Working group Surveys in crisis Lessons for social science methods from a public perceptions study in South Sudan Add to calendar 2023-11-27 13:00 2023-11-27 14:30 Europe/Rome Surveys in crisis Hybrid Event Seminar Room 2 (Badia Fiesolana) and Zoom YYYY-MM-DD Print Share: Share on Facebook Share on BlueSky Share on X Share on LinkedIn Send by email Scheduled dates Nov 27 2023 13:00 - 14:30 CET Hybrid Event, Seminar Room 2 (Badia Fiesolana) and Zoom Organised by Department of Political and Social Sciences This session of QUALIFIE features a presentation by EUI Visiting Fellow, Sophia Dawkins. During this session of QUALIFIE, Dr. Sophia Dawkins will discuss the methodological choices and ground-level challenges she faced while implementing a public opinion survey in South Sudan during an active armed conflict, global pandemic and historic floods. The project used satellite imagery and remote sensing to sample populations in the absence of demographic data. Enumerators took motorboats across flooded marshes to reach randomly-drawn map coordinates. They used smartphone technology specially designed for humanitarian settings. They consulted chiefs to understand the structure of settlements. And the research team went to extraordinary lengths to navigate political obstructions to free movement. The resulting data have hot spots of insight and gaps that obscure some populations. Although social science is flush with survey research, the realities of how survey methods fare on the ground – particularly during crisis – rarely reach the page. This creates uncertainty about the rigor of some research in crisis settings, raising questions about what counts as science. By revealing the process of producing these data, Dr. Sophia Dawkins will highlight methodological dangers while showcasing how scholars can tailor recent innovations in survey research to crisis settings. Related events