The conference takes place on October 7 to 9, 2024 at Villa Vigoni, Italy.

The theme of this year’s conference is

Fears, Worries and Anxieties in Contemporary Europe. Is there a societal climate change and what are the consequences for quality of life?

The deadline for the call for papers has passed. Information on this year’s conference can be found here: https://forscenter.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/call-for-papers_villavigoni-conference_2024.pdf

Conference committee: Jeroen Boelhouwer (SCP, The Hague), Peter Farago (formerly FORS, Lausanne), Laura Kestilä, (National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsiniki), Tadas Leončikas (Eurofound, Dublin), Heinz-Herbert Noll (formerly GESIS, Mannheim), Christian Suter (University Neuchâtel), István György Tóth (TARKI, Budapest).

For information on previous conferences see: https://www.tarki.hu/villa-vigoni-conferences.

Supporting institutions:

Save the dates for the next FORS Lunch Seminars: 24 September, 8 October, and 29 October 2024.

Join our AI Lunch Seminar Series, which Bojana Tasic, the Head of the Infrastructure and Development Unit at FORS, will give.

FORS is excited to announce a series of engaging and informative lunch seminars on Artificial Intelligence designed to help you navigate and understand the dynamic AI landscape. Mark your calendars for three insightful sessions, each offering valuable knowledge and practical information. These seminars will occur from 12:45 to 13:45 in Room 5621, Geopolis building. Please register if you want to follow this event:

https://newsletter.forscenter.ch/newsletter/index.php/lists/jn860qfjswd2a/subscribe

Workshop 1: AI Ecosystem

Date: 24 September (12:45 to 13:45, AULA of the IDHEAP at UNIL- Mouline, Chavannes-près-Renens)

In our first seminar, we will dive into the AI ecosystem, exploring the rich history and development of AI. We will cover:

– The journey of AI: From its beginnings to its current trajectory

– Fundamentals of Machine Learning: Generating insights from data, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning

– Deep Learning and Neural Networks: Understanding artificial neural networks, the workflow and layers of a neural network, and the applications of deep neural networks, including Generative AI like ChatGPT

Workshop 2: Working with AI and Practical Tools

Date: 8 October (12:45 to 13:45, AULA of the IDHEAP at UNIL- Mouline, Chavannes-près-Renens)

The second seminar focuses on hands-on applications and practical tools for working with AI.

Dr. Thé Van Luong, Head of AI and IT systems for research at the UNIL will join this seminar as a guest presenter.

We will explore:

– Utilizing useful AI tools for various applications

– Enhancing productivity and innovation through AI-driven solutions

Workshop 3: Legal and Ethical Framework of AI

Date: 29 October (12:45 to 13:45, AULA of the IDHEAP at UNIL- Mouline, Chavannes-près-Renens)

In our final seminar, we will address the critical legal and ethical considerations surrounding AI. Key topics include:

– The three major pitfalls of AI: Privacy, Explainability, and Bias

– Ethical dilemmas: The Trolley Problem and other ethical challenges

– Legal implications: Navigating the complex legal landscape of AI

– Ethical considerations in practice: Algorithmic bias, face recognition, and the ethical use of neural networks for creating deepfakes

These seminars are designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of AI and its implications in today’s world. Whether you’re seeking to enhance your professional knowledge or an enthusiast eager to explore the world of AI, our workshops offer valuable insights for everyone.

For more information, please visit our website FORS Lunch seminars | FORS (forscenter.ch)

FORS und DaSCH (Swiss National Data and Service Center for the Humanities) bieten eine neue Reihe kostenloser Online-Webinare zum Datenmanagement für Forschende in den Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften an.

Das erste Webinar, Planning Data Management, findet am 6. November 2024 (14:00 bis 15:30) statt und wird von Rita Gautschy (DaSCH) und Auriane Marmier (FORS) geleitet. Es wird die Anforderungen an Open Science und den Data Management Plan (DMP) behandeln und anschließend Fallstudien zur Handhabung von Bild- und Interviewdaten vorstellen, gefolgt von einer 30-minütigen Diskussion.

