Programme: 2021 Research Methods e-Festival

 

The 2021 Research Methods e-Festival took place over five days on 25-29 October 2021. View the full programme below, and visit the e-festival homepage to find out more about the event.

 

Short course -

Institutional Ethnography: Conducting feminist, interdisciplinary & bottom-up research (day 1)

Speakers:

Bio: Adriana is a Geographer with +15 years of experience working with communities and policymakers in Australia, Chile (her home country), Colombia and the UK. She is interested in conducting interdisciplinary research that promotes transformation towards more just and sustainable futures. Her PhD in Environment, Energy and Resilience from the University of Bristol (June 2020) examined community water management in rural Chile. Using Institutional Ethnography (IE) allowed her to map textually mediated work processes wherein rural people seek access to drinking water, navigating an institution that prevents them from accessing this basic human right. My research findings advise concrete policy and legislation changes on conceptualizations of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘water rights’ to achieve clean water for all. She is a member of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and of the International Sociological Association, specifically Working Group 6 on Institutional Ethnography, and Research Committee 24 on Society & Environment.

Órla Meadhbh Murray, Imperial College London (Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship)

Dr Liz Ablett, University College Dublin

Our aim is to introduce researchers to Institutional Ethnography (IE): a feminist approach to analysing texts and mapping organisational processes. We will do this by offering participants a very practical opportunity to familiarise themselves with IE and for them to leave the training course inspired to explore how IE could help them approach their research in an innovative and collaborative way.This approach is applicable across the social sciences including health and disability studies; education; gender studies and land planning. IE has strong interdisciplinary potential and it is well equipped to pay attention to difference.Following an overview of IE as a feminist sociology; we will present two case studies to show how it can be used and with what results. Moreover; attendees will have time to think; discuss; and apply IE to their own research. No prior knowledge or training is required.This is booked through the NCRM training database at an additional charge which includes a free festival pass; Institutional Ethnography: Conducting feminist; interdisciplinary & bottom-up (part of the RMeF2021) (ncrm.ac.uk)

Short course -

Getting creative with note taking and presentations (day1)

Speakers:

Bio: Dr Emily Bradfield is an Independent Arts Consultant and Researcher who supports people to reimagine evaluation and manage projects creatively, creating bespoke visually engaging and impactful evaluation reports and other creative outputs. She is also Charity Director at Arts and Minds, an arts and mental health charity working across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Emily holds a PhD in Creative Ageing (University of Derby) and an MSc in Cultural Events Management (De Montfort University). She is passionate about bridging the gap between research and practice, advocating arts for social change and weaving creativity throughout research, evaluation and practice. During her PhD research, Emily developed her own style of visual note taking, #CreativeCapture.

Our brains capture information differently. For some people; long; wordy documents work; but others; like me are visual learners. I aim to bring creativity into everything I do; including preparing presentations and taking notes at conferences. There are many creative approaches which aim to capture key ideas through text; images and other graphic elements. Over the past 5 years; I have developed my own unique style of visual notes; termed Creative Capture (please add Trade Mark symbol). I'm often asked 'can you teach me?' and to be honest; the answer is no! But don't let that put you off - it's all about playing around until you find an approach that works for you. If you've ever been to a conference and been dis-engaged as you view yet another slide of words which are too small to read; this is the course for you! This short course will run over 2 half-days.This is booked through the NCRM training database at an additional charge which includes a free festival pass; Getting creative with note taking and presentations (part of the RMeF2021) (ncrm.ac.uk)

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Festival Welcome and Opening key note: Fiction as Social Inquiry

Speakers:

Bio: "Dr Ash Watson is a sociologist of technology and fiction with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at UNSW Sydney. Her research uses arts-based and qualitative methods to explore the socio-cultural impacts of emerging technologies as well as the kinds of futures that are opened or closed off by current trends. She is particularly interested in the visions and practices of 'DIY' collectives, including startups and queer archives. Ash’s debut novel Into the Sea (2020), published in Brill's award-winning Social Fictions Series, is ‘an experiment in sociological imagination.’ Drawing on ethnographic research, the story follows a group of young adults through a year of the mundane and extraordinary to consider what it means to live the so-called 'Australian way of life'. Ash is the creator/editor of So Fi Zine (sofizine.com), an open-access publication for sociological fiction, poetry and visual art. She is also Fiction Editor of The Sociological Review, heading the journal's short story series, and an Editorial Board member of Qualitative Research. She recently co-guest edited a special issue of Art/Research International on Fiction as Research. Prior to her current position, she was an ARC-funded Postdoctoral Fellow on the Discovery Project ""Living with Personal Data"", working with Prof Deborah Lupton and Prof Mike Michael, based at the UNSW Vitalities Lab. During her doctoral studies she was awarded an Endeavour Research Fellowship which she undertook at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her PhD in Sociology was awarded by Griffith University in 2018."

Mark Elliot, University of Manchester

Why and how can we do social research with fiction? In this keynote I trace some of the many forms fiction takes within contemporary social inquiry to consider what creative writing offers as a medium and method for research. Bring along something to write with.Watch the video of this keynote speech.

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To share or not to share: code sharing in social science

Speakers:

Bio: Louise Corti is Head of Insights, Development and Impact for the Secure Research Service, at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), joining this year. For 20 years she was Associate Director at the UK Data Archive, UK Data Service, where she directed a range of operations across the research and data lifecycle concerning the sharing, curation and reuse of data in the social sciences. Louise has sat on a number of international advisory boards for social science data services and is co-author of the handbook on Managing and Sharing Research Data: A Guide to Good Practice.

Bio: "Felix Ritchie is an applied economist, at UWE since 2012 following a varied career in the public and private sectors as well as academia. His main research interests are: - labour economics, especially low pay and career transitions - data governance - data access and management - data quality - statistical disclosure control"

Bio: "Martin is Director of Research Engineering at the Turing, leading a team of research software engineers and research data scientists working with researchers to increase the impact of research software and data science analyses by making these reusable, reliable and robust. Martin has a strong interest in enabling researchers to work safely, securely and productively with sensitive data, co-leading work on the Institute's cloud-based secure research environment, as well as a project evaluating techniques for generating synthetic datasets, to understand if these can effectively replace more sensitive datasets for some aspects of the data science analysis workflow. He also has a strong interest in reproducible research and, as a member of the Turing Way community and the Institute's Tools, Practices and Systems programme, is working to improve the tools and working practices available at the Turing to make it easier for researchers to work reproducibly."

Sharing code in quantitative social science is good research practice but is still limited. Researchers benefit from publishing code that underpins their analytic findings; helping to demonstrate trust and reproducibility. Researchers benefit from having access to syntax for derived variables created by data owners; and to code repositories on which to build new code.   How can we facilitate and encourage better sharing practices? Voluntarily sharing is a first positive step; but how far should we go towards validating code or mandating reproducibility? How can we best support capacity building in this area? What about the challenges of reproducing work undertaken in safe havens; where data access may be limited?   Professor Felix Ritchie; Professor of Applied Economics; University of West England and Martin O’Reilly; Director of Research Engineering; Alan Turing Institute will present their views in conversation with Louise Corti; Head of Insights; Impact and Development; Office for National Statistics.Please see our blog post and transcript of this session.

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Exploring alternatives to online methods in Covid times

Speakers:

Bio: Andy Coverdale is a Research Fellow in Southampton Education School at the university of Southampton and member of the Centre for Research in Inclusion. He is currently working with the National Centre for Research Methods on their project looking at social research in the context of Covid-19 alongside research into how digital accessibility is taught and learned in Higher Education and the workplace. Andy has many years’ experience of working with, supporting, and teaching people with learning disabilities, and recently completed work on the ‘Self-build Social Care‘ research project, using inclusive and participatory methods to work collaboratively with people with learning disabilities and their allies. Andy has previously conducted research in the educational use of digital media and technology through his work with iRes at Falmouth University and the Visual Learning Lab at the University of Nottingham. His PhD examined the role of social and participatory media in doctoral education.

Bio: Melanie Nind is Professor of Education at the University of Southampton and a co-director of NCRM, leading on pedagogic research (https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/pedagogy.php) and methodological responses to Covid-19 (https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/socscicovid19/). Melanie guest-edited the 2015 special issue of International Journal of Social Research Methodology on the teaching and learning of social research methods, she is editor of the Bloomsbury Research Methods for Education book series and author of Inclusive Research in the NCRM Bloomsbury Research Methods series.

Bio: "Robert Meckin is a presidential fellow in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester and works closely with the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). He is interested in emerging technosciences, interdisciplinarity and research infrastructures. He has spent recent years collaborating with and working alongside scientists practicing a design-led approach to biotechnology, and exploring how publics anticipate the potential of new biotechnological capabilities by using the chemical menthol as a way into discussing everyday technological understandings. Publications include explorations of scientific practices in increasingly automated, digitalised laboratories, and the affordances of sensory methods in engaging publics. At NCRM he has been focused on interdisciplinary research methods and has been examining the nascent areas of investigative methods and computational social science methods with Mark Elliot (University of Manchester) and Michael Mair (University of Liverpool), and exploring changing research practices in Covid-19 with Melanie Nind and Andy Coverdale (both at the University of Southampton)."

Bio: Maggie has a long history of doing participatory research using biographical and arts based methods (visual and performative) in collaboration with artists and communities. Maggie has researched and published widely on critical theory, 'ethno-mimesis', PAR, sex work, migration, asylum and borders, walking as a biographical and arts based method. She is currently working with: Umut Erel, Tracey Reynolds & Erene Kaptani on 'Participatory Arts based Methods For Civic Engagement In Migrant Support Organizations', funded by AHRC, 2020-22, and with Dee Heddon, Harry Wilson, Morag Rose, and Clare Qualmann, on 'Walking Publics/Walking Arts', funded by UKRI, 2021 - 2023. Maggie is a member of the Executive Board of the European Sociological Association, a past Chair of RN03 and a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Bio: Tim Sykes @RiversandPeople is a mature, part-time post graduate researcher at the University of Southampton. Tim is conducting situated walking interviews with people who are emotionally, creatively and physically engaged with or inspired by chalk streams, especially their intermittent headwaters, and chalk springs and aquifers, in order to try understand our relationship with these special places. With particular regards to wellbeing, Tim is asking what feelings (positive and/or negative) and relational and intrinsic values do these ephemeral places stir in people, how, why, and do their emotions ebb and flow with the water?

Bio: Martine Shareck Ph.D. is a population health researcher and Assistant Professor in Community Health Sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada, and holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Urban Health Equity Among Young People (2020-2025). Trained in social epidemiology, public health, health promotion and health geography, she has expertise in research with marginalized populations, on the social determinants of health, in mixed-methods program evaluation and in urban health inequities. She is currently involved in several studies evaluating the impact of built environment changes on health and health inequalities.

Bio: Nicole is a Knowledge Mobilization & Relationship Specialist working with PolicyWise for Children & Families in Edmonton, AB, Canada. She is a critical experiential scholar with a passion for creative data collection methods and story-telling. She is committed to engaged, community-led research, evaluation, and knowledge mobilization that promotes equitable and inclusive practices and policies.

This session draws on the NCRM study of changing research practices in response to the methodological challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of the adaptations and focus of discussions have oriented to moving methods online; often at the risk of marginalising communities with limited access. However; our study has found social researchers have also been exploring and adapting creative and participatory methods; such as the use of cultural probes in people's homes. Additionally; as lockdown and travel restrictions ease; and researchers consider returning to research sites; how might the way they engage with participants in the physical / social space be negotiated? What role might methods such as walking interviews play; and will we see more hybrid approaches combining in-person with digital methods emerge? The panel will draw on their experiences and expertise to explore a range of methodological adaptations and discuss the longer-term implications for a post-Covid research landscape.

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What are Virtual Reality experiments with human participants?

Speakers:

Bio: "My primary research interests lie within human factors and pedestrian dynamics engineering, specifically focusing on experimental approaches. From October 2016 to February 2021, I pursued a PhD in human behaviour in terrorist attacks. This research focused on micro-level behaviour, aiming to improve our understanding of how people react in scenarios that elicit states of extreme fear, requiring a multidisciplinary approach, including elements of sociology, psychology, human factors, pedestrian dynamics, experimental design and terrorism. As part of this research I ran full scale experiments, developed virtual reality environments, performed data analysis, and implemented the findings in software packages. My future work will expand on this research, and develop further methods of quantifying, measuring and examining pedestrian movement characteristics, including different cognitive states and responses to autonomous vehicles."

A showcase of the different VR approaches that can be used for performing experiments with human participants; with detail on the logistical considerations; potential investigation types; data outputs; future avenues and starting points.

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What is Auto/Biographical Sociological Fiction?

Speakers:

Gayle Letherby, University of Plymouth

Writing and presenting auto/biographical sociological (social science) fiction for academic and non-academic audiences is a creative and impactful way to tell sociological stories. Through sociological fiction we can express our auto/biographical sociological; emotional and political imaginations; drawing on our own and on respondents' experiences. This way of working; of writing; of academic storytelling; explicitly blurs the boundaries of 'fact' and 'fiction' (which is arguably true of all narratives; whether made explicit or not). It also has implications for the ways in which we define; and attempt to enact; engagement and impact; within; besides and beyond the academy. Furthermore; such writings are significant in terms of the emotional wellbeing of both writers and readers. In this talk I detail my own non/academic; emotional experience of this way of writing and share some stories and my substantive and methodological reflections of them.

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Creative, Independent, Ethical Research

Speakers:

Bio: Dr Helen Kara FAcSS has been an independent researcher since 1999 and an independent scholar since 2011. She writes about research methods and research ethics, and teaches doctoral students and staff at higher education institutions worldwide. Her books include Creative Research Methods: A Practical Guide and Research Ethics in the Real World: Euro-Western and Indigenous Perspectives for Policy Press, and she has written and edited several other books for Policy Press, SAGE and Routledge. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Helen is an independent researcher and scholar who specialises in research methods and ethics and teaches doctoral students and ECRs worldwide. You can ask her questions about any ethical or methodological difficulties you are facing with your research; or about options for a part-time or full-time independent research career. She is looking forward to speaking with you!

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Working with Twitter Data

Speakers:

Bio: "Joe is a Research Associate based in sunny Manchester. Joe works within the UK Data Services Computational Social Science team helping to bridge the gap between social science and computational thinking. Recently his focus has been on social media data and synthetic data. In his spare time, he organizes PyDataMCR, one of Manchester's largest data meetups."

Twitter has recently been a fantastic source of data. Never before has an individually been able to so trivially access historic opinions and watch them develop over time. In this talk I will cover: • Why social media data is useful • Why Twitter is a great data source • Data collection from Twitter There will be some programming in Python; but beyond this; I will offer some alternatives to attendees who don't know Python.

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The Methods Matter Podcast, Episode One - Qualitative Interviews

Speakers:

Bio: "Adam Smith was born in the north, a long time ago. He wanted to write books, but ended up working in the NHS, and at the Department of Health. He is now Programme Director in the Office of the NIHR National Director for Dementia Research (which probably sounds more important than it is) at University College London. He has led a number of initiatives to improve dementia research (including creating Dementia Researcher, Join Dementia Research & ENRICH), as well as pursuing his own research interests. He also write blogs, hosts podcasts and is passionate about improving the lives of people living with dementia and supporting early career researchers. In his spare time, he grows vegetables, builds Lego & spends most of his time drinking too much coffee and squeezing technology into his house."

Please note that you will be first taken to a registration page. Simply click 'Register now' to create a free account and have access to additional materials.In expert corner - Dr Kahryn Hughes; from University of Leeds. Director of the Timescapes Archive; Editor in Chief of Sociological Research Online; Convenor of the MA Qualitative Research Methods and a Senior Fellow for the NCRM. In researcher ranch - Dr Jemima Dooley; conversation analyst; qualitative researcher and NIHR School for Primary Care Research Fellow; from University of Bristol. *** The Methods Matter Podcast - from Dementia Researcher & the National Centre for Research Methods. A podcast for people who don't know much about methods...those who do; and those who just want to find news and clever ways to use them in their research. In this first series PhD Student Leah Fullegar from the University of Southampton brings together leading experts in research methodology; and dementia researchers that use them; to provide a fun introduction to five qualitive research methods in a safe space where there are no such things as dumb questions! Every show comes with a great visual guide. Find the show in your podcast app; on YouTube; and on the Dementia Researcher and NCRM Websites: https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk Watch episode 1 of the Methods Matter podcast.

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Computer-Aided Discourse Analysis: Approaching Discourse in Large Text Collections using Multiple Correspondence Analysis

Speakers:

Bio: Dr. Isobelle Clarke is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Sciences at Lancaster University. In May 2020 Isobelle was awarded the Leverhulme Trust's Early Career Researcher Fellowship to examine anti-science narratives from a corpus linguistic perspective, which she began in May 2021. Isobelle received her PhD from the University of Birmingham in 2020. Her PhD research introduced a new modified version of Multi-Dimensional Analysis (MDA) that works with short texts and she applied this technique to a corpus of general English tweets and trolling tweets. More recently, Isobelle has developed this short text MDA approach, which uses Multiple Correspondence Analysis on the presence/absence of grammatical features, to the analysis of keywords in an approach she calls 'Keywords MCA'. The approach successfully identifies patterns of keyword variation and these are interpreted for the discourse they signal. Isobelle, along with Distinguished Professor Tony McEnery and Dr. Gavin Brookes have applied keywords MCA to a corpus of UK national press articles mentioning Islam and Muslims.

Dr. Gavin Brookes, Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science; Lancaster University

Dist. Prof Tony McEnery, Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science; Lancaster University

This workshop will introduce both keywords and a new approach to their analysis. Keywords offer analytical signposts to discourses in large volumes of text. Yet their interpretation often requires analysis of their use within their wider textual settings. Clarke et al. (2021) introduce Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) as a new approach to organizing keywords statistically based on their co-occurrence across the texts of the corpus. The approach overcomes many of the issues in traditional keyword analyses and has proven to be effective for providing a more nuanced account of keywords that is sensitive to the various senses and discourses that a single keyword can exhibit. This workshop will provide learners with: (1) the understanding behind the MCA approach to keywords; (2) the tools to create a data matrix of variables and individuals; (3) the ability to run MCA in R; and (4) the skills for interpreting the results.

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Qualitative Telephone Interviews

Speakers:

Bio: Dr Linzi Ladlow is a Research Fellow at the University of Lincoln, working on the ‘Following Young Fathers Further’ project, a qualitative longitudinal, participatory study of the lives and support needs of young fathers. Her research interests include young parenthood, families, housing, and disadvantage.

