The researchers of AnaGramm will host a session on “Multilevel survey research, agent based modeling and social mechanisms: towards new frontiers in theory-based empirical research” at the conference of the European Association for Survey Research (ESRA) taking place 13-19 July 2015 in Reykjavik.
Session program
| A closer look at the relation between religiosity and formal volunteering. A cross-regional analysis using Swiss data
(Ms Elena Damian) |
[1 \/] |
| Middle-range theories, moderator models and marginal effects: What does sour grapes make taste sweeter?
(Dr Dominik Becker) |
[2 \/] |
| Resilience as a Mechanism for Educational Success Despite Disadvantaged Circumstances
(Ms Jennifer Tork) |
[3 \/] |
| Unraveling the paradox of job search via personal contacts and wages: Evidence combining agent based modelling and empirical research
(Dr Gerhard Krug) |
[4 \/] |
| Case study data for validating agent-based models
(Professor Sharon Purchase) |
[5 \/] |
Call for Papers (was due January 2015)
Session convenor: Dominik Becker (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)
Coordinator 1 Tilo Beckers (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)
Coordinator 2 Ulf Tranow (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf)
This session will lay the spotlight on the link between empirically-oriented theories and empirical research by focusing on the explanatory concept of social mechanisms. When explaining macro-level phenomena such as network structures or social diffusion outcomes, establishing the underlying social mechanisms is a strategy to overcome incomplete explanations which remain restricted on the macro level. Instead, the theoretical and empirical objective is to unveil the meso- or micro-level social mechanisms causing the macro-level explananda. Whether following Coleman’s explanatory macro-micro-macro model, (`wide´) rational action theory or DBO theory (desires, beliefs and opportunities), social scientists address the need for more fine-grained explanatory approaches.
Since about two decades, social mechanism research evolves to be an important paradigm in the social sciences. Yet, though survey data allow for and are often used to study social mechanisms, their methodological potential to do so is only rarely addressed systematically.
We invite colleagues establishing social mechanisms as part of their theoretical explanation and actually researching these mechanisms applying different survey research designs. We would also like to bring together researchers using survey (and/or network) data and linking them to agent-based modeling, an approach which will gain importance to extend and enrich the use of survey data. Finally, we invite presenters discussing either specific micro- or macro-based mechanisms, i.e. both survey-based and experimental approaches (including mediation and moderation analyses) as well as process tracing. We particularly welcome papers applying multilevel mechanism research, e.g. explicating cross-level interaction effects, or controlling for group-induced selection biases and linking analytical theoretical arguments with their data.
Abstracts should include theoretical references, a specification of the mechanism(s) under study and the method and type of data and analyses.