The next Methods and Research Meeting organized by FORS and SSP/UNIL will take place Tuesday 26 October 2021 from 13:00 to 14:15 in room 5799 at Géopolis.

We welcome Marco Giesselmann from the Department of Sociology of the University of Zurich.

Interactions with Panel Data: Implications of Different Specification Strategies

An interaction in a fixed effects (FE) regression is usually specified by demeaning the product term. How­ever, algebraic transformations reveal that this strategy does not yield a within-unit estimator. Instead, the standard FE interaction estimator reflects unit-level differences of both interacted variables. This property allows interactions of a time-constant variable and a time-varying variable in a Fixed Effects regression, but may yield unwanted results if both variables vary within units: when, for example, the interaction between income and having children on life satisfaction is modeled, the standard FE interaction estimator not only measures how within-household changes in income influence the effect of having children. It also measures how this effect differs between households with different (time-averaged) income levels. Therefore, it includes the moderating influence of time-constant unobservables correlated with income (e.g., traditionalism, conservatism) on the effect of having children.

We introduce and discuss different demeaning strategies as alternatives to the standard FE interaction estimator for panel data. Each of these alternatives portrays different causal mechanisms, has different substantive implications, and will lead to different results. This is revealed on the basis of an SHP research example dealing with the impact that children have on the marital wage premium.

By recent regulation of the Swiss Federal Council and until further notice, you will be required to present a valid Covid certificate for joining the seminar.

We look forward to seeing you at our seminar.

The organizing committee:

Stephanie Steinmetz

Jacques-Antoine Gauthier

Oliver Lipps

8ème Festival suisse des méthodes qualitatives : le qualitatif en santé.

Un événement pour aborder les enjeux de santé avec des perspectives innovantes

Le 8ème Festival suisse des méthodes qualitatives est organisé les 4 et 5 novembre 2021 par l’Unité Sociologie du Département des sciences sociales. Il est axé cette année sur les questions de santé. Cette thématique est incontournable dans la période que nous vivons. Elle fait l’objet de nombreux travaux de la part des sciences sociales et humaines, notamment avec une diversité d’approches qualitatives sur lesquelles le Festival se propose de porter l’attention. Le programme s’adresse à un public académique et extra-académique intéressé par les dispositifs méthodologiques qualitatifs ou par la thématique de la santé (enseignants, chercheurs, doctorants et postdoctorants, professionnels ou bénévoles actif-ve-s dans le domaine de la santé, etc.).

Les participant-e- s pourront assister aux conférences de deux keynote speakers :  Madame Sylvie Grosjean (Université d’Ottawa) sur l’analyse vidéo des pratiques cliniques et Madame Muriel Figuié (Centre pour la recherche et le Développement, Montpellier) sur l’étude des pandémies en termes de santé globale. Ils-elles participeront à un choix de quinze ateliers interactifs, consacrés à une large palette de thématiques et de méthodologies qualitatives. Ces workshops seront animés par des enseignants et chercheurs travaillant dans diverses institutions de Suisse romande et des pays francophones.  L’événement se clôturera par une table-ronde intitulée « Interprofessionalités:  Comment sciences sociales et de la santé travaillent-elles ensemble? »

Pour s’inscrire et consulter le programme complet, rendez-vous à la page suivante: https://www.unifr.ch/socio/fr/news-and-events/festival.html

This free online series of four free webinars offered by FORS introduces you to the context of open research data. Learn about the requirements of funders and journals with respect to data sharing, get a better understanding of the legal and ethical framework in which your research is embedded. The next and last webinar focuses on

• Archiving & Data Sharing (4.11.21)

This webinar takes place on November 4 and will be presented by Marieke Heers.

You will be introduced to the importance of data sharing and some key requirements to make data sharable, such as consent, documentation and anonymization. It will then present different solutions for data sharing and present in greater depth the new FORS online repository SWISSUbase. By the end of the workshop you will have a better understanding of the key data management practices needed in order to make your data sharable and the advantages of choosing SWISSUbase as your repository.

The webinar will take place online during lunch time (12-1 pm) and will consist in a 45-minute presentation, followed by 15 minutes for questions.