Bio: "Tracing the lives and support needs of young fathers: A participatory, qualitative longitudinal and comparative analysis Anna is a Reader in Sociology at the University of Lincoln. Her research interests include men and masculinities, family life, the lifecourse, and methodological developments in qualitative secondary analysis. She has recently completed research that examines the care responsibilities and support needs of men in low-income contexts, including young fathers. The Future Leaders Fellowship builds out of this work, seeking to implement, evaluate and promote father-inclusive and gender equal practice approaches and environments across the health and social care landscape in the UK. A unique and dynamic evidence base will be built to challenge the stereotypes, misconceptions and marginalisations that are experienced by young fathers. They will also enable a clearer picture to emerge about the impact of different cultures of understanding and expectations on young fathers, and how varied professional and policy responses shape young fathers’ experiences, their capacity to sustain positive relationships with their children, and their social and economic participation."

Bio: Feminist sociologist working in the areas of young fatherhood, and punk (particularly concerning punk pedagogies and punk, gender and ageing). Experienced qualitative researcher, particularly interested in developing creative research methods. Currently part of the Following Young Fathers Further team, a UKRI funded longitudinal study (2020-2024) exploring the parenting trajectories and support needs of young dads, and a steering group member of the Punk Scholars Network.

Telephone interviews are a valuable method for generating qualitative data and conducting fieldwork at a distance. The pandemic has prompted many social scientists to rethink their research methods and adapt to researching in ways that accommodate social distancing rules. Telephone interviews offer a remote route to fieldwork but their value for researchers extends beyond the pandemic. This interactive workshop provides practical guidance on conducting qualitative telephone interviews. The workshop will highlight the advantages of using telephone interviews and offer advice on how to overcome the challenges. We will guide you through processes of recruitment and ethics; as well as offering practical support on what to do before; during; and after telephone interviews. You will have the opportunity to discuss your own research and develop your ideas with hands-on activities.

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Best practices in data organisation with spreadsheets

Speakers:

Bio: Aleksandra Nenadic is the Training Lead at the UK's Software Sustainability Institute based at the University of Manchester committed to ongoing improvement of research software practice through training and community engagement work. Aleksandra is working to improve the provision and access to training in foundational computational and data analysis skills for researchers and scientists and is advocating for openness, reproducibility, collaboration and inclusion in research. Aleksandra volunteers in several open communities and serves on the Executive Council of The Carpentries, an international community teaching foundational coding and data science skills to researchers worldwide.

Peter Smyth, The University of Manchester

Good data organisation is the foundation of any (research) project. Most researchers have data in spreadsheets; but we often organise such data in the ways that we as humans want to work with data. However; in order to use tools that make computation and data analysis more efficient; reusable and reproducible; we need to structure our data in a particular way so that computers can “understand” and “make use of” the data. We will cover best practices for using spreadsheets for good data organisation and what some common mistakes with formatting data in spreadsheets are. You may also be interested in the short course on "Data cleaning with OpenRefine” to prepare your data for analysis happenning on Tuesday afternoon.

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What is code sharing? – A guide to the good, the bad and the ugly

Speakers:

Ania Zylbersztejn, UCL Child Health Informatics Group

Louise Mc Grath-Lone, University College London

There are many benefits to sharing code; particularly for Early Career Researchers. For example; contributions to code repositories can double up as portfolios that demonstrate technical ability and commitment to open science; which are essential for academic career progression and increasingly valued by research funders. It can also facilitate code review and help foster collaborations. Importantly; it supports transparency and reproducibility of research. In this session; we will explain what is code sharing and why you should do it; drawing on our personal experiences (the good; the bad and the ugly!). We will also invite discussion around how code sharing can be encouraged and better incentivised among Early Career Researchers. The session will also provide a simple 'how to' tutorial on code sharing through GitHub repositories; including outlining the key steps in establishing; maintaining and contributing to a code repository; illustrated by our experiences of establishing the UCL CHIG GitHub.

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What is the Qualitative Pretest Interview?

Speakers:

Bio: "- Department of Social Monitoring and Methodology, German Youth Institute (DJI - Deutsches Jugendinstitut) (since 2011) - Ph.D. in Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute (2008) - Editorial board of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology (since 2011) Selected publications: - Buschle, Christina/Reiter, Herwig/Bethmann, Arne (2021): The qualitative pretest interview for questionnaire development: outline of programme and practice In: Quality and Quantity. (online first). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01156-0 - Reiter, Herwig/Witzel, Andreas (2019): Problem-centred interview. In: Atkinson, Paul A./Delamont, Sara/Cernat, Alexandru/Sakshaug, Joseph W./Williams, Richard A. (Hrsg.): SAGE Research Methods Foundations. Sage Publications. https://methods.sagepub.com/foundations/problem-centred-interview - Witzel, Andreas/Reiter, Herwig (2012): The Problem-centred Interview. Principles and practice. London: Sage Publications. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446288030"

Arne Bethmann, Technical University of Munich (Chair for the Economics of Aging); Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA); Max-Planck

Christina Buschle, IU International University of Applied Sciences

In this talk we outline purpose; programme; and practice of the Qualitative Pretest Interview (QPI); a novel method of pretest interviewing for improving the quality of questionnaires. Unlike other forms of pretesting; like for instance the Cognitive Interview; the QPI advocates a comprehensive consideration of qualitative-interpretive methodology by transferring the idea of intersubjective understanding (Fremdverstehen) in everyday communication to pretest interviewing. The QPI involves interview partners as co-experts in a dialogic clarification of manifest and implied meanings and understanding of formulations and expressions used in draft survey questions and other standardised stimuli. After discussing methodical background; definition; and distinction from similar approaches we highlight key practical aspects of doing QPIs like interviewee briefing; communication strategies and debriefing.Buschle; Christina/Reiter; Herwig/Bethmann; Arne (2021): The qualitative pretest interview for questionnaire development: outline of programme and practice. Quality and Quantity. (Online first.)

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'That all our knowledge begins with experience there can be no doubt' (Kant 1781): The Role of Experiential Learning in Methods Training

Speakers:

Jackie Carter, University Of Manchester

Bio: "Bobby Duffy is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute. He has worked across most public policy areas in his career of nearly 30 years in policy research and evaluation, including being seconded to the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. Bobby also sits on several advisory boards including Chairing the Campaign for Social Science and the CLOSER Advisory Board, is a member of the Executive of the Academy of Social Sciences, and is a trustee of British Future and the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education. His first book, The Perils of Perception – Why we’re wrong about nearly everything, was published by Atlantic books in several countries, drawing on a set of global studies on how people misperceive key social realities. His latest book, Generations - Does when you’re born shape who you are?, came out in September 2021 and challenges myths and stereotypes around generational trends, seeking a greater understanding around generational challenges."

Bio: I have a passion for data literacy training, having spent the last 20 years working in this field. I am Director of User Support and Training at the UK Data Service, where I lead a national programme of data literacy training that is accessed by researchers across all sectors. I have taught data literacy to undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Manchester, including QStep undergraduates, and I have mentored/supervised QStep interns. I have led/lead cross-European data literacy programmes and I am a co-investigator on a project which aims to increase data literacy skills in Latin America (EmpoderaData).

Bio: "Holly is a Lead Analyst in the ONS's Public Policy Directorate, where she leads a team producing analysis and research with cross-cutting policy relevance, currently focussing on social mobility and education. Originally from Edinburgh (or Glasgow, depending on which parent is asked) she was a member of the University of Edinburgh's first Q-Step cohort, graduating with an MA(Hons) in International Relations with Quantitative Methods. This included a work placement with Audit Scotland which encouraged her to seek data-driven opportunities in the public sector. Holly has worked in a range of analyst roles in the Civil Service as well as in the private sector and in retail and hospitality. She is passionate about expanding opportunities having led the Civil Service Fast Stream's Social Mobility Network and mentored and tutored young people. In pandemic-less times, Holly loves to explore foreign cultures and has lived and travelled in a number of countries."

This panel; chaired by Jackie Carter; author of 'Work placements; internships and applied social research' (Sage; 2021); will discuss the value of experiential learning in teaching and training of methods to social researchers. The panellists are Bobby Duffy – Chair of the Campaign for Social Sciences and author of ‘The Perils of Perception – why we’re wrong about nearly everything’; Vanessa Higgins; Director of User Support and Training; UK Data Service; Jamie Pearce; Director ESRC Scottish Graduate School of Social Science and Holly Bathgate; Lead Analysis; ONS. The discussion will reflect the experiences of all the panellists in working with industries across different sectors (outside of academia). The aim of the panel is to showcase experiential learning at different career stages; debate the question 'who pays?' (for work-placed experiences) and discuss with the audience how we can collate evidence of the value of experiential learning to create more programmes that benefit early- and mid- career researchers and the talent pipeline into social research careers.

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What is autoethnography?

Speakers:

Bio: Clare Holdsworth is a social geographer whose work explores the temporalities and mobilities of everyday life. Her latest book, The Social Life of Busyness, was published by Emerald in September 2021. Her research uses different methodological approaches, including secondary analysis of longitudinal data sets, biographical narrative interpretative method interviewing and creative participatory methods. She is also a textile artist and has recently started to integrate this creative practice into her research. Her session on What is Autoethnography will outline how she uses her creative practice as a conduit for the self-study of intimate and family relationships.

Autoethnography is a popular method in the social sciences and has been particularly useful approach during covid-19 restrictions. However it is not an exact method and researchers need to find their own way of writing an interpretative biography that pays attention to social and cultural contexts. This session introduces a method of making autoethnography that incorporates everyday activities (in my case making with textiles) into a self-study of intimate and material relations. This session explores the importance of experimenting with autoethnography and developing a practice through the stages of discovery; development and embedding. This introduction to making autoethnography also addresses embedding ethical practices and paying close attention to the broader context of social identities and cultural practices.

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From data poetry to 'data music': performing your research results

Speakers:

Bio: Simone Eringfeld is an educationist, artist-researcher, poet and writer whose work explores new ways to blend academia with art. She graduated from the University of Cambridge with a master's degree in Education and International Development in 2020. Her thesis on the future of the post-Covid University, which used podcasting as its principal research method, won the BERA Master's Dissertation Award (1st Prize, 2021). In April 2021, she released her first spoken word music EP in which she presented data from her research at Cambridge. Most recently, she has been focused on further developing podcasting as an action research method and 'data music' as a new way of communicating research results.

This session focuses on poetic and sonic methods for data analysis and research communication; and centers around the idea of 'performing your research results'. More specifically; this webinar focuses on how - and why - to convert 'data poetry' (poems written with research data as a form of analysis) into spoken word performances. In this webinar; I'll introduce the new method of 'data music' and use my data-based spoken word music album 'Please Hold' as a way to illustrate what research can 'sound' like and how music can be used to share outcomes with a wide audience.

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Quantitative methods for the study of intersectionality and health

Speakers:

Bio: Before moving to Sheffield, Andy was a lecturer at the University of Bristol, where he also completed his undergraduate degree (in Geography) and PhD (in Advanced Quantitative Methods). His current substantive research focuses on mental health from a life course perspective, but also spans a diverse range of other subject areas, including geography, political science, social epidemiology and economics. Methodologically, Andy’s interests are in the development and application of multilevel models, with work focusing on age-period-cohort analysis and fixed and random effects models.

Dan Holman, University of Sheffield

Clare Evans, University of Oregon

Intersectionality has become highly topical in health inequalities research. It expresses the idea that we are more than the sum of our characteristics; and people have multiple forms of advantage and disadvantage which combine to influence health in complex ways. This has become especially apparent during the pandemic; with deprivation; ethnicity; sex and age combining to strongly affecting outcomes. At the same time; there has been significant development of quantitative methods – in particular the use of multilevel models – for considering differences between intersections.This session will explore these methods and potential advances to them; for instance how they can be extended to incorporate geographical differences and temporal change. There will be short talks providing an introduction to these methods; including their challenges and recent extensions to them from researchers at the very forefront of their development. There will be significant scope for audience interaction including a panel discussion and Q&A session.

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In conversation with... Sophie Woodward, Jennifer Leigh and Nicole Brown

Speakers:

Bio: "Jennifer Leigh is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Kent. j.s.leigh@kent.ac.uk Jennifer joined the Centre for the Study of Higher Education full-time in 2013. She initially trained as a chemist, somatic movement therapist, and yoga teacher before completing her doctorate in education at the University of Birmingham. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She edited a book for Routledge in 2019, Conversations on embodiment across higher education: Teaching, practice and research. Together with Nicole Brown, she edited and contributed to Ableism in Academia: Theorising Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses in Higher Education,(UCL Press, 2020), and authored Embodied Inquiry: Research Methods (Bloomsbury, 2021). She is a founder member of WISC (an international network for Women In Supramolecular Chemistry) and the only social scientist on the Board. The projects she has underway with WISC aim to bring embodied research approaches (and glitter) into the world of chemistry and public engagement. Her next book, The boundaries of qualitative research: with art, education, therapy and science will be published by Bristol University Press. Her research interests include embodiment, phenomenological and creative research methods, academic practice, academic development, and ableism as well as aspects of teaching and learning in higher education. She tweets as @drschniff @suprachem."

Nicole Brown, Social Research & Practice and Education Ltd.

Bio: Sophie Woodward carries out research into materiality, fashion, consumption, feminist theory and everyday life. She is the author of five books, including recently Material Methods (2019), and Birth and Death (2019 with Kath Woodward). With an ongoing interest in creative methods and material methods she is currently carrying out research into Dormant Things – things in the home people keep but are no longer using, which she is currently developing into publications into the hidden spaces and materialities of the home.

To celebrate the relaunch of the NCRM book research method series with the publication of 'Embodied Inquiry: Research Methods' Sophie Woodward is holding an 'In conversation event' with the authors Jennifer Leigh and Nicole Brown. Jennifer and Nicole's book explores what an embodied approach brings to a research project; and which kinds of considerations need to be taken into account to research in this way. The book has been praised as a 'welcome addition to the research methods literature' that is 'grounded in interdisciplinary theorizing and bursting with practical wisdom'; and as such 'a practical guide for both students and scholars interested in engaging in an embodied research process'. In this event; Sophie; Jennifer and Nicole will discuss; among other things; what Embodied Inquiry is; what the benefits and challenges of this mode of research are; and what an Embodied Inquiry might look like in practice.

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What is Reanimating data? How to use archived materials to generate new knowledge

Speakers:

Bio: Rachel is a sociologist by discipline and Professor of Childhood & Youth Research in the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sussex. Her research interests focus on the interplay of biographical and historical change and has included work on childhood, the transition to adulthood, new parenthood and intergenerational dynamics within families. She has a particular interest in gender, sexuality and lived temporalities. Her methodological writings include (with McLeod, Sage 2009) Researching Social Change: Qualitative Approaches and (with Berriman & Bragg, Bloomsbury 2018) Researching Everyday Childhoods: Time, Technology and Documentation. She is engaged in innovative ways of sharing and animating data utilising digital platforms, and has collaborated on a number of open archives and showcases for social research data include www.modernmothers.org and www.reanimatingdata.co.uk

Sharon Webb,

Ester McGeeney,

Rosie Gahnstrom,

Niamh Moore,

In this session we explore the idea of 'reanimating data' - working with archived social science materials as a starting point for generating new insights into a topic; in ways that enable the exploration of perceptions and experiences of social continuity/change. We will draw on our ESRC funded study Reanimating Data: Experiments with People; Places and Archives; showing what 'reanimation' might look like and how social history and sociology can be drawn into creative conversation that goes beyond current agendas of the 're-use' and 'secondary analysis' of data. The archive we are working with is the Women Risk & AIDS Project which collected sexual stories with young women in Manchester and London in the late 1980s. Our reanimation experiments have involved collaborations with young people; artists and activists as well as new generation feminist researchers. The session will involve working with material that includes discussions of sexual experiences that are often disappointing; sometimes non-consensual and occasionally pleasurable.

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What is the CLOSER Learning Hub?

Speakers:

Bio: Neil Kaye is a Research Fellow at CLOSER and, as part of his role, leads on Training and Capacity Building. He has a focus on research methods and is enthusiastic about helping students and researchers make effective use of the UK's longitudinal studies. This work has involved running workshops, overseeing a refresh of CLOSER's Learning Hub and developing further online resources for the longitudinal population studies community.

This session provides a demonstration of the CLOSER Learning Hub and how it can help students to use data from longitudinal studies for their dissertation. The format comprises a short introductory video (15 mins); followed by a live demonstration with interactive exercises for participants (20 mins) and a Q&A session (15 mins). The session will look in-depth at the Learning Hub's resources - learning modules; data discovery; research case studies - and how they can be applied to research for a self-led undergraduate dissertation. From understanding the benefits of longitudinal research and how it can be used to answer research questions; to accessing datasets from longitudinal studies and thinking about analysing and writing up your research; this introductory session will provide a clear guide for students considering using longitudinal studies in their research.

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What is CHARM (the Care Home Action Researcher in residence Model)?

Speakers:

Bio: Isabelle Latham is a Senior Lecturer at the Association for Dementia Studies at the University of Worcester having joined in 2011 as a Research Associate. Isabelle combines an active research role, leading the department's care home research with delivery of education programmes, enjoying the translation of research findings into practical skills and knowledge for frontline staff. Isabelle is particularly passionate about frontline care of people living with dementia and developing the skills and passion of frontline staff. This stems from her early career as a care worker with older people living in care homes and in the community. Isabelle has over 25 years’ experience of working in health and social care settings with a particular focus on safeguarding vulnerable adults from abuse and educating frontline care staff.

Faith Frost, University of Worcester

It is known that traditional approaches to engaging care homes in research experience substantial challenges. This project encouraged collaboration between care homes and researchers to explore alternative models of engagement and improve outcomes. CHARM used 2 experienced researchers embedded within 4 care homes to build in-house research expertise and support the design and delivery of bespoke research projects of use to the whole care home community. Action-research was used as the methodology because of its participatory; flexible; context-specific and improvement-oriented focus. This introductory talk will explore how to research collaboratively with care homes by sharing the findings from the CHARM study: (1) the impact of CHARM on the care homes and staff who took part; (2) the refined model; (3) facilitators and barriers to successful implementation and (4) recommendations for future rollout of the model. This talk will include video contributions from care home personnel who took part.

