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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social research & statistics
This unique study traces the life cycle of a counterculture commune of the late 1960s as part of a regional network and national movement. Through exhaustive field research in a setting viewed as a virtual social laboratory, it provides fascinating insights into many social concerns involving order and disorder in revolutionary and evolutionary change. It examines such issues as conflict, violence, stratification, and interdependence in the self-proclaimed cooperative, peaceful, classless, and self-sufficient new society. The reasons for the many failures as well as successes of experimental efforts are outlined, along with enduring impacts on participants and the surrounding region.
This book focuses on 'research on research methodologies' - an area rarely addressed in social entrepreneurship. Methodological debates are integral to the quest for knowledge and to advancing theories and practices in any field, and, as a multi-disciplinary and emerging field, social entrepreneurship cannot avoid such debates. Providing a fresh perspective on social entrepreneurship research, the book includes contributions from diverse disciplinary settings, e.g. sociology, psychology, social work, anthropology, public policy, economics and management, and discusses the 'methodological challenges' of practice as well as social entrepreneurship research. Rather than favouring any particular method or methodological approach, it acknowledges the diversity of methodological approaches needed to reveal the nuances of social entrepreneurship and promote new knowledge and practices in this promising field.
This volume presents a comprehensive overview of methodological issues and empirical methods of practice-oriented research. It examines questions regarding the scope and boundaries of practice-oriented approaches and practice theory. It discusses the potential advantages and disadvantages of the diversity resulting from the use of these approaches, as well as method and methodology-related issues. The specific questions explored in this volume are: What consequences are linked to the application of a praxeological perspective in empirical research when it comes to the choice of methods? Is there such a thing as an ideal path to follow in praxeological empirical research? What relationship is there between qualitative and quantitative approaches? What differentiates practice-based social research from other perspectives and approaches such as discourse analysis or hermeneutics? The contributions in this book discuss these questions either from a methodological point of view or from a reflective perspective on empirical research practices.
This book details how quantification can serve both as evidence and as an instrument of government, whether when dealing with statistics on employment, occupational health and economic governance, or when developing public management or target-driven policies. In the process, it presents a thought-provoking homage to Alain Desrosieres, who pioneered ways to study large numbers and the politics underlying them. It opens with a summary of Desrosieres's contributions to the field in which several generations of researchers detail how this statistician and historian profoundly influenced them. This tribute, based on personal testimonies, bears witness to the vitality of the school of thought and analytical framework Desrosieres initiated. Next, a collection of essays explores the statistical argument in the neoliberal era, examining issues such as counting the homeless in Europe, measuring the performance of public services, and quantifying the effects of public action on the unemployed in France. The third part details the uses of quantification. It reveals that although statistics are frequently used to the advantage of those in power, they can also play a vital role in challenging and resisting both the conventions underlying the measurements as well as the measurements themselves.Featuring the work of economists, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and statisticians, this title provides readers with a thoughtful look at an influential figure in the history of statistics. It also shows how statistics are used to direct public policy, the degree of conflict that is possible in their production, and the disputes that can develop around their uses.
There has been a data rush in the past decade brought about by online communication and, in particular, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, among others), which promises a new age of digital enlightenment. But social data is compromised: it is being seized by specific economic interests, it leads to a fundamental shift in the relationship between research and the public good, and it fosters new forms of control and surveillance. Compromised Data: From Social Media to Big Data explores how we perform critical research within a compromised social data framework. The expert, international lineup of contributors explores the limits and challenges of social data research in order to invent and develop new modes of doing public research. At its core, this collection argues that we are witnessing a fundamental reshaping of the social through social data mining.
Volume 20 of "Research in Social Stratification and Mobility" continues to remain at the forefront of the diverse group of social scientists who study social inequality and is now the official publication of the Social Stratification Research Group of the International Sociological Association (RC-28). This issue features a comprehensive retrospective on the 40 years of contributions to social stratification research made by the late William Sewell and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Survey, including an all-inclusive bibliography of publications. Other contributions address the growing differences between workers with full-time jobs and various categories of the underemployed (in Israel, the United States and Germany), social mobility in Korea and Sweden, subjective responses to social inequality and the social consequences of status inconsistency, and analyses of class consciousness and growing wealth inequality in the OECD.
