Quantitative Methods in the
Social Sciences 2
BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THEORIES, HYPOTHESES AND EMPIRICAL DATA ANALYSIS
8 - 11 December, Nijmegen
Organisers
Peer Scheepers and Peter Schmidt
Introduction
The building of theory-based empirical models is still a major challenge of cross-nation research. At the individual level (micro data) there is a wide range of theories that were subjected to empirical tests using a variety of data. In the past years, there was an explosion of datasets in a wide range of countries (ESS, ISSP, EVS, WVS, Share). It is now possible to relate individual data to (national or regional) context variables and to explore and test theories on the relationships between higher level (meso, macro) characteristics to lower micro or individual level characteristics in the social sciences. This kind of research is often verbally promoted but examples of impressive research in which variables at different levels are both theoretically and empirical combined, are rare. The seminar aims to find the mechanism that may be used in order to arrive at theoretically funded testable hypotheses using complex cross-nation datasets.
It is evident that the organization of a seminar on “bridging the gap” can only proceed within the context of substantial research problems. For this purpose, a number of themes were selected on which fundamental cross-national research has been done that has already set high international standards.
Goals of the meeting
- to provide knowledge and insights as to how excellent researchers have structured macro-theories and micro-theories on different societal phenomena within the framework of comparative research
- to provide knowledge and insights as to how these researchers have bridged the gap between theories and hypotheses, respectively between hypotheses and (already available) data
- to provide insights as to how these researchers have dealt with methodological choices and options to bridge these gaps
- to provide insights into the choices, challenges and limitations of comparative research and hence stimulate critical focus on the possibilities of this kind of research