Short course -

Institutional Ethnography: Conducting feminist, interdisciplinary & bottom-up research (day 2)

Speakers:

Bio: Adriana is a Geographer with +15 years of experience working with communities and policymakers in Australia, Chile (her home country), Colombia and the UK. She is interested in conducting interdisciplinary research that promotes transformation towards more just and sustainable futures. Her PhD in Environment, Energy and Resilience from the University of Bristol (June 2020) examined community water management in rural Chile. Using Institutional Ethnography (IE) allowed her to map textually mediated work processes wherein rural people seek access to drinking water, navigating an institution that prevents them from accessing this basic human right. My research findings advise concrete policy and legislation changes on conceptualizations of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘water rights’ to achieve clean water for all. She is a member of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and of the International Sociological Association, specifically Working Group 6 on Institutional Ethnography, and Research Committee 24 on Society & Environment.

Órla Meadhbh Murray, Imperial College London (Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship)

Dr Liz Ablett, University College Dublin

Our aim is to introduce researchers to Institutional Ethnography (IE): a feminist approach to analysing texts and mapping organisational processes. We will do this by offering participants a very practical opportunity to familiarise themselves with IE and for them to leave the training course inspired to explore how IE could help them approach their research in an innovative and collaborative way.This approach is applicable across the social sciences including health and disability studies; education; gender studies and land planning. IE has strong interdisciplinary potential and it is well equipped to pay attention to difference.Following an overview of IE as a feminist sociology; we will present two case studies to show how it can be used and with what results. Moreover; attendees will have time to think; discuss; and apply IE to their own research. No prior knowledge or training is required.This is booked through the NCRM training database at an additional charge which includes a free festival pass; Institutional Ethnography: Conducting feminist; interdisciplinary & bottom-up (part of the RMeF2021) (ncrm.ac.uk)

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The Methods Matter Podcast, Episode Two- Social Network Analysis

Speakers:

Bio: "Adam Smith was born in the north, a long time ago. He wanted to write books, but ended up working in the NHS, and at the Department of Health. He is now Programme Director in the Office of the NIHR National Director for Dementia Research (which probably sounds more important than it is) at University College London. He has led a number of initiatives to improve dementia research (including creating Dementia Researcher, Join Dementia Research & ENRICH), as well as pursuing his own research interests. He also write blogs, hosts podcasts and is passionate about improving the lives of people living with dementia and supporting early career researchers. In his spare time, he grows vegetables, builds Lego & spends most of his time drinking too much coffee and squeezing technology into his house."

Please note that you will be first taken to a registration page. Simply click 'Register now' to create a free account and have access to additional materials.In expert corner - Dr David Griffiths from the University of Stirling. His research focuses on social connections and social advantage. And what tool does he rely on to get to the heart of the issues? You guessed it social network analysis; and social survey methods. In researcher ranch – Dr Anne-Nicole Casey; Qualitative Research Associate from the University of New South Wales within the Dementia Collaborative Research Centre (DCRC) and Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA). *** The Methods Matter Podcast - from Dementia Researcher & the National Centre for Research Methods. A podcast for people who don't know much about methods...those who do; and those who just want to find news and clever ways to use them in their research. In this first series PhD Student Leah Fullegar from the University of Southampton brings together leading experts in research methodology; and dementia researchers that use them; to provide a fun introduction to five qualitive research methods in a safe space where there are no such things as dumb questions! Every show comes with a great visual guide. Find the show in your podcast app; on YouTube; and on the Dementia Researcher and NCRM Websites https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukWatch episode 2 of the Methods Matter podcast.

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Can Human Rights Survive Inequality in the Digital Age?

Speakers:

Bio: Amos Toh is a senior researcher on artificial intelligence and human rights at Human Rights Watch. Before joining HRW, Amos served as legal advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression and was a clinical teaching fellow at the University of California (Irvine) School of Law. Between 2012 and 2015, Amos was Counsel and Katz Fellow at the Brennan Center of Justice. Amos is a graduate of New York University School of Law and the National University of Singapore School of Law.

This keynote will provide an overview of Human Rights Watch research on the role of algorithmic decision making in reinforcing and amplifying the conditions of poverty and inequality. Our research spans two distinct; but intersecting areas: 1) the automation of welfare administration and provision; and 2) the algorithmic management of the app-based “gig” economy. Drawing on case studies in the United Kingdom and the United States; this keynote will explore patterns of algorithmic decision making that evade traditional modes of public scrutiny and accountability; while reinforcing lopsided power dynamics between the state and the beneficiary; and employer and worker. This keynote will also explore how traditional modes of human rights factfinding should evolve to document the role of technology in violations of socio-economic rights; and how it interacts with systemic conditions (such as the degradation of the social safety net and the wealth gap) to enable these violations. Watch the video of this keynote speech.

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Ash Watson's responses to questions from yesterday's keynote

This recording will be available for the entire festival; it just has a time because of the format for Whova.

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Creating Survey Weights

Speakers:

Bio: I am a survey statistician for the UK Household Longitudinal Study. My current research focuses on improving quality and efficiency of survey data, specifically within three broad themes. The first theme is related to motivation and its role in improving quality of survey answers. The second theme is concerned with tackling nonresponse through fieldwork, including through motivation and adaptive design. And the third investigates improvements of statistical estimation and correction for nonresponse in complex sample design situations, including in longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys. My wider research interests also include work on satisficing, real-world eye-tracking in survey context, nonresponse bias, sample design, and social desirability.

This workshop will introduce survey weighting and will be especially useful for those who plan to conduct their own survey or want to understand better how survey weights work. Both; design weights (those that adjust for unequal selection probabilities) and nonresponse weights (those that adjust for nonresponse) will be covered. Theoretical part will use simple examples and simple words to explain what weights are; why they are important and how they are created. A practical part will let participants create their own weights. Access to Stata and knowledge of a logistic regression is recommended but is not a requirement for participation in the workshop.

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Eliciting subjective probabilities in surveys

Speakers:

Bio: Emilia Del Bono is Professor of Economics at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, and Director of the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (https://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/misoc). Her research agenda is focused on the nature, causes, and consequences of disparities in children’s and young adults’ human capital that lead to inequalities later on in life.

Bio: Adeline specializes in various fields in Applied Economics and Econometrics, including Development Economics, Health Economics, Education Economics and Labour Economics. Her research focuses on understanding how people’s subjective beliefs and expectations about future events shape their current decisions in health, labour markets and education space. She has made major contributions to survey methodology for elicitation of such beliefs from individuals, and to economic analysis of the impact of these beliefs on people’s behavior.

Pamela Giustinelli, Bocconi

Many decisions are made under uncertainty; and individuals are likely to form subjective beliefs about the probabilities of events that are relevant for their decisions. For example; when deciding to wear a mask outside; individuals make forecast about the probability of contracting and transmitting COVID-19 with and without a mask. Asking respondents about verbal expectations (e.g. is this event 'likely?) is commonly done in surveys; but those yield only ordinal measures of beliefs. Moreover; responses may not be interpersonally comparable. These concerns lead to the elicitation of probabilistic expectations; where respondents are asked a question that can be interpreted as a probability. Such quantities are helpful to assess whether individuals have accurate expectations about the future; and can be used in economic models which require quantitative measures of beliefs. We review the state of knowledge on the elicitation of probabilistic beliefs in surveys in a conversation between Adeline Delavande (University of Technology Sydney); Pamela Giustinelli and Emilia Del Bono (University of Essex).

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Accelerating impact and public good from research

Speakers:

Bio: James’ manages the ONS Secure Research Service impact team, tracking and reporting the public good of research. Before this, James work in the world of elite tennis, using innovative technology to research athlete performance.

Bio: UK Data Service Director of Impact

Bio: Mary leads the Research Programme on the Public Good of Statistics in the Office for Statistics Regulation. Before this, she worked in academia, carrying out research and lecturing in Psychology.

Nick O'Donnell,

Bio: "Rob is CLOSER’s knowledge mobiliser. He raises the profile of longitudinal population studies, data and research within government and parliament and feeds evidence into policy and decision making. In May 2020, Rob took on an additional role as Head of the CLOSER COVID-19 Taskforce and is the architect of the COVID-19 Longitudinal Research Hub. In February 2021, Rob was awarded a CAPE Policy Fellowship in the House of Commons Scrutiny Unit to support the implementation of the 2017-19 Liaison Committee’s report recommendations on the use of research evidence in Parliament. This includes working with Select Committees on developing Areas of Research Interests (ARIs) and considering how to develop more systematic structures of cooperation between parliament and research institutions. Prior to taking up the position at CLOSER in 2016, Rob worked in and around government and parliament, including the Ministry of Agriculture, House of Lords, and Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman."

This panel session brings together members of the civil service and statistics community to discuss their experiences of working with Government; Academia and public; private and third sector organisations to support and promote their research which benefits the economy and society.With expertise covering the full lifecycle of research using linked administrative; business and survey data; this panel will cover topics including the understanding public good; the importance of qualitative and quantitative impact; supporting early career researchers and engaging with policy makers and government.Panel members:Nick O'Donnell; Head of Secure Research Service Policy; Operations; Relations and Impact; Office for National StatisticsMary Cowan; Research Specialist; Office for Statistics RegulationRob Davies; UCL and Head of the COVID-19 Taskforce; CLOSERNeil Dymond-Green; Service Director; Impact; UK Data ServiceChair: James Spurr; Senior Impact Manager; Office for National Statistics

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Biographic narrative interpretative method (BNIM): a taster workshop

Speakers:

Bio: Debbie Holley is Professor of Learning Innovation at Bournemouth University. A National Teaching Fellow and a passionate educator, she blends learning to motivate and engage a diverse student body. She has used biographic narrative interpretative method in her own research projects, seeking to uncover the hidden barriers to accessing technologies, worked with researchers across London to draw upon biographic narrative to track student University aspirations into their home communities, and offers training to doctoral students seeking to use this method in their own research. Her research interests in digital, augmented and immersive worlds influence national policy through her published work, keynote addresses and policy articles.

Participants are warmly invited to take part in a practice interview; work on coding a short extract from a 'real' interview and carry out a sample analysis. BNIM draws upon the German school of thought from the early 20th century; and is a particular method used to draw out the 'stories' or narratives from interviewee's lives. What is of interest to the researcher is what the interviewee selects to tell us; and the way in which the story is told. The interview is structured such that the interviewee has the time and space to develop their own contribution. This approach is useful as it can in part challenge the criticism of the research interview; which can assume that an interview is an unproblematic window on psychological or social realities; and that the 'information' that the interviewee gives about themselves and their world can be simply extracted and quoted (Wengraf 2001).

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Introducing Participatory, Arts-based Research Through the Collaborative Poetics Method

Speakers:

Bio: Helen Johnson is a Principal Psychology Lecturer at the University of Brighton, UK, and Co-Director for the University's Centre for Arts and Wellbeing. She is a leading voice in spoken word/poetry slam scholarship and an expert in creative research methods. Helen is particularly interested in the intersections between arts-based research, participatory research and social justice, and has developed the ‘collaborative poetics’ method framed by these concerns. She is also an established spoken word poet/educator, and has been Stage Manager for the Poetry&Words stage at Glastonbury Festival, the world’s largest greenfield music and performing arts festival, since 2008.

This session combines talk; discussion and workshop activities to introduce the participatory; arts-based research method of 'collaborative poetics' (CP). CP uses a range of artistic tools and techniques; particularly spoken and written poetry; to investigate and communicate co-researchers' lived experiences in collaborative 'research collectives.' We will consider how this approach can lend insight into events as social phenomena; communicate key messages to others; and change society for the better. You will also be supported to work through a range of CP activities; drawing on the materials from the 'Collaborative Poetics Resource Pack' (http://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/collaborativepoetics/resources/). We will end with an opportunity to share our work and reflect on the methods we have used.

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Automating Decision-making

Speakers:

Bio: "Richard is Business Engagement Lead of Alliance Manchester Business School and Senior Lecturer (Associate Prof) in Data Science at The University of Manchester. Prior to Manchester, he worked at the Biochemical Engineering Department, University College London. He studied Business Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and completed a PhD in Computer Science at The University of Manchester. Richard's research interests are in the field of data science and in particular in the development and application of optimization and machine learning techniques to real-world problems arising in areas such as healthcare, manufacturing, economics, sports, music, and forensics. Much of research has been funded by UK funding bodies (e.g. ESRC, EPSRC, Innovate UK) and industrial partners. Richard is a Member of the Editorial Board of several international journals, Vice-Chair of the IEEE CIS Bioinformatics and Bioengineering Technical Committee, Co-Founder of the IEEE CIS Task Force on Optimization Methods in Bioinformatics and Bioengineering, and contributes regularly to conference organisation and special issues as guest editors."

Computational optimization is prevalent in numerous application domains in industry; government and academia; and concerned with the design and application of computational search; modelling and simulation techniques to select a best element; with regard to some criterion; from some set of available alternatives. In practice; a computational optimization problem can have various additional challenges; such as multiple conflicting criteria to be optimized simultaneously; resourcing constraints; dynamic and uncertain problem components; and time-consuming and/or expensive experiments. In this clinic; I will draw on my research expertise and the literature in Optimization and Machine Learning; and close collaboration with external stakeholders; to provide advice on how to use state-of-the-art research methods to help you frame; define and solve your computational optimization problem efficiently. I will also provide advice on suitable funding and engagement routes for collaborative work with academic and other stakeholders. To get the most out of this session; please come prepared with a short pitch of the problem you want to tackle and the aspect of the problem that you would like to get advice on.

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Getting going with tracking your research impact

Speakers:

Bio: Sarah has an international reputation as a leader in the fields of knowledge exchange and research impact, and has been an invited speaker on this topic in the UK, Europe, Canada and Australia. She has conducted eight independent impact studies and supported organisations and individuals to create and understand the impact of research and evidence-use strategies within and outwith Universities. She is the co-founder of Matter of Focus - a company that supports organisations to use data and evidence effectively - and has built an innovative software tool ‘OutNav’ to support this process.

Would you like to be able to track the impact of your research; and demonstrate the difference you are making? In this workshop; Dr Sarah Morton will share insights from her extensive experience of research impact assessment and help participants to take the first steps in tracking the impact of their own research. This will include an introduction to research impact tracking; and the chance to try out some of the techniques and approaches in discussion with colleagues. It will focus on telling 'success stories' of research impact; and thinking about the data and evidence needed to turn them into case studies for REF or other purposes.

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Complex systems science methods in public health research

Speakers:

Bio: Dr Garcia is a Lecturer of Complexity Science and Public Health and co-leads the Complexity, Public and Planetary Health Cluster, at the Queen’s University Belfast. He has experience in the development and application of complex systems science methods in various public health issues, including but not limited to health-related behaviour, determinants of non-communicable diseases, urban health, and health inequalities.

Bio: Ruth Hunter is a Professor in the Centre for Public Health, Queen’s University Belfast with a particular interest in complexity science, and public and planetary health. She is co-lead of the Epidemiology and Public Health Research Group at QUB. She has authored over 90 papers and leads research projects totalling over £10m from the UKPRP, MRC, NIHR and ESRC. She is a member of the NIHR Public Health Research funding panel and WHO expert consultant.

Bio: I am a public health clinical lecturer in Queen's University Belfast, a consultant in public health medicine in the Public Health Agency, and Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser in Northern Ireland's Department of Health. My work is at the interface of policy, practice and research. Much of my research is in the realm of public health epidemiology, led by contemporary policy challenges. I am interested in methods that recognise and account for the complexity of the problems that we address.

Many of the most pressing public health issues of our time are complex problems; with multiple factors and actors dynamically interacting and responding to changing contexts. Problems that defy simple solutions. Complex systems science provides a set of mental and technical tools to act on these circumstances. This webinar will introduce key concepts and methods of complex systems science and how they apply to public health research and practice; combining short presentations and a Q&A session with experts in this field.

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Qualitative Evidence Synthesis - An Introduction

Speakers:

Bio: "Prof. King Costa is Executive Dean at the G-CAR- South Valley University campus in South Africa and Managing Director of Global Centre for Academic Research, also known as G-CAR. He is an Associate Research Professor at AMADI University College in Swaziland, where his role is focussed teaching on a pedagogy he developed, the C.O.S.T.A. Research Coaching and Supervision Model. He is also supervising MBA Research at MANCOSA (Management College of Southern Africa). King Costa is a member of the Scientific Committee for the World Conference on Qualitative Research, a premier yearly international conference on qualitative and mixed methods research. The World Conference on Qualitative Research attracts scholars across the globe from different disciplines and industries (https://wcqr.info/committees/). Prof. King Costa is a Management Scientist, registered with the Southern African Institute for Management Scientists. He is a Full Member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology of South Africa (SIOPSA). He is also a member of the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA). King is continually doing some post-doctoral CPD programmes via online platforms, and currently has a Certificate in Research Methods from Harvard Medical School, Certificate in Introduction to Systematic Reviews from John Hopkins University, Certificate in Improving Global Health : Focussing on Quality and Safety from HarvardX, Certificate in Research Ethics endorsed by the Global Health Network and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He also obtained a Certificate of Completion in Good Clinical Practice for Social and Behavioural Research from the Society of Behavioural Medicine. He also has a Certificate in Knowledge synthesis: Systematic Reviews and Clinical Decision Making provided via University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre. King Costa has further completed training on Essential Elements of Ethics from the Global Health Network in association with Multi-regional Clinical Trials, The MRCT Centre of BRIGHAM and WOMEN's HOSPITAL and HAVARD. He is also a certified ETDP Practitioner (Assessor) and a Constituent Assessor for the Service SETA on Generic Management Qualification 59201. Dr Costa is also a Certified Peer Reviewer from the Publons Academy – a division of the Web of Science Group. He has practiced as a leadership and management consultant with over 20 years’ experience in Human Capital consulting and Organizational Development. He has worked with many organizations within the public, private and non-governmental sectors in both South Africa and different African countries including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Liberia, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland. He specializes in helping and enabling professionals within the HR, Healthcare, and Enterprise Development fields to understand their area of maximum contribution and maximize contribution and organizational returns. He is a change agent and employee engagement specialist – helping organizations unlock value in people and teams while at the same time enhancing a productivity-centric culture. He is also a learning and development specialist, a conference keynote speaker, a motivational speaker, a facilitator, and an author."