This introductory book enables researchers and students of all backgrounds to compute interrater agreements for nominal data. It presents an overview of available indices, requirements, and steps to be taken in a research project with regard to reliability, preceded by agreement. The book explains the importance of computing the interrater agreement and how to calculate the corresponding indices. Furthermore, it discusses current views on chance expected agreement and problems related to different research situations, so as to help the reader consider what must be taken into account in order to achieve a proper use of the indices. The book offers a practical guide for researchers, Ph.D. and master students, including those without any previous training in statistics (such as in sociology, psychology or medicine), as well as policymakers who have to make decisions based on research outcomes in which these types of indices are used.
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.
In the global south, and South Africa in particular, the increasing demographic, economic and political weight of this part of the world is calling for the development of research capacity, which has so far been lacking, to guide society in making informed choices that suit and enhance the African culture and context. Fundamentals of research in Humanities, Social Sciences and Science Education follows all the steps of the research endeavour, from the selection and formulation of a research problem, to the writing or reporting, to the publication of research results. Fundamentals of research in Humanities, Social Sciences and Science Education is informed by practical experience. It is easy to read and understand, is context based and interactive, and can be used for self-study. Contents include, among others, the following:
Fundamentals of research in Humanities, Social Sciences and Science Education is aimed at students and novice researchers.
School districts today face increasing calls for accountability during a time when budgets are stretched and students' needs have become increasingly complex. The teacher's responsibility is to educate younger people, but now more than ever, teachers face demands on a variety of fronts. In addition to teaching academic content, schools are responsible for students' performance on state-wide tests. They are also asked to play an increasingly larger role in children's well-being, including their nutritional needs and social and emotional welfare. Teachers have shown themselves to be more than capable of taking up such challenges, but what price is paid for the increasing demands we are placing on our schools? Understanding Teacher Stress in an Age of Accountability is about the nature of teachers stress and the resources they can employ to cope with it. Accountability is a two-way street and the authors in this volume suggest remedies for reducing teacher stress and in all likelihood increasing student learning-greater administrative support, more and better instructional materials, specialized resources targeted at demanding children, parental support, and professional recognition. Readers will discover that lack of funding, low pay, concerns about academic performance and student misbehavior, and increased public and governmental scrutiny are not exclusive to the United States. In this volume, the third in a series on Research on Stress and Coping in Education, authors from Australia, Turkey, Malaysia, and the Netherlands sound the same alarms, post the same warnings, and draw similarly disturbing conclusions.
The book covers all important topics in the area of Survival
Analysis. Each topic has been covered by one or more chapters
written by internationally renowned experts. Each chapter provides
a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic. Several new
illustrative examples have been used to demonstrate the
methodologies developed. The book also includes an exhaustive list
of important references in the area of Survival Analysis.
Rethinking School-University Partnerships: A New Way Forward provides educational leaders in K-12 schools and colleges of education with insight, advice, and direction into the task of creating partnerships. In current times, colleges of education and local school districts need each other like never before. School districts struggle with pipeline, recruitment, and retention issues. Colleges of education face declining enrollment and a shifting educational landscape that fundamentally changes the way that teachers are trained and what local school districts expect their teachers to be able to do. It is with these overlapping constraints and converging interests that partnerships emerge as a foundational strategy for strengthening the education of our teachers. With nearly 80 contributors from 16 states (and Jamaica) representing 39 educational institutions, the partnerships described in this book are different from the ways in which colleges of education and school districts have traditionally worked with one another. In the past, these loose relationships centered primarily on student teaching and/or field experience placements. In this arrangement, the relationship was directed towards ensuring that the local schools were amenable to hosting students from the college of education so that the student/ candidate could complete the requirements to earn a teaching license. In our view, this paradigm needs to be enlarged and shifted.
