June 4, 2024: Introduction to the Swiss Household Panel survey and data management with SPSS

SHP-Team, FORS

This one-day workshop provides a detailed presentation of the SHP data. We will present its structure (prospective data and retrospective biographical data), the different questionnaires, and associated projects. We will show how to use the data and familiarise you with the different available datasets (individual, household, long file, and retrospective data). In practical exercises, based on SPSS, we will merge individual and household information and create a longitudinal dataset with several waves as well as a partner file that offers the possibility to analyse the mutual influences of partners. The participants will also have the opportunity to construct data files for their own research projects with the SHP with the support of the workshop leaders.

June 5-7, 2024: Sequence Data Analysis Workshop

Prof. Matthias Studer, Geneva School of Social Sciences and LIVES at the University of Geneva
Prof. Emer. Gilbert Ritschard, Geneva School of Social Sciences at the University of Geneva
PhD Kevin Emery, Geneva School of Social Sciences and LIVES at the University of Geneva

The methodological workshop provides a three-day course on sequence analysis, a methodological framework to study trajectories described as sequences of categorical states, such as familial or professional trajectories. The workshop is intended for a large audience, starting with a general overview of sequence analysis in the social sciences and the characterization of trajectories in a life course perspective. It then presents descriptive and visualization methods, before moving to the building of a typology of trajectories focusing on the different choices to be made (cluster algorithms, distance measures, cluster quality measures). The course also discusses data management for sequence analysis, missing data handling, and multichannel sequence analysis. Each theoretical presentation is followed by practical sessions on how to run the presented analyses using R, TraMineR, WeightedCluster, and seqimpute. The workshop also includes a short introduction to R for those unfamiliar with the software.

The workshops take place in person at FORS, Geopolis building, University of Lausanne, but can also be attended online if required. However, the priority is to ensure that everything runs smoothly on-site.

Prerequisites

Previous knowledge
Participants in the introduction to the SHP should ideally have some knowledge of SPSS. Participants in the Sequence Data Analysis Workshop are required to have notions of statistics and knowledge of a statistical software such as Stata, SPSS, SAS, R.

Data access:
To access the SHP data, participants need to register on SWISSUbase and sign the SHP data user agreement. To access the data, please register on SWISSUbase at least 24 hours before the workshop starts.

Installation of R and RStudio:
The course assumes participants have R and RStudio installed on their devices. A procedure to install this software and the required R packages will be provided.

Participants are expected to bring their own computer to the workshop. Participants who don’t have a laptop or who participate in the introduction to the SHP but do not have access to SPSS are asked to contact the SHP-team so that we can organize a computer for them (swisspanel@fors.unil.ch).

Tuition fees

Participation in the introduction to the Swiss Household Panel and data management in SPSS on June 4 2024, is free of charge.
Participation in the “Sequence Data Analysis Workshop” from June 5 to June 7, 2024, costs 250.- CHF.

Participants are free to register for both parts of the workshop or only one part.

Short biographies

Matthias Studer is an associate professor at the Geneva School of Social Sciences and at the LIVES Centre of the University of Geneva. He is interested in longitudinal methods, sequence analysis, and social policies. He is one of TraMineR’s developers and the maintainer of the WeightedCluster R library for sequence clustering.

Gilbert Ritschard is a Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the Geneva School of Social Sciences, University of Geneva. His current research is centered on sequence analysis and related approaches for life course research. He maintains the TraMineR tool kit for sequence analysis, which he and his team developed.

Kevin Emery is a postdoctoral researcher at the Geneva School of Social Sciences and at the LIVES Centre of the University of Geneva. His current research focuses on missing data in sequence analysis. He maintains the seqimpute R library for multiple imputation in sequence analysis.