Further information and registration

Where: University of Lausanne, Switzerland and/or online

Taking as point of departure the conference organized by the ESFRI Strategic Working Group on Social and Cultural Innovation on the impact of research infrastructures, which took place in 2018 in Bologna, the ESFRI Strategy Working Groups have joined forces to organize a follow-up conference to discuss the meaning and the possible measurement of impact further.  The overall objectives of the conference are:

Exchange on the meaning of impact and its variation between and within different fields and research infrastructures.
Exchange on the measurement of impact and its variation between and within different fields (scientific but also economic, societal, cultural impact).
Showcase where and how infrastructures in different field create impact.
Discuss potential and limitation of collaboration between infrastructures to create impact.
Discuss what is the best way for research infrastructures to increase their impact further.

More information on http://www.impact2021.ch/

Dr. Valérie-Anne Ryser (FORS) will start with an introduction to the SHP survey and data structure. Dr. Erika Antal (FORS), Dr. Hannah Klaas (FORS, LIVES Centre) and Sandrine Morel (UNIL-LINES) will introduce participants to the R environment. Participants will create a data file in R, discover solutions to the various problems encountered when importing, creating, merging and reshaping data files. They will explore the data file they have created, using basic commands for descriptive and inference statistics. Finally, they will get the opportunity to produce a data file that matches their own research question.

The workshop will be held in English. The participation in the SHP Workshop costs 200.- CHF.

Consult the detailed program

This edition will include thematic sessions that cover a wide variety of topics, such as health and well-being, education and labour market, families, migration, or politics and attitudes. We also welcome a special session organized by TREE as well as by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

Further information on the conference and the scientific programme

The next FORS Lunch Seminar will take place on Tuesday, June 1, from 12:45 to 13:45 via Zoom.

Henk Verloo (HES-SO Valais-Wallis), Boris Wernli (FORS) and Filipa Pereira (HES-SO Valais-Wallis) will present the following project: Methodological considerations and outcomes of routinely collecting highly sensitive health data from a hospital register

Background: Patient registries can be powerful tools for observing diseases, treatment and outcome variations, examining prognoses, describing patterns of care, estimating the appropriateness of care delivery, assessing effectiveness, monitoring safety and harm, and measuring aspects of care quality.

Aim: To describe profiles and analyse risks—made up of medication, clinical, medical and environment-related factors—that increase older adults’ chances of hospitalisation, ED visits, hospital readmission, institutionalisation or early death.

Method: We synthesised a large longitudinal dataset extracted from a Swiss regional hospital’s register (2015–2018), including older inpatients’ administrative, clinical and medical data. Various clustering methods were used to identify profiles across the different dimensions of inpatients’ conditions (psychological, somatic, diagnostic, medication). Multilevel logistic regressions were calculated to assess associations between identified clusters and risks of hospitalisation, hospital readmission, institutionalisation or early death.

Results: The four-year dataset incorporated 140 variables from 20,422 polymedicated inpatients aged 65 or older, admitted directly from their homes. The overall 30-day hospital readmission rate was 7.8%. Multilevel logistic regression analyses revealed multiple health and drug determinants of hospital readmission. The mean prevalence of unplanned institutionalisation after hospital discharge was 6.1%. Predictive analyses revealed sociodemographic factors and functional dependency to be strong determinants of unplanned institutionalisation.

Conclusions: Hospital registers are raw data. Customisation is complex and requires multiple interventions and techniques. Routinely collected health data can substantially increase knowledge about hospital health patterns and adverse drug effects. Accessing existing highly sensitive data is complex and discourages researchers from exploring large datasets.

Join us online!

Zoom: https://unil.zoom.us/j/9258225207

Passcode: 4582849563

The Swiss Covid-19 Data Symposium organised by FORS will give social science researchers an overview of different Swiss datasets that can be analyzed to assess the impact of the Covid-19-pandemic on numerous aspects of individuals’ everyday lives.

COVID-19 data from the following surveys and studies are presented: MOSAiCH, Swiss Corona Stress Study, Selects, Swiss Household Panel, COVID-19 Social Monitor ZHAW, SHARE and the COVID-19 Edition Science Barometer Switzerland. Researchers also get the chance to talk to the producers of the data and ask detailed questions. The event takes place online and all presentations are held in English.

All detailed information on the COVID-19 data, the surveys, studies and presenters and the registration are to be found on the Symposium website.

The event is organised by FORS.

Questions regarding the organisation: info@forscenter.ch
Questions regarding the content of the symposium: Dr Marieke Heers

The next FORS Lunch Seminar will take place on Tuesday, March 2, from 12:45 to 13:45 via Zoom.

