Nomadic Concepts, Variable Choice, and the Social Sciences

Greene, Catherine

doi:10.1177/0048393119878783

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…', or 'Do you feel you need to commit crimes to "fit in" with friends, family, or associates?' Greene (2020) addresses the same proposal for clarifying 'wellbeing'. I argue that such attempts will fail when they make use of other Nomadic concepts.…”

Section: Making 'Associating' More Accuratementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These can all be answered, and coded, precisely. The following section reviews my framework outlined in Greene (2020), which is helpful for distinguishing between variables and assessing the extent to which answers to questionnaires yield heterogeneous data sets.…”

Section: Qualitative Codingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article shows that this precision is often illusory, and that respondents picking the same response may have very little in common with each other or with the characteristics that the criminological literature suggests are predictive of future offending. It applies my Nomadic framework (Greene 2020) to concepts used in recidivism questionnaires and argues that it helpfully distinguishes between variables that may encompass heterogeneous groups of people or behaviour and those that do not. This paper demonstrates why assessing the extent of a person's criminal associates is particularly problematic, and it presents a framework that helps to assess when concepts are problematic and how this can be mitigated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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AI and the Social Sciences: Why All Variables are Not Created Equal

Greene

2022

Res Publica

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This article argues that it is far from trivial to convert social science concepts into accurate categories on which algorithms work best. The literature raises this concern in a general way; for example, Deeks notes that legal concepts, such as proportionality, cannot be easily converted into code noting that ‘The meaning and application of these concepts is hotly debated, even among lawyers who share common vocabularies and experiences’ (Deeks in Va Law Rev 104, pp. 1529–1593, 2018). The example discussed here is recidivism prediction, where the factors that are of interest are difficult to capture adequately through questionnaires because survey responses do not necessarily indicate whether the behaviour that is of interest is present. There is room for improvement in how questions are phrased, in the selection of variables, and by encouraging practitioners to consider whether a particular variable is the sort of thing that can be measured by questionnaires at all.

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Section: Making 'Associating' More Accuratementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Qualitative Codingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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AI and the Social Sciences: Why All Variables are Not Created Equal

Greene

2022

Res Publica

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“…Despite these difficulties, the conceptualization effort is justified by itself. An effort that has received increasing importance in contemporary social sciences studies (Greene, 2020). This conceptualization is required due to the practical necessity of researchers seeking broader dialogues, attesting its potential as considerably important.…”

Section: The Conceptual Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

Rediscutindo Os Significados Do Urbanismo

Ultramari¹,

Daher²,

Machado³

2021

RBGDR

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Este artigo tem como referência a sua versão anterior, publicada na revista Pós FAUUSP, de 2009, sob o título Significados do Urbanismo4. Passada uma década, o presente texto transcreve partes doÂ anterior, agrega novas referências autorais, rediscute seus conceitos e busca assimilar temas emergentes não discutidos à época.O texto discute os significados possíveis que se tem para o conceito do termo urbanismo e daqueles que lhe são próximos, chegando mesmo a serem confundidos. Para tanto, aborda também suas relações com o planejamento, a gestão e o desenho urbano. Neste percurso, permeando toda a narrativa, está o conceito de cidade, objeto final dos demais. Assim, este artigo ressalta as similaridades e as diferenças entre esses entendimentos e o fato de serem, muitas vezes, usados indistintamente. Os argumentos são construídos a partir de dois pressupostos: o de uma maior abrangência da atuação do urbanismo, o qual incorporaria o planejamento urbano; e o de uma distinção conceitual dessas duas ciências (ou práticas?) poder ser feita a partir de uma maior ou menor aproximação da arte e da arquitetura. Quanto maior a aproximação, mais próximo da faceta de intervenção física do urbanismo estamos; quanto mais distantes, mais claro fica o conceito de planejamento urbano. O artigo tem caráter provocativo e está consciente da polêmica que exercícios de conceituação geram, e sua estrutura conta com uma introdução que ressalta a dificuldade de uma abordagem epistemológica ou conceitual e partes onde se estabelecem semelhanças e distinções dos conceitos tratados. Sua conclusão, propositadamente, resguarda-se de posicionamentos definitivos e propõe a continuidade da discussão.

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“…This is especially the case in those areas of the social sciences in which it is difficult to carry out actual experiments. Several attempts have been made to relate quantitative causal analysis in social sciences within an interventionist framework (Greene 2020; Moneta and Russo 2014; Runhardt 2015; Russo 2011, 2012, 2014; Woodward 2003, 2007, 2015). Particularly, some argue that interventionism justifies the methodology of causal discovery in social sciences by claiming that the use of instrumental variables is readily justifiable based on interventionism (Woodward 2015, 3593–94).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interventionism and Over-Time Causal Analysis in Social Sciences

2021

Philosophy of the Social Sciences

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The interventionist theory of causation has been advertised as an empirically informed and more nuanced approach to causality than the competing theories. However, previous literature has not yet analyzed the regression discontinuity (hereafter, RD) and the difference-in-differences (hereafter, DD) within an interventionist framework. In this paper, I point out several drawbacks of using the interventionist methodology for justifying the DD and RD designs. Nevertheless, I argue that the first step toward enhancing our understanding of the DD and RD designs from an interventionist perspective is to take advantage of the assumptions of common trend and continuity.

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Nomadic Concepts, Variable Choice, and the Social Sciences

Cited by 9 publications

References 20 publications

AI and the Social Sciences: Why All Variables are Not Created Equal

AI and the Social Sciences: Why All Variables are Not Created Equal

Rediscutindo Os Significados Do Urbanismo

Interventionism and Over-Time Causal Analysis in Social Sciences

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