Zur Anmeldung

Weitere Informationen

Save the Date: Das zweite Webinar wird sich mit der Anwendung der FAIR- und CARE-Prinzipien befassen und am 5. Februar 2025 stattfinden. Weitere Details werden später in diesem Jahr bekannt gegeben.

Advanced skills for research data management and open science in the social sciences

Elevate your research in today’s data-driven world by gaining critical skills in Research Data Management (RDM) and Open Science. This program, led by experts from the Università della Svizzera italiana, the University of Lausanne and FORS, offers two options to fit your needs:

On the campus of Lugano: Immerse yourself in a dynamic learning environment (25th-29th November 2024, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano).
Online: This course already took place between the 26th-30th August 2024  and on the 9th September 2024.

Gain the knowledge and tools to:

• Manage your research data effectively throughout its lifecycle.
• Understand and apply FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) for data quality and sharing.
• Develop a robust Data Management Plan (DMP) tailored to your research project.
• Navigate data ethics and privacy considerations to ensure responsible research practices.
• Implement data security measures and explore long-term storage solutions.
• Leverage data sharing and open science practices to maximise research impact and collaboration.
• Foster reproducible research through best practices in data documentation and citation.

This immersive experience goes beyond theory, providing practical exercises and workshops to directly apply your learnings to your ongoing research. Bring your own data (or research ideas) and actively engage with instructors and peers (on-campus) or fellow online participants.

Gain a competitive edge by enhancing your research efficiency, publication potential, and collaboration skills.

Course fee: CHF 500.-

Limited spots available!

More information and registration

We are looking forward to welcoming you for two weeks of learning in August at the beautiful campus of Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano!

The next SHP workshop will take place in Lausanne between June 4^th and June 7^th, 2024.

On June 4^th, 2024, the SHP-team will give an introduction to the Swiss Household Panel study and data management with SPSS. We will present the structure of the SHP and the organization of the SHP data files. In hands-on sessions, we will construct several data files that will help analyze SHP data.
Participation in this workshop is free of charge.

Between June 5^th and 7^th, 2024, Prof. Matthias Studer, Prof. Emer. Gilbert Ritschard and Dr. Kevin Emery from the University of Geneva will give a course on sequence data analysis. Participation in this workshop costs 250.- CHF.

You will find more information and the prerequisites here.

Please register here.

Note that the number of participants is limited to guarantee optimal learning and teaching conditions. The application deadline is May 27^th, 2024.

Dear all,

We are pleased to invite you to the next Methods and Research Meeting organized by FORS and SSP/UNIL. It will take place in room 5779 at Géopolis building, University of Lausanne on Tuesday 28th May 2024 from 12:15 to 13:30.

We welcome Thomas Louail, CNRS researcher in computational social science.

He will give a presentation on the following topic:

Unveiling social desirability scales by comparing individuals’ responses to an online survey with their streaming history data

Abstract

I will try to show how the combination of observational and declarative data, when collected for the same people, may be leveraged to unveil social desirability scales. 

In the framework of RECORDS, a collaborative project involving the CNRS and Deezer — one of the major music streaming platform in France — we have collected and combined the detailed streaming history data of about 10k French individuals, with their responses to an online survey about their music preferences and listening practices. We use these mixed data to build exploratory indicators, that aim to measure the gap between the preferences people declared in the survey with the music they streamed during the reference period covered by the survey. 

More specifically, we focus on two different levels of music description. First, we perform the analysis at the level of music genres, ill-defined categories that are nevertheless used in most of the quantitative studies in sociology of culture. We focus on genres traditionally considered as ‘highbrow’ (classical music and jazz) and ‘lowbrow’ (hip-hop and dance) due to the social attributes of people who prefer them. We test if this highbrow-lowbrow scale can be retrieved through the sole comparison of what people declare in the survey and what they stream, let aside their social attributes. We then reproduce the analysis at the level of artists (precisely-defined categories) for about a hundred artists considered typical of these genres. We show that while respondents tend, at an aggregated level, to stream what they declared, at the individual level there is a tendency to over-declare musical content that is (i) mostly consumed by higher-status individuals ; (ii) considered as quality-content by both professional and amateur critics.