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 provides an in-depth analysis of public opinion patterns among Muslims, particularly in the Arab world. On the basis of data from the World Values Survey, the Arab Barometer Project and the Arab Opinion Index, it compares the dynamics of Muslim opinion structures with global publics and arrives at social scientific predictions of value changes in the region. Using country factor scores from a variety of surveys, it also develops composite indices of support for democracy and a liberal society on a global level and in the Muslim world, and analyzes a multivariate model of opinion structures in the Arab world, based on over 40 variables from 12 countries in the Arab League and covering 67% of the total population of the Arab countries. While being optimistic about the general, long-term trend towards democracy and the resilience of Arab and Muslim civil society to Islamism, the book also highlights anti-Semitic trends in the region and discusses them in the larger context of xenophobia in traditional societies. In light of the current global confrontation with radical Islamism, this book provides vital material for policy planners, academics and think tanks alike.
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.
As a result of the AIDS epidemic, many nations around the world have faced the demands of caring for a particularly vulnerable population of children, the orphans of parents who have died of AIDS or whose caregivers are terminally ill from the disease. Overcoming AIDS: Lessons Learned from Uganda offers an in-depth exploration of this global issue and provides a broad focus on evolving a constructive response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This collaborative resource is the fourth in the Research in Global Child Advocacy book series, and it offers readers a glimpse into the experience of HIV/AIDS infected and affected people from the perspective of researchers, policy makers, and professionals who diligently work toward crafting a framework for action that is integrated across disciplines. Despite the enormity and intensity of the problem, chapter authors share a commitment to advocate for a better world in which social and economic disparities do not preclude children from experiencing a future that is bright with potential opportunities and hope.
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.
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.
Behavioral, biobehavioral, and biomedical interventions are programs with the objective of improving and maintaining human health and well-being, broadly defined, in individuals, families, schools, organizations, or communities. These interventions may be aimed at, for example, preventing or treating disease, promoting physical and mental health, preventing violence, or improving academic achievement. This book provides additional information on a principled empirical framework for developing interventions that are more effective, efficient, economical, and scalable. This framework is introduced in the monograph, "Optimization of Behavioral, Biobehavioral, and Biomedical Interventions: The Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST)" by Linda M. Collins (Springer, 2018). The present book is focused on advanced topics related to MOST. The chapters, all written by experts, are devoted to topics ranging from experimental design and data analysis to development of a conceptual model and implementation of a complex experiment in the field. Intervention scientists who are preparing to apply MOST will find this book an important reference and guide for their research. Fields to which this work pertains include public health (medicine, nursing, health economics, implementation sciences), behavioral sciences (psychology, criminal justice), statistics, and education.
Explores the meaning of writing in the post postmodernist moment when master narratives have been questioned and the very act of representing others has been problematized, and discusses some of the key theoretical debates emerging in the aftermath of what came to be known as the postmodernist crisis. When the author first went to Botswana in the early 1980s to study the impact a major land reform had on rural life in this impoverished African country, social theory and ethnographic practice seemed solid and convincing. A decade later, and again in 1999, she returned to Bostwana and to the Tswapong people whose lives she had shared, and she encountered not only a rapidly shifting social reality, but she also began to ask questions that stemmed from and were shaped by theoretical frames quite different from those she had employed in her earlier work. At the center of the narrative that runs through this study is a critical reflexive discussion that explores the tension between data recorded at a particular historical moment and the interpretive frames offered to make sense of such data.
This is the first annotated bibliography to thoroughly cover the research studies on public opinion polls and survey research for the period 1935-1979. In addition to examining the first 45 years of polling and survey research in the United States, Walden provides appendixes on acronyms, source journals, print and CD-ROM sources, organizations associated with the field, and author and selective keyword indexes. This is the first annotated bibliography to cover the research studies on public opinion polls and survey research for the first 45 years of polling and survey research in the United States. Nearly 7,000 entries are provided, making this the most comprehensive work on the subject. The work is organized by subject, and within each subject or subcategory, alphabetically by author. Use of this work is augmented by appendixes on acronmyms, source journals, print and CD-ROM sources, organizations associated with the field, and author and selective keyword indexes. Historians and others concerned with the development of polls and surveys will be the main users of this work. Others who will find the volume invaluable include sociologists of science. Collections on communications, modern American society, and politics will find the work of use as well.
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