Programme for the 6th ESRC Research Methods Festival 2014
Thursday 10th July AM (09.15 - 12.45 including a coffee break from 10.45 - 11.15)
Digital Research: A Multimodal Approach
Convenors:
Professor Carey Jewitt (Institute of Education, London)
Dr Jeff Bezemer (Institute of Education, London)
This session will introduce multimodality and demonstrate how this approach can be used to analyze interaction in a range of digital environments. The session will outline what multimodality is, its origins, principles and key concepts. An illustrative walk-through the process of multimodal data collection and analysis, including multimodal transcription, will be provided. This will be followed by three presentations showing the application of a multimodal approach to digital environments: online social media environments (Blogs and Pintrest) to examine style;touch-based interaction with screen-interfaces; and embodied interaction in digitally augmented learning environments. It closes with questions and answers.
Pathways: Understanding Biosocial Influences on Health Throughout the Lifecourse
Convenor:
Professor Emily Grundy (London School of Economics)
PATHWAYS aims to identify pathways that link socio-demographic circumstances and biological disadvantage to adult health, and parental family and socio-economic circumstances to infant mortality, with a particular emphasis on the mediating factors that lie on these pathways. In this session members of the team will present results of their work highlighting methodological challenges and innovations, as well as substantive findings. The presentations are based on analyses of various longitudinal data sets including the ONS Longitudinal Study, Scottish Longitudinal Study, 1958 birth cohort and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
Practical Issues in Policy Evaluation
Convenor:
Dr Monica Costas Dias (Institute of Fiscal Studies)
Practical Issues in Policy Evaluation I: This session is the first of two focusing on the practical details of developing and implementing policy evaluation studies. It will discuss some crucial but often forgotten methodological issues that should be considered when planning an evaluation strategy. Practical Issues in Policy Evaluation II: This session is the second of two focusing on the practical details of developing and implementing policy evaluation studies. It will discuss, within the realm of specific policy reforms, the design of evaluation strategies and data requirements, and the trade-offs between power, cost and design. The examples include Randomized
Online Learning With a View to Teaching Research Methods
Convenor:
Dr Sean Moley (University of Southampton)
The session allows delegates to share the experiences of those who have developed online instruction in research methods. Professor Fiona Steele shares insights from almost ten years of the online Learning Environment for Multilevel Methodology and Applications (LEMMA). Dr Ester Ehiyazaryan-White discusses her work on the Virtual Graduate School project and the strategies used to actively involve teaching staff and students. Dr Tessa Parkes discusses research on using Virtual Learning Environments in advanced doctoral training, and Professor Susan Halford and Professor Leslie Carr report on what’s been learned from designing and running a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
Teaching Quantitative Methods
Convenors:
Professor Malcolm Williams (Cardiff University)
Professor John MacInnes (Edinburgh University)
Improving both the quantity and quality of quantitative methods teaching is now a major priority in social science, with £19m invested in the QStep programme. In this session QStep centre staff will showcase and discuss teaching and learning strategies and techniques that they are developing in their centres, or from the earlier ESRC Curriculum Innovation / Researcher Development Initiative Programmes. These include embedding quantitative content in the wider curriculum, using open source materials, placements and staff upskilling. Participants are also encouraged to talk about their own experiences and ideas. The session will be chaired by Malcolm Williams with the following speakers: John MacInnes, Richard Harris, Lizzie Milligan, Sin Yi Cheung, Luke Sloan, Alison Koslowski, Susan Banducci, John Goldring, Julie Scott Jones and Mark Brown.
Bridging the Gap Over Time: Integrating Longitudinal Qualitative and Quantitative Data
Convenors:
Dr Rose Lindsey (University of Southampton)
Dr Sarah Bulloch (University of Southampton)
The session brings together four mixed methods projects that have addressed change over time. Key themes explored will include approaches to integration, the effect of language differences across methodological traditions, the development of mixed methodology, working with different forms of data, and evolving research instruments.