Presenter

Thomas Louail is a CNRS researcher in computational social science. He currently leads the RECORDS project, which focuses on the listening practices and music preferences of streaming platform users.

We look forward to this presentation.

The organizing committee:

Jacques-Antoine Gauthier 

Oliver Lipps

Davide Morselli

Stephanie Steinmetz

https://forscenter.ch/events-training/methods-and-research-meetings/

Am 4. & 5. September 2024 findet das 10. Schweizer Methodenfestival für qualitative Forschungsmethoden in St. Gallen statt. In insgesamt 15 Forschungsateliers können sich Interessierte über den aktuellen Stand verschiedener Methoden informieren und ihre Fragen sowie teilweise auch ihre eigenen Projekte mit ausgewiesenen Expertinnen und Experten diskutieren.

Am Methodenfestival sind qualitative Sozialforschende aus der Schweiz als auch aus dem Ausland willkommen.

In insgesamt 15 Forschungsateliers können sich Interessierte über den aktuellen Stand verschiedener Methoden informieren und ihre Fragen sowie teilweise auch ihre eigenen Projekte mit ausgewiesenen Expertinnen und Experten diskutieren. Am Methodenfestival sind qualitative Sozialforschende aus der Schweiz als auch aus dem Ausland willkommen.

Mit einer Keynote und zwei Forschungsateliers bildet «künstliche Intelligenz» in der qualitativen Sozialforschung dieses Jahr einen besonderen Schwerpunkt.

Programm und weitere Informationen: 

https://qualitative-research.ch/10-schweizer-methodenfestival/

Anmeldung: unter https://forms.gle/Ffof7zzxtjiSFrTW7

Anmeldungsschluss: 26. Mai 2024 (Mitternacht)

The next FORS Lunch Seminar will take place on Tuesday, May 14,2024  from 12:45 to 13:45 in Room 5621 (Géopolis). 

Pedro Araujo PhD, Senior Researcher at FORS will present the following research:

From dynastic families to transnational top managers: Transformation of power structures within the Swiss business elite (1890-2020)

Over the course of the 20th century, the Swiss business elite underwent profound structural change. Once dominated by familial dynasties perpetuating control, the firms where these individuals operate have transitioned from locally anchored family businesses to global corporations managed by transnational managers with no ties to the founding families. Traditional national institutions of selection and recruitment, such as apprenticeships and military service, have eroded. Executives progressively distanced themselves from other realms of influence, particularly the political sphere, and became increasingly international.

The presentation delves into these transformative shifts by scrutinizing the careers of executives across key economic sectors in the three Swiss largest cities, namely Basel, Geneva, and Zurich, at seven benchmark years (1890, 1910, 1937, 1957, 1980, 2000, and 2020). It will address how the selection of individuals at positions of power has changed within the Swiss economic sphere during the analyzed historical period. The results presented are part of a larger 4-year research project (SNSF Sinergia), conducted between 2020 and 2024.

There will be coffee and tea as well as a little dessert. Please bring your cup and join us a few minutes before the start of the seminar to get your drink!

To stay up to date concerning the FORS Lunch Seminars, check our website: https://forscenter.ch/events-training/fors-lunch-seminars/

Die Eidgenössischen Jugendbefragungen ch-x sind eine Institution des Eidgenössischen Departements für Verteidigung, Bevölkerungsschutz und Sport (VBS). Sie geben seit 1971 in wissenschaftlicher Form Aufschluss über die Lage der jungen Erwachsenen in der Schweiz hinsichtlich

• Bildung, Ausbildung, Berufseinstieg,
• Wertvorstellungen, Lebensziele, allgemeine Lebensbedingungen sowie politische Kompetenzen und Einstellungen,
• Gesundheit und Sport.

