Ask: Research and Methods. Volume 28, Issue 1 (2019)

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https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/88746

Issue DOI: https://doi.org/10.18061/ask.v28i1

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Articles

Using Web Probing to Elucidate Respondents' Understanding of 'Minorities' in Cross-Cultural Comparative Research
Braun, Michael; Behr, Dorothée; Meitinger, Katharina; Raiber, Klara; Repke, Lydia pp. 3-20
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Between fallacy and feasibility? Dealing with the risk of ecological fallacies in the quantitative study of protest mobilization and conflict
Demarest, Leila; Langer, Arnim; Meuleman, Bart pp. 21-42
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Explaining the Policy Constraints of Anti-democratic Regimes by Means of Sequential OLS-Regressions
Mueller, Georg P. pp. 43-59
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Exploratory Fieldwork on Balconies as Threshold Spaces on the Juliusz Słowacki housing estate in Lublin
Otrishchenko, Natalia pp. 61-80
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In Memoriam

Tadeusz Krauze (1934–2019)
Słomczyński, Kazimierz M. pp. 81-82
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Back Matter
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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Front Matter (Volume 28, Issue 1, 2019)
(The Ohio State University Libraries in partnership with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2019)
Using Web Probing to Elucidate Respondents' Understanding of 'Minorities' in Cross-Cultural Comparative Research
(The Ohio State University Libraries in partnership with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2019) Braun, Michael; Behr, Dorothée; Meitinger, Katharina; Raiber, Klara; Repke, Lydia
Due to the growing significance of international studies, the need for tools to assess the equivalence of items is pressing. Web probing, which is implementing verbal probing techniques traditionally used in cognitive interviewing in online surveys, is a method to complement quantitative techniques to establish equivalence of items in crosscultural research. We illustrate this approach by assessing the question of 'how important it is that government authorities respect and protect the rights of minorities', which was originally used in the International Social Survey Program, for respondents in five countries (Germany, Britain, the U.S., Mexico, and Spain). First, participants answered this question using a 7-point Likert scale. Then they wrote freely what types of minorities they had thought of. Whether country differences in the response patterns can be interpreted substantially depends partially on how similarly the term 'minorities' is understood across these five contexts. Our results show that people in the participating countries have slightly different kinds of 'minorities' in mind.
Between fallacy and feasibility? Dealing with the risk of ecological fallacies in the quantitative study of protest mobilization and conflict
(The Ohio State University Libraries in partnership with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2019) Demarest, Leila; Langer, Arnim; Meuleman, Bart
In recent years, the quantitative study of conflict has increasingly focused on small-scale and/or localized conflicts in the developing world. In this paper, we analyze and critically reflect upon a major methodological shortcoming of many studies in this field of research. We argue that by using group- or macro-level empirical data and modelling techniques, while at the same time theoretically underpinning observed empirical associations with individual-level mechanisms, many of these studies risk committing an ecological fallacy. The individual-level mechanism on which many studies rely concerns the presence of grievances which mobilize people to participate in contentious politics. This motivational approach was also present in early studies on protest mobilization in Western societies, which often relied on similar research designs. However, subsequent advances in this literature and the use of methods that were targeted more directly at the individual level uncovered that grievances alone cannot explain mobilization and that organizational capabilities and complex psychological mechanisms of belonging also form part of the puzzle. While drawing on conflict events as well as survey data from Africa, we demonstrate empirically that here, as well, inferring micro-level relations and dynamics from macro-level empirical models can lead to erroneous interpretations and inferences. Hence, we argue that to improve our understanding of conflict mobilization in the developing world, especially for conflicts with low levels of violence, it is necessary to substantially expand our methodological toolbox beyond macro-level analyses.
Explaining the Policy Constraints of Anti-democratic Regimes by Means of Sequential OLS-Regressions
(The Ohio State University Libraries in partnership with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2019) Mueller, Georg P.
One of the key problems of many sociological regression models is their modest explanatory power. This has not only to do with the insufficient development of the underlying theories but also with the free will of the concerned social actors, which manifests itself in irrational, spontaneous, and sometimes even arbitrary decisions. The foreign and economic policy of the US government under Donald Trump is an excellent example of this source of indeterminacy. An alternative and more promising approach is an explanation of the constraints of social behaviour by the unequal distribution of power resources and the competing interests of the actors concerned. This approach requires, on the one hand, enough observational data which include cases that reached the analysed constraints. On the other hand, there is a need for statistical procedures which estimate and explain these constraints. Assuming that sufficient amounts of data are available, this paper proposes the use of sequential OLS regressions, which eliminate step by step non-critical observations in order to identify the cases that reached the mentioned constraints. For illustrative purposes, the author analyses the policy space of anti-democratic regimes with regard to their possibilities of curbing democracy. On the basis of the democracy scores of Freedom House, the author explores the governmental constraints set by (i) national civil societies and (ii) international NGOs for the promotion of political/civil rights. The related sequential regressions allow for an assessment of how effective the different constraints are and how far democracy may deteriorate in the worst case under given structural conditions.
Exploratory Fieldwork on Balconies as Threshold Spaces on the Juliusz Słowacki housing estate in Lublin
(The Ohio State University Libraries in partnership with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2019) Otrishchenko, Natalia
The author reflects upon her experience of exploratory fieldwork conducted by an interdisciplinary group during the Urban Summer School. The research was conducted within an environment built according to the idea of "Open Form", introduced by architect Oskar Hansen. Together with his wife Zofia, he designed a few neighborhoods around Poland, one of which – the Juliusz Słowacki housing estate in Lublin – is used as a case study for this paper. The article follows the process of collaborative development of research design and discusses a number of methods (focused ethnography, interviews, mental mapping, observation, participatory photography) applied to the study of materiality and social functioning of balconies as "threshold spaces" and their domestication. The author also outlines her positions in relation to both the local people with whom she has conducted interviews about their homes and the participants of her group.
Tadeusz Krauze (1934–2019)
(The Ohio State University Libraries in partnership with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2019) Słomczyński, Kazimierz M.
Back Matter (Volume 28, Issue 1, 2019)
(The Ohio State University Libraries in partnership with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 2019)

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