Programme for the 7th ESRC Research Methods Festival 2016
What is... Mobile Methods, Big Data, Mass Observation?
Convenor:
Dr Rebekah Luff (University of Southampton)
What Is... sessions are designed to provide an introduction to a range of research methods and related methodological issues. The methods will be presented in an accessible fashion and their uses will be described. In this session the presentations will be on 'Mobile Methods', 'Big Data' and 'Mass Observation'. Each presentation will last about 30 minutes which consists of 20 for the presenter and 10 for questions/discussion from the audience, who are assumed to be interested but to have no prior knowledge of the method under discussion. Sessions will recorded and made available on the NCRM website.
How to Read and Write Critically (Workshop)
Convenors:
Professor Mike Wallace (Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University)
Professor Alison Wray (School of English, Communication and Philosophy, Cardiff University)
This workshop addresses the twin challenges of becoming a critical reader of academic literature in social science fields and a self-critical writer of literature reviews, including those forming part of a thesis. The presenters are co-authors of the textbook ‘Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates’ (Sage). The workshop draws on material from the 3rd edition (2016). Participants will be invited to bring a published academic journal article that they wish to engage with critically, reporting the authors' research findings. The workshop focuses on preparing to undertake an in-depth analysis of this article, using frameworks from the book.
Complexity and Method
Convenor:
Dr Emma Uprichard (Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies, University of Warwick)
Since the late 1990s, a lot of work has adopted a complexity approach to study a wide range of topics across the social sciences. However, empirical applications of complexity in social science are still few and far between. This session will give some examples of some cutting edge empirical work in this area. In so doing, we will spell out some of the key methodological implications of applying complexity empirically to conduct forward facing social science research.
Young People as Co-Researchers: Benefits and Challenges
Convenors:
Professor Kay Tisdall (University of Edinburgh, CRFR and Social Policy)
Dr Christina McMellon (Young Edinburgh Action, City of Edinburgh Council)
This workshop showcases a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (based at Edinburgh University) and Young Edinburgh Action (City of Edinburgh Council’s young people’s participation strategy, involving action research groups). With co-production and participatory methods much discussed within the research literature, the workshop provides an opportunity to explore critically the benefits and challenges of young people working with adults as co-researchers. Young people emphasise the importance for professionals to understand issues from young people’s perspectives, that the research process is led by young people and that real change results.
Narrative Methods
Convenor:
Professor Ann Phoenix (TCRU, Department of Social Sciences, UCL Institute of Education)
This workshop examines the possibilities and constraints of researching across narrative media of sound, writing, images, bodies, objects, spaces and actions. We will investigate these issues by thinking about how to analyse internet materials including blogs, web pages, and social media, within a framework that addresses narrative structure, content and contexts. The workshop will introduce issues raised for narrative research by mixed media research and give examples from a research project. It will also allow opportunities to engage in narrative analysis of this kind.
What Role Can Bayesian Methods Play in Resolving the Replication Crisis?
Convenors:
Professor Thom Baguley (Nottingham Trent University)
Dr Mark Andrews (Nottingham Trent University)
The recent perception of a replication crisis in psychology has coincided with a resurgence of interest in Bayesian statistical methods across the social sciences. This session explores the role that Bayesian methods have played in debates arising from the replication crisis and its potential for shaping the responses to the crisis.
When Children Become Adults: Some Methodological Challenges for International Birth Cohort Studies
Convenor:
Professor Tarani Chandola (University of Manchester)
Birth cohort studies provide an invaluable resource for studying the long term consequences of childhood circumstances for later life health, well-being and development. There are now a number of such studies across the world, where the children have entered or are just about to enter adulthood, a key transition in the life course.Such transitions often present considerable methodological challenges, such as loss to follow up when the young adults migrate, or a change in the measures recorded. This session brings together some of the key researchers from these studies on the methodological issues that they face.
Digital Qualitative Data
Convenors:
Professor Bella Dicks (Cardiff University)
Dr Roser Beneito-Montagut (Cardiff University)
This session will provide a hands-on inroduction to digital qualitative methods. Firstly, there will be a general discussion of the use of digital data in qualitative research projects, covering the generation, analysis and authoring of research insights.. Secondly, an exemplar will be presented from Dr. Beneito-Montagut's ethnographic online study. This two-year ethnographic project on social media use in adults' later life will provide insights into how the practices and meanings of ethnography are being re-constructed and negotiated in response to the explosion of digital social data. Participants will be invited to share their own experiences.