Die ch-x führen jedes Jahr schweizweit repräsentative Erhebungen bei jungen Erwachsenen beiderlei Geschlechts durch. Ihre Erhebungen werden in der Regel von Hochschulinstitutionen durchgeführt. Die Projekte erstrecken sich über zwei Jahre und erfassen alle stellungspflichtigen jungen Männer der Schweiz (Alter: überwiegend 19) sowie eine grosse Frauenstichprobe (ca. 12’000 Frauen pro Jahr) von nichtdienstpflichtigen 19-jährigen Frauen, zusammen bis zu 80’000 Personen pro Jahr.

Für die Erhebung 2026/2027 suchen die ch-x eine Forscherin bzw. einen Forscher, die/der das Projekt auf der Grundlage eines von ihr/ihm entwickelten Konzeptes innerhalb der Vorgaben ch-x durchführt.

Eingabefrist: 15. April 2024

Detaillierte Informationen zum Projekt und zur Einreichung.

We are delighted to inform you about a series of dedicated sessions scheduled for the Love Data Week Switzerland, taking place from the 12th to the 16th of February 2024.

In the Love Data Week Switzerland, we are eager to highlight specific workshops that offer valuable insights into data management practices. These sessions are meticulously curated to address the needs of researchers seeking to enhance their understanding of data publication and sharing.

All talks: https://www.zhbluzern.ch/love-data-week

Tuesday, 13 February

How to Publish Data on the Language Repository of Switzerland (LaRS)
09:30 – 10:00 CET
Zoom, Talk in English
This event introduces the Language Repository of Switzerland (LaRS), powered by SWISSUbase. It is aimed at researchers in the field of Linguistics who would like to learn in a short tutorial how to publish their data on the repository in a few simple steps.
-Stefanie Strebel, University of Zurich

Wednesday, 14 February

Publier ses données de recherche sur SWISSUbase en 15 minutes
12:30 – 12:45 CET
Teams, Workshop in French
Destiné aux chercheur.euse de l’Université de Lausanne et de l’Université de Neuchâtel, cet atelier propose une démonstration en ligne du processus de dépôt de données dans SWISSUbase. En fin de démonstration, un temps sera consacré aux questions/réponses.
-Carmen Jambé / Quentin Gallis, Université de Lausanne / Université de Neuchâtel

Sharing social science research data via SWISSUbase
14:00 – 14:30 CET
Zoom, Workshop in English
You love your social science data and plan to share them with researchers but don’t know exactly how that works? Do you want to learn more about sharing sensitive data? Do you have other questions about sharing your social science research data? If so, our mini-workshop is for you. In this mini-workshop, we will give an overview of the services FORS offers and then provide you with a short demonstration of how to deposit social science data via SWISSUbase. In the second part, you will get the chance to ask questions related to sharing your own data and get hands-on advice. If you want to get familiar with SWISSUbase for social science data before, we recommend you watch this video.
-Meret Hildebrandt / Marielle Kappeler / Marieke Heers (FORS

Thursday, 15 February

Discover DataGo: a tool for assessing the shareability of personal and sensitive data
9:30 – 9:45 CET
Zoom (Passcode: 67874682), Workshop in English
DataGo is a new tool for assessing the shareability of personal and sensitive data through an archive. The presentation is targeting social science researchers who have already collected their data as well as anyone involved in the provision of data management support (i.e. data stewards, data librarians, research consultants).
-Pablo Diaz / Alexandra Stam (University of Lausanne / FORS)

International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) and 3D
10:00 – 10:45 CET
Zoom, Talk in English
The use of open standards removes unnecessary barriers and allows for interoperability. IIIF is a set of open standards for delivering digital objects such as images, audios, videos, and 3D data. In this talk I will present the advantages of the IIIF standard and the attempts to define a IIIF standard for 3D objects.
-Rita Gautschy (DaSCH)

The next SSP-FORS Methods and Research Seminar will take place on Tuesday 30th of January 2024 (room 5799 Geopolis 12:15 to 13:30). 

