In this chapter, we discuss and illustrate the tools of evaluating partnership work as part of a continuous improvement that you will need to make when building partnerships. As you engage with the chapter, you will learn what evaluation is and how to use evaluation to ensure that partnerships work for the benefit of children and their families. Throughout the chapter, we will explore different methods for collecting data and analysis, including various strategies that will inform the improvement and change necessary for good work in partnership-building.

The final chapter in this book discusses some methodological considerations and debates surrounding case study research and its quality. In particular, we revisit the topic of research paradigms (i.e. positivism and interpretivism). Relatedly, we discuss different quality criteria as proposed by prior researchers from both paradigmatic camps. In particular, we focus on the rigor versus trustworthiness discussion and the internal versus external validity debate. Afterwards, we briefly discuss the iterative cycles of data collection and analysis one would encounter during a qualitative case study research process. We end the chapter (and subsequently the book) with a guiding framework which will help researchers in sequencing case study designs by acknowledging the weaknesses of individual designs and leveraging their strengths. The framework can be adopted and adapted to suit the specific research objectives of the study in hand.

In Chapter 7, we start out by describing the four PhD projects our life stories were derived from. We then describe how we coded the life stories to answer our two main questions concerning the personal consequences of mental illness and potential pathways to thriving. The steps in the coding procedure included 1) open reading of life stories and developing themes, 2) establish coding manual with themes, 3) use manual to code all life stories for presence of themes and count frequencies (reported in Chapter 8), and 4) develop subthemes and superordinate themes (described in Chapters 9-12). We outline potential threats to generalizability of our findings, including that the sample overrepresented women and possibly individuals with relatively high levels of functioning. Furthermore, we note that the Danish cultural context, including the extensive welfare system and low emphasis on religion, may shape our findings.

In this chapter, the focus turns to practical matters as we outline the various ways in which pragmatics can be researched. To answer a pragmatics-focused research question or to investigate the pragmatics of an issue or practice we need two things. We need a theory of pragmatics, and we need data. We take a closer look at theoretical frameworks and the role they play in shaping a piece of research. We then move on to look at the different sorts of data that might be collected as part of a pragmatics research project. We discuss how intuition plays a role in research and how constructed examples can be used to test predictions and to fine-tune our understanding. We discuss free production tasks and judgement tasks, and we look at some examples of pragmatics research that has used transcripts, texts, or corpora for analysis. Finally, we discuss some of the practicalities of research in pragmatics. We think about how to find a topic to investigate, the ethical considerations that must be part of any project plan, and the issue of diversity and bias in research.

This chapter introduces the building blocks of an infrastructure for collecting social media data. It includes a summary of what data is available via Twitter, and how we can best structure a collection system in general for any number of social science applications. In addition, it walks through how to collect a worldwide sample of all posted tweets in real time, along with database and compression tools for ensuring that the infrastructure can be used for long-term data collection projects encompassing millions of data points.

This chapter focuses on content analysis and introduces the collection of data from Twitter by either select keywords or languages. It then develops computerized content analysis techniques for use on tweets, covering the particular challenges of adapting these techniques for usage on the text from social media (for instance, dealing with the often very short passages of text, the especially dense usage of colloquialisms, and the frequent mixing of different languages within a particular source of social media text data). It also covers the download of other forms of content (such as video and images) and the handling of meta-objects such as mentions and hashtags.

This chapter provides an introductory coverage of the major issues involved in designing and executing sociolinguistic research with a focus on spoken Arabic in natural settings. It explains the concept of the observer’s paradox and suggests methods to reduce its effects in sociolinguistic interviews. It covers ethnographic, qualitative, and quantitative methods. The use of dependent and independent variables is explained in detail, with a focus on age as a social variable. The chapter ends with ethical considerations as an integral part of research and research conduct.