FORS and SWITCH are organising a virtual Open Research Data (ORD) Hackathon from 18 – 20 January 2021 to strengthen collaboration around ORD. We aim to bring the research community together to share ideas and pave the way for innovative projects and applications to improve the ORD landscape. We would like to invite you to hack with us and spread the news about the Hackathon in your network.

Is there a problem you face with research data that could be solved with a tool? Find out more about how to submit your idea and register to participate:

https://www.ord-hackathon.ch/

Students, academics, developers and service providers from Switzerland and beyond are invited to connect on ideas, projects and tools in this three-day hackathon. You’re in the right place to innovate, expand your network and use your skills creatively.

Register for the online event: https://www.ord-hackathon.ch/register/

Submit your idea: www.ord-hackathon.ch/ideas/

Timeline

Contact: info@ord-hackathon.ch

Die Chancen und die Herausforderungen der Kombination von Daten aus unterschiedlichen Quellen beschäftigen die empirischen Sozialwissenschaften zur Zeit stark. An der Tagung stellen wir Best Practices vor und diskutieren die Voraussetzungen und konkrete Anwendungsbeispiele für die Kombination unterschiedlicher Daten.

Diese Veranstaltung wird von der SAGW organisiert. Einige Referenten sind Forschende bei FORS.

Programmdetails

Die Anmeldung erfolgt via Webseite der SAGW.

La prochaine Rencontre Méthodes et recherche FORS-SSP aura lieu avec Emmanuelle Anex:

Cause commune: une co-construction des pratiques entre le terrain et la recherche

Résumé

Le projet Cause Commune vise à améliorer l’environnement social et la qualité de vie au sein de la commune de Chavannes-près-Renens en plein expansion urbaine. Il s’agit, dans ce cadre, d’anticiper les défis liés à la cohésion et à l’inclusion sociale en créant des conditions permettant « d’habiter la ville » de manière plus intégrative en prenant la mixité sociale et surtout générationnelle comme ressources.

L’objectif principal de ce projet est de construire une méthodologie participative et novatrice dans la politique d’action sociale qui profite à la cohésion sociale, au bien-être et à la qualité de vie des habitants, dont les bénéfices secondaires attendus sont un effet sur l’amélioration de la santé psychique et physique des habitant-e-s de tous.

Dans ce cadre, les chercheur-e-s de l’UNIL (Centre LIVES) collaborent au programme par la mise en place d’une enquête longitudinale permettant de mesurer les effets de la participation citoyenne des habitants à des activités et par l’institution d’une plateforme de recherche, de consultation et d’évaluation du programme dans laquelle les différents acteurs sont impliqués ; les habitants, les travailleurs sociaux et les chercheurs. Il s’agit ainsi de mettre en place un cadre participatif avec les différents partenaires permettant des échanges continus et l’émergence d’une expertise citoyenne sur les thèmes, activités et autres aspects pris en considération. L’idée est bien de créer les conditions d’un « décloisonnement » des pratiques par le biais d’une action recherche participative.

Emmanuelle Anex travaille en tant que chargée de recherche au sein du Centre LIVES sur un projet d’action communautaire alliant recherche et terrain. Après sa thèse de doctorat en représentations sociales sur l’application des droits humains, ses intérêts de recherche portent plus particulièrement sur l’identité, les formes de citoyenneté participative et leurs enjeux en termes de qualité et de santé sociale ; c’est pour cette raison qu’elle s’est engagée dans ce projet particulier de Cause Commune. Parallèlement, Emmanuelle est impliquée dans des programmes de sensibilisation visant à lutter contre les discriminations et, à ce titre, coordonne des projets d’intervention en milieu scolaire et de formation.

Mardi 12:15-13:30 via Zoom

 https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/99864876847

The next FORS Lunch Seminar will take place on Tuesday, October 6, from 12:45 to 13:45 online via Zoom: https://unil.zoom.us/j/9258225207

Gian-Andrea Monsch and Stephanie Steinmetz will present the first results of the FORS COVID-19 MOSAiCH study on well-being, politics, work, and family.

First results of the FORS COVID-19 MOSAiCH study on well-being, politics, work, and family

Abstract: To contribute to the understanding of the impact of Covid-19 on society in Switzerland, the FORS study MOSAiCH seized the opportunity to include questions about Covid-19 in their second wave of data collection which took place between April and May 2020. Around 2’000 persons answered the online questionnaire on topics related to well-being, politics, work and family. Based on the first results FORS has published four factsheets highlighting the main findings in the different societal areas.

