Exploring the Nexus between Migration and Social Positions using a Mixed Methods Approach

Purpose The purpose of this study is to provide a closer look at being out in the work environment. What are the characteristics that distinguish lesbian women who are out at work from those who are not? What role do companies play with their diversity-related measures? Design/methodology/approach This paper investigates characteristics that distinguish lesbian women who were out at work and analyzes the use of various sexual identity management strategies in relation to specific reference groups within a company. Furthermore, the method of multiple correspondence analysis is used to visually map the associations between company-specific characteristics and being out. Findings Results show that being out in the work environment is subject to a complex interplay of several factors, from personal resources to the diversity-friendliness of the company. A company’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersexual (LGBTI)-related measures, such as in-house LGBTI networks or diversity workshops, can not only promote the coming out of lesbian employees, and thereby help to increase their overall satisfaction with life, but can also reduce their experiences of discrimination. Originality/value In this paper, the method of multiple correspondence analysis is used to examine the relationships between several diversity-related measures of the company and being out at the workplace. A visualization of these relationships in a two-dimensional space allows a more comprehensive view of these features and their possible effect on being out at the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to present a technical path in order to formulate the creation of small customised web applications that handle big data. Such web tools could be easily integrated in knowledge-based or data driven decision support systems and provide added value. The paper studies the various ways in which relevant application can be developed and the findings resulted in a specific technical proposal. This is a combination of techniques and technologies that can be pursued to achieve more efficient and costless data analysis. To this direction, a novel demo web app was developed with open source code in which a user can login, upload data and analyse them in real-time with the multivariate exploratory method of multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). The application was created under R programming language and underlines the use of shiny library. The paper contributes to the scientific facilitation of researchers and professionals with a minimum technical background in order to perform online complex data analytics tasks. Eventually, this architecture enables extensibility and customisation that suggests how decision support modules should be delivered in intelligent data systems.

The media coverage of immigration serves as an important test for modern democracies’ ability to handle difficult public issues. Systematic and comparative studies over longer time periods are, however, still rare. This is deeply unfortunate as the nature of both immigration and the press systems vary considerably not only across nations but also over time. This article charts the immigration debate in seven Scandinavian newspapers from the birth of modern immigration in the early seventies to the present-day situation. While supporting claims about a general historical shift towards a more problematizing and cultural discourse in Scandinavia, the analysis also identifies major differences in how countries, publications, and genres have handled this complex issue, which brings out fundamental dilemmas for both modern welfare states and journalists. Using the method of multiple correspondence analysis and subsequent cluster analysis, the article also demonstrates how historical press coverage can be fruitfully studied using Geometric Data Analysis as an alternative to frequentist methods.

BackgroundHealth of migrants is known to be above-average in the beginning of the migration trajectory. At the same time reports from non-government organisations (NGOs) suggest that undocumented migrants in Germany tend to present late and in poor health at healthcare facilities. In this paper, we explore the health status of undocumented migrants with a mixed method approach including complementary qualitative and quantitative datasets.MethodsUndocumented migrants attending a NGO based in Hamburg, Germany, were asked to fill in the SF-12v2, a standardized questionnaire measuring health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The SF-12v2 was analyzed in comparison to the U.S. American norm sample and a representative German sample. Differences in mean scores for HRQOL were evaluated with a t-test and with a generalized linear model analyzing the impact of living without legal status on HRQOL. The quantitative research was complemented by a qualitative ethnographic study on undocumented migration and health in Berlin, Germany. The study included semi-structured interviews, informal conversations and participant observation with Latin American migrants over the course of three years. The study focused on subjective experiences of illness and health and the impact of illegality on migrants’ health and access to health care.ResultsHRQOL was significantly worse in the sample of undocumented migrants (n = 96) as compared to the U.S. American sample (p < 0.005). Living without legal status displayed a significant negative effect on subjective mental and physical health (p ≤ 0.003) in the generalized linear model when adjusted for age and gender compared to the representative German population sample. The ethnographic study, which included 35 migrants, identified socio-economic conditions, the subjective experiences of criminalization, and late presentation at healthcare-facilities as the three main factors impacting on health from migrant perspective.DiscussionThe present research suggests a high morbidity and mortality in this comparatively young population. The ethnographic research confirms negative impacts on health of social determinants in general and stressassociated with living without legal status in particular, both are further aggravated by exclusion from health care services. In addition to the provision of health care it appears to be important to structurally tackle the underlying social conditions which affect undocumented migrants’ health.ConclusionsLiving without legal status has a negative impact on health and well-being. Limited access to care may further exacerbate physical and mental illness. Possibilities to claim basic rights and protection as well as access to care without legal status appear to be important measures to improve health and well-being.

Arriving in a foreign country with little knowledge of local languages presents the researcher with significant linguistic challenges. Our in-country contacts may suggest potential interpreters for us to hire, but how do we know if these interpreters can fluently speak the languages of our participants? Can we, lacking fluency in local languages, understand when the social position and lived experiences of our interpreter modify the discourses we seek to analyse? Drawing from my human geography research experience in Uganda, this article aims to share strategies to assess the linguistic skills of the interpreter and to understand his or her social position and subjectivity. Uniquely, this paper highlights differences in interpretation and links these differences to the assistants’ social position and subjectivity, highlighting the need to acknowledge that meaning can be filtered by interpretation and requiring that critical reflection be broadened to encompass interpreters in cross-language research.

