Link prediction is a problem of predicting future edges of an undirected graph based on a single snapshot of data of that graph. Vertex proximity measures are indicies giving numerical scores for every pair of vertices in a graph that can be used for predicting future edges. This short note describes an R package ‘linkprediction’ implementing 20 different vertex similarity and proximity measures from the literature. The article provides the de fi nitions of implemented measures, describes the main user-facing functions, and illustrates the use of the methods with a problem of predicting future co-authorship relations between researchers of the University of Warsaw.
{"title":"Proximity-based Methods for Link Prediction in Graphs with R package 'linkprediction'","authors":"M. Bojanowski, Bartosz Chrol","doi":"10.18061/ASK.V29I1.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/ASK.V29I1.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Link prediction is a problem of predicting future edges of an undirected graph based on a single snapshot of data of that graph. Vertex proximity measures are indicies giving numerical scores for every pair of vertices in a graph that can be used for predicting future edges. This short note describes an R package ‘linkprediction’ implementing 20 different vertex similarity and proximity measures from the literature. The article provides the de fi nitions of implemented measures, describes the main user-facing functions, and illustrates the use of the methods with a problem of predicting future co-authorship relations between researchers of the University of Warsaw.","PeriodicalId":33339,"journal":{"name":"Ask","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67647425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
K. Slomczynski, M. Voicu, Joshua K. Dubrow, S. Stănescu, Irina Tomescu-Dubrow
: If researchers wish to use surveys to understand the attitudes and behaviors of those who live in former State Socialist countries, they face a research landscape densely populated by cross-sectional studies. Panel surveys with individuals as the units of analysis, which are ideal for understanding change within people over time, are rare. As a service to researchers, this article presents possibilities for cross-national comparison via two sets publicly available panel data: the Polish Panel Survey POLPAN (focusing on its 2013 and 2018 waves) and the novel Romanian World Values Survey Panel RO-WVS (2012 and 2018 waves), which is the only panel version of World Values Survey (WVS). We present the research designs of each, and explore their ex-post harmonization. Conceptual overlap between these sources occurs mainly (but not only) with major socio-demographics and with political attitudes and behavior, including interest in politics, political participation, democratic values, and institutional trust. Whereas POLPAN is relatively well known, we argue that RO-WVS panel stands out as a unique resource that provides data on the
{"title":"Longitudinal Surveys for Comparative Analyses of Poland and Romania: The Polish Panel Survey (POLPAN), 2013–2018 and the Romanian World Values Survey Panel (WVS-RO), 2012–2018","authors":"K. Slomczynski, M. Voicu, Joshua K. Dubrow, S. Stănescu, Irina Tomescu-Dubrow","doi":"10.18061/ASK.V29I1.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/ASK.V29I1.0003","url":null,"abstract":": If researchers wish to use surveys to understand the attitudes and behaviors of those who live in former State Socialist countries, they face a research landscape densely populated by cross-sectional studies. Panel surveys with individuals as the units of analysis, which are ideal for understanding change within people over time, are rare. As a service to researchers, this article presents possibilities for cross-national comparison via two sets publicly available panel data: the Polish Panel Survey POLPAN (focusing on its 2013 and 2018 waves) and the novel Romanian World Values Survey Panel RO-WVS (2012 and 2018 waves), which is the only panel version of World Values Survey (WVS). We present the research designs of each, and explore their ex-post harmonization. Conceptual overlap between these sources occurs mainly (but not only) with major socio-demographics and with political attitudes and behavior, including interest in politics, political participation, democratic values, and institutional trust. Whereas POLPAN is relatively well known, we argue that RO-WVS panel stands out as a unique resource that provides data on the","PeriodicalId":33339,"journal":{"name":"Ask","volume":"104 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67647461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
One of the key problems of many sociological regression models is their modest explanatory power. This has not only to do with the insufficient development of the underlying theories but also with the free will of the concerned social actors, which manifests itself in irrational, spontaneous, and sometimes even arbitrary decisions. The foreign and economic policy of the US government under Donald Trump is an excellent example of this source of indeterminacy. An alternative and more promising approach is an explanation of the constraints of social behaviour by the unequal distribution of power resources and the competing interests of the actors concerned. This approach requires, on the one hand, enough observational data which include cases that reached the analysed constraints. On the other hand, there is a need for statistical procedures which estimate and explain these constraints. Assuming that sufficient amounts of data are available, this paper proposes the use of sequential OLS regressions, which eliminate step by step non-critical observations in order to identify the cases that reached the mentioned constraints. For illustrative purposes, the author analyses the policy space of anti-democratic regimes with regard to their possibilities of curbing democracy. On the basis of the democracy scores of Freedom House, the author explores the governmental constraints set by (i) national civil societies and (ii) international NGOs for the promotion of political/ civil rights. The related sequential regressions allow for an assessment of how effective the different constraints are and how far democracy may deteriorate in the worst case under given structural conditions.
