This seminar series aims to spark department-level discussions about the use of quantitative/mixed methods in research and teaching. Seminars begin with talks about concerning the potentials and problems using quantitative/mixed methods. Presenters are invited to go beyond published findings and instead also tell the messy stories behind the final results. Sometimes discussions may involve epistemological tensions in different uses of data and methods, and sometimes they may revolve around the technical details of a particular method/set of methods. A light sandwich lunch will be served. If you wish to present your ideas at a future seminar, please contact Christoph, Johan or Lasse.

This Fall/Winter the program is generously funded by the HoD fund and features presentation from Christoph, Johan and Lasse from their own research. Seminars will take place on Wednesdays and a light sandwich lunch will be served. Please register by accepting the calendar invitation.

Not stuck in the mud: Data bricolage, or how quantitative evidence comes about in a large-scale research project

Lasse Folke Henriksen

This talk takes you behind the scenes of a large-scale multi-method research project on sustainability partnerships in Southeast Tanzania involving more than 20 researchers. Lasse will begin by presenting the key finding from a study that established quantitative evidence for the effects of “village partnership networks” on deforestation in eight village communities over 20 years across a vast area of dense tropical forest. Establishing these effects entailed a messy multi-method approach that we call data bricolage: with data on forest change collected on the ground and from satelite imagery, and data on the history of “village partnership networks” reconstructed from guestbooks and document archives, interviews with village leaders and partners. Lasse will invite for a discussion of the potentials and problems of quantifying evidence.

The seminar will take place Wednesday January 15 12:00-13:30 in K 3.54.