Workshops
Workshops within the Interdisciplinary Seminar in Empirical Social Science (ISESS) are cyclical workshops on diverse backgrounds in social science. Workshops focus on gaining practical knowledge in the field of empirical research. All workshops will be held in English.
The ISESS workshop is affiliated with the new Centre for Excellence in Social Science at the University of Warsaw, which is part of the Excellence Initiative – Research University (IDUB – a program funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education).
In the academic year 2023/24 the seminar is convened by Adam Gendźwiłł and Michał Bilewicz. The seminars will be held at the Centre of Excellence in Social Sciences, BUW Building, Warsaw, Dobra 56/66 (2nd floor, room 2.90).
Theofilos Gkinopoulos, Jagiellonian University
Introduction to Qualitative Interviews and Sensitive Interviewing Techniques and Thematic Analysis of the Interview Content
This workshop will focus on techniques of conducting interviews, including sensitive topics and populations. Next, there will be a short presentation on building a thematic map and analyzing the content of interviews. The first part of the workshop will introduce students to the techniques of building an interview protocol and strategies used in sensitive topics and contents. Furthermore, students will be introduced to thematic analysis of the content of interviews. The second part of the workshop will focus on practical activities and exercises such as empathy mapping, listening for layers and other activities useful for developing skills and conducting effective interviews in social research. Also, students will be able to practice the iterative process of thematically analyzing interview data. During the second part of the workshop, students will be mostly working in small groups and then a group discussion will be facilitated, where students will present their activities.
Bio: Theofilos Gkinopoulos is an assistant professor at the Behavior in Crisis Lab-Institute of Psychology of the Jagiellonian University and a visiting lecturer in mixed methods at the University of Warsaw (Faculty of Psychology). He has obtained his BSc in Psychology from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Greece and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Surrey (UK). He conducted postdoctoral research at the Centre for Inequalities of the University of Greenwich (UK) and the Department of Political Sciences (University of Crete). His current research focuses on understanding the intradividual and intergroup antecedents and consequences of people’s beliefs, including conspiracy beliefs, and behaviors in times of crises. He has also been guest (co)editor of three special issues on intergroup apologies, morality and social norms.
Roland Imhoff, University of Mainz
Beyond binaries – Why continuous manipulations facilitate strong tests of theory
Psychology, and social psychology, in particularly is obsesses what other have called ying-yang designs – comparing two discrete conditions on a variable of interest. The effect of temperature is explored by comparing a “hot” with a “cold” condition, social influence research constrasts “majority” with “minority” influence and construal level theory typically pits “abstract” vs. “concrete” construals against each other, to name only a few. As I will argue in my talk, this research strategy is justifiable only under two specific conditions: either the world is indeed binary or the relation between the IV and DV is strictly linear, so that any two discrete positions on the continuous IV are equally suited to test the relation to the DV. Neither the former, nor the latter is well justified, however. For the most part, the world is neither binary nor strictly linear. I will thus try to discuss how ying-yang designs inhibit strong tests of underlying theories as they introduce ambiguitiy whether falsification or nul results can be attributed to the level of theory (incorrect predictions) or just the level of auxiliary assumptions (coincidentally picked the “wrong” position on the continuum, manipulation not “strong” enough). I will demonstrate that for the field of social comparisons and its reliance on artifically chosen “similar” vs. “dissimilar” comparison standards. Students will then be encouraged to apply this reasoning to their own research area in small group works. We will close the workshopby discussing these examples and ways to overcome this limitation.
Bio: Roland Imhoff is a professor for social and legal psychology at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz (since 2015). His research interests span from basic social cognition topics like comparison and categorization to intergroup relations, political attitudes like conspiracy mentality, representations of history, and indirect measures of sexual interest. He has been editor-in-chief at the European Journal of Social Psychology and currently serves the European Association as Journal Officer in the Executive Committtee and Chair of the Consortium for Social Psychological and Personality Science. He is passionate about open science, vegan cooking, fermentation and his three children.
Robert Klemmensen, Lund University
Introduction to Difference-in-Differences (DiD) and Regression Discontinuity Designs (RDD)
This workshop gives a short introduction to the statistical software R. the goal is that participants can import various data formats and get data in shape for analysis. The second part of the workshop introduces student to Regressions Discontinuity and Difference in Difference Designs.