{"title":"Explaining the Policy Constraints of Anti-democratic Regimes by Means of Sequential OLS-Regressions","authors":"G. Mueller","doi":"10.18061/ask.v28i1.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/ask.v28i1.0003","url":null,"abstract":"One of the key problems of many sociological regression models is their modest explanatory power. This has not only to do with the insufficient development of the underlying theories but also with the free will of the concerned social actors, which manifests itself in irrational, spontaneous, and sometimes even arbitrary decisions. The foreign and economic policy of the US government under Donald Trump is an excellent example of this source of indeterminacy. An alternative and more promising approach is an explanation of the constraints of social behaviour by the unequal distribution of power resources and the competing interests of the actors concerned. This approach requires, on the one hand, enough observational data which include cases that reached the analysed constraints. On the other hand, there is a need for statistical procedures which estimate and explain these constraints. Assuming that sufficient amounts of data are available, this paper proposes the use of sequential OLS regressions, which eliminate step by step non-critical observations in order to identify the cases that reached the mentioned constraints. For illustrative purposes, the author analyses the policy space of anti-democratic regimes with regard to their possibilities of curbing democracy. On the basis of the democracy scores of Freedom House, the author explores the governmental constraints set by (i) national civil societies and (ii) international NGOs for the promotion of political/ civil rights. The related sequential regressions allow for an assessment of how effective the different constraints are and how far democracy may deteriorate in the worst case under given structural conditions.","PeriodicalId":33339,"journal":{"name":"Ask","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67647153","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The author reflects upon her experience of exploratory fieldwork conducted by an interdisciplinary group during the Urban Summer School. The research was conducted within an environment built according to the idea of “Open Form”, introduced by architect Oskar Hansen. Together with his wife Zofia, he designed a few neighborhoods around Poland, one of which – the Juliusz Słowacki housing estate in Lublin – is used as a case study for this paper. The article follows the process of collaborative development of research design and discusses a number of methods (focused ethnography, interviews, mental mapping, observation, participatory photography) applied to the study of materiality and social functioning of balconies as “threshold spaces” and their domestication. The author also outlines her positions in relation to both the local people with whom she has conducted interviews about their homes and the participants of her group.
{"title":"Exploratory Fieldwork on Balconies as Threshold Spaces on the Juliusz Słowacki housing estate in Lublin","authors":"Natalia Otrishchenko","doi":"10.18061/ask.v28i1.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/ask.v28i1.0004","url":null,"abstract":"The author reflects upon her experience of exploratory fieldwork conducted by an interdisciplinary group during the Urban Summer School. The research was conducted within an environment built according to the idea of “Open Form”, introduced by architect Oskar Hansen. Together with his wife Zofia, he designed a few neighborhoods around Poland, one of which – the Juliusz Słowacki housing estate in Lublin – is used as a case study for this paper. The article follows the process of collaborative development of research design and discusses a number of methods (focused ethnography, interviews, mental mapping, observation, participatory photography) applied to the study of materiality and social functioning of balconies as “threshold spaces” and their domestication. The author also outlines her positions in relation to both the local people with whom she has conducted interviews about their homes and the participants of her group.","PeriodicalId":33339,"journal":{"name":"Ask","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67647219","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In recent years, the quantitative study of conflict has increasingly focused on small-scale and/or localized conflicts in the developing world. In this paper, we analyze and critically reflect upon a major methodological shortcoming of many studies in this field of research. We argue that by using groupor macro-level empirical data and modelling techniques, while at the same time theoretically underpinning observed empirical associations with individual-level mechanisms, many of these studies risk committing an ecological fallacy. The individual-level mechanism on which many studies rely concerns the presence of grievances which mobilize people to participate in contentious politics. This motivational approach was also present in early studies on protest mobilization in Western societies, which often relied on similar research designs. However, subsequent advances in this literature and the use of methods that were targeted more directly at the individual level uncovered that grievances alone cannot explain mobilization and that organizational capabilities and complex psychological mechanisms of belonging also form part of the puzzle. While drawing on conflict events as well as survey data from Africa, we demonstrate empirically that here, as well, inferring micro-level relations and dynamics from macro-level empirical models can lead to erroneous interpretations and inferences. Hence, we argue that to improve our understanding of conflict mobilization in the developing world, especially for conflicts with low levels of violence, it is necessary to substantially expand our methodological toolbox beyond macro-level analyses.