Professor Lloyed Leach, University of the Western Cape

The outbreak of COVID-19 has disrupted research methods just as it had to all other sectors of education across the globe. Many institutions and organisations; including researchers sought to find ways to deal with research while observing the requirement for remote interactions. While many options have been implemented; the use of systematic reviews; and in particular; Qualitative Evidence Synthesis (QES) have not been explored. QES; as a research method; offers a high level of evidence through the synthesis of primary qualitative studies; using established and endorsed critical appraisal methods such as PRISMA Workflow charts or COREQ; CASP (the latter is commonly used in QES); and many more that are suitable based on the nature of the study design. The other beneficial quality of QES is the ability to preserve research; use and embellish primary research and provide formidable networks between researchers. This workshop provides an introduction to this approach.

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Data cleaning with OpenRefine

Speakers:

Bio: Aleksandra Nenadic is the Training Lead at the UK's Software Sustainability Institute based at the University of Manchester committed to ongoing improvement of research software practice through training and community engagement work. Aleksandra is working to improve the provision and access to training in foundational computational and data analysis skills for researchers and scientists and is advocating for openness, reproducibility, collaboration and inclusion in research. Aleksandra volunteers in several open communities and serves on the Executive Council of The Carpentries, an international community teaching foundational coding and data science skills to researchers worldwide.

Peter Smyth, The University of Manchester

Most of the real world data is messy. Even if data is organised well; it can include errors; corruptions; inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Before data analysis can take place; data cleaning is needed to identify and correct errors; and make the data structure and formatting consistent. This process has the potential to radically change the data; so it must be completed with the same care and attention to reproducibility as the data analysis itself. We will provide an introduction to the open source tool OpenRefine which can be used to clean and (re)format data. You may also be interested in the short course on "Best practices in data organisation with spreadsheets” to give you some useful advice when you start collecting and organising your data from scratch; which is happening on Monday afternoon.

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Doing research online

Speakers:

Bio: Kate Orton-Johnson is a digital sociologist. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh and is Programme Co-Director of the Edinburgh MSc in Digital Society. She is co-convenor of the BSA Digital Sociology study group and a co-investigator at NCRM. She researches and publishes on intersections between technology, culture and everyday life, currently related to issues around digital leisure, digitally mediated parenthood and trust in blockchain technologies.

Idil Galip, University of Edinburgh

Kath Bassett, University of Edinburgh

Addi McGowan, University of Edinburgh

Zoom password: igi09Xz6This exploratory panel will discuss the experience of doing research online. The panel will reflect on how we might define 'online' research and will explore the ways in which we can employ the digital in our methods. With a focus on qualitative approaches and drawing on a number of examples we will talk about digital spaces as rich places for ethnographic enquiry. We will discuss how Instagram can be used to collect ethnographic and autoethnographic data; reflecting on the ethical and algorithmic complexities of studying digital visual culture. Using Airbnb as a case we will discuss how spending time in a platform can help us to understand how platform affordances shape social processes. We will reflect on how learning about platforms and using autoethnographic methods can uncover how platform content shapes participants experiences of digital spaces. We will then invite discussion on the complexities; ambiguities and potentials of digital methods.

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What is the ECHILD Database?

Speakers:

Louise Mc Grath-Lone, University College London

Linked; longitudinal administrative data from education; social care and health have been used separately for more than two decades to inform policy and practice; plan and monitor services; and advance science. The Education and Child health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) Database links these data sources together nationally for the first time and includes information on hospital contacts; exam results and referrals to children's social care services. Because most children attend a state school or NHS hospital at some point in childhood; the ECHILD Database includes almost all children in England born since 1995 (>95%) with follow-up to age 24. The content and coverage of the ECHILD Database make it particularly informative for research to inform policy and services. In this session; we will introduce and describe the development of the ECHILD Database which will be made available to researchers for wider re-use in 2021.

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Writing as a Method Of and For Research

Speakers:

Nicole Brown, Social Research & Practice and Education Ltd.

Bio: Dr Helen Kara FAcSS has been an independent researcher since 1999 and an independent scholar since 2011. She writes about research methods and research ethics, and teaches doctoral students and staff at higher education institutions worldwide. Her books include Creative Research Methods: A Practical Guide and Research Ethics in the Real World: Euro-Western and Indigenous Perspectives for Policy Press, and she has written and edited several other books for Policy Press, SAGE and Routledge. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Writing is used by all Euro-Western researchers; whether quantitative; qualitative; or multi-modal. In this session we will discuss the four key roles of writing: as your friend; teacher; therapist and career planner. We will consider writing as a research method; writing for research; by keeping field notes; writing as part of organising the research journey and career trajectory such as through the use of journals; and creative research writing.

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What is causal inference?

Speakers:

Bio: Eduardo (Ph.D. In Econometrics, The University of Manchester) is a statistician/econometrician specialised in Causal Inference. He uses nonparametric methods to study questions about ageing (e.g. the effect of retirement on health and skills), childhood (the formation of skills such as strategic behaviour) and to evaluate policies that could affect peoples' skills and development. His work has been published in leading journals, such as Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Journal of Applied Statistics, Statistical Papers or Health Affairs, among others.

This session will look at what is "causal inference"; the statistical tool behind the evaluation of policies; medical and scientific innovations and academic experiments. Specifically; we will discuss what makes causal inference difficult; what approaches are being taken to make credible causal inferences; and we will provide quick rules of thumb that can help the public to separate credible and less credible causal claims.

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Using autoethnography as a lightweight research method

Speakers:

Bio: "Sarah Turner is a PhD Researcher in the School of Computing at the University of Kent, and a member of the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCCS). Her research focuses on how families address the cyber security issues arising from using Internet of Things devices in the home. Prior to this, Sarah received an MPA in Digital Technology and Public Policy from UCL’s Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, and spent some time working as a Research Associate at PETRAS, the National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity. A lifelong collector of degrees of all shapes and sizes, Sarah has an MA in Literae Humaniores from the University of Oxford, an LLB from BPP Law School, and an MBA from the Open University. The last two of those were undertaken whilst she worked full-time in the financial services industry, creating and managing teams and technologies to meet regulatory obligations. As a result of her interdisciplinary background and work experience, Sarah is particularly interested in how systems get to a point of needing to be regulated, and what that regulation should look like, why people use technology they don’t always fully understand, how they can hope to use them safely and how such technologies should be designed and created."

Using reflections from a period of autoethnography that I undertook last year; this session will look at some of the pros and cons of this extremely intimate research method. This method is a risky one to use in many ways; as it may be considered too specific; not generalizable enough to produce valuable insight. However; carefully done; for the right subject matter; this should not be the case. This webinar will look at previous examples of autoethnography; with a large (but not exclusive) focus on the human-computer interaction space; as a means of understanding why recording aspects of your own lived experience might be beneficial for your understanding of your research subject and your future work.

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Boundary estimation and social frontiers: A story of interdisciplinary collaboration

Speakers:

Bio: "Gwilym Pryce is Professor of Urban Economics and Social Statistics at the University of Sheffield where he holds a joint appointment between the Sheffield Methods Institute and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Gwilym is Director of the ESRC/Nordforsk Life at the Frontier Project researching the social mobility of migrants and the impacts of residential segregation. Gwilym is also the Sheffield Director of the ESRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Data Analytics and Society, an interdisciplinary PhD programme. Gwilym's research interests are primarily in social segregation and inequality, including the ways in which neighbourhood deprivation and social fragmentation influence patterns of crime and anti-social behaviour."

Bio: "Duncan is a Professor of Statistics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Glasgow, and his research interests focus on developing models for spatio-temporal areal unit data, particularly in environmental public health applications. In addition to numerous published research papers and grants in this field, Duncan is the author of the well used CARBayes and CARBayesST R packages for spatial and spatio-temporal areal unit modelling. Additionally, he hosted the 2019 GEOMED conference in Glasgow, which is the premier interdisciplinary meeting focusing on spatial health data modelling. Finally, Duncan has ongoing collaborations with Public Health Scotland and Public Health England where he has honorary appointments, and has previously taught numerous short courses on spatial data modelling to researchers and public health analysts alike."

Bio: "Kitty Meeks obtained her DPhil in Mathematics from the University of Oxford in 2013, before taking up a postdoctoral position at Queen Mary University of London. She moved to the University of Glasgow in 2014, first as a Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, before moving to the School of Computing Science where she held a Royal Society of Edinburgh Personal Research Fellowship (""Exploiting Realistic Graph Structure"") from 2016 to 2021. She currently holds an EPRSR Fellowship entitled ""Beyond One Solution in Combinatorial Optimisation"" (2021-2026). Her research focuses on techniques for the design of algorithms that are provably both correct and efficient, and on the application of these algorithms to many other areas, ranging from Social Network Analysis to Precision Medicine."

‘Social frontiers’ are sharp changes across space in the religious; social or ethnic composition of residential areas that mark territorial boundaries between neighbouring communities. These frontiers potentially exacerbate crime and reduce wellbeing. The challenge for social scientists has been to estimate these boundaries in a way that allowed them to be “open” rather than “closed”—a neighbourhood can have a sharp social boundary along one section of its perimeter but gradual transitions elsewhere—and to account for random variation. We realised that Bayesian spatial statistical methods being developed at Glasgow University for disease mapping could provide a solution. This led to a co-authored journal article estimating the impact of social frontiers on crime. Since then the interdisciplinary collaboration has widened further. Working with a computer scientist we are currently drawing on cutting-edge developments in graph theory to optimise the accuracy of the social frontier estimates. It’s a story of how social science can advance through interdisciplinary collaboration.

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What is the Catalogue of Mental Health Measures?

Speakers:

Bio: Bridget Bryan is a PhD student and research assistant at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. Her PhD research investigates the associations between loneliness, social isolation and work, and their implication for mental health and socio-economic outcomes. Bridget joined King’s in 2018 to assist in the data collection, web development and dissemination of the Catalogue of Mental Health Measures. Before joining the project, she completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) at the University of Sydney and a Master of Science in Sociology at the University of Oxford. Previously, Bridget has worked in research focusing on workplace mental health and the Australian forensic mental health system at the University of New South Wales, the Mental Health Commission of NSW and the University of Oxford.

Bio: Lily is a Research Assistant and joined the team in September 2020 to assist with editing and updating the Catalogue and reviewing new documentation from cohort and longitudinal studies. She completed her BSc (Hons) in Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, before completing her MSc in Developmental Psychology and Psychopathology at King’s College, London. Previously, Lily has worked as a Research Assistant on projects primarily focusing on children’s behavioural and socio-emotional adjustment in relation to parenting and family relationships. Lily’s research interests include familial processes, behavioural genetics, and the role of early adversity and socioeconomic risk in relation to mental health and wellbeing.

Louise Arseneault, King's College London

Existing longitudinal and cohort studies provide unique opportunities to answer key questions related to mental health and wellbeing. But what has been collected? By who? When? And; how? The Catalogue of Mental Health Measures; is a searchable online platform providing detailed information about over 4;000 measures of mental health and wellbeing from over 45 British longitudinal studies. This webinar will introduce the Catalogue; providing an overview of how the Catalogue was developed; before an interactive demonstration of how the Catalogue can be used to discover existing mental health measures in UK longitudinal studies. The Catalogue may be particularly useful for early career researchers utilising data that has already been collected and researchers less familiar with the mental health field – but it may also hold some surprises for experienced mental health researchers! This is an interactive session; so please bring your laptop; tablet or phone so you can try it out.

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Transitioning to Online Data Collection in Social Surveys: Developments and Challenges

Speakers:

Bio: Gabriele Durrant is Professor in Social Statistics and Survey Methodology in the Department of Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton. She is Director of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). she has extensive research experience in the analysis of nonresponse, representativeness and paradata in large-scale surveys using linked data sources and for improving survey data collection, including online data collection. She was the PI of a 3-year ESRC funded research project on ‘Data Collection for Data Quality’ (Work Package 1 of the NCRM).

Bio: Dr Olga Maslovskaya is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton. My area of research is in Survey Research and Survey Methodology. The main fields of my interest are survey data collection, data quality in online surveys, mixed-device online surveys, transitioning to online data collection in social surveys. I am the lead of the ESRC project which funds activities of GenPopWeb2 network of academic and non-academic partners. The network addresses issues associated with transitioning of social surveys to online data collection. I am also a Co-Investigator on the ESRC project which funds the collection of the first wave of Gender and Generations Survey in the UK. I lead the workpackage which focuses on methodological developments in this new online survey.

Bio: "Tim is a Senior Research Fellow at European Social Survey (ESS) Headquarters, based at City, University of London. He leads the Questionnaire Design and Fieldwork work packages for ESS, having joined the team in November 2019. This followed 15 years at Kantar where Tim started his research career, after graduating with a BA in Geography and Sociology from the University of Sheffield. Tim’s research interests include the design/adaptation of surveys based on online/mixed-mode approaches, use of mobile devices for online surveys/mobile-optimised design, item nonresponse, video interviewing, and a range of topics relating to questionnaire design."

Bio: Gerry Nicolaas is NatCen’s Director of Methods, and Head of its Methodology & Innovation Hub. For thirty years, she has worked as a survey researcher and methodologist in government, academia, and the non-profit and commercial sectors. Throughout this time, she has focused on emerging survey methodological issues in two key areas: (1) data collection modes and (2) non-response. In more recent years, this focus has shifted to the use of online data collection, including the transformation of existing surveys from single offline modes to web-only and mixed mode including web.

Bio: "Laura is a Principal Social Researcher and the Data Collection lead for the UK Government Data Quality Hub (DQHub). Although based at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the remit of her role extends to improving the quality of all data across government. Laura is an expert qualitative researcher with over a decade’s industry experience in designing and developing official government surveys. Prior to working in DQHub, Laura led the Research and Design Team in ONS which was responsible for the transformation of its Social Surveys. There she pioneered and embedded a respondent centred approach to survey development which transformed the respondent user experience. Laura has a passion for ensuring data are collected accurately at source, and for bringing respondent needs to forefront of survey design."

Social survey data collection has undergone significant changes and innovations in recent years; particularly driven by the move to and expansion of online data collection. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a need for online working in all areas of life; and hence had a wide-ranging impact on survey data collection methods. Many social surveys considered transitioning to online data collection; however; data collection organisations faced challenges linked to this paradigm shift. This session will feature recent developments and challenges in the area of online data collection methods. The session will combine both practical and theoretical considerations. Examples of topics may include advances in online data collection; e.g. using smartphones; as well as shifts from one survey mode; in particular from face-to-face interview modes; to online or mixed modes.

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What is a Slow Ritual of Care?

Speakers:

Bio: "I am a Creative Facilitator and Public Engagement specialist. My research focuses around the cultural relations and ethical obligations that society creates by collaborating with non-human life in pursuit of health and wellbeing. I aim to make people a little less comfortable with the familiar, known and connected, and a little more comfortable with that which feels unfamiliar, different and other. I design collaborative interventions around everyday objects and experiences that make participants complicit in the consequences of their interactions. I have particular interests in queer things, monstrous things, performative roles and the ethics of participation, living technologies and the human/non-human bond."

Blending mail-art; crafting circles and consequences; A Slow Ritual of Care brought small groups together; over two interactive workshops; to make felt research mice and to collectively decide upon their fates. This experimental encounter created space to critically consider the difference between being careful and care-full in engaged; participatory research; the vulnerabilities of bodies and what lingers after encounters. This session will provide: Critical reflections on care as infrastructure - when perceived burdens of care may stop us exploring difficult conversation; pre and post care; caring at a distance.  An examination of participation - when does participation begin and end; what are the boundaries of responsibility; what needs to be resolved and what might we wish to leave unfinished. Adapting work to digital spaces

Short course -

Avant-garde and arts-based methods in qualitative research (day 1)

Speakers:

Bio: Dr Alexandrina Vanke holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Manchester. She has more than 10 years of research experience and participated in nine team projects. Alexandrina specialises in the application of interdisciplinary qualitative research methods, including interviewing, participant observation, ethnography, and creative and arts-based approaches. Her research interests include everyday life, intersectional inequalities, urban space and cultural practice. Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Member of the British Sociological Association.

Bio: "Victoria Lomasko is a Russian contemporary artist based in Moscow. She has a degree in Graphic Arts from Moscow State University of Print¬ing Arts. Her book Other Russias is a collection of ‘graphic reportages,’ a self-described style of art making and record keeping. It was published in six countries, for example in the USA by n+1 and in the UK by Penguin. During the past few years, mural making has become the main passion of her practice. Her work has appeared in Art in America, The Guardian, GQ Russia, The New Yorker and in exhibitions around the world including Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Austria, Garage Museum in Moscow, Russia, Miami University Humanities Center in Oxford, USA, GRAD at Somerset House, London, UK and the Cartoonmuseum, in Basel, Switzerland. Lomasko’s art is based on the synthesis of text and images. In her graphic reportages text is an important element as drawing is. In her practice, writing essays and poems precedes the sketching of monumental works so she refers her murals as “frozen poems”. Her art has developed from Soviet style (the artist used to call herself The Last Soviet Artist) to fantasy compositions that are based on real events and include reworked sketches from nature. Moving from documentary depicting concrete cases and from journalism to a narrative on big historical processes using symbolic language, the artist continues describing the modern life."

This two half-day course will give you an overview of avant-garde and arts-based approaches of doing qualitative research and provide you with basic knowledge about creative methods in the social sciences.  Led by Dr Alexandrina Vanke and contemporary artist Victoria Lomasko; we will cover a full-cycle qualitative study and explain how to incorporate arts-based strategies at all stages of research. We will discuss how to: create research designs building on avant-garde and documentary approaches; combine arts-based strategies of data collection; such as drawing and collaging; with qualitative methods of observing; participating and interviewing; use sketches and comics in the study of everyday lives; material culture and urban space; elaborate strategies of analysis of multisensory data; employ the research assemblage and creative writing complemented by visual narratives; apply arts-informed strategies in the process of disseminating research outputs.   You will need to bring pencils and markers; paper and old magazines; scissors and glue.This is booked through the NCRM training database at an additional charge which includes a free festival pass; Avant-garde and arts-based methods in qualitative research (part of the RMeF2021) (ncrm.ac.uk)

Short course -

Institutional Ethnography: Conducting feminist, interdisciplinary & bottom-up research (day 3)

Speakers:

Bio: Adriana is a Geographer with +15 years of experience working with communities and policymakers in Australia, Chile (her home country), Colombia and the UK. She is interested in conducting interdisciplinary research that promotes transformation towards more just and sustainable futures. Her PhD in Environment, Energy and Resilience from the University of Bristol (June 2020) examined community water management in rural Chile. Using Institutional Ethnography (IE) allowed her to map textually mediated work processes wherein rural people seek access to drinking water, navigating an institution that prevents them from accessing this basic human right. My research findings advise concrete policy and legislation changes on conceptualizations of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘water rights’ to achieve clean water for all. She is a member of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and of the International Sociological Association, specifically Working Group 6 on Institutional Ethnography, and Research Committee 24 on Society & Environment.