Participants who have not worked in R before are asked to install R Studio and do some introductory tutorial available on the Internet about R, e.g. https://moderndive.netlify.app/1-getting-started.html.
Luca Varadi, Central European University
Conducting qualitative interviews and group discussions about difficult topics and combining these with quantitative approaches
In this workshop we will discuss all steps related to face-to-face qualitative data collection methods (interviews and group discussions) in online and offline settings.
In the first part of the workshop, we will overview:
- The pros and cons of interviews and group discussions,
- The pros and cons of online vs. offline data collection,
- The integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches in complex studies.
In the second part of the workshop, we will work with students’ existing projects and will:
- Put together interview guides that can work for difficult and inconvenient topics,
- Discuss research ethics and the best ways to recruit participants,
- Practice effective techniques for keeping respondents on track,
- Prepare for difficult situations.
BIO: Luca Varadi is a former Marie Sklodowska-Curie research fellow and Assistant Professor in the Nationalism Studies Program at Central European University. Her research focuses on ethnic prejudices and especially on the formation of prejudice in adolescence.
Luca Varadi obtained her PhD in sociology at the Humboldt University in Berlin and afterwards served as a research fellow at Humboldt University and the University of Hamburg. She wrote her dissertation about the attitudes of Hungarian teenagers towards the Roma minority that was based on a survey of 1000 students. Her book, ‘Youths Trapped in Prejudice’ was published in 2014 at Springer.
Luca Varadi graduated in 2006 from the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and specialized in ethnic and minority studies. Between 2006 and 2008 she was involved in research on migration and integration and worked for the Hungarian Academy of Science’s Research Institute of Ethnic and National Minorities and for the Menedék Organisation for Migrants. In Germany, she participated in the Interdisciplinary Institute for Conflict and Violence Research’s study on Group-Focused Enmity in Europe. Currently, she is working on a longitudinal study mapping the formation of common social norms in school classes and their effect on the intergroup attitudes of teenagers. Luca Váradi also works together with teachers and NGO-s to utilise research results for school-based intervention programs against prejudice.
Jonas Rees, Universitaet Bielefeld
From collective remembrance to collective forgetting: An empirical perspective on the current state of the German culture of memory
The workshop focuses on benefits and challenges of representative surveys at the intersection of science and practice. It will cover some basic concepts of representative surveys, thoughts on survey design in collaboration with practitioners and the application of surveys in practice. Participants will be encouraged to develop ideas on how to inform research by practice and incorporate these into their scientific work if feasible.
BIO: please look at https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/pers_publ/publ/PersonDetail.jsp?personId=26385901&lang=EN
Diliara Valeeva, University of Amsterdam
Social Network Analysis
Power Reconfigured: Understanding Corporate Dynamics through Network Analysis
We observe drastic transitions in business power relations recently. Some of these significant shifts include the rise of BigTech giants such as Amazon and Meta, global supply chain reconfigurations following the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing trade tensions between the US and China, and an increasing emphasis on sustainable practices and corporate social responsibility, reshaping traditional business models. This talk seeks to unravel and understand the nuances of corporate power today. Through a series of case studies drawn from my research, I will demonstrate how the analysis of corporate networks provides insight into contemporary changes in power dynamics. Furthermore, the session will evolve into a workshop focused on employing social network analysis techniques to unravel power dynamics. This hands-on tutorial will guide participants through the use of network analysis software to analyze relational datasets, emphasizing key concepts like centrality, network communities, and the structural underpinnings of networks. The workshop will also foster discussions on specific case studies or research designs pertinent to network analysis.
Jonas Rees, Universitaet Bielefeld
From collective remembrance to collective forgetting: An empirical perspective on the current state of the German culture of memory
The workshop focuses on benefits and challenges of representative surveys at the intersection of science and practice. It will cover some basic concepts of representative surveys, thoughts on survey design in collaboration with practitioners and the application of surveys in practice. Participants will be encouraged to develop ideas on how to inform research by practice and incorporate these into their scientific work if feasible.
BIO: please look at https://ekvv.uni-bielefeld.de/pers_publ/publ/PersonDetail.jsp?personId=26385901&lang=EN