Against this background, the talk will provide, first, a brief introduction to the data collection process, questionnaire and data quality. Second and principally, the main findings in the area of well-being, politics, work, and family will be presented and discussed. Finally, we will announce the next steps for the follow-up waves in October 2020 and Spring 2021.

The rise of big data indicates a “watershed moment for the social sciences”. Not only are we faced with large and multifarious types of data (e.g. texts, geo location, time stamps, entire full-text archives, pictures), often very unstructured, and stemming from all sorts of sources and phenomena, we are also challenged in our theoretical underpinnings of what constitutes the social and how we can analyze it. We are also witnessing the rise of methods that help to identify patterns and relations, and to reduce complexity. Tools and algorithms of computational linguistics, machine learning, and network analysis are challenging the traditional tool kits of social science methods that work with representative samples, independent observations, statistical significance or analysts’ privileged positions in local settings. The talk discusses some of the methodological and analytical challenges large-scale textual data pose to sociological analysis. It highlights challenges of data construction, algorithmic models of data analysis, and data interpretation using examples of empirical studies.  While indicating challenges, the talk is also certain to point out opportunities such approaches offer to sociological inquiries.

Sophie Mützel, short bio

Sophie Mützel is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology, University of Lucerne, Switzerland. She teaches on the sociology of algorithms, big data and social media, as well as on metrics in journalism and the digital economy within the study program on “media and networks”. Her research interests lie in the areas of big data and its analytics, in particular text analytics and network analysis, as well as economic and cultural sociology. She recently finished a book manuscript on “Markets from stories”. She is also the PI of the Swiss federal government funded NRP75 project “Facing big data: methods and skills for a 21st century sociology”.

Sophie studied Political Science at UC Berkeley, Sociology at Cornell University, and finished her PhD in Sociology at Columbia University. After completing her PhD, she held a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the European University Institute, Italy; afterwards she taught and conducted research at Humboldt-University Berlin and at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. She has been a research fellow at Harvard University and held a visiting professorship at the University of Vienna.

Tuesday 12:15-13:30. Follow this Methods and Research Meeting via Zoom !

 https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/99864876847

Call for Contributions to a Special Issue on the 2019 Swiss National Elections

Professor Anke Tresch, Head of Group Political Surveys at FORS and co-editor of The Swiss Political Science Review invites contributions that focus on new theoretical, methodological or empirical aspects in the study of election campaigns and voting behaviour in Switzerland and in comparative perspective.

Full details of the call are available here.

The deadline for submitting proposals is: 31st August 2020

We are happy to inform that the Summer School in Social Science Methods will take place in Lugano from the 14th to the 28th of August; given the situation with COVID-19, we will provide an option of attending the workshops on-line for those who are not in position to travel. Should the situation require it, the Summer School will  switch to remote mode. Registration is open upon a first-come first-serve basis, as the number of participants per workshop is limited to guarantee optimal learning conditions.

The Summer School offers:

• 12 one-week full-time workshops including extensive practical work and interaction with the lecturer.
• A wide offer of quantitative methods, such as panel data analysis and structural equation modeling, and qualitative methods, such as case study design and qualitative interviewing.
• A well-qualified international faculty.
• A highly attractive working and living environment in Lugano.
• Participants are strongly encouraged to work on their own data and research problems to get the most out of their Summer School experience.

All workshops and other Summer School related activities will be held at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano West Campus, Centrocivico, Via Giuseppe Buffi 13, CH-6900 Lugano.

Each regular workshop runs from Monday through Friday (from 8 h 30 through 18 h), an average effective teaching time of 7½ to 8 hours per day, i.e. a total of up to 35-40 hours for each workshop.

The workshop application status is based on the number of persons who have applied for a workshop, i.e. conditional applications. Only the payment of the registration fee within three weeks from reception of the invoice confirms the application and makes the registration final.

The language in all workshops and lectures will be English.

Participants are Ph.D. students, junior and senior researchers and practitioners, from Switzerland and abroad working in a wide range of scientific disciplines: Psychology, Educational, Business Studies, Communication, Political Science, Sociology, Health Sciences, and many others.

Detailed information on the Summer School can be found here !

Register here !

Professor Anke Tresch, Head of Group Political Surveys at FORS and editor of the Swiss Political Science Review published at Wiley has released a call for contributions to the special issue “COVID-19 : A Political Science Perspective”.

Welcome are short research notes. Proposals in English should be 150 words.

The deadline is 31 July 2020.

Full details of the call are available here