On the Measurement of Social Phenomena
On the Measurement of Social Phenomena

Author: Marco Delmastro

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-08-13

Total Pages: 91

ISBN-13: 3030775364

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This book explores the analysis of social phenomena, using a multidisciplinary approach while addressing statistical, economic, sociological, as well as psychological issues. The author presents a detailed account of the procedures and techniques used to gather, process, and analyze data. Topics covered include, but are not limited to survey data, content analysis data, data visualization, as well as data about crimes. The book addresses this methodological framework that drives applied social sciences in an applicative and simple way, by analyzing key social phenomena such as the threats to journalism, the so-called chilling effect, and the market for news. Finally, the author examines the data and measures of the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This book is a must-read for everybody interested in a better understanding of the methodological analysis of social phenomena, social and political methodology, and applied science in general.

Social Science Research
Social Science Research

Author: Anol Bhattacherjee

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2012-04-01

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 9781475146127

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This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.

The Seductions of Quantification
The Seductions of Quantification

Author: Sally Engle Merry

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-06-10

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 022626131X

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We live in a world where seemingly everything can be measured. We rely on indicators to translate social phenomena into simple, quantified terms, which in turn can be used to guide individuals, organizations, and governments in establishing policy. Yet counting things requires finding a way to make them comparable. And in the process of translating the confusion of social life into neat categories, we inevitably strip it of context and meaning—and risk hiding or distorting as much as we reveal. With The Seductions of Quantification, leading legal anthropologist Sally Engle Merry investigates the techniques by which information is gathered and analyzed in the production of global indicators on human rights, gender violence, and sex trafficking. Although such numbers convey an aura of objective truth and scientific validity, Merry argues persuasively that measurement systems constitute a form of power by incorporating theories about social change in their design but rarely explicitly acknowledging them. For instance, the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report, which ranks countries in terms of their compliance with antitrafficking activities, assumes that prosecuting traffickers as criminals is an effective corrective strategy—overlooking cultures where women and children are frequently sold by their own families. As Merry shows, indicators are indeed seductive in their promise of providing concrete knowledge about how the world works, but they are implemented most successfully when paired with context-rich qualitative accounts grounded in local knowledge.

The Uses and Misuses of Data and Models
The Uses and Misuses of Data and Models

Author: James Bradley

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 1998-06-10

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 0761909222

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Undeniably, the amount of "information" in our culture has increased by leaps and bounds. At the same time, discussion of values, norms and purpose is often missing from the discourse of social research - especially by those who work within the positivist framework. The authors of this book develop principles to guide the use of data and models in the human sciences. Writing as scholars who are at home with empirical and mathematical social science, yet taking seriously the critiques of this heritage, they propose ways of developing norms without becoming subjective.

Measurement in the Social Sciences
Measurement in the Social Sciences

Author: Richard A. Zeller

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1980-04-30

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780521222433

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This textbook is designed to bridge the gap between the theorist and the methodologist by presenting an integrated approach to measurement. By differentiating between random and systematic error, it conveys both statistical techniques and their theoretical underpinnings essential to students of sociology and political science. Rather than developing new technical methods of new theoretical structures, Professors Zeller and Carmines provide thorough explanations of the assumptions, limitations and interpretations of previously established techniques and theories. Written at a level accessible to students of social science with some statistical training, the book does not presume a sophisticated mathematical background. By concentrating on synthesizing the methodological and theoretical realms, Zeller and Carmines demonstrate why measurement considerations are important to research and how measurement principles can be most effectively applied.

The Behavioral and Social Sciences
The Behavioral and Social Sciences

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1988-02-01

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 0309037492

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This volume explores the scientific frontiers and leading edges of research across the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, sociology, history, business, education, geography, law, and psychiatry, as well as the newer, more specialized areas of artificial intelligence, child development, cognitive science, communications, demography, linguistics, and management and decision science. It includes recommendations concerning new resources, facilities, and programs that may be needed over the next several years to ensure rapid progress and provide a high level of returns to basic research.

The Metrics of Science and Technology
The Metrics of Science and Technology

Author: Eliezer Geisler

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2000-08-30

Total Pages: 398

ISBN-13: 0313095744

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Dr. Geisler's far-reaching, unique book provides an encyclopedic compilation of the key metrics to measure and evaluate the impact of science and technology on academia, industry, and government. Focusing on such items as economic measures, patents, peer review, and other criteria, and supported by an extensive review of the literature, Dr. Geisler gives a thorough analysis of the strengths and weaknesses inherent in metric design, and in the use of the specific metrics he cites. His book has already received prepublication attention, and will prove especially valuable for academics in technology management, engineering, and science policy; industrial R&D executives and policymakers; government science and technology policymakers; and scientists and managers in government research and technology institutions. Geisler maintains that the application of metrics to evaluate science and technology at all levels illustrates the variety of tools we currently possess. Each metric has its own unique strengths and weaknesses, but overall, metrics offer the best possible way to evaluate science and technology. He then finds that in general, science and technology have a positive effect on the human experience. Truly state of the art in the study of the metrics of science and technology, their outcomes and contributions to society and the economy, the book provides unique analyses of the academic world and its most useful metrics: the industrial science/technology research and development complex, and the government network of laboratories. For each, Geisler gives a comprehensive analysis of the main metrics and their best applications. His book is thus also usable in certain advanced undergraduate and graduate courses and seminars that treat technology and engineering management, project management in technology industries, and the evaluation of social and economic programs.

Global Entrepreneurship Analytics
Global Entrepreneurship Analytics

Author: Milenka Linneth Argote Cusi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-09-20

Total Pages: 53

ISBN-13: 1000178625

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This innovative book proposes new methodologies for the measurement of entrepreneurship by applying techniques of demography, engineering, mathematics and statistics. Using the data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), statistical demographic techniques are used for the evaluation of data quality (EDQ), and a new methodology for the estimation of Specific Entrepreneurship Rates (SER) and the Global Entrepreneurship Rate (GER) is proposed. At the same time the authors present artificial intelligence techniques such as Fuzzy Time Series (FTS) to forecast data series of the entrepreneurial population. Finally, they present a case study of the implementation of Big Data in Entrepreneurship using GEM data that shows the latest technological trends for the management of data, in support of making more accurate decisions. Being a methodological book, the techniques presented can be applied to any dataset in different areas. Readers will learn new methodologies of analysis and measurement of entrepreneurship using data from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. They will be able to access the experience of the authors through each of the applied cases in which the reader is taken by the hand, both through the scientific method and through the methodology of construction of more accurate metrics in entrepreneurship, with less error. This book will be of value to students at an advanced level, academics and researchers in the fields of Entrepreneurship, Business Analytics and Research Methodology.

Introduction to Sociological Theory
Introduction to Sociological Theory

Author: Michele Dillon

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-12-02

Total Pages: 630

ISBN-13: 1118471911

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The extensively revised and updated second edition combines carefully chosen primary quotes with wide-ranging discussion and everyday illustrative examples to provide an in-depth introduction to classical and contemporary sociological theory. Combines classical and contemporary theory in a single, integrated text Short biographies and historical timelines of significant events provide context to theorists' ideas Innovatively builds on excerpts from original theoretical writings with detailed discussion of the concepts and ideas under review Includes new examples of current social processes in China, South Korea, India, Latin America, the Middle East, and other non-Western societies Additional resources, available at www.wiley.com/go/dillon, include multiple choice and essay questions, PowerPoint slides with multimedia links to content illustrative of sociological processes, a list of complementary primary readings, a quotation bank, and other background materials