Florian Keusch from the University of Mannheim,will give a presentation on the following topic:

Quality of Digital Behavioral Data

Digital behavioral data that stem from people’s interactions with online systems such as web sites, apps, and wearables are increasingly used in the social sciences to supplement or even substitute traditional survey data. While the hope is that these new type of data provides more detailed information that is less influendes by human social-psychological mechanisms involved in self-reporting, there is still little systematic researcher on their error properties. In this talk, I will present the results of a recent experimental study in Germany that explores the data quality of digital behavioral data from web trackers, apps, and data donation vis a vis survey self-reports.

Florian Keusch is Professor of Social Data Science and Methodology in the Sociology Department, School of Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim, and Adjunct Research Professor in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. He studies the quality of digital behavioral data from wearbales, apps, and sensors and how they can complement survey data to better measure attitudes, behaviors, and social interactions.

We look forward to your participation.

The organizing committee:

Jacques-Antoine Gauthier 

Oliver Lipps

Davide Morselli

Stephanie Steinmetz

https://forscenter.ch/events-training/methods-and-research-meetings/

Are you involved in the provision of data management support to social science researchers in Swiss research institutions? Do researchers ask you for advice on how to comply with open data requirements? Are you dealing with questions such as:

• “Do my research materials include personal data?”
• “Can research materials including personal data be shared with other researchers or for teaching?”
• “What are the conditions for sharing research materials including personal data in a data repository?”
• “What are the different options for complying with open data requirements?”

Format: Presentations by FORS and Unil staff members + Q&A sessions
Audience: Support staff, data stewards, librarians, research consultants, anyone involved in the provision of data management support

During this half-day event, the FORS data management support team, in collaboration with the research office of the University of Lausanne, will provide you with practical guidance on how to assess the shareability of research data, including personal and sensitive data, both quantitative and qualitative. The focus of the workshop will be on data that have already been collected, and which are intended to be shared in a data repository, such as SWISSUbase.

Detailed information and registration:  https://forscenter.ch/sharing-personal-data-through-a-data-repository/

The CNES Seminar Series casts a spotlight on different National Election Studies that share their experiences in designing and conducting election studies.

Participation is free and open to everyone interested in the practices and methodological aspects of electoral research.

First edition: Implementing mixed-mode surveys

14 November 2023

15:30-17:00 (Central European time, GMT +1)

PROGRAMME

Chair: Eva Heiða Önnudóttir, Icelandic National Election Study (ICENES)

Participation is free but registration is mandatory. The deadline for registration was October 31, 2023.
Howerer you can still register here.

Further information on CNES: https://www.cnes.community/

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: ISSP USER CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT

The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is delighted to announce its second ISSP User Conference, scheduled to be held online on December 4, 2023, and focusing on the topic of Environment. The Call for Abstracts is currently open, with a submission deadline set for October 20, 2023.

Access the call here: Call-for-Abstracts_ISSP-User-Conference.pdf.

For more information about the ISSP, please visit: www.issp.org

The 12th International Conference of Panel Data Users in Switzerland will take place on June 14-15, 2023 at the University of Lausanne.

This edition will include thematic sessions covering a wide variety of topics, such as health and well-being, education and labour market, families, gender, ethnic minorities and migration, politics and attitudes, survey methodology, and longitudinal methods. The program also includes a session on TREE data and one on health literacy using SHARE data.

Consult the scientific programme: https://forscenter.ch/12th-international-conference-of-panel-data-users-in-switzerland/

The registrations are now closed.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the law on advance directives (ADs) in the Swiss Civil Code (2013), the Advance Care Planning (ACP) Dialogue Workshop aims to examine the development, implementation, and use of ACP and ADs in Switzerland over the last ten years by adopting a public health approach. Academic experts from different fields (e.g., medicine, ethics, sociology, psychology, law, economics), professionals involved in ACP promotion and completion, and policy and public health stakeholders are invited to engage in a multidisciplinary exchange of views on the uptake of ACP and ADs in Switzerland, as well as their vision for the future. The workshop will result in a multidisciplinary, holistic, and multilevel picture of the past and current situation of ACP and ADs in Switzerland and the related challenges and recommendations for the future advancement of ACP practice and research. We organize the ACP Dialogue Workshop in collaboration with ACP-Swiss.

