Empirical Social Science Research Articles

Could deep-sea mining sustain sustainability? The international seabed authority and the UN 2030 agenda

Madureira et al. (2023)published a timely article about the role of deep-sea mining in sustainable development – UN Agenda 2030. We take the opportunity to join the discussion initiated by the authors and highlight the known challenges in deep-sea mining discussions using rich, empirical social and natural science literature. Our premise is the following: sustainable development depends on careful assessment of pressing, known issues that need attention. Local problems require context-specific, local solutions to make propositions about the future and sustainability unambiguous and workable. Meaningful discussions on sustainability in relation to ocean and terrestrial mining depend on engagement with a broad body of literature, from anthropology to human geography, policy and governance research, among others. In sum, we hope to contribute to a more comprehensive interdisciplinary discussion on the contested topic of deep-sea mining and its role in sustainability.

A primer for post qualitative inquiry

ABSTRACT Because post qualitative inquiry begins with the immanent ontology and concepts of poststructuralism, it cannot be another humanist empirical social science research methodology. This article includes discussions of the origin and ontology of post qualitative inquiry as well as its refusal of the human sciences’ man and his methods. Post qualitative inquiry may be useful for psychology to come and a people who do not yet exist.

How Best to Define Antisemitism? A Structural Approach

Abstract: In the current discussion about definitions of antisemitism, the empirical social sciences have been marginalized. Groups of well-intentioned experts make decisions without considering the real-life experiences and perceptions of Jewish people—those who are impacted by antisemitism. I advocate returning the decision to the people, attributing greater weight in defining antisemitism to the actual perceptions of the victims—bottom-up rather than top-down. As a basis for a valid definition, we need to demonstrate these perceptions empirically. This paper presents a structural analysis of the 2018 Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) Survey. The study, conducted through the internet, included over 16,000 self-identified Jews in 12 European Union countries. I review the findings regarding the main contents of antisemitic expressions, the channels of transmission of antisemitism, and the identity of perpetrators. Using Similarity Structure Analysis (SSA), I suggest a new and better analytic typology of the main patterns of perceptions of contemporary antisemitism.

The Historical Methodological Foundation of Phenomenography

Phenomenography is a research tradition originating from research on students’ studying and learning. The research methods of phenomenography have been discussed and criticized by many authors. There is a need for a presentation of the historical methodological foundation of phenomenography. The phenomenographic research methods are best understood as placed within the general research methodology and research approach of contextual analysis. The following description is directed to all interested in phenomenography and its methodological foundation. It is also directed to all interested in research methodology, especially in the fields of empirical educational and social science research. After a brief introduction, the common background of contextual analysis and phenomenography, and the origin and development of contextual analysis and phenomenography, are briefly outlined. Then, the methodological reflections and orientations in phenomenography, and the foundation of contextual analysis and phenomenography are presented. The article ends with a conclusion.

A naturalist approach to social ontology

I argue that a certain kind of naturalist approach to social ontology is likely to be both philosophically fruitful and relevant to empirical social science. The kind of naturalism I employ might be called contextualism, which emphasizes the constant presence of assumed background knowledge, is suspicious of general inference rules and all or nothing claims about the ontology of the social sciences, and argues that Quine’s quantificational criterion for ontological commitment has to be supplemented with local interpretations and arguments about what specific social science research is committed to. I look at three case studies employing this perspective, one on agent based models and individualism, a second on the reality of social class, and a third on the reality of race. In all three cases work is first needed to clarifying what empirical social science is claiming, what ontology or ontologies it seems to presuppose, and then description of the kinds of evidence that supports its commitments.

The Worldview Interpretations of Philosophy and the Problem of Its Scientific Status

The article discusses the issue of the essence and scientific status of philosophy. The case is made that philosophy is essentially related to worldview, because it revolves around the most general questions about the world, a human being, and its place in the world – worldview questions, or Big Philosophical Questions. This does not mean that philosophy is a worldview, or a collection of worldviews, or a science about worldviews. It is rather the realm of the search for answers to worldview questions and of the elaboration and rational critical evaluation of the arguments for and against different possible answers, as well as of the critical analysis and development of the categories and conceptual schemes used to think about such questions. Philosophy can also be considered as a science in the wide sense of a systematic knowledge-seeking intellectual activity aimed at truth, an important part of the community of knowledge disciplines that includes not only natural empirical and mathematical sciences but social sciences and humanities as well. At least, such a scientific character is to be expected from academic philosophy. The pluralism of opinions characteristic for philosophy does not undermine its scientific status, because on the one hand, other sciences also provide no guarantees that their accepted theories are true, and there is (to a greater or lesser degree) pluralism of opinions with respect to a number of fundamental issues, and on the other hand, philosophy produces important knowledge of several kinds: about ignorance, about fundamental categories, conceptual schemes and principles of thinking, and about the available alternatives with respect to philosophical issues and relevant arguments.