Órla Meadhbh Murray, Imperial College London (Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship)

Dr Liz Ablett, University College Dublin

Our aim is to introduce researchers to Institutional Ethnography (IE): a feminist approach to analysing texts and mapping organisational processes. We will do this by offering participants a very practical opportunity to familiarise themselves with IE and for them to leave the training course inspired to explore how IE could help them approach their research in an innovative and collaborative way.This approach is applicable across the social sciences including health and disability studies; education; gender studies and land planning. IE has strong interdisciplinary potential and it is well equipped to pay attention to difference.Following an overview of IE as a feminist sociology; we will present two case studies to show how it can be used and with what results. Moreover; attendees will have time to think; discuss; and apply IE to their own research. No prior knowledge or training is required.This is booked through the NCRM training database at an additional charge which includes a free festival pass; Institutional Ethnography: Conducting feminist; interdisciplinary & bottom-up (part of the RMeF2021) (ncrm.ac.uk)

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The Methods Matter Podcast, Episode Three- Qualitative Longitudinal Methods

Speakers:

Bio: "Adam Smith was born in the north, a long time ago. He wanted to write books, but ended up working in the NHS, and at the Department of Health. He is now Programme Director in the Office of the NIHR National Director for Dementia Research (which probably sounds more important than it is) at University College London. He has led a number of initiatives to improve dementia research (including creating Dementia Researcher, Join Dementia Research & ENRICH), as well as pursuing his own research interests. He also write blogs, hosts podcasts and is passionate about improving the lives of people living with dementia and supporting early career researchers. In his spare time, he grows vegetables, builds Lego & spends most of his time drinking too much coffee and squeezing technology into his house."

Please note that you will be first taken to a registration page. Simply click 'Register now' to create a free account and have access to additional materials.In expert corner - Dr Kahryn Hughes; from University of Leeds. Director of the Timescapes Archive; Editor in Chief of Sociological Research Online; Convenor of the MA Qualitative Research Methods and a Senior Fellow for the NCRM. In researcher ranch – Professor Andrew Clark; from the University of Salford. Andrew has completed research on a wide range of topics; though he is particularly interested in three areas: neighbourhoods & communities; dementia; and innovation & creativity in social science research methods. *** The Methods Matter Podcast - from Dementia Researcher & the National Centre for Research Methods. A podcast for people who don't know much about methods...those who do; and those who just want to find news and clever ways to use them in their research. In this first series PhD Student Leah Fullegar from the University of Southampton brings together leading experts in research methodology; and dementia researchers that use them; to provide a fun introduction to five qualitive research methods in a safe space where there are no such things as dumb questions! Every show comes with a great visual guide. Find the show in your podcast app; on YouTube; and on the Dementia Researcher and NCRM Websites https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukWatch episode 3 of the Methods Matter podcast.

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Placing Covid-19: towards a spatial analysis of the pandemic

Speakers:

Bio: I completed my PhD exploring changing tenure, household structure and spatial polarisation at Manchester in 2016. Since then I have taught in Sociology at Warwick and Geography at Nottingham. I recently joined the UK Data Service. Before studying I worked for the Audit Commission on performance assessment and improvement with organisations and partnerships across local government, health and criminal justice agencies.

Bio: "I first encountered Census data in 1995, working as a placement student for a year at Midas (Manchester Information, Data and Associated Services) within the University of Manchester. I was asked back when my degree had completed and initially worked as maternity cover, programming an object oriented database for the SuperJournal project. That was in 1997, Midas then became Mimas, my job changed to become infrastructure and programming support on Census data, then moved to International Time Series data as part of UKDS but still working within the University of Manchester, then when the unit moved to Jisc my role increased to become encompass training for aggregate data. My role now is as senior technical co-ordinator for aggregate data within the UK Data Service, looking after a team of 4 technical staff who are responsible for the ingest of data to our systems and the hardware and software infrastructure on which it sits. In my career I have been lucky worked on ground breaking interfaces such as Casweb, GeoConvert and DotStat and taken part in shared projects that have led to advances in UK Census Outputs, Open Geospatial Consortium APIs, e-Social Science and international data co-operation such as the SIS-CC."

This workshop introduces ecological analysis to explore demographic characteristics of places and explain uneven patterns of social phenomena. We model the association between Covid cases; and deprivation; occupation; ethnic diversity; housing conditions and age profile to illustrate the power of ecological analysis. On completion of the workshop; you will appreciate the statistical geography of England; the data available from standard census tables and be able to extract relevant indicators from them; explore their spatial distribution and develop a statistical model for the rate of Covid cases by local area in England. The workshop uses the GeoDa software; a user-friendly interactive tool to analyse spatial data. The skills and knowledge you develop will inform future spatial analyses of social phenomena using data from the 2021 census when this becomes available. We will provide materials for you to explore your own research questions and be available to answer questions during the festival.

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Material Methods: object elicitations and interviews

Speakers:

Bio: Sophie Woodward carries out research into materiality, fashion, consumption, feminist theory and everyday life. She is the author of five books, including recently Material Methods (2019), and Birth and Death (2019 with Kath Woodward). With an ongoing interest in creative methods and material methods she is currently carrying out research into Dormant Things – things in the home people keep but are no longer using, which she is currently developing into publications into the hidden spaces and materialities of the home.

Bio: Dr Helen Holmes is a Lecturer in Sociology and Sustainable Consumption. Her work explores materiality, consumption and diverse forms of economy, especially the circular economy. In particular, Helen focuses upon social perspectives of objects and materials, to illuminate the lived everyday relationships we have with things. She has extensive expertise in using ethnographic methods to study micro level practices. Helen has published widely in high quality journals including Sociology, The Sociological Review, Work, Employment and Society and Geoforum.

This event explores qualitative interviews as a kind of material method. Both speakers - Sophie Woodward and Helen Holmes - have used objects in their research interviews and in this session we will discuss how we have used these in our own research into women's wardrobes and dormant things (Woodward) and practices of thrift; lost property and domestic waste (Holmes). Through conversation we explore the potentials of this approach and wider applications.

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Supporting mental health and wellbeing in social research during Covid-19 times

Speakers:

Bio: Melanie Nind is Professor of Education at the University of Southampton and a co-director of NCRM, leading on pedagogic research (https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/pedagogy.php) and methodological responses to Covid-19 (https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/socscicovid19/). Melanie guest-edited the 2015 special issue of International Journal of Social Research Methodology on the teaching and learning of social research methods, she is editor of the Bloomsbury Research Methods for Education book series and author of Inclusive Research in the NCRM Bloomsbury Research Methods series.

Bio: "Robert Meckin is a presidential fellow in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester and works closely with the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). He is interested in emerging technosciences, interdisciplinarity and research infrastructures. He has spent recent years collaborating with and working alongside scientists practicing a design-led approach to biotechnology, and exploring how publics anticipate the potential of new biotechnological capabilities by using the chemical menthol as a way into discussing everyday technological understandings. Publications include explorations of scientific practices in increasingly automated, digitalised laboratories, and the affordances of sensory methods in engaging publics. At NCRM he has been focused on interdisciplinary research methods and has been examining the nascent areas of investigative methods and computational social science methods with Mark Elliot (University of Manchester) and Michael Mair (University of Liverpool), and exploring changing research practices in Covid-19 with Melanie Nind and Andy Coverdale (both at the University of Southampton)."

Bio: Andy Coverdale is a Research Fellow in Southampton Education School at the university of Southampton and member of the Centre for Research in Inclusion. He is currently working with the National Centre for Research Methods on their project looking at social research in the context of Covid-19 alongside research into how digital accessibility is taught and learned in Higher Education and the workplace. Andy has many years’ experience of working with, supporting, and teaching people with learning disabilities, and recently completed work on the ‘Self-build Social Care‘ research project, using inclusive and participatory methods to work collaboratively with people with learning disabilities and their allies. Andy has previously conducted research in the educational use of digital media and technology through his work with iRes at Falmouth University and the Visual Learning Lab at the University of Nottingham. His PhD examined the role of social and participatory media in doctoral education.

This session draws on the NCRM study of changing research practices in response to the changing social context of the pandemic to reflect on how social researchers have been supporting mental health and wellbeing in research during Covid-19 times. How to provide such support when researching amidst heightened risks is one of the complex ethical challenges researchers need to discuss. Attending to the wellbeing of researchers; not just research participants; was an emergent theme in the study. The ethics of supporting wellbeing involves: (i) protection from harm; such as avoiding either over-burdening people who are already overwhelmed or adding to stress by abandoning research plans; and (ii) doing good; such as though providing vehicles for self-expression; social connection and purposeful activity. This includes enabling disadvantaged and marginalised communities; on whom Covid-19 has had disproportionate impact; to contribute and benefit from research. In all of this; methods matter for collective wellbeing.

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Brainstorming on Patchwork Ethnography

Speakers:

Chika Watanabe, University of Manchester

Gokce Gunel, Rice University

For researchers using ethnographic methods; long-term fieldwork is becoming difficult. Neoliberal university labour conditions; expectations of work-life balance; environmental concerns; and feminist and decolonial critiques have demanded a rethinking of fieldwork as a process that entails spending a year or longer in a faraway place. We propose 'patchwork ethnography' to consolidate the innovations that are already happening in ethnographic research out of necessity to balance family and research; for example; but that remain black boxed. Patchwork ethnography begins from the acknowledgement that recombinations of 'home' and 'field' have now become necessities. Patchwork ethnography refers not to one-time; short trips and relationships a la consultants; but rather; to research efforts that maintain the long-term commitments; language proficiency; contextual knowledge; and slow thinking of so-called traditional fieldwork. This workshop will build on the Patchwork Ethnography Webinar from June 2021 to consolidate what patchwork ethnography can mean as a methodology and theory.

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Innovation Collection Launch: Investigative Methods in Contemporary Society and concepts, targets and techniques for inquiry

Speakers:

Bio: Michael is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool. He is the Director of engage@liverpool (www.liverpool.ac.uk/engage), an Executive Board Member of Methods North West (www.methodsnorthwest.ac.uk), and a Senior Fellow at the UK’s National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM, www.ncrm.ac.uk). Michael has expertise in the methodology, philosophy and social scientific study of research with his empirical work focusing on methodological practice in the social sciences, natural sciences and the arts and humanities and covering ethnographic studies of qualitative, quantitative, investigative and digital methods as well as experimentation, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Bio: "Robert Meckin is a presidential fellow in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester and works closely with the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). He is interested in emerging technosciences, interdisciplinarity and research infrastructures. He has spent recent years collaborating with and working alongside scientists practicing a design-led approach to biotechnology, and exploring how publics anticipate the potential of new biotechnological capabilities by using the chemical menthol as a way into discussing everyday technological understandings. Publications include explorations of scientific practices in increasingly automated, digitalised laboratories, and the affordances of sensory methods in engaging publics. At NCRM he has been focused on interdisciplinary research methods and has been examining the nascent areas of investigative methods and computational social science methods with Mark Elliot (University of Manchester) and Michael Mair (University of Liverpool), and exploring changing research practices in Covid-19 with Melanie Nind and Andy Coverdale (both at the University of Southampton)."

Mark Elliot, University of Manchester

Investigative methods for social research; like those used by historians; journalists; legal scholars and others; are seeing a resurgence as practitioners adapt and use techniques in digital spaces. The session builds on an on-going programme of work in NCRM by bringing together a range of practitioners to share and explore methods by launching the first 'Innovation Collection' at this event. Investigative methods are forms of inquiry that use evidentiary clues; often from different sources; that can be joined together to reconstruct an event; action; or network of actors. They are being used to reveal; inter alia; 1) the structures of corporations and corporate activity 2) the activities of state forces and militaries 3) the biographies of historical persons and 4) the organisation of political messaging on social media. Investigative methods challenge accepted ways of understanding particular entities and offer insights into power; secrecy and social organisation alongside evolving capabilities in digitalised society.

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Remote, but in person: doing social sciences fieldwork online

Speakers:

Nicole Brown, Social Research & Practice and Education Ltd.

The Covid19 pandemic has brought about many unforeseen challenges for research in the social sciences. As a result; researchers needed to revise their original research plans; with many abandoning their originally planned approaches to fieldwork and with others feeling at a loss at what to do altogether. However; doing research remotely; does not need to be impersonal; different or problematic; indeed; it can be a positive; proactive choice to account for inclusion and inclusivity. Drawing on research projects where fieldwork was fully online; even before the pandemic; delegates will actively experience a variety of remote data collection methods for different purposes and contexts. The interactive workshop further allows delegates to explore benefits and drawbacks as well as practical; methodological and ethical challenges and concerns with doing in-person fieldwork online.

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UK Data Service Data Drop-in

Speakers:

Bio: David Martin is a Professor of Geography at the University of Southampton. He is a co-director of both the National Centre for Research Methods and the UK Data Service. He was the coordinator of ESRC's Census Programme from 2002-2012 and his research in Geographical Information Science particularly concerns grid-based population mapping and automated zone design. His work led to the system of Census output areas, Super output areas and Workplace Zones that have been used by the Office for National Statistics for the publication of area-based census data since 2001.

Sarah King-Hele,

Alle Bloom, University of Manchester

Julia Kasmire, University of Manchester

Emily Durrant, University of Essex

Maureen Haaker, University of Essex

Cristina Magder, University of Essex

Eilish Peters, University of Essex

Saskia Price, University of Essex

Anca Vlad, University of Essex

Hina Zahid, University of Essex

Bio: "I first encountered Census data in 1995, working as a placement student for a year at Midas (Manchester Information, Data and Associated Services) within the University of Manchester. I was asked back when my degree had completed and initially worked as maternity cover, programming an object oriented database for the SuperJournal project. That was in 1997, Midas then became Mimas, my job changed to become infrastructure and programming support on Census data, then moved to International Time Series data as part of UKDS but still working within the University of Manchester, then when the unit moved to Jisc my role increased to become encompass training for aggregate data. My role now is as senior technical co-ordinator for aggregate data within the UK Data Service, looking after a team of 4 technical staff who are responsible for the ingest of data to our systems and the hardware and software infrastructure on which it sits. In my career I have been lucky worked on ground breaking interfaces such as Casweb, GeoConvert and DotStat and taken part in shared projects that have led to advances in UK Census Outputs, Open Geospatial Consortium APIs, e-Social Science and international data co-operation such as the SIS-CC."

Meet the data experts from the UK Data Service for help and advice in accessing; finding; managing and getting started with data.Come along to talk to our experts about any of the following topics: Finding and accessing data from the UK Data Service Accessing secure data via the UK Data Service secure lab Managing research data Depositing your research data with the UK Data Service Getting started with specific datasets or data types from the UK Data Service: Survey data Census data Qualitative data International macrodata – staff only available 3.00-3.30 Getting started with computational social science.  Come along to talk with us about any topic related to computational social science e.g. how to find; get or analyse new forms of data for the social sciences such as social media data; data from the internet etc.; learning coding; using Github etc. Wonder We will be holding this session in wonder.me space where you can approach an expert and ask questions.  On wonder you can move around a room and join a circle to talk to people. In a circle; you can share your camera; microphone and screen (so very similar to a Teams or zoom call).   Wonder.me works best with Chrome or Edge.  You may need to use a personal device to join if your corporate network does not allow you to access wonder.me.  It is recommended to close all software that uses your camera or sound devices before joining wonder and close wonder after use.  See wonder FAQs Try out this wonder test session any time before the drop-in.

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Decolonizing sociolinguistics through the aegis of the grounded theory method

Speakers:

Bio: "I have two Masters degrees, one in French language and literature and the other in English. Mt first thesis was about a sociolinguistic analysis of Shakespearean female characters. The MPhil dissertation compared translation related features of English and Urdu short stories. For my PhD dissertation, I again made a comparative study of English and Urdu (the national language of Pakistan). For this sociolinguistic project, I decided to introduce grounded theory methodology in order to theorize the place of the two important languages in Pakistan. My research interests include"

I define sociolinguistics simply as the study of language and society without emphasising one over the other and leaving it to the individual studies how they want to negotiate the preference . Traditional sociolinguistic analyses tend to produce quantitative insights more than anything else-relying on hypothesis testing; predictions and generalisations. Theory generation is almost a foreign thought to many working in this field and is left to the few big names (mostly residing in the West) of the discipline. For us; scholars living in the East (Pakistan is a former British colony); the feeling is of double colonisation- colonisation (restriction) by the research methods put into place by our former colonizers. No matter how unique a research problem is; we are encouraged to test; at times; inadequate and extant theories formulated by the Western scholars that can; at best; partially explain the phenomenon. This is the point where the grounded theory method moves in. It provides a robust theory building methodology and is applied in situations where there is a need for fresh theorizing. This session intends to make a case for using the grounded theory method for theorizing sociolinguistic situations.

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Measurement with the Rasch Model

Speakers:

Bio: "Maria holds a joint position, as a Senior Lecturer of Education and Social Statistics, at the University of Manchester. Her substantive research interest lies within educational research and in particular in the association between teaching practices and students’ learning outcomes focusing on STEM and recently on issues around gender (in)equality. Methodologically, her expertise and interests lie within evaluation and measurement, and advanced quantitative methods, including longitudinal data analysis and dealing with missing data. For more details: Email: maria.pampaka@manchester.ac.uk Profile: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/maria.pampaka.html"

This workshop aims to introduce participants to measurement theory and the Rasch model for construction and validation of measures. It covers the basic theory behind measurement; from an Item Response Theory perspective; focusing on the assumptions of the Rasch models; in particular. The Rasch model provides the means to create measures (or score scales) from a combination of items in tests or questionnaires. The principles governing the application of such models are shown through examples from educational measurement but are easily applicable to other areas in social and health sciences. Participants will be introduced to various models of the Rasch family (Dichotomous; Rating Scale and Partial Credit) with real research examples and get an opportunity to discuss these and their own examples.

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What is? Best Practice for presenting and visualising research results

Speakers:

Bio: "Tina is a lecturer in Social Statistics at the University of Manchester. She is a trained Demographer and has researched topics such as socio-economic factors for the onset of cardiovascular disease across different ethnic groups, fertility and family formation and dissolution process among ethnic groups and the effectiveness of compensation methods for missing data in bio-marker dataset.