{"title":"Between fallacy and feasibility? Dealing with the risk of ecological fallacies in the quantitative study of protest mobilization and conflict","authors":"Leila Demarest, A. Langer, B. Meuleman","doi":"10.18061/ask.v28i1.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/ask.v28i1.0002","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, the quantitative study of conflict has increasingly focused on small-scale and/or localized conflicts in the developing world. In this paper, we analyze and critically reflect upon a major methodological shortcoming of many studies in this field of research. We argue that by using groupor macro-level empirical data and modelling techniques, while at the same time theoretically underpinning observed empirical associations with individual-level mechanisms, many of these studies risk committing an ecological fallacy. The individual-level mechanism on which many studies rely concerns the presence of grievances which mobilize people to participate in contentious politics. This motivational approach was also present in early studies on protest mobilization in Western societies, which often relied on similar research designs. However, subsequent advances in this literature and the use of methods that were targeted more directly at the individual level uncovered that grievances alone cannot explain mobilization and that organizational capabilities and complex psychological mechanisms of belonging also form part of the puzzle. While drawing on conflict events as well as survey data from Africa, we demonstrate empirically that here, as well, inferring micro-level relations and dynamics from macro-level empirical models can lead to erroneous interpretations and inferences. Hence, we argue that to improve our understanding of conflict mobilization in the developing world, especially for conflicts with low levels of violence, it is necessary to substantially expand our methodological toolbox beyond macro-level analyses.","PeriodicalId":33339,"journal":{"name":"Ask","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67647137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Michael Braun, Dorothée Behr, Katharina Meitinger, Klara Raiber, Lydia Repke
Due to the growing significance of international studies, the need for tools to assess the equivalence of items is pressing. Web probing, which is implementing verbal probing techniques traditionally used in cognitive interviewing in online surveys, is a method to complement quantitative techniques to establish equivalence of items in crosscultural research. We illustrate this approach by assessing the question of ‘how important it is that government authorities respect and protect the rights of minorities’, which was originally used in the International Social Survey Program, for respondents in five countries (Germany, Britain, the U.S., Mexico, and Spain). First, participants answered this question using a 7-point Likert scale. Then they wrote freely what types of minorities they had thought of. Whether country differences in the response patterns can be interpreted substantially depends partially on how similarly the term ‘minorities’ is understood across these five contexts. Our results show that people in the participating countries have slightly different kinds of ‘minorities’ in mind.
{"title":"Using Web Probing to Elucidate Respondents' Understanding of 'Minorities' in Cross-Cultural Comparative Research","authors":"Michael Braun, Dorothée Behr, Katharina Meitinger, Klara Raiber, Lydia Repke","doi":"10.18061/ask.v28i1.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.18061/ask.v28i1.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Due to the growing significance of international studies, the need for tools to assess the equivalence of items is pressing. Web probing, which is implementing verbal probing techniques traditionally used in cognitive interviewing in online surveys, is a method to complement quantitative techniques to establish equivalence of items in crosscultural research. We illustrate this approach by assessing the question of ‘how important it is that government authorities respect and protect the rights of minorities’, which was originally used in the International Social Survey Program, for respondents in five countries (Germany, Britain, the U.S., Mexico, and Spain). First, participants answered this question using a 7-point Likert scale. Then they wrote freely what types of minorities they had thought of. Whether country differences in the response patterns can be interpreted substantially depends partially on how similarly the term ‘minorities’ is understood across these five contexts. Our results show that people in the participating countries have slightly different kinds of ‘minorities’ in mind.","PeriodicalId":33339,"journal":{"name":"Ask","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67647095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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