 13 chapters includes a short essay introducing the topic and describing the statistics that follow. The Handbook also provides insightful forecasts, information that is normally difficult to find.
This work provides an innovative new look at police ethics, including results from an updated version of the classic Police Integrity Questionnaire, including new social and technological advances. It aims to push the study of police research further, expanding on and testing police integrity theory and methodology, the relationship between community and integrity, and the influence of multiculturalism and globalization on policing and community attitudes. This work brings together experienced scholars who have used the police integrity theory and the accompanying methodology to measure police integrity in eleven countries, and provide advance and sophisticated explorations of the topic. Organized into three thematic sections, it explores the testing methodology for international comparisons, insights into police-community relations, and explores police subcultures. This innovative book will be of interest to researchers in criminology & criminal justice, particularly with an interest in policing, as well as related fields such as sociology, public policy, and comparative law.
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book describes the extensive contributions made toward the advancement of human assessment by scientists from one of the world's leading research institutions, Educational Testing Service. The book's four major sections detail research and development in measurement and statistics, education policy analysis and evaluation, scientific psychology, and validity. Many of the developments presented have become de-facto standards in educational and psychological measurement, including in item response theory (IRT), linking and equating, differential item functioning (DIF), and educational surveys like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Programme of international Student Assessment (PISA), the Progress of International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In addition to its comprehensive coverage of contributions to the theory and methodology of educational and psychological measurement and statistics, the book gives significant attention to ETS work in cognitive, personality, developmental, and social psychology, and to education policy analysis and program evaluation. The chapter authors are long-standing experts who provide broad coverage and thoughtful insights that build upon decades of experience in research and best practices for measurement, evaluation, scientific psychology, and education policy analysis. Opening with a chapter on the genesis of ETS and closing with a synthesis of the enormously diverse set of contributions made over its 70-year history, the book is a useful resource for all interested in the improvement of human assessment.
This detailed textbook critically examines methods used in sociolinguistc studies, including the ways in which the categories of age, gender, ethnicity and social class have been employed to chart language variation. It discusses the nature of data and encourages students to examine the evidence with a more critical eye.
First published Open Access under a Creative Commons license as What is Inclusive Research?, this title is now also available as part of the Bloomsbury Research Methods series. This book describes and defines inclusive research, outlining how to recognize it, understand it, do it, and know when it is done well. In doing so it addresses the areas of overlap and distinctiveness in relation to participatory, emancipatory, user-led and partnership research as well as exploring the various practices encompassed within each of these inclusive approaches. The author, Melanie Nind, focuses on how and why more inclusive approaches to research have evolved. She positions inclusive research within the key debates and shifts in policy, defines key ideas and terms, discusses the contested nature of inclusive research and illustrates a range of approaches using exemplars. The aim is to discuss the range of challenges involved and to examine the degree to which these challenges have so far been met.
1. Very comprehensive and extensive coverage (stresses the relevance of the entire research cycle, from design to data collection to analysis to interpretation). 2. Highlights the multidisciplinary nature of CSS, drawing from research in computer science, statistics, and the social and behavioural sciences. 3. Takes a holistic approach to CSS methods. Instead of focusing on simply harvesting data, the editors emphasise the importance of a carefully crafted research design containing key milestone checks.
1. Very comprehensive and extensive coverage (stresses the relevance of the entire research cycle, from design to data collection to analysis to interpretation). 2. Highlights the multidisciplinary nature of CSS, drawing from research in computer science, statistics, and the social and behavioural sciences. 3. Takes a holistic approach to CSS methods. Instead of focusing on simply harvesting data, the editors emphasise the importance of a carefully crafted research design containing key milestone checks. 4. Covers important and emergent topics in the field like the relationship between CSS, AI and machine learning.
This book focuses on human adaptive thermal comfort in the building environment and the balance between reducing building air conditioning energy and improving occupants' thermal comfort. It examines the mechanism of human thermal adaptation using a newly developed adaptive heat balance model, and presents pioneering findings based on an on online survey, real building investigation, climate chamber experiments, and theoretical models. The book investigates three critical issues related to human thermal adaptation: (i) the dynamics of human thermal adaptation in the building environment; (ii) the basic rules and effects of human physiological acclimatization and psychological adaptation; and (iii) a new, adaptive, heat balance model describing behavioral adjustment, physiological acclimatization, psychological adaptation, and physical improvement effects. Providing the basis for establishing a more reasonable adaptive thermal comfort model, the book is a valuable reference resource for anyone interested in future building thermal environment evaluation criteria.
