Cross-National Studies: Interdisciplinary Research and Training Program
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Projects

The following are research projects of the CONSIRT Program in progress:

Advantages of Long-Term Panel Studies: Substantive and Methodological Insights
 
Principal Investigator: Kazimierz M. Slomczynski
 
The aim of this project is provide the academic community with information on the advantages of using long-term panel studies – defined as panel studies with more than two waves – in social science research. POLPAN is the focus of this project. A primary objective is to compare POLPAN to other panel and non-panel studies. In addition to the archiving of POLPAN at GESIS and dissemination of research stemming from these data, CONSIRT administrators Professor Slomczynski and Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow organized a session at the European Survey Research Association conference in Warsaw, Poland, in July 2009 on “Causal Analysis Using Multi-Wave Panel Data: Problems and Solutions.” For more information, see the conference websiteAn edited volume including analyses of POLPAN 2008 is due in 2010.
 
Multi-Level Modeling Using Cross-National Data
 
Principal Investigator: Sandra T. Marquart-Pyatt
 
Multi-level modeling allows researchers to investigate the relationship between macro-level phenomena and micro-level attitudes and behaviors. The aim of this project is to promote and conduct multi-level modeling using well-established cross-national data. We focus on two datasets: the European Social Survey (ESS) and the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). Research from this project has been published in the International Journal of Sociology (IJS) and in Continuity and Change in Social Life: Structural and Psychological Adjustment in Poland, edited Professor Slomczynski and Sandra T. Parquart-Pyatt.
 
Sociological Surveys of Public Opinion in Post-Communist Societies
 
Principal Investigators: Irina Tomescu-Dubrow and Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow
 
The aims of this project are to (a) assess the situation of sociological surveys of public opinion in post-communist societies and (b) provide networking and collaboration opportunities for established and young up-and-coming scholars from the international academic community interested in the state of public opinion survey research in post-communist societies. The article, “Representation of Post-Communist European Countries in Cross-National Public Opinion Surveys” by Professor Slomczynski and Irina Tomescu-Dubrow published in Problems of Post-Communism outlined the challenges facing survey research in post-communist societies Recently, CONSIRT organized two conferences: “Sociological Surveys of Public Opinion in Southeast Europe: Cross-National Comparative Studies” was supported by the American Council of Learned Societies and hosted by Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania, and was held August 31 - September 2, 2007.  A sequel conference focusing on another region of post-communist Europe was “Sociological Public Opinion Research in Central and Eastern Europe: Historical and Cross-National Research.” It was hosted by IFiS-PAN and was held in Warsaw, Poland July 3-5, 2008. More information on this project can be found at the conference wesbite for the 2007 conference. 

Dissent and Repression in the Middle East

Principal Investigators:   J. Craig Jenkins and Katherine Meyer

This project examines dissent and repression in the Middle East.  Existing studies suggests that dissent  consistently drives repression but that there is no consistent effect of repression on dissent. The project also examines how protest and dissent are organized in authoritarian and democratic contexts.  Using event data derived from the World Handbook of Political Indicators IV project, we examine the contexts and conditions under which dissent and repression interact.  The project has generated several publications published in International Sociology, Sociology, and Journal of Political and Military Sociology as well as numerous conference presentations.  More information can be found at the project website.
 
Parliamentarian Candidate Data of Post-Communist Europe
 
Principal Investigators: Goldie Shabad and Kazimierz M. Slomczynski
 
The aim of this project is to collect and disseminate data on parliamentary candidates in post-communist Europe, including Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine from the first post-communist elections to the most recent (with few exception). Research from this project have focused on party mobility, accountability, and representation and has been published in such journals as World Politics, Party Politics, and Comparative Politics.
 
IntUne “Integrated and United? A Quest for Citizenship in an Ever Closer Europe” focusing on Elites in Europe
 
Principal Investigators: W. Wesolowski and Kazimierz M. Slomczynski
 
Research is centered on three dimensions of national and European citizenship: identity, representation and scope and standards of good governance. Professors Wesolowski and Slomczynski are responsible for the administration of the multi-wave elite survey in Poland. Wave I was completed in 2007 and Wave II completed fieldwork in 2009. For more information, see: intune.it.  CONSIRT edited a book based on IntUne data, "National and European? Polish Political Elite in Comparative Perspective," published by IFiS Publishers, 2010.
 
Political Inequality in Cross-National Perspective
 
Principal Investigator: Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow
 
Political inequality refers the extent to which within-society groups differ in influencing decisions of decision-making bodies. Critical to this conceptualization is that the social stratification structure impacts groups’ influence over government. The aim of this project is to address four crucial questions regarding political inequality in cross-national perspective: (1) How do we define and measure political inequality?; (2) How politically unequal are modern democracies?; (3) What causes political inequality?; and (4) What are the consequences of political inequality on peoples, societies and social structures? Research from this project includes a 2008 special issue of the IJS on the causes and consequences of political inequality guest edited by Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow and a grant from the World Society Foundation (WSF) investigating the relationship between political inequality, level of democracy and economic inequality. Substantive and methodological research from this project has been published in IJS, ASK: Society, Research Methods, and Party Politics.  CONSIRT organized two sessions at the XVII World Congress of the International Sociological Association in Gothenburg, Sweden, 2010, as part of the Research Committee on Political Sociology RC18.  The general theme of the sessions is, "Political Inequality in Cross-National Perspective."  For more information, see the political inequality website.  A special issue of IJS, "Political Inequality in Latin America," is due in 2011.  CONSIRT is also organizing a session at the IPSA 2011 conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
 
Mobility and Discrimination of Ethnic Minorities across Europe
 
Principal Investigator: Irina Tomescu-Dubrow
 
Dr. Tomescu-Dubrow’s research on mobility and discrimination of ethnic minorities has appeared in IJS. She received research grants from Mershon Center and National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER). She received a teaching grant from Central European University (CEU) that resulted in the course, “Roma in Central and Eastern Europe: Quantitative Approaches to Social Inequality,” taught at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw, Poland in 2007. Research from this project was presented at the European Survey Research Association conference in Warsaw, Poland, in July 2009 on challenges in interviewing sensitive subjects, with the Roma as the example.  Dr. Tomescu-Dubrow delivered an invited lecture on the Roma in Central and Eastern Europe at The Center for Slavic and East European Studies at OSU in October 2009.  A conference on area studies' contribution to knowledge of ethnic tension was in December 2009 in Warsaw, Poland.  See our conference page for more information.
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