How well city leaders represent their constituents and meet their needs are key concerns in transitioning to local sustainable water governance. To date, however, there is little research documenting the influence of social position between elected leaders who make policy, career staff water managers who design and operate systems and implement policies, and the members of the public whose individual water use behaviors are important drivers of water sustainability outcomes. In this study, we ask: “How does social position explain variation in water perceptions and concerns between different actors in a socio‐hydrological system?” Using a mixed method approach with survey and interview data, we explore the ways that positioning within the governance system, geographic context, and citizen engagement in local government mediate perceptions of the urban water system. Regardless of local biophysical water supply conditions, residents showed most concern about future water shortages and high water costs, while their leaders were consistently most concerned about deteriorating local water infrastructure. Further, constituents who received water‐related information directly from public utility mailings or served on community committees and boards had perceptions that were more aligned with leaders' concerns. The importance of social structure over natural and built environments in shaping water issue perceptions underscores the value of social analysis in socio‐hydrology studies. Further, practitioners looking to increase consensus for a transition to sustainable water governance might work to develop institutional mechanisms to increase opportunities for water user involvement in local water system governance.

Test takers wishing to gain an unfair advantage often share answers with other test takers, either sharing all answers (a full key) or some (a partial key). Detecting key sharing during a tight testing window requires an efficient, easily interpretable, and rich form of analysis that is descriptive and inferential. We introduce a detection method based on multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) that identifies test takers with unusual response similarities. The method simultaneously detects multiple shared keys (partial or full), plots results, and is computationally efficient as it requires only matrix operations. We describe the method, evaluate its detection accuracy under various simulation conditions, and demonstrate the procedure on a real data set with known test‐taking misbehavior. The simulation results showed that the MCA method had reasonably high power under realistic conditions and maintained the nominal false‐positive level, except when the group size was very large or partial shared keys had more than 50% of the items. The real data analysis illustrated visual detection procedures and inference about the item responses possibly shared in the key, which was likely shared among 91 test takers, many of whom were confirmed by nonstatistical investigation to have engaged in test‐taking misconduct.

Teachers' social class, professional dispositions and pedagogic practice

The sociology of cultural tastes and practices seeks, on the one hand, to show how tastes and practices are structured, and on the other hand, to explain them. For this purpose, multivariate analysis, and in particular, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), has been chosen as the preferred statistical method to support a theory of ‘homology’ between ‘social position’ and preferences. This article reassesses the initial interpretation offered by Bourdieu of the two factor spaces of ‘dominant’ and ‘petit-bourgeois’ tastes in Distinction (1979) and discusses how MCA is used in the sociology of culture as ‘structural homology’, especially one-dimensionally (single-axis reduction) and positionally, without the inclusion of the age variable. The two ways of considering the effect of age are either by excluding it a priori (‘omitted axis’) or by not theorizing it (‘descriptive axis’). We show, using data from the 2008 French Cultural Practices survey on tastes in music and movies, how a factor analysis that incorporates age outlines a generational and historical structuring of tastes. We explain the different dimensions of age in terms of cultural practices and we interpret the level of education in terms of knowledge. The article advocates a model for the interpretation of tastes that is no longer based on the structure of capital, but rather on cultural history and specific competences.

