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

On May 20, 2021 we will reassess the situation and then decide if the conference can take place and in what form (on site at the University of Lausanne or online on zoom).

When: June 10-11, 2021

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 https://www.impact2021.ch

The Summer School is organized by the Università della Svizzera italiana in close cooperation with FORS, the Swiss Foundation for social science research. It offers every year several full-time workshops in two weekly sessions (second half of August).

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

All workshops are oriented towards practical applications and spend roughly half of their time on applied work and exercises. There is ample time to discuss and try to solve problems related to the work and research projects of the participants with instructors and fellow participants. Whenever possible participants are strongly encouraged to work on their own data and research problems to get the most out of the Summer School experience.

Instructors are renowned specialists, experienced and enthusiastic teachers in their respective fields, and they will organize their courses in order to optimize opportunities for help and advice during the workshops.

The programme and registration information

The Swiss Household Panel (SHP) workshop will take place from 13 to 15 September 2021 at the University of Lausanne.

On the first day, there will be an introduction to the SHP and the R software.

On the second and third day the workshop will focus on data management with R, based on data from the SHP. The workshop will be led by Dr. Hannah Klaas and Dr. Erika Antal from FORS.

The workshop will be held in English.

The registration and a detailed program will follow soon.

The next FORS Lunch Seminar will take place on Tuesday, April 6, from 12:45 to 13:45 via Zoom.

The next Methods and Research Meeting organized by FORS and SSP/UNIL will take place on  Tuesday March 30, 2021 at 12.15-13:30 via Zoom:

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

Annamaria Bianchi, Associate Professor of Economic and Business Statistics at the University of Bergamo (Italy) will talk on

Web-Face-to-Face Mixed-Mode Design and Attrition in Longitudinal Surveys: some evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study

Abstract
This seminar considers two issues related to the construction and use of longitudinal panels: (1) the use of sequential mixed-mode designs, which are increasingly considered as an alternative to interviewer administered data collection; (2) attrition, which may threaten the validity of the estimates from the panels.

The first part of the seminar provides results on the effects of the introduction of a sequential web-face-to-face mixed-mode design over three waves of a longitudinal survey in which members were previously interviewed face-to-face (Bianchi et al., 2017). Findings are reported from a large-scale randomised experiment carried out on the UK Understanding Society Innovation Panel. As the mode experiment was interacted with an experiment on the use of incentives, results related to the impact of incentive strategies with respect to different modes are reported (Bianchi and Biffignandi, 2019b). Further, some recent findings on the use of different devices for the web data collection are also shown (Bianchi and Biffignandi, 2020).

The second part of the seminar deepens the knowledge on attrition in longitudinal panels making reference to three waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (Bianchi and Biffignandi, 2019a). While traditionally participation behaviour in panel surveys has been mostly studied with reference to socio-demographic variables and not distinguishing different components of the response process, the focus in the seminar is on the role of social indicators and personality traits in explaining contact and cooperation, beyond demographic variables.

Annamaria Bianchi is Associate Professor of Economic and Business Statistics at the University of Bergamo (Italy).

For more information: https://www.unibg.it/ugov/person/615

We look forward to seeing you at this seminar.

The organizing committee:

Stephanie Steinmetz

Jacques-Antoine Gauthier

Oliver Lipps

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

FORS and the GREC research group of the UNIL Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (SSP) is organizing a one-day academic conference titled:

The state of democracy in a comparative perspective

28 February 2020, 9h30-16h30

IDHEAP building room 001 AULA

 The event is co-sponsored by:
Montoring Electoral Democracy (MEDem)
Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES)

The programme contains 4 panels and 10 presentations scheduled around various engaging topics on electoral democracy.

Consult the programme !

No registration needed.

For more details: annika.lindholm@unil.ch

FORS researcher Michael Ochsner will give an overview of his research soon to be published in the series FORS Guides to survey methods and data management.

Representativeness of Surveys and its Analysis

Abstract: When fielding a survey, we want to find out some unknown characteristics of the population or how the population thinks about specific topics. However, it is not possible to ask each member of the population to give us the desired information. Hence, instead of asking the whole population, the information is asked only from a small selection of the population under scrutiny. As survey practitioners and data analysts we are concerned about the quality of our sample because if the sample is significantly different from the whole population, statements about the population can be biased. To address this issue, representation analyses are conducted. However, the term and concept of “representativeness” has been challenged in the statistical literature for decades. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the concept of representativeness and the problems involved and suggest a multidimensional approach to the problem of sample quality with regard to inference. Instead of a deterministic concept of a sample “representative for the population”, I suggest examining risks for representation bias linked to the purpose of data use.

Everyone can join the FORS Lunch Seminar in room 5899 at Geopolis on Thursday, December 19, from 12:15 to 13:15.