Voting for the Future: Electoral Institutions and the Time Horizons of Democracy

The urgency of climate change has prompted political theorists to consider how democracy might be reconfigured to cope with the future challenges that our current social and economic practices will generate. There have been in recent years numerous promising proposals for how political systems might be reformed so as to make them more forward-looking. This article offers an assessment of a number of such proposals that touch on elections. The main contribution of the article is to bring together suggestions put forward by political theorists and evidence from empirical social science that is of relevance to these suggestions.

Ethical human participant research in Central Asia: a quantitative analysis of attitudes and practices among social science researchers based in the region

Central Asian researchers are underrepresented in the global research production in social sciences, resulting in a limited Central Asian perspective on many social issues. To stimulate the production of local knowledge, it is important to develop strong research cultures, including knowledge of ethical practices in research with human participants. There is currently scarce evidence about research ethics regulations used by social science researchers working in the Central Asian region. This article reports findings from an online survey conducted in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan ( n = 296) from October 2021 to January 2022. Focusing on three Central Asian countries, this article addresses the following research questions: What are the attitudes and practices of social science researchers based in Central Asia toward research ethics regulations and research ethics committees (RECs)? Is research ethics training associated with improved attitudes and practices in relation to research ethics among social scientists based in Central Asia? Is research experience associated with improved attitudes and practices in relation to research ethics among social scientists based in Central Asia? Regression analyses results demonstrate that locally based social scientists with prior research ethics training implement ethical procedures in their empirical research practice more often compared to researchers without any prior research ethics training. The preliminary findings indicate that research ethics training is positively associated with Central Asia-based social science researchers’ engagement in ethical research, thus potentially increasing the amount and quality of empirical social science research produced in the region.

Lobbying in social media as a new source of survey bias

Questionnaires are widely-used tools in empirical social science, including tourism research. The key premise of each quantitative survey is the representativeness of the investigated sample. Yet, the rapid development of information and communication technology forces social scientists to take new sources of biases into account. This paper describes the problem of lobbying in social media, initiated by survey participants themselves. We report a collective action of online communities which resulted in over-representation of the collective opinions of certain interest groups. The bias has been observed when analyzing data collected during a visitor monitoring study in a popular forest recreation destination: the Tricity Landscape Park in Poland. Two different methods: on-site survey (n = 994) and online survey (n = 1023) were used to collect data on local recreational preferences. A significant effect of lobbying in social media on online survey responses has been identified in the case of questions related to the forest management. Management implicationsOur study confirms significant differences between results obtained via on-site and online surveys.Cost-efficient distribution of online survey link via social media may cause biased results.Especially, distribution channels of online surveys related to problematic management issues need to be carefully chosen.In such cases, social media activity (link sharing, post assessment (e.g. likes or negative reactions) accompanying the discussion) need to be additionally monitored in order to detect uncontrolled lobbying of certain users’ opinions.

Concepts and Reasoning: a Conceptual Review and Analysis of Logical Issues in Empirical Social Science Research.

A substantial number of social science studies have shown a lack of conceptual clarity, inadequate understanding of the nature of the empirical research approaches, and undue preference for deduction, which have caused much confusion, created paradigmatic incommensurability, and impeded scientific advancement. This study, through conceptual review and analysis of canonical discussions of concepts and the reasoning approaches of deduction and induction and their applications in social science theorization by philosophers and social scientists, is purported to unveil the logical nature of empirical research and examine the legitimacy of the preference of deduction among social scientists. The findings note that conceptual clarity as the foundation of social science research, exchange, and replication can be achieved through interdisciplinary stress of conceptual analyses to establish universal measurements and that the primacy of deduction in social sciences needs to concede to or be balanced with induction for new knowledge, more discoveries, and scientific advancement. The study recommends that institutions and researchers of social sciences invest more in conceptual analysis and inductive research through collaboration and separate efforts.

A review of how we study coastal and marine conflicts: is social science taking a broad enough view?