Workshop program

Concept

Register for the workshop

This is a public event but the number of places available is limited. Attendees are, therefore, asked to register for the event here:

https://wp.unil.ch/soins-anticipes/registration-form/

Dear colleagues,

The next FORS Lunch Seminar will take place on Tuesday, March 14, from 12:45 to 13:45 in Room 5899.

During the seminar the winners of the FORS Data Re-use Award 2022 Rita Schmutz (first prize) and Mengling Cheng (second prize) will present their work and receive their awards.

Rita Schmutz (LIVES, University of Lausanne) will present the following project:

Inequality of Educational Opportunity in Switzerland: Exploring Regional Differences and Institutional Factors

Abstract

This study provides estimates of inequality of educational opportunity (IEOp) in compulsory education in Switzerland using the 2016 Swiss large-scale assessments of basic competencies (ÜGK – COFO – VeCoF) dataset. IEOp measures the share of inequality in the distribution of educational performance that can only be attributed to students’ characteristics beyond their control (circumstances), such as their family socioeconomic status (SES), parental education, gender, and immigrant status. By employing a parametric ex-ante estimation approach, I estimate that IEOp in Switzerland is 21%, with considerable heterogeneity across cantons and the German-speaking region showing higher levels of unfair educational inequalities. The IEOp estimates are decomposed to identify the contributions of different circumstances and to develop a better understanding of the observed inequality. Socioeconomic status, parental education, and occupation are the most relevant circumstances in most cantons. Inequality of educational opportunity is associated with the institutional structure of cantonal education systems. Educational inputs in primary school explained most of the cross-canton variation in IEOp, followed by the level of stratification in secondary school.

********************************************************************************************

Mengling Cheng (LIVES, University of Lausanne) will present the following project:

Evolution of the income-related gap in health with old age: Evidence from 20 countries in European and Chinese panel datasets

(joint work with Nicolas Sommet, Daniela Jopp and Dario Spini)

Abstract

Background: Some studies show that the protective effect of higher income on health weakens with old age (the age-as-leveler pattern), whereas others show that it strengthens with old age (the cumulative advantage/disadvantage pattern). Existing studies are limited in that they use single-country and/or single-timepoint designs. To overcome these limitations, we used cross-national and longitudinal data to clarify how the income-related gap in health evolves with old age.

Methods: We used the longest-running European and Chinese panel datasets, namely, SHARE (2004-2019, 73,407 European participants from 19 countries) and CHARLS (2011-2018, 10,067 Chinese participants). We operationalised health using multimorbidity and three alternative indicators (functional disability, mobility disability, and memory). We performed Poisson growth curve modeling to capture the between-participant effects of age and the within-participant effects of aging.

Results: We obtained three consistent findings for both Europe (the effect was observed in most countries) and China. First, the protective effect of higher income on multimorbidity, functional disability, and mobility disability was weaker for older than for younger adults (between-participant age-as-leveler effects). Second, only the protective effect of higher income on mobility disability weakened over the later life course (within-participant age-as-leveler effects). Third, the protective effect of higher income on memory was stronger for older than for younger adults and strengthened over the later life course of the individual (both between-participant and within-participant cumulative advantage/disadvantage effects).

Conclusion: Our results suggest that the income-related gap in physical health (i.e., multimorbidity, functional disability, and mobility disability)—but not in cognitive health (i.e., memory)—narrows in old age for both Europe and China.

There will be coffee and tea as well as a little dessert. Please bring your cup and join us a few minutes before the start of the seminar to get your drink!

Register for the free online webinar

Introduction to LaRS-SWISSUbase for the Linguistics Community”, that takes place on February 14, 2023 from 15:00-16:00 (CET).

In this webinar, you will learn about the SWISSUbase archiving platform for the linguistics community and the services provided to researchers including data curation, archiving and publishing of your linguistics data.

The session will include a demonstration of the platform and time for questions and answers.

https://newsletter.forscenter.ch/newsletter/index.php/lists/bl638lk4r7ce7/subscribe