This What is? talk is designed to draw attention to some common pitfalls and easy guidelines for presenting research outcome with en emphasis on visualising data and numbers. The content is tailored for academic topics but has applicability in many different situation and should provide some help with the daunting task of speaking and demonstrating the outcome of your own research. The workshop has no specific target audience; as the guidelines are fitting for UG; PGT; PGR as well as academic and non-academic staff.

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What is Synthetic data: accelerating public policy research

Speakers:

Paul Calcraft, Behavioural Insights Team

Katie Harron, University of College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

Dora Kokosi, University College London

What if society-level patterns in behaviour and outcomes could be easily analysed by researchers to inform policy and services; without risking the privacy of any individual citizen? An idea from a Harvard professor in 1993 may provide exactly that: synthetic data. Synthetic data is a new copy of a data set that is generated at random; but following the structure and (some) patterns of the original data. Each piece of information in the data set is plausible (e.g. an athlete's height is usually between 1.5 and 2.2 meters; never 1 kilometer); but it is chosen randomly from the range of possible values; not by pointing to any original individual in the data set. We will show how synthetic data is helping to expand the use of data in policy research; and outline our ambitions to further improve the efficiency and safety of public policy research.

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What makes data research-ready?

Speakers:

Louise Mc Grath-Lone, University College London

Administrative data (i.e. information routinely collected by organisations for operational reasons) are a valuable research resource. Administrative data have several advantages compared to primary research data (e.g.; whole population coverage; near complete follow-up and potential for linkage) but are under-utilised due to access and technical barriers. The Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK programme seeks to increase the use of administrative data by creating linked; research-ready resources for multiple research purposes. However; in spite of increasing interest and investment; there is no agreed definition of what constitutes 'research-ready' data. In this session; we will present our proposed framework of characteristics for research-ready administrative data and invite discussion about how the research community can develop clear principles and agree common standards. These standards and principles are urgently needed to guide data providers and processors and ensure that the research-ready administrative data they generate are fit-for-purpose in terms of their utility for research.

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Working with the Office for National Statistics: Becoming an Accredited Researcher?

Speakers:

Bio: Mary has worked for the Office for National Statistics for just over a year, having formerly been an academic researcher. She works within the Statistical Support team, one of several teams within the Integrated Data Programme and Service directorate who run the Secure Research Service (SRS). The SRS is a trusted research environment where Accredited Researchers may access de-identified unpublished data for research projects that are for the public good.

The ONS Secure Research Service is a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) that provides access to de-identified unpublished data to enable research for the public good. In this session attendees will gain an understanding of the wide range of data we provide access to; what kind of research projects have successfully used data; and find out about the process for becoming an Accredited Researcher; under the Digital Economy Act. In this session we will outline the principles that govern access to data; which sit under the Five Safes Framework; Safe People; Safe Projects; Safe Settings; Safe Outputs and Safe Data. There will also be time at the end of the session for attendees to ask specific questions from our experts around the current process or ideas for future projects.

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What is Curating Research Findings in Digital Exhibition Format?

Speakers:

Bio: "Dr. Maggie Laidlaw Maggie Laidlaw is a Post-Doctoral Researcher within the Department of Economics in the Glasgow School of Business & Society at Glasgow Caledonian University. She is also Lead Curator with D.Rad and Module Leader & Lecturer in (PG) Applied Skills in Qualitative Research Methods within the GCU Graduate School. Maggie received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh, and her M.Res from The Glasgow School of Art. Her Ph.D. scholarship was funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC). Maggie’s research interests focused predominately on gendered temporalities of belonging and civic participation, however more recent work examines the use of creative arts to explore inclusion and belonging across various communities. She is a trained ethnographer and experienced in creative and collaborative qualitative research methodologies. Maggie’s field of expertise cover: The Arts & Social Inclusion & Belonging, Temporalities of belonging, Temporalities of volunteering & community engagement, Sociology of Time, Gendered Temporalities, Norbert Elias’s We-I balance, Qualitative research methods: Arts-based research, Poetry, Innovative Research Methods, Co-production and collaborative research. In a voluntary capacity, Maggie is actively engaged with her local community, and experienced in leading community arts projects. maggie.laidlaw@gcu.ac.uk"

Unlike more traditional forms of research dissemination; which are often placed at an academic distance from a general public – and hidden away behind expensive paywalls - one reason for the success of curating research findings in exhibition and event format; could be that the research data is displayed in a much more digestible and visually appealing manner. This presentation of different voices in different formats shines a spotlight on the process of academic and creative engagement with the public in a way that can create an emotional attachment which makes the audience care and pay attention to the issues being discussed.This session discusses the curatorial tools and procedures to provide research dissemination; participation and replicability from a social and cultural policy perspective; while also providing an awareness raising platform for the community that maximize impacts during the lifetime of a project and beyond.

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Podcasting as a research method

Speakers:

Bio: Simone Eringfeld is an educationist, artist-researcher, poet and writer whose work explores new ways to blend academia with art. She graduated from the University of Cambridge with a master's degree in Education and International Development in 2020. Her thesis on the future of the post-Covid University, which used podcasting as its principal research method, won the BERA Master's Dissertation Award (1st Prize, 2021). In April 2021, she released her first spoken word music EP in which she presented data from her research at Cambridge. Most recently, she has been focused on further developing podcasting as an action research method and 'data music' as a new way of communicating research results.

This session explores the potential of podcasting as a qualitative research method. While academics have increasingly started to discover podcasting as an effective digital medium for research communication; podcasting can also be used as a method and platform for data collection. In this session; we explore some of the ways in which podcasting can be used to this end. This firstly includes podcasting as a participatory action research method with podcasts serving as public outward-facing platforms for collective action and reflection. Secondly; podcasting can be used as a sonic elicitation technique during interviews and focus groups to elicit rich; detailed; embodied and affective responses from participants. To illustrate the creative methodological possibilities as well as practical considerations attached to audio production; the podcast 'Cambridge Quaranchats' (hosted & produced by Simone Eringfeld) will be used as an example.

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Identifying Hidden Vulnerabilities in patients presenting to the Emergency Department with Major Trauma

Speakers:

Lauren Green, University Hospital Southampton

Rob Crouch, University of the West of England

Lower socioeconomic status is associated with an increased likelihood of trauma; greater severity of injuries; prolonged hospitalisation and 30-day mortality from trauma. This presentation focuses on the study design and results of a retrospective cross-sectional data analysis conducted at a Major Trauma Centre. The study identifies demographics of most vulnerable individuals and compares hospital presentations; injuries and outcomes in vulnerable and comparator groups.

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PAR methods for civic engagement and local action organizing in migrant communities to improve their wellbeing

Speakers:

Bio: "Professor Tracey Reynolds is Professor of Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Applied Sociology Research at the University of Greenwich. Tracey’s teaching and research areas include an interest in Black and racialised migrant mothering, families and communities. Tracey’s most recent projects involve research collaboration with neighbourhood and local community organisations in London/SE and North-East England using creative, participatory and co-produced projects to explore migrant families community resilience and the impact of hostile environment policies during COVID-19 pandemic. These include projects with the webinar contributors: Migrant Mothers Caring for the Future: Creative interventions in making new citizens, Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2013 - 2015, (with Umut Erel, Open University, PI). http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/migrant-mothers/. ‘Participatory Arts and Social Action Research’, ESRC (with Umut Erel, and Maggie O’Neill, York University), https://fass.open.ac.uk/research/projects/pasar, 2016-2018. Participatory Artsbased Methods for Civic Engagement in Migrant Support Organizations, Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2020 – 2022 (with Umut Erel, Erene Kaptani, Open University, Maggie O’Neill, UCC, Ireland). ‘Stronger Together: Our stories of the UK’s hostile environment’ (with Creating Ground and Citizens UK), 2021-22 https://www.theground.org.uk/strongertogether Tracey’s achievement was recently recognised in a national exhibition Phenomenal Women: Portraits of UK Black Female Professors at South Bank Centre, Oct-Nov 2020. This exhibition showcased 45 Black female Professors in the UK (put of a total of 21,000 Professors) https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/talks-debates/phenomenal-women-black-female-professors?eventId=858232. Associated links to collaborative partnership with community organisation Creating Ground (Link to performance https://www.theground.org.uk/noticeus Link to to join campaign https://forms.gle/Xwhq5tccc1VGcraK9 and our impact report https://d85c7b86-7c31-4ec0-9c01-f5530d8c9647.filesusr.com/ugd/41196f_76ae448a871b4280ba4b5f630e56be71.pdf"

Bio: Maggie has a long history of doing participatory research using biographical and arts based methods (visual and performative) in collaboration with artists and communities. Maggie has researched and published widely on critical theory, 'ethno-mimesis', PAR, sex work, migration, asylum and borders, walking as a biographical and arts based method. She is currently working with: Umut Erel, Tracey Reynolds & Erene Kaptani on 'Participatory Arts based Methods For Civic Engagement In Migrant Support Organizations', funded by AHRC, 2020-22, and with Dee Heddon, Harry Wilson, Morag Rose, and Clare Qualmann, on 'Walking Publics/Walking Arts', funded by UKRI, 2021 - 2023. Maggie is a member of the Executive Board of the European Sociological Association, a past Chair of RN03 and a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Bio: Dr. Erel is Professor in Sociology at the Open University, UK. She has widely published on the intersections of migration, ethnicity, citizenship, racism, gender, class. Her methodological interests are in creative and participatory methods for research and engagement. For recent publications, see http://www.open.ac.uk/people/ue27

Frances Rifkin, Regional Refugee Forum NE and Independent Practitioner

Erene Kaptani, Open University

Bio: "Laura is the Director of Creating Ground CIC which she founded in May 2016. Creating Ground CIC is a not-for-profit organisation that works with women from migrant backgrounds to promote cross-cultural awareness, learning and sharing across different communities in South East London through collaborative arts and educational projects. She is also the co-chair of Greenwich Citizens. Laura worked for 9 years at the Migrants Resource Centre where she was responsible for the community education and employability service. She also worked for 2 years at Action for Refugees in Lewisham managing a supplementary school for children aged 4 to 11 and at Renaisi as Community Inclusion Service Delivery Manager supporting a team of bilingual parent advisors working in different schools in Islington and Hackney. She will be presenting together with the Stronger Together Leaders, a group of women from Creating Ground."

The webinar demonstrates the impact of PAR methods in co-creating knowledge; and tools for civic engagement and local organising in migrant communities. The 90-minute session share findings from two online projects with local organisations; supporting migrants with experiencing marginalisation and racism in London and North-East England during the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss the significance of PAR methodologies in centring migrant voices and their embodied; lived local knowledge in developing community initiatives to improve migrants' wellbeing. First; (30 minutes) researchers and practitioners reflect on the benefits of forum theatre skills training with staff/volunteers in migrant support organisations to strengthen their capacity to support migrants' community engagement. Second; (30 minutes) migrant women from local organisation; 'Creating Ground'; discuss their use of arts-based and digital methods to co-create tools for community organising and to become community leaders implementing social changes in their neighbourhood. Finally; (30 minutes); we will invite questions from the audience.

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What is Literate Programming for Social Scientsts?

Speakers:

Roxanne Connelly, University of Edinburgh

Zoom meeting password: nAug9kPUWriting statistical code is now a central skill in quantitative data analysis. This session takes a step back from the mainstream focus on how to run statistical data analyses in statistical data analysis packages; and considers the way in which we write code. This session will consider the application of principles from computer science to the work we undertake in the social sciences. Centrally we will consider the application of Literate programming to the social sciences.Literate programming is a programming paradigm introduced by computer scientist; Professor Donald Knuth. This paradigm represents a move away from writing computer programs for computers; and enables programmers to develop programmes which incorporate the logic and order of the thought processes underlying a piece of code.The principles discussed in this session are language agnostic and can be applied across statistical programming languages (e.g. R; Python; Stata; SPSS).

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What is reproducibility and why it matters

Speakers:

Bio: "Julia Kasmire researches and teaches on how to use new forms of data for social scientists with the UK Data Service and the Cathie Marsh Institute at the University of Manchester. She approaches this task as an interesting combination of thinking like a computer (essential for data sciences) and thinking like a human (essential for social sciences) in the context of complex adaptive systems. She is deeply committed to equality, diversity and inclusivity and is currently dabbling with stand-up comedy as a form of science communication."

Open science requires transparancy and clarity so that ideas and methods are clear and reproducible. It is not always obvious how social sciences can be made open; but this session illustrates several possibilities. The session also lays out the implications of making social sciences more open and potential consequences of failing to do so.

Short course -

Institutional Ethnography: Conducting feminist, interdisciplinary & bottom-up research (day 4)

Speakers:

Bio: Adriana is a Geographer with +15 years of experience working with communities and policymakers in Australia, Chile (her home country), Colombia and the UK. She is interested in conducting interdisciplinary research that promotes transformation towards more just and sustainable futures. Her PhD in Environment, Energy and Resilience from the University of Bristol (June 2020) examined community water management in rural Chile. Using Institutional Ethnography (IE) allowed her to map textually mediated work processes wherein rural people seek access to drinking water, navigating an institution that prevents them from accessing this basic human right. My research findings advise concrete policy and legislation changes on conceptualizations of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘water rights’ to achieve clean water for all. She is a member of the Society for the Study of Social Problems and of the International Sociological Association, specifically Working Group 6 on Institutional Ethnography, and Research Committee 24 on Society & Environment.

Órla Meadhbh Murray, Imperial College London (Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship)

Dr Liz Ablett, University College Dublin

Our aim is to introduce researchers to Institutional Ethnography (IE): a feminist approach to analysing texts and mapping organisational processes. We will do this by offering participants a very practical opportunity to familiarise themselves with IE and for them to leave the training course inspired to explore how IE could help them approach their research in an innovative and collaborative way.This approach is applicable across the social sciences including health and disability studies; education; gender studies and land planning. IE has strong interdisciplinary potential and it is well equipped to pay attention to difference.Following an overview of IE as a feminist sociology; we will present two case studies to show how it can be used and with what results. Moreover; attendees will have time to think; discuss; and apply IE to their own research. No prior knowledge or training is required.This is booked through the NCRM training database at an additional charge which includes a free festival pass; Institutional Ethnography: Conducting feminist; interdisciplinary & bottom-up (part of the RMeF2021) (ncrm.ac.uk)

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Getting creative with note taking and presentations (day 2)

Speakers:

Bio: Dr Emily Bradfield is an Independent Arts Consultant and Researcher who supports people to reimagine evaluation and manage projects creatively, creating bespoke visually engaging and impactful evaluation reports and other creative outputs. She is also Charity Director at Arts and Minds, an arts and mental health charity working across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Emily holds a PhD in Creative Ageing (University of Derby) and an MSc in Cultural Events Management (De Montfort University). She is passionate about bridging the gap between research and practice, advocating arts for social change and weaving creativity throughout research, evaluation and practice. During her PhD research, Emily developed her own style of visual note taking, #CreativeCapture.

Our brains capture information differently. For some people; long; wordy documents work; but others; like me are visual learners. I aim to bring creativity into everything I do; including preparing presentations and taking notes at conferences. There are many creative approaches which aim to capture key ideas through text; images and other graphic elements. Over the past 5 years; I have developed my own unique style of visual notes; termed Creative Capture (please add Trade Mark symbol). I'm often asked 'can you teach me?' and to be honest; the answer is no! But don't let that put you off - it's all about playing around until you find an approach that works for you. If you've ever been to a conference and been dis-engaged as you view yet another slide of words which are too small to read; this is the course for you! This short course will run over 2 half-days.This is booked through the NCRM training database at an additional charge which includes a free festival pass; Getting creative with note taking and presentations (part of the RMeF2021) (ncrm.ac.uk)

Short course -

Avant-garde and arts-based methods in qualitative research (day 2)

Speakers:

Bio: Dr Alexandrina Vanke holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Manchester. She has more than 10 years of research experience and participated in nine team projects. Alexandrina specialises in the application of interdisciplinary qualitative research methods, including interviewing, participant observation, ethnography, and creative and arts-based approaches. Her research interests include everyday life, intersectional inequalities, urban space and cultural practice. Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Member of the British Sociological Association.

Bio: "Victoria Lomasko is a Russian contemporary artist based in Moscow. She has a degree in Graphic Arts from Moscow State University of Print¬ing Arts. Her book Other Russias is a collection of ‘graphic reportages,’ a self-described style of art making and record keeping. It was published in six countries, for example in the USA by n+1 and in the UK by Penguin. During the past few years, mural making has become the main passion of her practice. Her work has appeared in Art in America, The Guardian, GQ Russia, The New Yorker and in exhibitions around the world including Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Austria, Garage Museum in Moscow, Russia, Miami University Humanities Center in Oxford, USA, GRAD at Somerset House, London, UK and the Cartoonmuseum, in Basel, Switzerland. Lomasko’s art is based on the synthesis of text and images. In her graphic reportages text is an important element as drawing is. In her practice, writing essays and poems precedes the sketching of monumental works so she refers her murals as “frozen poems”. Her art has developed from Soviet style (the artist used to call herself The Last Soviet Artist) to fantasy compositions that are based on real events and include reworked sketches from nature. Moving from documentary depicting concrete cases and from journalism to a narrative on big historical processes using symbolic language, the artist continues describing the modern life."

This two half-day course will give you an overview of avant-garde and arts-based approaches of doing qualitative research and provide you with basic knowledge about creative methods in the social sciences.    Led by Dr Alexandrina Vanke and contemporary artist Victoria Lomasko; we will cover a full-cycle qualitative study and explain how to incorporate arts-based strategies at all stages of research. We will discuss how to: create research designs building on avant-garde and documentary approaches; combine arts-based strategies of data collection; such as drawing and collaging; with qualitative methods of observing; participating and interviewing; use sketches and comics in the study of everyday lives; material culture and urban space; elaborate strategies of analysis of multisensory data; employ the research assemblage and creative writing complemented by visual narratives; apply arts-informed strategies in the process of disseminating research outputs.     You will need to bring pencils and markers; paper and old magazines; scissors and glue.This is booked through the NCRM training database at an additional charge which includes a free festival pass; Avant-garde and arts-based methods in qualitative research (part of the RMeF2021) (ncrm.ac.uk)

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The Methods Matter Podcast, Episode Four- Multilevel Modelling

Speakers:

Bio: "Adam Smith was born in the north, a long time ago. He wanted to write books, but ended up working in the NHS, and at the Department of Health. He is now Programme Director in the Office of the NIHR National Director for Dementia Research (which probably sounds more important than it is) at University College London. He has led a number of initiatives to improve dementia research (including creating Dementia Researcher, Join Dementia Research & ENRICH), as well as pursuing his own research interests. He also write blogs, hosts podcasts and is passionate about improving the lives of people living with dementia and supporting early career researchers. In his spare time, he grows vegetables, builds Lego & spends most of his time drinking too much coffee and squeezing technology into his house."

