[Séminaire - Les sciences sociales en question] “Advantages and limitations of panel surveys”

Sciences Po, Room K011 1 Place Saint-Thomas d’Aquin, 75007 Paris

Since the pioneer work of Paul Lazarsfeld and Marjorie Fiske in the 1930s the use of panel surveys, or repeated interviews with the same sample, has considerably developed, raising important methodological challenges. Drawing from his work on political involvement based on large scale panels, Paul Marx argues that his longitudinal approach, based on comparative panel surveys, captures better than cross-sectional data the political impact of income change or unemployment. Nonna Mayer discusses the pros and cons of these techniques in political science research in general.

Paul Marx (University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of Labor Economics) has recently published «Income changes do not influence political involvement in panel data from six countries », European Journal of Political Research, 61, 2022, (with Sebastian Jungkunz) and «Off to a Bad Start: Unemployment and Political Interest during Early Adulthood », The Journal of Politics, 79 (1), 2017, (with Patrick Emmenegger and Dominik Schraff).

Nonna Mayer (Sciences Po-CEE, CNRS) has recently published “Sociology and Political Participation”, in Maria Grasso et Giugni (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Participation, Oxford University Press, and Sociologie des comportements politiques, Dunod, 2023 (2d edition).

Speaker

Paul Marx, University of Duisburg-Essen

Chair - Discussant

Nonna Mayer, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS

Scientific coordination : Samy Cohen, Sciences Po, CERI and Nonna Mayer, Sciences Po, CEE, CNRS.