Programme for the 8th ESRC Research Methods Festival 2018
09:50 - 17:00
Innovations in small area estimation methodologies
Convenors:
Professor Nikos Tzavidis (University of Southampton)
Dr Paul Williamson (University of Liverpool)
Small area estimation is a research area actively contributing to the production of official statistics in the UK and other countries. This one-day event is devoted to recent developments in small area estimation methods. The event will bring together statisticians, geographers and practitioners from National Statistical Institutes (NSIs) working in small area estimation. The aim of the event is to present both methodological developments and applications and identify future needs. The programme includes presentations from academic researchers and NSI methodologists from the UK, Australia and Brazil that cover a broad range of topics.
10:00 - 12:30
Preventing and compensating for missing biosocial data in cross-sectional analysis of longitudinal surveys
Convenor:
Professor Natalie Shlomo (University of Manchester)
We present on-going research on nonresponse in biosocial data. The first two papers are based on compensating for missing data in statistical analyses of biomarkers with results from a large simulation study (paper 1) and an application studying the effect of socio-economic position on the biomarker cortisol (paper 2). The final two papers examine the impact of nurse characteristics on the quality of survey response with an analysis of the variance of responses to biomarker collection in ELSA (paper 3) and a comparative study from BCS70 assessing interviewer and then nurse visit versus nurse only interviewing (paper 4).
10:00 - 12:30
Sensors in social research
Convenors:
Dr Kristrún Gunnarsdóttir (University of Surrey)
Professor Nigel Gilbert (University of Surrey)
This session reports on recent findings in sensor-based studies of social life and potentially sensitive settings. We addresses the technical, observational, ethical and communicational aspects of applying this method. We report on explaining the technology to participants, navigating installations and managing the research instruments in the field, on working across the social and computer science disciplines, how to make sense of sensor-generated data and how these data can be evaluated against well established data-gathering methods in social research. During the coffee break, we will showcase a set of sensors and demonstrate how they work.
10:00 - 12:30
Meeting the challenges in teaching research methods
Convenor:
Professor Melanie Nind (NCRM, University of Southampton)
Teachers/trainers face the challenge of building competence with research methods. This session examines these challenges using the lens of pedagogic research in the field. Research has illuminated how practitioners are responding to the pedagogic challenges in the research methods arena. First, three researchers present evidence from their recent or current pedagogic studies. This is followed by an interactive workshop in which session participants use the typology from the Pedagogy of Methodological Learning study to share, explore and develop approaches, strategies, tactics and tasks for teaching different methods and responding to different challenges.
10:00 - 12:30
Enhancing data collection to improve survey data quality
Convenors:
Professor Gabriele Durrant (University of Southampton)
Professor Patrick Sturgis (University of Southampton)
This session presents recent advances in data collection methods and data analysis of survey design characteristics. Response rates have been falling in many large-scale surveys and statistical agencies are keen to implement methods that ensure the data quality of the resulting data. This session will focus on recent advances in the area of interviewer effects, in particular interviewer effects on response latencies using a novel multilevel model as well as interviewer effects on the effectiveness of incentives to increase response. Further, recent advances in online surveys using mobile devices in the UK context are presented.
10:00 - 12:30
Participatory Theatre and Walking Methods - Research, Engagement and Dissemination
Convenor:
Dr Umut Erel (The Open University)
How can Participatory Theatre and Walking Methods be employed for social research with marginalized groups? The PASAR project worked with migrant families, exploring belonging, citizenship, intergenerational relations and the experiences of those affected by the No Recourse to Public Funds policy. The session will reflect on how these methods are able to create a convivial research practice against the backdrop of an increasingly hostile climate for migrants. The session will reflect on the potential of these participatory methods to engage with research participants as a citizenship practice, creating shared subjugated knowledges, building community and engaging with policy and practice.
10:00 - 12:30
How to read and write critically (fully booked)
Convenors:
Professor Mike Wallace (Cardiff University)
Professor Alison Wray (Cardiff University)
This session is fully booked. Only participants who registered for this session with their festival booking can attend. 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.
10:00 - 12:30
Mixed Methods: Introduction and Specific Methods
Convenor:
Professor Wendy Olsen (University of Manchester, Cathie Marsh Institute)
The session begins with an overview of mixed methods epistemology and ontology, introducing triangulation and essential features of entities. A question-and-answer session follows. Next we have a presentation on a specific mixed-methods qualitative approach by the experienced community researcher, Dr. Punita Chowbey. Dr. Thomson and Dr. Olsen present qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), a systematic approach to tabulating and analysing case-study data. See www.compasss.org. The QCA method also extends into fuzzy-set analysis where ordinal variables are recorded as fuzzy sets. In both QCA and fuzzy methods, we analyse causality in innovative
11:00 - 11:30
BREAK
12:30 - 14:00
LUNCH
14:00 - 15:15
IJSRM-sponsored keynote - Causal inference: Evidence for the single case
Convenor:
Professor Nancy Cartwright (Durham Univ, UCSD)
Current thinking about causality is dominated by the demand to establish a counterfactual. This makes it hard to see how process tracing can yield causal conclusions about what happens in a single case. It also makes trouble for post-hoc evaluation of project effectiveness since THAT project cannot both be done and not. This talk offers a catalogue of types of evidence that can argue for/against causation in the single case, irrespective of counterfactuals, and offers a systematic account of causal modelling that shows WHY these are legitimate sources of evidence.