Please note that you will be first taken to a registration page. Simply click 'Register now' to create a free account and have access to additional materials.In expert corner - Bill Browne. Bill is a Professor of Statistics who works across many disciplines including Education and Animal Welfare and Behaviour; his research spans the area of statistical modelling; from the development of statistical methods to fit realistically complex statistical models to describe real-life problems; and the implementation of those models in statistical software. In researcher ranch – Dr Jacqueline Mogle. Jacqueline is co-director of RemindLab; which focuses on promoting health and well-being in older adults and identifying early indicators of changes in psychological and cognitive health. Jacqueline’s current projects examine psychological and behavioural risk factors associated with the development of early cognitive decline. These projects are designed to uncover early intervention targets for older adults prior to precipitous declines in everyday cognitive functioning. *** The Methods Matter Podcast - from Dementia Researcher & the National Centre for Research Methods. A podcast for people who don't know much about methods...those who do; and those who just want to find news and clever ways to use them in their research. In this first series PhD Student Leah Fullegar from the University of Southampton brings together leading experts in research methodology; and dementia researchers that use them; to provide a fun introduction to five qualitive research methods in a safe space where there are no such things as dumb questions! Every show comes with a great visual guide. Find the show in your podcast app; on YouTube; and on the Dementia Researcher and NCRM Websites https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukWatch episode 4 of the Methods Matter podcast.

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Computational Social Science: where are we now? : Reimaging theories and methods to understand and enable the algorithmically infused changing nature of work

Speakers:

Bio: Noshir Contractor is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behavioral Sciences in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science, the School of Communication and the Kellogg School of Management and Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Research Group at Northwestern University. He is also the President-Elect of the International Communication Association (ICA). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the International Communication Association (ICA). He also received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Communication Association and the Lifetime Service Award from the Organizational Communication & Information Systems Division of the Academy of Management. He was selected as the recipient of the 2022 Simmel Award from the International Network for Social Network Analysis. In 2018 he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras where he received a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California.

Computational social science offers the potential to reimagine communication theories and methods to understand and enable the algorithmically infused changing nature of work. Researchers have heralded for decades the potential of social network analysis to focus not only on who people are but also who they know. Social network analysis can be used to identify “high potentials;” who has good ideas; who is influential; what teams will get work done efficiently and effectively is well established based on decades of research. The challenge has been the collection of network data via surveys that are time consuming; elicit low response rates and have a high obsolescence. This talk presents empirical examples ranging from corporate enterprises to simulated long duration space exploration to demonstrate how we can mine “digital exhaust”— data created by individuals every day in their algorithmically infused digital transactions; such as recommendations; newsfeeds; chats; “likes;” “follows;” @mentions; and file collaboration — to address challenges they face with issues such as team conflict; team assembly; diversity and inclusion; succession planning; and post-merger integration.Watch the video of this keynote speech.

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Post broadcast Q&A

You can join this from 1:30 after the

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Getting Personal With Existing Data: Methods of Qualitative Secondary Analysis

Speakers:

Bio: Dr Kahryn Hughes is Associate Professor, University of Leeds. She is Director of the Timescapes Archive, Editor-in-Chief of the BSA Sociological Research Online, and Senior Fellow of the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). Her research funding has been from flagship ESRC methods programmes, including the Research Methods Programme and Timescapes. She is internationally recognised for innovation in qualitative longitudinal methods, and Qualitative Secondary Analysis.

Bio: "Tracing the lives and support needs of young fathers: A participatory, qualitative longitudinal and comparative analysis Anna is a Reader in Sociology at the University of Lincoln. Her research interests include men and masculinities, family life, the lifecourse, and methodological developments in qualitative secondary analysis. She has recently completed research that examines the care responsibilities and support needs of men in low-income contexts, including young fathers. The Future Leaders Fellowship builds out of this work, seeking to implement, evaluate and promote father-inclusive and gender equal practice approaches and environments across the health and social care landscape in the UK. A unique and dynamic evidence base will be built to challenge the stereotypes, misconceptions and marginalisations that are experienced by young fathers. They will also enable a clearer picture to emerge about the impact of different cultures of understanding and expectations on young fathers, and how varied professional and policy responses shape young fathers’ experiences, their capacity to sustain positive relationships with their children, and their social and economic participation."

This three-hour workshop will develop your knowledge and skills in reusing and analysing archived qualitative data. Methods of Qualitative Secondary Analysis (QSA) enable qualitative researchers to engage analytically with questions of data reuse for the purposes of building new research directions; questions and analyses; in the endeavour of rigorous qualitative research. Such questions include how data may be put to new uses and how they are rendered as particular kinds of evidence in relation to specific analytic foci and substantive concerns. Over the three hours; guided data analysis will be structured by short presentations that focus on introducing methods of qualitative secondary data analysis; covering key methodological debates in the field. Group and paired work will involve using existing qualitative data to explore the possibilities; limitations and challenges of 'depth-to-breadth' methods of QSA.

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Lassoing unicorns: how to map capabilities for better interdisciplinary research

Speakers:

Bio: "I am a social scientist interested in the 'making of' digital technologies and policies. In addition, I research and practice interdisciplinary and collaborative inquiry as a way to address societal challenges. My academic journey started with pursuing a BSc in Geography and Geology, where I gained appreciation for nature and understood the urgency of environmental issues. This led me to embarking on a PhD programme where I explored the the notions of sustainability expertise in climate policy design. I was curious to find out how sustainability practitioners work together across sectors and what ""works"" for them when it comes to policy design. These epistemological questions naturally led me to a field called Science and Technology Studies (STS). Before joining Bristol, I worked on two STS projects analysing and evaluating inter- and transdisciplinary projects in robotics and sustainability. While cross-faculty collaborations are the norm in the contemporary academia, for the early-career researchers, they are still often a risky endeavour. What can universities and funders to to build capabilities and networks for collaborative research? Encouraged by the possibilities (if not challenges) of interisciplinarity, I joined the University of Bristol (Cyber Security Research Group) where I work on expertise creation during the implementation of a major industrial cyber security directive (NIS). This is an exciting area, which brings together engineers, IT experts, lawyers, regulators and sector-specific expertise. As the directive pertains to the critical infrastructures, I am mainly interested in the sectors like water, energy or transport. In addition, I continue my service at environmental science-policy interface as a member of Bristol's Advisory Committee on Climate Change where I lead a policy working group."

Cian O'Donovan, UCL

Joshua Moon, Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU); University of Sussex

Bio: Mehdi has been a member of Bristol Robotics Laboratory since 2011 and worked on many EC-FP7 and EPSRC funded projects on Medical Robotics, safe interactive robots, Human-Robot Interaction, Robot Adaptive Behaviour, and Decision Making in joint-action. He had also a close collaboration with Experimental Psychologist and is experienced with Machine Learning and data analysis. He is currently a Research Fellow in the National Centre for Nuclear Robotics where his research is focused on the user-centred design of novel teleoperation interfaces using Virtual Reality.

Sometimes doing interdisciplinary work feels like trying to lasso unicorns. Working with big players from foreign disciplines and interdepartmental drifters. Negotiating over language and frameworks. Agreeing common research questions. All the while trying to gather data and do good work.Building on methods developed in ESRC and Horizon 2020 funded projects on interdisciplinary research; this workshop will: a) introduce the concept interdisciplinary capabilities - the disciplinary skills and informal aptitudes needed for people like environmental engineers; ecological economists and machine learning developers to work well together. (10 min)b) present a mixed-method approach to mapping capabilities using bibliometric analysis and interviews (30 mins)c) offer hands-on reflexive exercises on personal 'capability mapping'; tailored to workshop participants (up to 50 mins)The session will help scholars of all levels recognise power and knowledge in research and identify opportunities to steer that research together.Anticipated total time 1hr 30

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Reflective Workshop: Building & Sustaining Relationships in Participatory Action Research

Speakers:

Vas Papageorgiou, Imperial College London

Dorota Chapko, School of Public Health; Imperial College London

Bio: "Lindsay is an Advanced Research Fellow in mental health at the NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centre and Honorary Research Psychologist at West London NHS Trust. She currently leads projects examining patient safety in mental health, and her work primarily focuses on detecting youth mental health deterioration using digital devices. Her works embeds meaningful patient and public involvement (PPI) and/or co-production. Her latest work examines the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the mental health and coping strategies of young people. This work is co-produced with young people with experience of mental health difficulties. Other work centres on sleep, suicide, self-harm and care transitions in vulnerable and seldom-heard groups. She is also Topic Lead in Mental Health and Wellbeing for the Lifestyle Medicine and Prevention module for MBBS at Imperial. Lindsay's background is in psychology (BA, MSc) and forensic psychology (MSc). During her PhD, titled: Insomnia in a prison population: a mixed methods study, she studied the prevalence and associated factors of insomnia including depression, suicidality and anxiety in a large cohort of male and female prisoners at The University of Manchester. She subsequently designed and tested a novel treatment pathway for insomnia for prisoners in a high secure prison in England after winning a Health Foundation Innovating for Improvement Award. She has over 15 years research experience that spans across patient safety, public health, psychology and forensic mental health."

Robyn Steward,

Pino Frumiento,

Husseina,

Ellie,

Jane Bruton,

Kabelo Murray,

Melissa Bradshaw,

Participatory action research (PAR) puts people with lived experience at the centre of research prioritisation; design; delivery; and dissemination. Building and maintaining relationships between researchers; public partners; community-based organisations; and research participants is therefore vital. However; the COVID-19 pandemic has altered how PAR can be done; time; space and place have been restricted by government guidelines with a shift towards online spaces and apprehensions of voices being missed by digital exclusion.In this 2-hour workshop; you'll hear case studies from researchers and public partners who have worked together to co-produce health research (including HIV; mental health and people living with learning disabilities) and lessons learned from the experience (conducted both before and during the pandemic). We'll reflect on how the opportunities; challenges and adaptations made during the pandemic may impact our relationships in the future. We'll end with key recommendations and learning for achieving co-produced research in the future.

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Teaching Visual Methods During COVID

Speakers:

Bio: Suzanne has a PhD in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex, awarded in 2016. Her research interests centre around aesthetics and identity, with particular focus on dress and representation. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Suffolk, teaching research methods at all levels.

Bio: Post-doctoral research fellow working on an Erasmus+ funded project (ENABLES) exploring the use of arts-based embodied approaches to leadership development. Keen interest in creative methods - especially collage - & well-being. Previous research explored what it means to be struggling as a teacher.

In March 2020; Suzanne Culshaw was due to come into one of Suzanne Albary's Research Methods seminars for MBA students to deliver a workshop on Visual Methods and using collage as data collection. When it was cancelled; we both had to find ways of delivering previously in-person and tactile research methods training in an online environment. This conversation focuses on how we did it; what we learned; what worked and what did not as we adapted during the pandemic. We will talk about Visual Methods; its place in an online environment; and getting creative with an already creative method.Both presenters will be available in the chat to answer questions while the recording is playing.Watch the video of this session.

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Computational Text Analysis

Speakers:

Christopher Barrie, University of Edinburgh

Workshop to provide introduction to tools and techniques in computational text analysis. Will be delivered principally using R and a bit of Python for more advanced applications. Topics will go from basic word frequency analysis; to sentiment analysis; topic modeling; and word embedding.The workshop will be interactive; with online notebook code sheets and explainers.

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What are the Challenges and Opportunities in Caring Dyad Research?

Speakers:

Dolly Sud, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust/Aston University

Bio: "Jonathan is Professor of Sociology at Nord University, Norway, Visiting Professor at Aston University, UK. and a Docent at the Sociology Department, Helsinki University, Finland. Before joining Nord in January 2021, he was a Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the School of Languages and Social Sciences at Aston University. Previously he was a Professorial Fellow in the Institute of Government and Public Management in Warwick Business School and led the University of Warwick MPA. Jonathan established and, as Chief Executive, led the National NHS Centre for Involvement from 2006-2009 funded by the UK Department of Health. Jonathan’s main research interests relate to public participation and lay experience in policy making and service development particularly in relation to health and environmental policy. He supported the development of Public Health England’s public involvement strategy, and chaired the Public Health England Equality Forum. He helped develop and deliver a patient and public involvement strategy for the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service and is building metrics to measure the impact of patient and public involvement in research for the clinical research networks within the National Institute for Health Research. Jonathan has more than 100 publications including three co-authored books has received funding from the ESRC, the Finnish Academy and a range of other public sources. He is involved in a number of international and national research and development projects that focus particularly on the evidence base relating to the impact of patient and public involvement."

There has been much growth in the interest in and use of family-level and dyadic level theories and methodologies to explore the influence of social relationships on health and the influence of health on social relationships. Social relationships include those with romantic partners; friends; siblings; and children; these individuals play a significant role in the physical health; mental health; and well-being of a patient. An important part of this includes medicines optimisation and illness management. Studying health and well-being and consideration of both partners in the context of these close social relationships is important in health research; both partners become the unit of study - also known as a caring dyad. The aim of this session is to provide an introduction and overview as to how caring dyads might be used in medicines optimisation and illness management research and some of the opportunities and challenges associated with using this approach.

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Creative Methods for Researching Memory Workshop

Speakers:

Bio: Amy is a Lecturer in Social and Cultural Geography. She is interested in i) age, ageing and the life-course ii) place, place-making and memory and iii) non-representational theories and affect. She uses a range of creative, participatory and ethnographic methods.

Bio: Sarah Marie Hall is Reader in Human Geography at the University of Manchester, and a member of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives. Her research interests revolve around everyday life in times of economic change, social reproduction, families and relationships, and feminist methods and praxis. In February 2021 she begins a four year UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship on the subject of austerity and altered lifecourses across Europe.

Bio: Jen recently joined the Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King's College to study social care responses to self-neglect and hoarding amongst older people. Prior to this she held a ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship and PhD studentship at Cardiff University, where she studied a voluntary decluttering service for older people in South Wales, and the use of self-storage by individuals and families in the UK respectively. Jen's overarching interest is the services which support people with their possessions at home, and uses material methods in order to understand broader issues of family, home, identity, mobility, and life transitions.

This workshop is aimed at PGR and ECRs who would like an introduction to; and a chance to explore; three different social science methods for researching memory: photo go-alongs; oral histories and futures and object-oriented interviews. We will explore how these methods have been used to research memory with people of different ages; backgrounds and dexterities. The workshop will use audio; visual; participation and object-discussions; and participants will leave with a 'how to' guide for each method. In this session you will: 1. Explore photo go-alongs; oral histories and futures and object-oriented interviews as three methods for creatively researching memory 2. Understand the academic origins and conceptual influences upon the development of these methods 3. Think critically about where these methods have been applied in social science research; and what other contexts they might usefully be applied4. Consider how you might draw on these methods in your future research

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What is Social Network Analysis?

Speakers:

Termeh Shafie, The University of Manchester

This session serves as an introduction to fundamental network concepts and analytical approaches; their potential for studying social phenomena; and a description of why they are central to theoretical constructs. During this session; we focus on social network analysis as a perspective which stems from the special nature of the data rather than the common misconception that it is a set of tools or techniques. We further delve into how this network perspective allows us to study how and why patterns in the social system emerge; sustain; and evolve; thus allowing us to address questions from different branches of the social sciences.

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What is Socio-Tech for Good?

Speakers:

Bio: Legal researcher with a PhD in law on human trafficking. Julia has a firm grasp of legal concepts and theories with an ability to operationalise them in an applied manner. Her main expertise is in human trafficking, criminal law, human rights, human security and victimology. At Trilateral Research she leads the Socio-Tech Insights Group, which tackles social challenges with interdisciplinary expertise and cutting-edge data intelligence services.

Rose Broad, University of Manchester

Bio: "Gwilym leads the Trilateral Research training offering which ranges from bespoke behaviour change programmes to instructing client teams on our state of the art AI solutions. His background was in corporate consulting for clients including JPMorgan, Credit Suisse and Pfizer. He then moved his focus to training, first as a teacher and then holding trainer positions in the second and third sector, most recently at Save the Children. Gwilym brings his research skills from his legal career. He has previously designed and led behaviour change programmes for clients including the NHS and the Department of Health, and teaches public speaking. He holds a BSc in Physics and was admitted to the Bar in 2006."

Public bodies are often rich in data but can be constrained in deriving value from it. As a result; they miss out on data-driven insights; advanced analytical capabilities and intelligence when aiming to tackle complex social challenges. Of course; data on its own does not solve everything; your need subject experts; but data can help with establishing a contextual understanding of a problem; by providing reliable and real-time information for actionable insights. In this talk we will present this approach as used in project Honeycomb on gaining an understanding of human trafficking in Greater Manchester.

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Feeling, making and imagining time: Using Mass Observation diaries and 'feel tanks' to explore the everyday experience of time in the Covid19 pandemic

Speakers:

Rebecca Coleman, Sociology Department; Goldsmiths; University of London

Dawn Lyon, University of Kent

Chloe Turner, Media; Communications and Cultural Studies; Goldsmiths; University of London

Corine Van Emmerik, Goldsmiths; University of London

This panel will reflect on our BA-funded research on people's lived experiences of time during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. The project seeks to capture the making of new rhythms and routines; the reconfiguring of imaginations of the past; present and future; and the feelings arising from the ongoing pandemic. By analysing diary entries from a specially commissioned Mass Observation 'directive' as well as new data produced through the novel methodology of 'feel tanks;' we explore the ways in which time is made; felt; and imagined during the coronavirus pandemic. In this session; we discuss our multi-method qualitative approach and consider the following questions: How can we conduct research on a changing topic? How can we capture everyday temporal experiences during Covid-19? How do the data from the diaries and feel tanks stimulate our sociological imaginations? What ethical issues arose in working with the Mass Observation diaries?

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What is conjoint analysis?