Advances in Paradata
Convenors:
Dr Daniel Kilburn (UCL)
Mr Paul Stoneman (University of Surrey)
This session will explore the possibilities of new advances in research with paradata, bringing together quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and drawing on contemporary and historical data. The first presentation examines the scope for linking geocoded auxiliary variables to survey paradata, as a means of researching nonresponse in the European Social Survey. The second presentation draws on qualitative paradata from youth employment studies of the 1960s and 1980s. The final presentation explores changes and continuities in survey interviewing, comparing 'paper and pencil' paradata from the 1968/69 Poverty in the UK survey with data from contemporary surveys (both CAPI and 'analogue').
Innovations in Survey Measurement - Going Mobile
Convenors:
Professor Patrick Sturgis (University of Southampton)
Ms Carli Lessof (University of Southampton)
Although social and technological change poses challenges for traditional survey research, it also opens possibilities for collecting representative population data in new and innovative ways. Mobile devices make it possible to collect data from ambient sensors, photographs or scanners. Mobile also challenges aspects of traditional survey delivery – is it best to use in-person or text-based interviewing, can complex questionnaires be adapted for small screens and can mobile devices be used to capture in-the-moment experience? In this session, we consider the potential of new technologies - and mobile in particular – for transforming the nature of survey data collection.
Synthesising Qualitative Research
Convenors:
Professor James Thomas (EPPI-Centre, Department of Social Science, UCL Institute of Education)
Dr Ruth Garside (Medical School, University of Exeter)
Researchers, research commissioners, users and service providers increasingly value the insights that qualitative research can bring. There has been an accompanying increase in the number of new methods for synthesising qualitative research; ‘meta ethnography’, ‘thematic synthesis’, ‘meta study’, and ‘meta aggregation’ are just a few of the more commonly used terms. But how do these relate to one another? And how can you know which methods are more suitable for which tasks? This session will overview the range of approaches to the synthesis of qualitative research, and suggest ways for researchers to understand their main applications.
Current Thinking in Age-Period-Cohort Analysis
Convenor:
Professor David Voas (University of Essex)
What causes social change? We often want to distinguish generational change from changes related to ageing or historical developments. This age-period-cohort (APC) problem has challenged social scientists for half a century. We will 1) introduce the problem and review the methods traditionally used to address it, with particular attention to graphical interpretation; 2) discuss the recent innovation of using hierarchical (multilevel) modelling to identify the characteristics of periods and cohorts that help to produce the outcomes of interest; and 3) summarise the ongoing debate between proponents and critics of the new methods, with recommendations for researchers.
Disseminating Your Research: Journals, Books, Media
Convenor:
Dr Paul Hodkinson (University of Surrey)
This session offers an introduction to academic publication and dissemination, examining academic journals, books and different forms of media and social media. We outline the strengths and weaknesses of different forms of publication and discuss how journal editing and book proposal processes work. We go on to explore strategies for successful writing and publishing before examining ways to publicise and disseminate resaerch via media and social media.
Walking Stories and Participatory Theatre: Methods for Researching and Engaging Marginalized Groups
Convenor:
Dr Umut Erel (The Open University)
How can creative, participatory methods engage marginalized groups? The session explores how walking methods and participatory theatre create a space for exploring, sharing and documenting processes of belonging crucial to understanding and ‘enacting citizenship’ of migrant families (Isin 2012, Erel 2011). It suggests that Participatory Action Research, based on the principles of inclusion, valuing all voices and action-oriented interventions (O’Neill 2001), helps engage migrant families and other marginalized groups, into research as a citizenship practice. It reflects on the challenges and opportunities of collaboration between arts practitioners and researchers, paper presentations include audio-visual material.
KEY LECTURE - Andrew Gelman (Chair: Patrick Sturgis)
Convenor:
Professor Rosalind Edwards (University of Southampton)
Statistics has been described as the science of uncertainty. But, paradoxically, statistical methods are often used to create a sense of certainty where none should exist. The social sciences have been rocked in recent years by highly publicised claims, published in top journals, that were reported as 'statistically significant' but are implausible and indeed could not be replicated by independent research teams. Can statistics dig its way out of a hole of its own construction? Yes, but it will take work.