This book highlights the rise of the Strauss-Corbin-Gioia (SCG) methodology as an important paradigm in qualitative research in the social sciences, and demonstrates how the SCG methodology can be operationalized and enhanced using RQDA. It also provides a technical and methodological review of RQDA as a new CAQDAS tool. Covering various techniques, it offers methodological guidance on how to connect CAQDAS tool with accepted paradigms, particularly the SCG methodology, to produce high- quality qualitative research and includes step-by-step instructions on using RQDA under the SCG qualitative research paradigm. Lastly, it comprehensively discusses methodological issues in qualitative research. This book is useful for qualitative scholars, PhD/postdoctoral students and students taking qualitative methodology courses in the broader social sciences, and those who are familiar with programming languages and wish to cross over to qualitative data analysis. "At long last! We now have a qualitative data-analysis approach that enhances the use of a systematic methodology for conducting qualitative research. Chandra and Shang should be applauded for making our research lives a lot easier. And to top it all off, it's free." Dennis Gioia, Robert & Judith Auritt Klein Professor of Management, Smeal College of Business at Penn State University, USA "While we have a growing library of books on qualitative data analysis, this new volume provides a much needed new perspective. By combining a sophisticated understanding of qualitative research with an impressive command of R, the authors provide an important new toolkit for qualitative researchers that will improve the depth and rigor of their data analysis. And given that R is open source and freely available, their approach solves the all too common problem of access that arises from the prohibitive cost of more traditional qualitative data analysis software. Students and seasoned researchers alike should take note!" Nelson Phillips, Abu Dhabi Chamber Chair in Strategy and Innovation, Imperial College Business School, United Kingdom "This helpful book does what it sets out to do: offers a guide for systematizing and building a trail of evidence by integrating RQDA with the Gioia approach to analyzing inductive data. The authors provide easy-to-follow yet detailed instructions underpinned by sound logic, explanations and examples. The book makes me want to go back to my old data and start over!" Nicole Coviello, Lazaridis Research Professor, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada "Qualitative Research Using R: A Systematic Approach guides aspiring researchers through the process of conducting a qualitative study with the assistance of the R programming language. It is the only textbook that offers "click-by-click" instruction in how to use RQDA software to carry out analysis. This book will undoubtedly serve as a useful resource for those interested in learning more about R as applied to qualitative or mixed methods data analysis. Helpful as well is the six-step procedure for carrying out a grounded-theory type study (the "Gioia approach") with the support of RQDA software, making it a comprehensive resource for those interested in innovative qualitative methods and uses of CAQDAS tools." Trena M. Paulus, Professor of Education, University of Georgia, USA
The Emerald Handbook of Crime, Justice and Sustainable Development brings together a diverse and international collection of essays to critically examine issues relating to crime and justice in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides an important global framework for advancing human rights, social justice and environmental sustainability. A number of the Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address issues relating to crime, justice and security, and implicit in the 2030 Agenda is the assumption that members of the international community 'including traditional development actors and the myriad international, non-governmental, private, state and local organizations and actors that collectively contribute to the global governance of crime' must work together to enhance the capacities of both developing and developed countries to achieve this vision. Against this backdrop, this volume analyses and interrogates the SDGs from different theoretical and ideological standpoints originating from within and beyond criminology, illustrating the complex and politically contentious nature of these issues and providing insight into the different possibilities that exist for realising the SDGs and mitigating the risk that initiatives meant to realise the SDGs, may in fact contribute to harmful and counterproductive policies and practices. This book will be essential reading for scholars and students within criminology, criminal justice, socio-legal studies, international relations and development studies.
The Lost Ethnographies reports on the methodological lessons learnt from ethnographic projects that, viewed superficially, failed. Experienced researchers write about projects they planned, and were excited about, which then never began, had to be abandoned, or took such unexpected directions that it became a different piece of work altogether. The topics and settings are varied and disparate, but the lessons learnt have important similarities. This collection focuses on absences; topics and settings that remain under researched; taken for granted aspects of social life that have not been scrutinized, and finally the potential insights that are gained when absences are carefully examined and explored. Readers will learn a great deal about research design, fundraising, writing up, access negotiations, serendipity in the field, and the complex interaction between the body and the brain of the ethnographer and the realities of ethnographic research. Maximising learning from the 'failings' of ourselves and of others is the positive message of the collection. The most poignant chapters are those in which the author 'returns' to reread and reflect on a past project; something that is not done often enough, partly because it can be painful. The accounts of projects which had to be abandoned or radically changed offer hope to researchers facing difficulties in their own investigations. These reflections, on projects that were never even begun, show how to gain fresh energy and social science insight from apparent rejection, and the collection approaches the whole concept of lost ethnography in provocative ways.