15:15 - 15:45
BREAK
15:45 - 17:15
What is data linkage? What are citizens' juries? What is mixed methods research?
Convenor:
Professor Graham Crow (University of Edinburgh)
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 data linkage; citizens’ juries; and mixed methods research. Each presentation will last about 20 minutes and will be followed by about 10 minutes of questions from the audience, who are assumed to be interested but to have no prior knowledge of the method under discussion. Presentations will be recorded and made available on the NCRM website.
15:45 - 17:15
Disseminating your research (books, journals, media)
Convenor:
Dr Paul Hodkinson (University of Surrey)
Intended particularly for post-graduates and early career researchers, this session offers a guide to disseminating research. We will particularly focus on publication in books and academic journals, providing detail and suggestions relating to different parts of the publication process in each case. We will also touch more briefly on shorter forms of publication such as rapid response pieces and blogs, before discussing ways to publicise your work. With respect to the latter we discuss how to make your articles easy for others to find/access, using social media and other web sites effectively and, finally, engagement with media and journalists.
15:45 - 17:15
Recent advances in rural health survey methodology
Convenor:
Dr Marco Haenssgen (University of Oxford)
Our session focuses on survey research methodology, in particular rural surveys in low- and middle-income countries with reference to health and well-being research. Four presentations will cover a range of methodological innovations in this area, including satellite-aided survey sampling, data collection through accelerometer devices, and methods to sample and analyse health-related social networks. The tools and techniques illustrated in this session will open new opportunities for survey researchers to capture granular data on rural health behaviours. The content of the session is accessible
15:45 - 17:15
New methods and advanced analytics at the Bank of England
Convenor:
Dr Andreas Joseph (Bank of England)
This session provides an overview of recent methodological developments at the Bank of England in its effort to promote the publick Good. Three projects are presented: First, techniques from the machine learning toolbox are used for tasks like economic projections and banking supervision. Second, computational linguistics is applied to analyse how the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) writes to the banks and building societies it supervises. Third, the effectiveness of the Bank of England’s communication is measured by using an online experiment.
15:45 - 17:15
Embodied perspectives on innovative research methodology
Convenors:
Dr Jennifer Leigh (Lecturer in Higher Education and Academic Practice, University of Kent)
Mrs Nicole Brown (University College London, IoE)
Innovation in methodology means considering new ways of knowing and researching. Within current discourses of methodological development the relationship between researcher and researched is largely disconnected from the body. Taking an embodied perspective would mean accepting knowledge is embodied and tacit, radically challenging dualistic and bounded assumptions about the nature and foundations of enquiry. Our session explores four perspectives of embodiment within research, discussing how it informs questions of methodology: • What constitutes an embodied perspective in research? • Why might a researcher work from an embodied perspective? • What methodological choices result? • What are the implications for the (co-)production of knowledge?
15:45 - 17:15
Complex evaluation methods
Convenors:
Dr Emma Uprichard (University of Warwick)
Professor Nigel Gilbert (University of Surrey)
This session introduces a range of cutting-edge methods developed as part of CECAN, the 'Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity Across the Nexus', a £3m national research centre funded and supported by the ESRC, Defra, BEIS, NERC, EA, and FSA. Overall, the session will introduce some examples from the suite of new methods for complex policy evaluation that have been developed in CECAN and are also being written into the Annex on Complex Evaluation of updated version of The Magenta Book, the HM Treasury guidance on what to consider when designing complex evaluation.
15:45 - 17:15
A data driven approach for predicting non-response in longitudinal surveys: implications for missing data handling and sample representativeness
Convenor:
Professor George Ploubidis (UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)
Incomplete or missing data are unavoidable in longitudinal surveys. Capitalising on the richness of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) surveys before study members attrit, we have implemented a systematic data driven approach consisting of series of multivariable regressions as well as machine learning algorithms. We will present results from the CLS Missing Data Strategy in three papers using data from the 1958 birth cohort and show that it’s possible to empirically identify predictors of non-response that maximise the plausibility of the MAR assumption and achieve estimates that under plausible assumptions are representative of their values.
15:45 - 17:15
Developing effective research proposals
Convenor:
Professor Mark Elliot (University of Manchester)
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.