Speakers:

Bio: "Todd Hartman is Professor of Quantitative Social Science in the Department of Social Statistics at the University of Manchester. His research explores the psychological underpinnings of public opinion and behaviour using cutting-edge research methods and statistical techniques. His work has been published in prestigious peer-reviewed academic journals such as Nature Communications, Nature: Scientific Reports, Psychological Medicine, Big Data & Society, British Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Social Psychological and Personality Science, Political Psychology, Political Communication, and The Geographical Journal. Professor Hartman has been working with an interdisciplinary team to study the impact of COVID-19 on the public. This project secured early funding from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and has collected nationally representative panel data in multiple countries (e.g., UK, Ireland, Spain, and Italy) from multiple survey waves of respondents beginning when the first UK Lockdown was announced (on 23 March 2020). This unique collaboration is only one of two social science research teams to receive ESRC funding to collect new longitudinal survey data since the start of the pandemic to study the implications of COVID-19 on adults living in the UK (e.g., see this funding announcement). While this project has been immensely challenging, given the speed with which things have changed locally, nationally, and internationally, it has also been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (hopefully!) to study a global health crisis which has wrought about such societal upheaval."

Conjoint analysis is a method used in the social sciences to identify what individuals value when making choices involving trade-offs. A conjoint experiment works by presenting respondents with profiles containing options randomly generated from a list. Its forced choice design simplifies the decision task facing respondents and allows researchers to test huge combinations of features -- on the order of tens of thousands -- which would be impractical using a typical experimental design. You will learn about the underlying principles of this approach; as well as how to conduct conjoint analysis; test interactions and/or subgroup effects; and visualise the results in R.

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What are statistical models for social networks (and why do we need them)?

Speakers:

Bio: I joined the University of Manchester as a Lecturer in October 2019. Before that, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Social Networks Lab at ETH Zürich between 2016-2019. I got my Sociology DPhil from Oxford in 2016, and earlier my MA in Sociology and Economics from the Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary) in 2010. Throughout these career stages, I have been involved in exciting research projects linking sociology, social psychology, education research, statistics, and quantiative social network analysis.

The analysis of social networks helps us to learn about how different actors (such as people; companies; countries) in society are interrelated. A distinctive feature of network datasets is that their data points are not independent. For example: whether Alice is friends with Bob may depend on whether they are both friends with Cloe. This violates one of the key assumptions of “standard”; non-network statistical models. In this session; we explore what could go wrong if we applied standard models to network data. We then take a quick tour of statistical models that have been developed specifically for social networks over the past decades. A few examples will highlight how these methods may help us to understand and tackle complex social issues.

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Corpus linguistics for social scientists: A practical introduction

Speakers:

Bio: Vaclav Brezina is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and English Language and a member of the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science, Lancaster University. His research interests are in the areas of applied linguistics, corpus design and methodology, and statistics. He is the author of Statistics in Corpus Linguistics (CUP, 2018) and a co-author of the New General Service List (Applied Linguistics, 2015). He also designed a number of different tools for corpus analysis such as #LancsBox, BNClab, LancsLex and Lancaster Stats Tools online.

Corpus linguistics is a versatile methodology for the analysis of language and discourse. Using corpus techniques we can discover; for instance; how different groups of people (young and old; man; women; LGBTQ people; religious people; immigrants etc.) are characterised and constructed in discourse through newspapers; social media; informal speech etc. Corpus linguistics provides robust evidence based on large data sets (millions or billions of running words) about language use and connections between words. In this workshop; participants will be introduced to #LancsBox; a free software tool for automatic analysis of language. They will be provided with data and guided step-by-step through essential corpus linguistic techniques; which they can apply in their own research contexts. Multiple examples from different areas of social science (social history; education; sociology; management etc.) will be provided.

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What is Facet methodology? An inventive research orientation

Speakers:

Bio: Vanessa May is Professor of Sociology and Co-Director of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives at the University of Manchester. She is Co-Editor of the journal Sociology. Her research interests include the self, belonging, temporality, ageing, family relationships and qualitative methods including biographical methods, narrative analysis and creative methods. Vanessa has published in a number of journals including Sociology, Sociological Review, Time & Society and British Journal of Sociology. She is the author of Connecting Self to Society: Belonging in a Changing World (Palgrave Macmillan) and co-editor of Sociology of Personal Life (2nd edition, Macmillan).

This session introduces the 'facet methodology' approach developed by Jennifer Mason in collaboration with colleagues at the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives at the University of Manchester. Rather than a set of procedures; facet methodology is an approach that encourages an inventive research orientation. Facet methodology entails adopting different theoretical and methodological lenses or facets to shed light on a social phenomenon. The approach differs from what is conventionally known as mixed methods in that although a mixture of methods may be involved; this is not the defining characteristic of facet methodology. This session will outline the key principles of facet methodology and discuss how the approach has been used in empirical research.

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Creative Methods for Researching Memory Panel

Speakers:

Bio: Sarah Marie Hall is Reader in Human Geography at the University of Manchester, and a member of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives. Her research interests revolve around everyday life in times of economic change, social reproduction, families and relationships, and feminist methods and praxis. In February 2021 she begins a four year UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship on the subject of austerity and altered lifecourses across Europe.

Bio: Amy is a Lecturer in Social and Cultural Geography. She is interested in i) age, ageing and the life-course ii) place, place-making and memory and iii) non-representational theories and affect. She uses a range of creative, participatory and ethnographic methods.

Bio: Jen recently joined the Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King's College to study social care responses to self-neglect and hoarding amongst older people. Prior to this she held a ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship and PhD studentship at Cardiff University, where she studied a voluntary decluttering service for older people in South Wales, and the use of self-storage by individuals and families in the UK respectively. Jen's overarching interest is the services which support people with their possessions at home, and uses material methods in order to understand broader issues of family, home, identity, mobility, and life transitions.

Bio: Laura Fenton is Research Associate at the University of Manchester. She works part time on the UKRI funded Austerity and Altered Lifecourses project with Dr Sarah Marie Hall and colleagues. Laura is also contributing to the Wellcome Trust funded Youth Drinking in Decline project at the University of Sheffield. Both roles develop research experience Laura gained through her PhD on three generations of British women's changing relationships with alcohol across the lifecourse. Laura's research interests include creative biographical methods, gender, youth and the lifecourse.

Bio: Melanie Lovatt is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Stirling. Her research interests include ageing, time, and relationships. She is currently leading the ESRC-funded project https://reimaginingthefutureinolderage.stir.ac.uk/ which uses creative methods to explore the relationship between older age and future time. In previous work she has used ethnographic approaches - with a focus on material culture - to explore everyday experiences in an older people's residential home.

This panel is aimed at scholars and students alike who would like to engage in discussion about social science methods for researching memory. The panel will explore some of these methods; as well ways in which to creatively share and engage others in these methods; such as through exhibitions and theatre. The panel is comprised of researchers with a range of research interests; but which coalesce around researching memory with people of different ages; backgrounds and dexterities. The event will include a brief introduction to panellist's work; and give time for thorough interactive discussion via q&a. We will also call for questions before the event via social media.

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What are Rivers of Research? Using visual metaphor to explore methods adaptations in a pandemic

Speakers:

Bio: "Robert Meckin is a presidential fellow in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester and works closely with the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). He is interested in emerging technosciences, interdisciplinarity and research infrastructures. He has spent recent years collaborating with and working alongside scientists practicing a design-led approach to biotechnology, and exploring how publics anticipate the potential of new biotechnological capabilities by using the chemical menthol as a way into discussing everyday technological understandings. Publications include explorations of scientific practices in increasingly automated, digitalised laboratories, and the affordances of sensory methods in engaging publics. At NCRM he has been focused on interdisciplinary research methods and has been examining the nascent areas of investigative methods and computational social science methods with Mark Elliot (University of Manchester) and Michael Mair (University of Liverpool), and exploring changing research practices in Covid-19 with Melanie Nind and Andy Coverdale (both at the University of Southampton)."

Bio: Andy Coverdale is a Research Fellow in Southampton Education School at the university of Southampton and member of the Centre for Research in Inclusion. He is currently working with the National Centre for Research Methods on their project looking at social research in the context of Covid-19 alongside research into how digital accessibility is taught and learned in Higher Education and the workplace. Andy has many years’ experience of working with, supporting, and teaching people with learning disabilities, and recently completed work on the ‘Self-build Social Care‘ research project, using inclusive and participatory methods to work collaboratively with people with learning disabilities and their allies. Andy has previously conducted research in the educational use of digital media and technology through his work with iRes at Falmouth University and the Visual Learning Lab at the University of Nottingham. His PhD examined the role of social and participatory media in doctoral education.

Bio: Melanie Nind is Professor of Education at the University of Southampton and a co-director of NCRM, leading on pedagogic research (https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/pedagogy.php) and methodological responses to Covid-19 (https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/socscicovid19/). Melanie guest-edited the 2015 special issue of International Journal of Social Research Methodology on the teaching and learning of social research methods, she is editor of the Bloomsbury Research Methods for Education book series and author of Inclusive Research in the NCRM Bloomsbury Research Methods series.

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted much of social life including research methods. NCRM engaged the research community in exploring adaptations and innovations to methods during the pandemic. A key element of our approach was a metaphorical mapping exercise where we invited researchers to represent their recent methods experiences as a river; using features like waterfalls; whirlpools; eddies; dams and so on. The webinar situates the method within the time of the pandemic and the desire to engage researchers and others in continuing to research amid social restrictions; new guidelines and risks. The webinar explores the use of the rivers of research method; explaining the affordances of this approach and how particular findings with regard to method were emphasised and created. We close with broader implications for engagement and methods learning in socially distanced times and beyond. The discussion will extend the issues by looking forwards to how the research community is working uncertainties into methods.

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Criminal networks: methods, theories, findings

Speakers:

Bio: "I currently hold a position of Presidential Fellow at the department of criminology and the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis at the University of Manchester. I also collaborate with the department of sociology, Faculty of Arts at Charles University and with the Centre for Modelling of Biological and Social Processes. Besides that, I am a co-founder of Czech Network for Social Network Analysis, through which we regularly organize workshops and conferences. My research focuses mainly on social network analysis (SNA), most prominently statistical models for network data, and on analytical sociology and criminology. I am interested in the application of SNA, mainly to criminal networks, but also to political, organizational, health-related, or historical networks. I find the study of structure and dynamics of human networks to be intriguing and crucial for our understanding of social reality. Besides network analysis and sociology (and science in general), I enjoy reading science fiction & fantasy books, lifting heavy weights, listening to heavy music, taking long walks, and playing various card games."

In this session; we will introduce the intersection between criminology and social network analysis - the study of criminal networks. Specifically; we will talk about how can social network analysis be used to understand and empirically map serious and organized crime. After briefly introducing the key terminology; we will have a look at how to identify the most central actors in criminal networks. Subsequently; we will introduce the analytical tools for describing criminal networks and also see how it can be related to the way criminal networks operate. We will then discuss how to analyse the evolution of criminal networks over time. Since criminal network analysis has some promises for application in law enforcement; we will discuss both its benefits as well as pitfalls. We will conclude the session with critically reflecting the biggest limitation of the study of criminal networks – data availability and validity.

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What is Measurement Error in the Social Sciences: Forms, Impacts and Adjustments?

Speakers:

Bio: I am an Associate Professor in Quantitative Criminology with a background in Social Statistics. Most of my research has focused on the analysis of unwarranted disparities in criminal justice decisions, for what I have collaborated with the Crown Prosecution Service, the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, and the Parole Board. More recently I have been working on the problem of measurement error in police statistics, where I have been exploring its prevalence, impact, and strategies to adjust for it.

Measurement error is a pervasive - yet often unacknowledged - problem in the Social Sciences. It is present in many of the survey and administrative datasets commonly used across different fields. Here we will focus on a series of examples (exam results; perceptions of institutional legitimacy; police statistics; and self-reported labour status) to illustrate the different forms that measurement error can take; and how they can impact our findings. We will also review a series of adjustment methods commonly employed in the literature (latent variable estimation and regression calibration); which require multiple measures of the same concept. We will end by introducing some less well-known adjustment methods (simulation-extrapolation and multiple overimputation); which could be used as sensitivity tools. That is; to assess the potential impact of measurement error when all we have is an educated guess about the form and prevalence of the measurement error mechanisms affecting our data.

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All hands Workshop 1: Collaborative and Participatory Research

Speakers:

Bio: Alison has worked for the University of Cambridge for over twenty years, specialising in research facilitation, knowledge exchange and postgraduate training. Currently, Alison is the Doctoral Training Manager for the Cambridge ESRC DTP and School of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Bio: Siobhan's current research doctoral focuses on the professional learning of secondary History teachers in England, where she uses collaborative and dialogic modes of inquiry drawn from sociocultural psychology. She has also worked on research into professional learning in other public sector contexts including healthcare and government. Before coming into full time research she was a History teacher and curriculum leader for ten years, and remains a senior assessor with a leading awarding body. She has extensive experience in close-to-practice research: prior to her PhD she undertook a professional masters related to her assessment work, and has previously carried out, led and published on practitioner inquiries undertaken while working as a teacher. She co-facilitates the Cambridge Network for Participatory and Collaborative Research Methods, which is supported by the Cambridge ESRC DTP and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Bio: Emily is a second-year, part-time PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge in the Faculty of Education. Her research seeks to workshop a teacher-led intervention to support wellbeing using performance research, and is funded by the ESRC. Emily is also the SENDCo and teacher of Classics at a school in south London, teaching students aged 4-18. Emily's research seeks to promote inclusion through collaborating with stakeholders to develop a free, evidence-based intervention to support students facing long waiting lists to receive mental health support.

Ali Hanbury, University of Manchester

Mark Ramsden, University of Cambridge

This workshop will be the launch of NCRM’s new Methodological Special Interest Groups. It will be jointly facilitated by PgR’s from Cambridge University’s ‘collaborative and participatory methods’ network and NCRM’s Senior Engagement Manager. The workshop will provide insight and sharing of how a PgR-led network has been established; focussing on collaborative and participatory methods. The PgR’s from Cambridge University will provide this input as well as utilising the workshop to consult attendees/stakeholders on the next steps and development ideas for their network. NCRM will close this workshop with the launch of their new support programme for PgR-led methodological special interest groups; outlining their ideas and commitments.  This will be followed by a question and answer session.

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All hands workshop 2: Computational Social Sciences

This session will launch the publication of NCRM’s Interdiscipline Report Computational Social Science: A Narrative Review. The report’s investigator and authors will present an overview of their work outlining how the possibilities and choices for carrying out social research has been increased through the amplified scale and new capabilities of computational methods. The session will involve interactive discussion with the attendees as well as the opportunity to explore the possibility of a computational social science Special Interest Group.

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SMALL DATA AND BIG DATA IN THE WAVES OF THE PANDEMIC: BUILDING THE BOAT AS WE SAILED IT

Speakers:

Bio: "Trish Greenhalgh is Professor of Primary Care Health Sciences and Fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford. She studied Medical, Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge and Clinical Medicine at Oxford before training first as a diabetologist and later as an academic general practitioner. She has a doctorate in diabetes care and an MBA in Higher Education Management. She leads a programme of research at the interface between the social sciences and medicine, working across primary and secondary care. Her work seeks to celebrate and retain the traditional and the humanistic aspects of medicine and healthcare while also embracing the exceptional opportunities of contemporary science and technology to improve health outcomes and relieve suffering. Three particular interests are the health needs and illness narratives of minority and disadvantaged groups, the introduction of technology-based innovations in healthcare, and the complex links (philosophical and empirical) between research, policy and practice. She has brought this interdisciplinary perspective to bear on the research response to the Covid-19 pandemic, looking at diverse themes including clinical assessment of the deteriorating patient by phone and video, the science and anthropology of face coverings, and policy decision-making in conditions of uncertainty. Trish is the author of over 400 peer-reviewed publications and 16 textbooks. She was awarded the OBE for Services to Medicine by Her Majesty the Queen in 2001 and made a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014. She is also a Fellow of the UK Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of General Practitioners, Faculty of Clinical Informatics and Faculty of Public Health."

The pandemic hit the research world like a cannonball. ‘Normal’ ways of working and methodological approaches became impossible overnight; but the world desperately needed high-quality research to inform urgent policy decisions. This presentation will describe how one research team mobilised to undertake hypothesis-generating qualitative research (“small data”) to inform a major prospective study of acute COVID symptoms in over 10;000 patients (“big data”). The standard research timelines were upended and governance processes suspended. Nevertheless; some degree of rigour was achieved. Prof Greenhalgh will reflect on lessons learned from high-stakes research at the interface between health and social care at this time of crisis. Watch the video of this keynote speech.

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Q&A after broadcast

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The Methods Matter Podcast, Episode Five- Qualitative Secondary Analysis

Speakers:

Bio: "Adam Smith was born in the north, a long time ago. He wanted to write books, but ended up working in the NHS, and at the Department of Health. He is now Programme Director in the Office of the NIHR National Director for Dementia Research (which probably sounds more important than it is) at University College London. He has led a number of initiatives to improve dementia research (including creating Dementia Researcher, Join Dementia Research & ENRICH), as well as pursuing his own research interests. He also write blogs, hosts podcasts and is passionate about improving the lives of people living with dementia and supporting early career researchers. In his spare time, he grows vegetables, builds Lego & spends most of his time drinking too much coffee and squeezing technology into his house."

Please note that you will be first taken to a registration page. Simply click 'Register now' to create a free account and have access to additional materials.In expert corner - Dr Kahryn Hughes; from University of Leeds. Director of the Timescapes Archive; Editor in Chief of Sociological Research Online; Convenor of the MA Qualitative Research Methods and a Senior Fellow for the NCRM. In researcher ranch – Dr Anna Volkmer is a Speech and Language Therapist and researcher in Language and Cognition; Department of Psychology and Language Sciences; University College London. Anna is researching Speech and language therapy interventions in language led dementia. *** The Methods Matter Podcast - from Dementia Researcher & the National Centre for Research Methods. A podcast for people who don't know much about methods...those who do; and those who just want to find news and clever ways to use them in their research. In this first series PhD Student Leah Fullegar from the University of Southampton brings together leading experts in research methodology; and dementia researchers that use them; to provide a fun introduction to five qualitive research methods in a safe space where there are no such things as dumb questions! Every show comes with a great visual guide. Find the show in your podcast app; on YouTube; and on the Dementia Researcher and NCRM Websites https://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk.Watch episode 5 of the Methods Matter podcast.

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All hands workshop 3: Methods in health and social science

Following from Professor Greenhalgh’s keynote; this workshop will be an interactive exploration of methods used and topics researched at the interface of health and social sciences. This session will also be the launch of NCRM’s Interdiscipline Report Health Research and Social Science. The report’s investigator and authors will outline an understanding of the dimensions of health research and social science; and the possibilities for collaborations at this interface. The session will involve interactive discussion with the attendees as well as the opportunity to explore the the possibility of a health and social science Special Interest Group.