Conflict in the marine environment is of increasing relevance as blue growth boundaries are pushed and resource access and use are in dispute. Social science disciplines have a long history and a wide range of approaches for studying conflict. However, understanding the approaches used to study marine conflict is challenging since the literature is large, broad, difficult to navigate, and there is little connection between conflict themes and the associated methods used to analyze these conflicts. In the present study, we take a first step to address this by systematically reviewing 109 peer-reviewed articles that employ empirical social science methods to study marine conflict. We find that studies on marine conflicts have centered on disputed space, mainly at local scale, and natural resources, such as fish. The main parties at the center of the conflicts are small-scale fisheries and public authorities, although with a growing presence of blue growth sectors. Most studies employed qualitative approaches to study marine conflicts. Current gaps in the understanding of marine conflict include gaps in understanding relational interactions and historical causal events. The need for social science research into marine conflict and the application of multiple social science methods is ongoing as different constellations of conflict actors emerge and as disputed ocean spaces expand beyond EEZs, to include polar regions, and the sea floor.

Local Self‐Governance and Weak Statehood: A Convincing Liaison?

This thematic issue addresses the relationship between local self-governance and the state. Self-governance is understood as the rules that emerge in the local social and spatial context. Local self-governance of individual local groups, actors, communities, and their social and institutional arrangements are considered. From this situated collective entanglement, the interactions and relations with state authorities are analysed in the various contributions embedded in local contexts of different world regions and based on empirical social science research containing mostly interdisciplinary approaches. The nine case studies of this thematic issue reflect a variety of statehoods (weak to restrained), divers “intentionalities” of local self-governance (emancipatory and democratic, socio-economically, and socio-culturally oriented, security-driven or ecological), and their state-locality entanglements range between four forms of relationships: mutually supportive, conflictual, ambivalent, and avoiding.

The Role of Social Research in Opposing Injustice

This study uses a post-disciplinary and synthetic methodology to explore how social research can contribute to helping those struggling against injustice. First, it reviews recent initiatives that have emerged from sociology and moral and political philosophy to reconnect normative inquiry with empirical social science. Second, applying Amartya Sen’s nonideal theory of justice, it brings these diverse initiatives together and develops a systematic proposal for social justice. It proposes that (1) injustice can be reduced through public reasoning in which people exercise practical reason on what constitutes injustice and what actions should be taken to remedy it; (2) all of us are agents of change whose reasoning and action have leverage in reducing injustice; and (3) theoretical concepts invented by academics can move public reasoning towards the reduction of injustice by affording people, including those struggling against injustice, with critical perspectives and discursive resources. Third, to increase the effectiveness of the proposal, it delineates three routes through which academics can contribute to making public reasoning more inclusive, interactive, and iterative: (1) as public intellectuals, academics can disseminate their normative and empirical research to the general public and make public reasoning more interactive; (2) through coalition-building, academics can help marginalised people come up with solutions to the injustices they face and help magnify marginalised people’s voices to influence public reasoning; and (3) through teaching, academics can cultivate normative consciousness amongst students coupled with their habit of developing refined opinions, using impartial spectators, and acknowledging the human rights of different others, all while working towards making universities more inclusive.

No ground truth? No problem: Improving administrative data linking using active learning and a little bit of guile.

While linking records across large administrative datasets ["big data"] has the potential to revolutionize empirical social science research, many administrative data files do not have common identifiers and are thus not designed to be linked to others. To address this problem, researchers have developed probabilistic record linkage algorithms which use statistical patterns in identifying characteristics to perform linking tasks. Naturally, the accuracy of a candidate linking algorithm can be substantially improved when an algorithm has access to "ground-truth" examples-matches which can be validated using institutional knowledge or auxiliary data. Unfortunately, the cost of obtaining these examples is typically high, often requiring a researcher to manually review pairs of records in order to make an informed judgement about whether they are a match. When a pool of ground-truth information is unavailable, researchers can use "active learning" algorithms for linking, which ask the user to provide ground-truth information for select candidate pairs. In this paper, we investigate the value of providing ground-truth examples via active learning for linking performance. We confirm popular intuition that data linking can be dramatically improved with the availability of ground truth examples. But critically, in many real-world applications, only a relatively small number of tactically-selected ground-truth examples are needed to obtain most of the achievable gains. With a modest investment in ground truth, researchers can approximate the performance of a supervised learning algorithm that has access to a large database of ground truth examples using a readily available off-the-shelf tool.

ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RENEWABLE ENERGY AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENTS FOR TURKEY

Foreign direct investments provide advantages in the growth and development processes of countries. The increase in foreign direct investments with the globalization process in the last 50 years has created some effects on the economies of countries, especially on economic growth and employment opportunities. Among these effects, it is known that foreign direct investments have effects on the energy sector. The renewable energy sector, which is a rising area of the energy sector, is also positively or negatively affected by foreign direct investments. For this reason, the aim of the study is to examine the relationship between 1990-2019 data and renewable energy consumption in Turkey, foreign direct investments and GDP. In this study, Banerjee et al. (2017) Fourier ADL cointegration test analysis was used. According to the results of the analysis, there is no cointegration relationship between foreign direct investments, renewable energy consumption and GDP in Turkey. It is thought that renewable energy consumption will increase if foreign direct investments in Turkey are realized in a way that supports clean energy areas and usage.
 
 This study is an extended version of the paper presented at the International Conference on Empirical Economics and Social Sciences (ICEESS'22) held in Bandırma – Turkey on July 2-3, 2022.

On Dankwa's Gift

On Dankwa's Gift

Big data and development sociology: An overview and application on governance and accountability through digitalization in Tanzania.

The digital revolution and the widespread use of the internet have changed many realms of empirical social science research. In this paper, we discuss the use of big data in the context of development sociology and highlight its potential as a new source of data. We provide a brief overview of big data and development research, discuss different data types, and review example studies, before introducing our case study on active citizenship in Tanzania which expands on an Oxfam-led impact evaluation. The project aimed at improving community-driven governance and accountability through the use of digital technology. Twitter and other social media platforms were introduced to community animators as a tool to hold national and regional key stakeholders accountable. We retrieve the complete Twitter timelines up to October 2021 from all ~200 community animators and influencers involved in the project (over 1.5 million tweets). We find that animators have started to use Twitter as part of the project, but most have stopped tweeting in the long term. Employing a dynamic difference-in-differences design, we also do not find effects of Oxfam-led training workshops on different aspects of animators' tweeting behavior. While most animators have stopped using Twitter in the long run, a few have continued to use social media to raise local issues and to be part of conversations to this day. Our case study showcases how (big) social media data can be part of an intervention, and we end with recommendations on how to use digital data in development sociology.

Just Research: Advancing Antiracist and Antioppressive Social Work Research.

The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) created its Research Capacity and Development Committee in 2017 to build research capacity across the careers of social work scholars. The committee has initiated multiple conferences and webinar sessions that have increasingly focused on antiracist and antioppressive (ARAO) research, including "Mentorship for Antiracist and Inclusive Research" and "Strategies for Supporting Antiracist Pedagogy & Scholarship: Reimagining Institutional Systems & Structures." This commentary integrates themes from these sessions and other discussions among committee members about strategies to advance ARAO research. Although SSWR board members reviewed and approved this submission, it is not an official statement of SSWR or its board of directors.

How can we strengthen the integration of findings in communication sciences?

Individual studies in the empirical social sciences have limited explanatory power, as they focus on particular aspects of the overarching objects of research. To explain complex communicative phenomena or describe multistep processes, individual findings need to be combined. Often, however, such an integration does not occur, and opportunities to expand the explanatory power of existing results beyond their immediate scope remain unexploited. Drawing from examples in practical research, this paper describes six metatheoretical, methodological, and context factors that explain why a higher degree of co-creation and integration remains unrealized. A good understanding of these factors can easily be translated into measures that can achieve more integration and make our results more impactful. Furthermore, the illustration of the six factors indicates where integrable findings can be found in this fragmented research landscape. The resulting recommendations are made in the hope that integrative work will be upgraded and further established as a methodological niche in the generation of insights.

Eszter Hargittai (Ed.). Research exposed. How empirical social science gets done in the digital age

Research Exposed. How Empirical Social Science Gets Done in the Digital Age is an edited volume with 12 chapters that individually and as a collection have the ability to draw the reader in – like the stories of a cook in a kitchen would do, who is narrating how they came to concoct a particular recipe, how approaches failed, what worked, how they found out, and which turn led to the final recipe. Analogously, this edited volume by Eszter Hargittai allows us to look behind the scenes of how empirical social science is being done. Adding to previous edited collections Research Confidential (Hargittai, 2009) and Digital Research Confidential (Hargittai & Sandvig, 2015), this book provides honest insights from researchers who have done the work, with information on lots of trial-and-error processes that are typically hidden behind “Method and Data” sections of finished publications.