Child-Parent Research Reimagined challenges the field to explore the meaning making experiences and the methodological and ethical challenges that come to the fore when researchers engage in research with their child, grandchild, or other relative. As scholars in and beyond the field of education grapple with ways that youth make meaning with digital and nondigital resources and practices, this edited volume offers insights into nuanced learning that is highly contextualized and textured while also (re)initiating important methodological and epistemological conversations about research that seeks to flatten traditional hierarchies, honor youth voices, and co-investigate facets of youth meaning making. Contributors are (in alphabetical order): Charlotte Abrams, Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Kathleen M. Alley, Bill Cope, Mary Kalantzis, Molly Kurpis, Linda Laidlaw, Guy Merchant, Daniel Ness, Eric Ness, "E." O'Keefe, Joanne O'Mara, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Sarah Prestridge, Lourdes M. Rivera, Dahlia Rivera-Larkin, Nora Rivera-Larkin, Alaina Roach O'Keefe, Mary Beth Schaefer, Cassandra R. Skrobot, and Bogum Yoon.
This book brings together selected peer-reviewed contributions from various research fields in statistics, and highlights the diverse approaches and analyses related to real-life phenomena. Major topics covered in this volume include, but are not limited to, bayesian inference, likelihood approach, pseudo-likelihoods, regression, time series, and data analysis as well as applications in the life and social sciences. The software packages used in the papers are made available by the authors. This book is a result of the 47th Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society, held at the University of Cagliari, Italy, in 2014.
This book argues that the neoliberal globalisation of higher education faces a need for recalibration. In light of increased concerns from universities in cultivating globalisation, this volume brings together a multi-ethnic and multilingual team of researchers who argue that the continued development of internationalized education now requires new research and practices. As university leaders seek to build the best programs to help students to go abroad, they can face a number of challenges - risk management, negotiating with diverse partners, designing rich experience-based learning and the hopes, fears and limitations of the students themselves. Consequently, the authors argue that changes are particularly important given the current US-centric and UK-centric structural readjustments to globalization policies across all fields of higher education and knowledge production. This multi-perspectival edited collection will appeal to students and scholars of global education, globalization and international education.
What are the principles that keep our society together? This question is even more difficult to answer than the long-standing question, what are the forces that keep our world together. However, the social challenges of humanity in the 21st century ranging from the financial crises to the impacts of globalization, require us to make fast progress in our understanding of how society works, and how our future can be managed in a resilient and sustainable way. This book can present only a few very first steps towards this ambitious goal. However, based on simple models of social interactions, one can already gain some surprising insights into the social, ``macro-level'' outcomes and dynamics that is implied by individual, ``micro-level'' interactions. Depending on the nature of these interactions, they may imply the spontaneous formation of social conventions or the birth of social cooperation, but also their sudden breakdown. This can end in deadly crowd disasters or tragedies of the commons (such as financial crises or environmental destruction). Furthermore, we demonstrate that classical modeling approaches (such as representative agent models) do not provide a sufficient understanding of the self-organization in social systems resulting from individual interactions. The consideration of randomness, spatial or network interdependencies, and nonlinear feedback effects turns out to be crucial to get fundamental insights into how social patterns and dynamics emerge. Given the explanation of sometimes counter-intuitive phenomena resulting from these features and their combination, our evolutionary modeling approach appears to be powerful and insightful. The chapters of this book range from a discussion of the modeling strategy for socio-economic systems over experimental issues up the right way of doing agent-based modeling. We furthermore discuss applications ranging from pedestrian and crowd dynamics over opinion formation, coordination, and cooperation up to conflict, and also address the response to information, issues of systemic risks in society and economics, and new approaches to manage complexity in socio-economic systems. Selected parts of this book had been previously published in peer reviewed journals.