The problem of the proper dimension of the solution of a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) is discussed, based on both the re-evaluation of the explained inertia sensu Benzécri (Les Cahiers de l’Analyse des Données 4:377–379, 1979) and Greenacre (Multiple correspondence analysis and related methods, Chapman and Hall (Kluwer), Dordrecht, 2006) and a test proposed by Ben Ammou and Saporta (Revue de Statistique Appliquée 46:21–35, 1998). This leads to the consideration of a better reconstruction of the off-diagonal sub-tables of the Burt’s table crossing the nominal characters taken into account. Thus, Greenacre (Biometrika 75:457–467, 1988) Joint Correspondence Analysis (JCA) is introduced, the results obtained on an application are shown, and the quality of reconstruction of both MCA and JCA solutions are compared to that of a series of Simple Correspondence Analyses run on the whole set of two-way tables. It results that JCA’s reduced-dimensional reconstruction is much better than the MCA’s one, that reveals highly biased and non-monotone, but also than the MCA’s re-evaluation, as suggested by Greenacre (Multiple correspondence analysis and related methods, Chapman and Hall (Kluwer), Dordrecht, 2006).KeywordsJoint Correspondence Analysis (JCA)Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA)GreenacreSaportaMean EigenvalueThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Purpose– Deployment of ICT facilities for teaching and learning in higher education is no longer a new trend, however, assessing the impacts of these deployment on lecturers and students requires more effort. The purpose of this paper is to employ a mixed method design consisting qualitative and quantitative procedures to examine the impact of ICT deployment in teaching and learning at a University in Nigeria. The survey data were drawn from 593 respondents (students and lecturers) and was analyzed using linear regression. For the qualitative part, one-on-one and focus group interviews were conducted among seven students and eight lecturers to seek their varying opinion on ICT impact on teaching and learning. Lecture-room observations were conducted across three classes to see how ICT is integrated. These multiple means findings were triangulated, compared and contrasted to validate the study. Predictors of ICT impact were found to be perception, integration, motivation and challenges. The qualitative interview and observation findings generated four similar themes as the quantitative result which was conceptualized as a model that serves as a framework for researchers on ICT impact assessment.Design/methodology/approach– This study employed a mixed method design consisting qualitative and quantitative procedures to examine the impact of ICT deployment in teaching and learning at a University in Nigeria. The survey data were drawn from 593 respondents (students and lecturers) and was analyzed using linear regression. For the qualitative part, one-on-one and focus group interviews were conducted among seven students and eight lecturers to seek their varying opinion on ICT impact on teaching and learning. Lecture-room observations were conducted across three classes to see how ICT is integrated. These multiple means findings were triangulated, compared and contrasted to validate the study.Findings– Predictors of ICT impact were found to be perception, integration, motivation and challenges. The qualitative interview and observation findings generated four similar themes as the quantitative result which was conceptualized as a model that serves as a framework for researchers on ICT impact assessment.Practical implications– The use of multiple research designs to get rich and diverse view of participants incorporated in this study help to generate solid findings on the impact assessment of technology in education. The conceptual model (Adedokun-Shittu 2011 ICT impact assessment model) generated through a mixed method research design has four components which are substitutable to CIPP and Kirkpatrick models. It also fills a crucial gap left by both models.Originality/value– This study produces a model that is conceived as a conceptual framework for researchers on impact assessment and is made up of the generated themes and named ICT Impact Assessment Model comprising Positive effect, Integration, Incentives and Challenges. This model is represented in a cyclic form because the assessment process can start from any stage and the assessment could be done individually or holistically. This makes it useful for both formative and summative assessment of ICT integration in teaching and learning (Adedokun-Shittuet al.S, 2012). The mixed method approach (survey, interviews and observations) used in the study that generated this model also supports its usefulness in any kind of evaluation (formative or summative).

The present study sought to investigate the relationship between cultural capital of senior high school English teachers and their self-efficacy in Iran’s English language classrooms using a mixed methods approach. To this end, all senior high school English teachers in seven districts of Mashhad city in Iran were selected as the study population, out of whom 242 cases were chosen as the sample population using Morgan Sample Size Table. This is an applied research in which a descriptive survey method has been adopted. Self-efficacy and cultural capital questionnaires were used for collecting data. To verify the quantitative findings and to assess the accuracy of their results, interviews were used. Accordingly, a group of English teachers and high school students were invited for interviews. The qualitative data derived from interviews were analyzed using NVivo software. The results indicated a significant relationship between cultural capital of senior high school English teachers and their self-efficacy in Iran’s English language classrooms which was confirmed by the findings of both quantitative and qualitative methods. In other words, teachers with higher cultural capital had greater self-efficacy and therefore were more successful in teaching English to students.

Background:Close and frequent contact with dogs that can carry zoonotic agents poses a threat to those interacting with them if necessary precautions are not observed.Aim:This study aimed to describe dog management and hygiene practices among Benin dog owners.Methods:A survey of 934 owners was conducted through direct interviews, and statistical analysis using the multiple correspondence analysis method was carried out on collected data to categorize the groups of dog owners.Results:This study showed that local dogs were more highly bred (88.87%) than cross-breeds (9.85%) and exotic breeds (6.21%). Dogs were more bred for household security (96.15%) than for companionship (57.6%), marketing (29.44%), and hunting (3.10%). The frequency of meals served to the dogs per day varied significantly and consisted mainly of residue food (96.68%). Only 20.34% of owners housed their dogs in cages, and 31.40% hired veterinarians to monitor their dogs. Regarding hygiene practices, 73.95% of owners washed their hands after touching their dogs. Dog excrement was well managed by 27.35% of respondents. The respondents’ education level and municipality had a significant effect on hand hygiene practices, good management of dog excrement, and knowledge of exchanging microorganisms’ risks.Conclusion:This study reveals that all dog owners do not know or observe good hygiene practices. Programs to raise awareness and train dog owners in good hygiene practices need to be developed and implemented to prevent zoonotic diseases in households.

Comprehensive effect of the three-dimensional spatial distribution pattern of buildings on the urban thermal environment

Despite some pioneering studies, mixed-methods research approaches are uncommon in the German history education community, in contrast to the general increase in mixed-methods research in the educational and social sciences. Conversely, German history education research currently appears to favour quantitative methods as opposed to qualitative approaches – at least in larger research projects. In this paper, we argue for a more inclusive research approach combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Discussion of a pioneering study from the 1980s (Jeismann et al ., 1987) highlights implementation of this unusual approach to history education research in Germany. To illuminate the added value of such a mixed-methods research approach, we discuss two published German studies that respectively rely on quantitative (Trautwein et al ., 2017) and qualitative (Köster, 2013) research methods. A mixed-methods approach might have illuminated each study's 'blind spots'.