Democratisation of Research Methods
Convenor:
Professor Graham Crow (University of Edinburgh)
This session will explore various issues around the theme of the democratisation of social research. What do we mean by the term? What is driving it? What are the consequences for how research is designed, undertaken, funded and disseminated? Is there a case against as well as for the democratisation of social research? What are the prospects for the future?
Thursday 10th July Lunch (12.45 - 13.30)
Thursday 10th July PM (14.15 - 15.30)
KEY LECTURE Douglas Harper: Visual Methods: Sociology and Beyond (Chair: Professor Graham Crow)
Convenor:
Professor Douglas Harper (Duquesne University)
The multi-disciplinary relevance of visual methods emerges in recent sociological research and theorising. Visual methods draw on visual ethnography as well as 'visual fact finding' that facilitates study of previously hidden regions of social life. Additionally, following a phenomenological direction, researchers adapt photographic methods originating in the fine arts to the study of identity and other subjectivities. Finally, the reflexive turn in sociology leads to photo elicitation and photo voice. Current visual researchers embrace digitally based visualisation, both interactive and otherwise. Visual methods have led to new ways of knowing, and new ways of presenting what is known. Douglas Harper, Professor of Sociology at Duquesne University; has written seven books (three co-authored) and edited or co-edited four books. His books are primarily visual ethnographies, using innovative methods that integrate photographic imagery with field studies, elicitation interviews, historical reconstruction and quantitative analysis of historical memory. His recent book, Visual Sociology (Routledge, 2012) is the first comprehensive overview of the field. His books and articles have been published in Italian, French, German, Russian and Polish, and is forthcoming in Korean. He has twice been a visiting professor of sociology at the University of Bologna, the setting of his co-authored book (with Patrizia Faccioli), The Italian Way: Food and Social Life, and his current research, a twenty-six year study of public life in an Italian piazza, will be completed this summer. Harper is the founding editor of Visual Studies, a position he held for thirteen years, and he is now President of the International Visual Sociology Association.
Systematic Reviews for Complicated and Complex Questions
Convenor:
Professor David Gough (EPPI-Centre, Institute of Education, University of London)
Systematic reviews involve the use of explicit rigorous methods of reviewing previous research studies to answer research questions. This approach has been extensively applied to ask narrow questions of the impact of interventions on specific outcomes; for example, in the statistical metal analysis of findings of randomized controlled trials in health research. However the logic of explicit rigorous of previous research findings applies to all research questions. This session discusses methods of systematic review that aggregate and configure data to answer more complicated and complex research questions and thus make the best use of prior primary research.
Methods for Evaluating Complex Interventions: Theory of Change Approaches
Convenors:
Professor Liz Todd (Newcastle University)
Professor Alan Dyson (University of Manchester)
Theory of change approaches are useful when evaluating large multi-strand initiatives in which the initiatives have different outcomes and baseline data is not available. They are also useful for small projects, offering a way to think through actions and impacts. Users tend to find theory of change a helpful development tool. This event offers a brief introduction: examples using a range of evidence, including quantitative and qualitative data; how to reach conclusions; and relationships with users. The presenters offer their own approach to theory of change developed through various funded research projects over the last 12 years.
Inclusive Research: Advances in Participatory Methods and Approaches
Convenor:
Professor Melanie Nind (University of Southampton)
Making research more inclusive of the people it is about is increasingly important in social and health research. Funders and commissioners of research value collaboration in producing research findings if this means they might have greater relevance and impact. For the research teams involved there is often a political or ethical commitment to the idea, to each other, and to addressing the challenges. In this session we will present and discuss some of the contentious issues and some of the advances being made. The discussants will identify points of learning from their perspective and facilitate our aim of participants and
How to Develop Effective Research Proposals
Convenor:
Professor David Shemmings (University of Kent)
Anyone who has been a member of a funding council will tell you that many of the proposals they see are not well-written. Research questions are often poorly explicated, methods insufficiently related and the literature reviewed too wide-ranging and only loosely tied to research aims. This session illustrates how these problems can be overcome, leaving you in a better position to convince the funding body to do the only thing that matters: Give YOU money! Whether you are an anthropologist or a neuroscientist, if you want to get your proposal funded, this session is for you.