Highlighting the conceptual work at the heart of Pierre Bourdieu's reflexive sociology, this cutting edge collection operationalizes Bourdieusian concepts in field analysis. Offering a unique range of explorations and reflections utilizing field analysis, the eighteen chapters by prominent Bourdieusian scholars and early career scholars synthesize key insights and challenges scholars face when going 'beyond the fields we know'. The chapters offer examples from discipline contexts as diverse as cultural studies, poetry, welfare systems, water management, education, journalism and surfing and provide demonstrations of theorizing within practical examples of field analysis. One of the foremost social philosophers and sociologists of the twentieth century, Bourdieu is widely known in cultural studies and education and his approaches are increasingly being taken up in health, social work, anthropology, family studies, journalism, communication studies and other disciplines where an analysis of the interplay between individuals and social structures is relevant. With its unique interdisciplinary focus, this book provides a useful guide to doing field analysis and working with Bourdieusian methods research, as well as key reading for methodology courses at post-graduate level.
Measuring research impact and engagement is a much debated topic in the UK and internationally. This book is the first to provide a critical review of the research impact agenda, situating it within international efforts to improve research utilisation. Using empirical data, it discusses research impact tools and processes for key groups such as academics, research funders, 'knowledge brokers' and research users, and considers the challenges and consequences of incentivising and rewarding particular articulations of research impact. It draws on wide ranging qualitative data, combined with theories about the science-policy interplay and audit regimes to suggest ways to improve research impact.
Biophysical Measurement in Experimental Social Science Research is an ideal primer for the experimental social scientist wishing to update their knowledge and skillset in the area of laboratory-based biophysical measurement. Many behavioral laboratories across the globe have acquired increasingly sophisticated biophysical measurement equipment, sometimes for particular research projects or for financial or institutional reasons. Yet the expertise required to use this technology and integrate the measures it can generate on human subjects into successful social science research endeavors is often scarce and concentrated amongst a small minority of researchers. This book aims to open the door to wider and more productive use of biophysical measurement in laboratory-based experimental social science research. Suitable for doctoral students through to established researchers, the volume presents examples of the successful integration of biophysical measures into analyses of human behavior, discussions of the academic and practical limitations of laboratory-based biophysical measurement, and hands-on guidance about how different biophysical measurement devices are used. A foreword and concluding chapters comprehensively synthesize and compare biophysical measurement options, address academic, ethical and practical matters, and address the broader historical and scientific context. Research chapters demonstrate the academic potential of biophysical measurement ranging fully across galvanic skin response, heart rate monitoring, eye tracking and direct neurological measurements. An extended Appendix showcases specific examples of device adoption in experimental social science lab settings.
This open access book addresses three themes which have been central to Leydesdorff's research: (1) the dynamics of science, technology, and innovation; (2) the scientometric operationalization of these concept; and (3) the elaboration in terms of a Triple Helix of university-industry-government relations. In this study, I discuss the relations among these themes. Using Luhmann's social-systems theory for modelling meaning processing and Shannon's theory for information processing, I show that synergy can add new options to an innovation system as redundancy. The capacity to develop new options is more important for innovation than past performance. Entertaining a model of possible future states makes a knowledge-based system increasingly anticipatory. The trade-off between the incursion of future states on the historical developments can be measured using the Triple-Helix synergy indicator. This is shown, for example, for the Italian national and regional systems of innovation.
This book explores the issue of social exclusion. It asks three main questions: How can social exclusion be measured? What are its main determinants or influences? And what policies can reduce social exclusion? The authors aim to consider how a focus on social exclusion may alter the policy questions that are most relevant by fostering debate in government, research, and academic circles.
Life and health sciences and biomedical studies have developed rapidly over the last few decades raising previously unanticipated ethical concerns and questions. New and emerging technologies require novel approaches, protocols and raised awareness to ensure adequate levels of biosecurity and biosafety as well as the implementation of special measures to prevent their potential misuse or dual use. This volume brings together an international collection of prominent ethics experts in health and life sciences, with the aim of providing clear and comprehensive guidelines for the establishment of efficient ethical strategies related to current and emerging biotechnologies and health research. Important current topics in research ethics including CRISPR-Cas9 technologies, gene editing, 'big data' in healthcare and life sciences, nutrition in medicine among other topics have found their place in this volume. In addition, the volume discusses the prospects for the implementation of an international unification of ethical standards in life sciences.
The primary focus of this book is an examination of longitudinal team communication and its impact on team performance. This theoretically-grounded, holistic examination of team communication includes cross-condition comparisons of team (i.e., distributed/in person, unrestricted/time pressured, two performance episodes) and employs multiple quantitative methodological approaches to examine the phenomena of interest. This book simultaneously provides practical content for researchers and practitioners in the social sciences and humanities. Included are step-by-step instructions for the methodologies employed, and distillations of findings via Managerial Minutes that highlight best practices and/or examples to help enhance team communication in practice. |
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