The law of transnational counter-terrorism comes in various forms, encompassing hard-law instruments like Security Council resolutions, regulatory instruments like good practices or guidance, and managerial instruments like the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Law is a critical instrument in the post-9/11 approach to developing, reorienting, and globalising a particular orientation towards counter-terrorism. This chapter outlines the dynamics of transnational counter-terrorism law, considering the Security Council’s ascendant position as a lawmaker in this field, the ways in which the regulatory activities of informal institutions are ‘hardened’ through Security Council engagement (thus identifying them as pseudo law-making entities), and how the approach adopted in the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy reinforces these practices. The chapter shows how, through the variety of its forms and addressees, the law of transnational counter-terrorism transports the logics of transnational counter-terrorism into everyday practices of administration, criminal justice, surveillance, all the while marginalising rights.

Since the objective of our research is to examine the influence of the creative potential of language speakers on their creative performance in the formation and interpretation of new/potential complex words, there are several fundamental methodological principles that have to be taken into consideration. First of all is the method of measuring the creative potential of language speakers and the methods of testing their creative performance Therefore, this chapter introduces the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, accounts for the basic characteristics of creativity indicators and subscores, and justifies its relevance to our research. Furthermore, it presents a word-formation test and a word-interpretation test and accounts for their objectives and principles of evaluation. A sample of respondents, comprising a group of secondary school students and a group of university students, is introduced. A method of evaluating the data is explained, based on the comparison of two cohorts with opposite scores. Finally, this chapter presents the hypotheses underlying our research.

In Chapter 9, I outline some of the most important moral considerations involved in the design and conduct of research. I first discuss research funding, emphasizing conflicts between resource limitations and epistemic and moral values. I then discuss research space considerations, framing these in terms of dwelling practices that express our commitments (to hospitality, conservation, etc.) and that shape our communities and environments. Next, I discuss the moral affordances of research equipment, arguing that such equipment is not just a set of neutral tools but a way of extending and transforming our individual and collective embodiment. I then discuss how organizing research entails a moral ordering (of priorities and persons) set amid a micro-politics of local power relationships. Finally, I discuss some of the moral dilemmas involved in soliciting and managing research participation, focusing on the duties to cultivate the choice, voice, and safety of all who participate in research.

This topic examines how demand relationships can be estimated from empirical data. The whole process of performing an empirical study is explained, starting from model specification, through the collection of data, statistical analysis and interpretation of results. The focus is on statistical analysis and the application of regression analysis using OLS. Different mathematical forms of the regression model are explained, along with the relevant transformations and interpretations. The concept of goodness of fit, and the coefficient of determination, are explained, along with their application in selecting the best model. The advantages of using multiple regression are discussed, and its implementation and interpretation. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is explained, and how this relates to goodness of fit. The implications of empirical studies are also discussed, and the light they shed on economic theory. More advanced aspects, related to inferential statistics and hypothesis testing, are covered in an appendix, along with the assumptions involved in the classical linear regression model (CLRM) and consequences of the violation of these assumptions.

Privacy seems to belong to the past. The dating website OkCupid asks its users whether they occasionally use illegal drugs, selling that information in real time to marketers. Commercial data brokers hold thousands of data points about individuals. The problem concerns not only apps and websites but also the “Internet of Things” (IoT) that increasingly surrounds us. In The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff cites the example of a bed that uses “smart technology” to capture data on “heart rate, breathing and movement,” allegedly to improve the quality of sleep.

Protest is ubiquitous in contemporary societies, as is illustrated by any review of recent news headlines. Tarrow and Meyer (1998) refer to the proliferation of protest and its diffusion into everyday life as characteristics of "the social movement society." Social networks are integral to understanding social movement processes. This chapter provides a broad overview of the SNA methodological toolkit, with a focus on ego-networks, so that social movements scholars better understand how networks shape social movement recruitment and support, communication, and social-political influence. The chapter is structured as followed. First, we provide a contextual overview of research on networks, collective action and social movements that underlines the importance of SNA approaches to social movement research. Second, we introduce a set of standard ego-network approaches to social movements and discuss some of the attendant challenges of these approaches. Third, we discuss less well-established qualitative and mixed-methods network approaches to social movements research. Fourth, we describe and discuss some consideration relevant to conducting longitudinal social network analysis, and modeling network dynamics. Finally, we discuss virtual networks as sources of social movements data collection and analysis.